Senator Boxer-

Thank you so much for taking the time to contact me regarding mass transit and the many benefits it provides.

I would say mass transit in the San Francisco Bay Area is fairly decent, but there are so many poorly served areas beyond SF MUNI that really need to be brought up to par. An example that is close to my heart is Marin County, which is where I commute 4-5 days a week for work.

For reference, the 27 mile trip by car takes about 40 minutes, there is a one-way toll at the Golden Gate bridge for $5 with FasTrak, and the cost of gas, which in my case is about $6 (2 gallons at $3/gal). So total cost of the trip by car per day would be $11 and about 1 hour 20 minutes of my time.

Right now, the cheapest way for me to get to work in Novato (according to 511.org), from San Francisco, is an itinerary that includes a 28 minute walk (which sounds great actually) and three different buses. It would cost $7.85 one-way, and 2 hours and 20 minutes of my time (again, one way).

So the grand total, for me to get to and from work in Novato by public transportation, is $15.70 a day and 4 hours and 40 minutes of my time. This is absolutely absurd and is only a single example. I am sure there are many others out there who have to commute much farther at a much higher monetary and time cost.

I would like nothing more than to be able to work in the same city in which I live, but not all of us have that luxury. If you are really interested in mass transit, I urge you to focus on closing the gap with the costs of driving, for the whole Bay Area, not just San Francisco. Otherwise you'll have a system that no one can afford the time or the money to use.

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Chris  Rosa

First, Microsoft. Hotmail? Really? Have you really looked at Hotmail lately? It's horrible. In fact, last I heard, it could be a detriment to getting a job. Sure lots of people probably still use Hotmail (not that I know personally of course), but your problem is, no one is excited about using Hotmail.

Second, Yahoo. Buzz.yahoo.com? Really? I don't know if you noticed or not, but Buzz.yahoo.com is a straight rip on Digg. Try to innovate next time. Or better yet, take those resources and pour them into Flickr. It's about the only viable business you have left.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/solar-eclipse-images-show-dazzling-corona-detail/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Everything after that question mark (in red) isn't necessary to the user, and is only needed for the feed owner to track clicks from their feed. This isn't a big deal by any means, but it is kinda annoying to me. I parse my river of RSS feeds and occasionally pass along interesting links to my twitter feed, and I prefer to send the cleanest URL possible. Sure it's shortened automatically with bit.ly, but it still bugs me, so I've been looking for a solution to clean up the URL.

I'm not a big JS coder, but I figured there had to be a Greasemonkey script that would do the trick, and after doing a bit of searching, I found the solution over at userscripts.org. Enter FeedBurnerTrackingQueryStripper. This little Greasemonkey script does the trick perfectly. It's strips the tracking information from the URL after the page loads. So the feed owner is happy, and the user is left with a simpler URL.

Today I had a whole lunch break that was about the same. I went to CostCo to get some new tires (since it's raining out and such) and sure enough they just happen to not have the ones I need. They're typically stocked, so perhaps it's just bad luck. So then I think, 'ok...no tires. I guess I'll get some new wiper blades since I'm out.' I head over to Kragen, look up the car in the little book, and go to find the the blades, and sure enough... they don't have the one needed for the driver side.

After failing at lunch errands, I gave up and decided to go get a burrito. It's on the early side... 11:15 or so, and the burrito shop looks empty. The door is unlocked though, so I walk in and it turns out they're not serving for another 20 minutes. Ack!

In the end it turns out the CostCo in SF has the tires I need, so hopefully that'll work out. And I found the wiper blades I want on Amazon. So glad I went ahead and jumped on the Prime bandwagon. Seems like more and more lately that I can find what I'm looking for on Amazon, without all the hassle of trying to shop locally and not finding what I need.

So, in frustration, I shot off an email this past Saturday to the contact address I found on the Golden Gate Bridge website, and just received the following response. Kudos to them for getting back to me so quickly, even though it wasn't really with the response I was hoping for.

