Linkdump: Windows & Apple(s), Google & Paying More

Taking a cue from Second Avenue Saga's recently titled post "Vacation Linkdump", I'm posting a bunch of links with brief descriptions which have been sitting in my "To Be Posted" bookmark folder for a loooong while.

2009
PC World - 23 Years of Wacky Windows Launches - A great amalgamation of videos of Windows launches from Windows 1.0 to Windows 7.  Truly history-making and is remarkable seeing how something so simple eventually made all of today's technology possible.

Seattle Times - Precocious 5-year old gives Windows 7 pitch - Continuing with the Windows theme, this kid has been the talk of the town as Microsoft launched one of its most successful TV ads in awhile.  From critic reactions, they're finally getting it right to fight back against Apple's successful 'Mac vs PC' ads.

Personal note - And have you ever seen the classic ad from Apple that told people to "Think different"?  The ad is available for your review here; also see the infamous 1984 Superbowl one showing everyone following Windows and Apple helping break that monotony.  But today, things are different, indeed.  Today, Apple's products look alike.  Basically all white, all in a plastic case.  The same design for mp3 players, the same phones, the same desktops, the same notebooks.  This standardization

'09 MTV VMA: Taylor Swift Performance Analyzed

Country/Pop star Taylor Swift made a new kind of music video last week-she did it live. For her live performance of her song "You Belong With Me" for the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City, hosted at the famous Radio City Music Hall, she took to the subway and the street. And her earlier disruption by Kanye West when she accepted her Best Female Video award, making her the first country star to win a VMA, did not affect her performance one bit. And thanks to Beyonce, who gave Swift her a chance to finish her speech when Beyonce won for Best Video of the year.

Starting out (supposedly) on the F platform at 42 St/Bryant Park, she started her song with a small ensemble on a mostly empty platform. Several seconds into her song, she tore off her jacket, revealing a stunning red dress, and walked onto a just-arrived F train.

• (Note: The authenticity of the F train is questionable, as the train shown in the intro and the train she got on (#1937 and #1928 respectively), but F trains typically use R46s. In addition, no F train stops at a station like that.

Then it became a party. Several dozen teens and fans (hired, of course) sang and danced along as the train left the station for its next stop: 47-50 Sts-Rockefeller Center, where Radio City Music Hall was. She made her way down the car, which was propped with additional exposed fluorescent lights and colored ones, for when the car was turned into a club-like experience.

• (Note: At this point, it definitely is not a regular F train: the specially added "F" rollsigns onto the exterior along with interior signs resembling the new R160 'FIND' displays saying "F - 47-50 Sts Rockefeller Center" as the destination.)

Upon arriving at the station, the camera cut to the mezzanine, where Swift pushed through the emergency exits, prompting the alarm to ring, and rushed up the stairs along with her supporters. Turns out it was justified in her using the exits, as she was going out to finish her song in a huge crowd in front of Radio City, so it was an emergency...haha. And it was a huge crowd...performers on top of the Radio City sign, so many fans on the street that they had a taxi as a prop for her to stand on. She finished the song with, "THANK YOU NEW YORK!"

Of course, for an eyewitness account, check out this Youtube video of a passerby's account only an intersection away from the performance, and check out his account for more videos on this pretty rare event.


But of course the truth has to come out eventually, and as this Youtube user puts it,

"If you were wondering, the subway part of her performance was pre-taped, I saw the set and extras for it, but she didn't come til after midnight, and I couldn't stay that long :/ The part where she was outside on the taxi was live though."

Post 172/180
Comment below! - and leave an ID/email to get replies

New MTA Ads for Door Blockers Ineffective

I saw the above ad the MTA installed as part of its renewed PR campaign to stop door blockers on subway trains today. It was located inside of the subway car, on a square ad located next to a door. Then I realized something as a passenger blocked the door with his arm and held it there for 5 seconds before the conductor relented and reopened the doors. Shouldn't the ads be placed on the windows of the doors or to its sides on the EXTERIOR of the train instead? Using a sticker for the door or to its sides would allow passengers rushing to the train from the platform to see the "Please Don't Hold the Doors" sign and may actually do just that. Instead, they will only see the ad after they have successfully delayed the train and the ones behind it.

Post 167/173
Comment below! - and leave an ID/email to get replies

Seen/Scene on the Subway #2

Seen/Scene on the Subway is a new line of posts that document interesting or unique events that I've experienced on the NYC Subway. For similar stories, click on the tag at the bottom of this post.

7 Train: AM Rush hour, at Main St station, as the train is pulling out of the station, the conductor says the following:
"Good Morning, 您好 (How are you), 지내세요 (How are you?), Buenos dias (Good Morning)." This was the first time that I had ever heard a conductor use more than one language on the speakers, and although he needed to brush up on the translations a little - there is a better phrase for good morning in Chinese and Korean - he should be congratulated and commended for taking the time to greet passengers and make their groggy ride a little more comfortable. And he picked the right variety of languages too-from a superficial view of the riders at Main St, his order of languages following English was properly represented. Kudos to the conductor!

42St/Grand Central: A trio of religious recruits were cruising the platform and handing out leaflets encased by a clear plastic sleeve. Thinking it might have been a coupon, I took one. After realizing what it was, I looked around for a garbage can. I saw one about a subway car's length away, and walked towards it. After I threw the package away, I noticed 2 other people had followed me and had done the same thing. I guess there actually are environmentally responsible transit riders who don't just throw trash onto the tracks or platform.

Post 158/164
Comment below! - and leave an ID/email to get replies

Seen/Scene on the Subway

Seen/Scene on the Subway is a new line of posts that document interesting or unique events that happen on the NYC Subway. For something of a predecessor, see Car #1224

Uptown 6 train: African-American man selling metal whistles, varying colors. But it's his sales pitch that captures the whole car's attention. He has several versions of a rap-rhyme that just plain tells people what they can use the whistles for: from jogging to women who might need it for help to bikers or campers, that whistle could save your life...for only a $1. And someone actually did buy it! His poetry lit up the faces of people in that car, including myself, who found this salesman to be a cheerful, uplifting guy.

Flushing-bound 7 train: A Caucasian girl, in her 20's, heading to CitiField. How did I know? She had an ID card hanging which had a "CitiField" printed on top, and at the bottom, "Corona-EMS." Before she got off, she had been taking stuff out of her bag: medical tape (Not sure what it's called...about 1/2 inch wide, white, latexy), pen, and other items she latched or stored into her pants. Right before the train stopped, she managed to pull over an extremely bright yellow jacket over her shirt which read "EMS" on the back. 80+ degrees Fahrenheit and humid and still a jacket over her