Since 2002, in response to increased southbound traffic and decreased northbound traffic during the evening hours, the Golden Gate Bridge roadway has been routinely configured with three (3) lanes north out of the City and three (3) lanes south.

Beginning Monday, November 2, 2009, in response to changing traffic patterns, a new lane configuration was implemented for the weekday evening commute periods: the Golden Gate Bridge roadway proper will now be routinely configured with four (4) northbound lanes out of the City and two (2) southbound lanes into the City starting about 5 pm to 5:30 pm each weekday evening.

Golden Gate Bridge lane configurations are based on real-time traffic demand and to accommodate extenuating circumstances such as accidents or special events, with the underlying goal of providing reasonable mobility for everyone without causing undue hardship to anyone.

Over the past several months, northbound congestion during the evening commute period has increased dramatically to the point that the inconvenience to our northbound customers has become unreasonable. Therefore, a decision was made by Bridge Management to reinstitute four (4) northbound and two (2) southbound lanes during the weekday evening commute period. While this configuration may introduce some delays for southbound traffic, it will provide significant relief to our northbound motorists.

So there you have it. I guess we're stuck with the setup unless a significant number of Southbound commuters start to complain. It's the reverse commute, so it's doubtful it will change anytime soon.

Below is a "suggestion" I just sent in to Facebook. I doubt anyone will read it, but I figured it was worth a try anyway.

Don't allow event organizers to contact invitees w/o RSVP

This is a big sore spot for me with Facebook that results in a high volume of social noise, and is one of the main reasons I avoid Facebook for long periods of time. Here are a few things you can do to help your users improve the signal to noise ratio, at least where events are involved:

1) Allow us to opt-out of event invites sent from specific users and fan pages. Some users and fan page operators are promotion dynamos, and the deluge of invites can be daunting. We want to still be friends and fans, but the constant chore of removing events is a pain. We'd still have the option to RSVP to events via their profile or the main time line of course.

2) Event organizers should not be able to contact invitees until we've specified an RSVP status. Going through and removing each event can be a lot of work, and giving the organizers direct email (meaning Facebook email) access to us until we do so is unfair. At the very least give us the option to turn this functionality on and off.

Just the latter of these two changes would make a huge difference, so I hope someone up there is actually reading this. The last thing I want Facebook to be (I think you'd agree) is work.

AH4 iPhone App

So Apple apparently didn't approve the Ninjawords dictionary application due to "inappropriate" words. I wonder why American Heritage got a free pass?

Come on Apple... Stop being so evil. I've supported your stupid brand from back in the days when you were the underdog and I would be pelted with rocks and garbage for admitting to be a fan. Time do the right thing and change direction before you slide right into the role as the villain in your pivotal 1984 commercial.

More on the issue over at Mashable.

UPDATE: Apple's Phil Schiller responds!

Gas near the Rent-a-car center.

Here's a story about a bad experience with a business and how it was turned around by good customer service in the end.

Almost a month ago, Donna and I took a trip to Vegas to visit family. We had dinner plans off-strip, so we booked a minivan through Budget for the day because it would make it so much easier and probably cheaper than taking a couple cabs.

Other than it taking forever for the service agent to get us a vehicle, the pickup went without a hitch. I opted out of the "Fuel Purchase" option, because I knew there'd be plenty of gas stations en route when returning the vehicle. We got the van with a full tank and went merrily on our way.

Jump forward to the end of our trip. We're packed and headed back to the airport. There was a gas station right off Las Vegas Blvd. that was only about a mile and half away from the newish "rent-a-car center". We only had the car for a day, so topping it off was quick. I didn't print the receipt, which I soon found out would be a mistake.

We pull in to the facility and hand the keys over to the Budget employee. He checks the van over for damage and verifies the fuel level, then hands us a slip of paper where the fuel level was marked as full, and that indicated there was no damage. He told us to stop by the small booth nearby to close our contract. I don't rent cars all the time, but the last few times I'd rented a car, they typically wrap everything up on the spot and hand you a receipt printed from their little wireless handheld computer. This is when I started to get an uneasy feeling.

Donna and I were in a bit of a rush to make our flight at this point, so with a little bit of frustration, we stop at the booth and hand over the slip of paper and our contract. The guy asked if we had refueled and if we had a receipt, to which I answered that I didn't have a receipt for the gas. He proceeded to tell me that he'd have to charge me for topping off the van since I didn't opt into the fuel option, it would cost $15.95 (@ $7.99/gal). At this point I was livid. It was only $16, but I just really felt like we were being had, which is never a good feeling. I probably said something like "...this is BS!" and that I never get receipts when getting gas (save a tree yo!) and we got it just a couple miles away. The budget dude then said that without a receipt, there's no way he could tell that we'd actually gotten gas, and that even though the gauge was on full, the van could have been driven up to 74 miles without the gauge indicating any use. Seriously? Seriously! He printed my receipt and we stormed off frustrated, and I noticed later that he had indeed charged us the extra fee for gas.

First off, using a gas receipt as proof of a full tank is crazy. Who's to say someone didn't just watch the gauge while fueling until it hit full, print a receipt and have proof of a full tank? I topped it of as everyone does - until the fuel nozzle indicated the tank was full by triggering the safety. Budget handed the vehicle over to us with no further proof a full tank other than the gauge on the dash, so it's absurd for them to expect anything further from their customers.

The whole situation left such a bad taste my mouth, that I filed a complaint via the Budget website as soon as I got home. That was around midnight on the 11th of May. I got a reply from Budget customer service on the 29th saying that the Vegas location is privately owned and that they couldn't view the billing information directly, but that they'd look into the matter further. I haven't heard anything since, but I was surprised to see a refund show up on my account from Budget for $17.80 on June 4th, which I assume is the $15.95 fee + tax.

So kudos and thanks to Budget customer service for doing the right thing. And renters beware. If you opt out of their fuel option, be sure to ask the agent if a fuel receipt is required at the time of turn in.

I've had my eye on the well rated BlueAnt Supertooth3, but haven't gotten around to ordering one yet. Instead, on impulse, I picked up the super cheap Roadmaster VR3 at Costco this weekend. Somehow I got it in my head that it was a Motorola product, which made me feel better for some reason. As it turns out, cheap applies to more than just price with this product.

Pairing was simple enough, and making and receiving calls was a no brainer, but here are the deal-breaking issues for me:

• There's a bright blue light that flashes repeatedly. I suppose it's indicating that your phone has an active connection (in addition to the indicator on the LCD display), but with this thing mounted on your visor, it's horribly distracting. Particularly at night time. I thought for sure there would be a way to disable this light, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
• Even with the thing probably 8 inches from my face, I couldn't be heard by the caller.
• The flip down, backlit LCD display is almost useless. Caller ID numbers that pop up are somewhat hard to decipher because they're so closely kerned together, and there's no logical spacing for the area code and prefix.
• General build quality is weak. From the creaky construction to the sickly sounding audio feedback when pushing buttons; it's embarassing to have hanging in your car.

So there ya go. I'll be returning this POS to Costco ASAP. Honestly the built-in speakerphone on my iPhone has been better than all other speakerphone devices I've tried in the car. So ultimately, I'll probably stick with the iPhone and occasionally using the earbud headset for longer calls. I really can't be bothered with one more device to charge anyway.

Previously you'd only see real spam once every month or so, with an occasional spammy (or was it just annoying?) event now and then. Today alone, there have been approximately 80 or so spam entries and the number is still climbing; and not just short items - but long ones that fill my Google Reader screen, and then some.

It's obvious someone has figured out an automated system to post spam events to Upcoming. Or should I say, a spammer just turned his attention toward Upcoming, and realized it was an easy mark?

Or so I thought at first. I've been flagging events as spam whenever I could, since this started, but it finally got annoying enough that I sent the powers that be a terse message about getting a handle of this and maybe "using captcha or something." And what do you know...they do! You see, you don't need to bother w/ captcha when entering a new event, but you do need to when creating a new account. Here's a sample below:

It seems some crafty spammer has figured out how to automagically read this type of captcha? It was just a couple weeks ago that I saw an article asking "Has CAPTCHA Been Broken?" It went on to talk about a Chinese hacker that had a complete pricelist of captchas that could be countered, but that Yahoo's was currently unbreakable. Well...it appears things have changed.

Or perhaps they're getting paid enough by their advertisers nowadays to hire an army full of people that know one English character from another. Either way, it's obvious that the current state of human verification just isn't good enough. Perhaps RSS spam filter services are just around the corner? Hrumpf.

Some decent signage, finally., originally uploaded by chrisr.

It looks like with the addition of the new (and now infamous) T Line, SFMTA has actually hired a graphic designer! /boggle

Here's a radical idea: I bet 99% of the cars currently on our public roads with spoilers don't need 'em. Why not save yourself some gas money and leave the stupid thing at the dealership? You're not impressing anyone anyway, Mario.

Now fanboys and haters alike ran with this golden nugget and started frothing at the mouth with the thought of running Photoshop CS3 on their sexy little iPhone. To say nothing of Quark, World of Warcraft, Final Cut Pro, etc. Apparently they have little knowledge of operating systems. To say it as simply as possible, OSes, for the most part, are very modular. OS X, being a hybrid of *nix and Apple Goodness is no different. So with the launch of the iPhone, it seems Apple has been hard at work, turning our trusty desktop OS X, into a finely tuned and optimized embedded system. Now if you've been around Apple for any decent amount of time, you'd know that it's been rumored for ages that OS X would be taken in this direction. In fact, I think it was right after the first iPod came out (although that rumor appears to be lost in the motes of the internet at this particular moment).

So here we have a finely tuned piece of hardware, with a tailor-made OS X soul giving it life. You can't just run any desktop app on there that you want, so get over it. The next point the fanboys and haters are whining about, is that the initial word is that the iPhone is going to be locked down. Meaning you won't be able to install your own apps, widgets etc. The computer bolt-on hotrodding crowd is flipping out to say the least. If they can't dig their hands into the guts of the device (which I'm sure the true cutting edge geeks will do anyway), their big hair - well - just goes flat.

There's a method to Apple's madness though, I assure you. It's called controlling the environment, and it's the exact reason they put an end to the whole ill-fated Mac clone market. Apple is all about trying to present the user, with the most consistent, stable and enjoyable experience ever. Oh...and also to get that piece of yumminess to market as soon as possible. Gotta keep those shareholders happy too. They can do this so precisely because they control both the hardware and the OS. Now the iPhone is no different. Particularly for a first gen, ground breaking product, 5 months before it ships. Of course they're going to be tight right now. Big surprise!

Thankfully for everyone, evolution permeates everything we do (we're only human), so I fully expect this to change. It will start with cool new widgets from Apple, then a widget developer kit, then the sky is the limit. Then there's that iPod connector that 3rd party vendors have been exploiting so successful. To say nothing of what the real hacker geeks manage to do out there completely unaided rogue-style. Hats off to them.

So in the meantime, all you low ranking geek pundits with blogs and lots of spare time should just settle down, have a drink or two, admit that you love that cute little iPhone over there, even with its faults. You know you want one. Don't cha?

P.S. I also wouldn't be too surprised if some of those specs get tweaked before it ships as well. 16GB? UMTS (Cingular is woefully behind on their end)? iChat features? There's a lot of room to grow, that's for sure.

UPDATE: Job's weighs in on the topic!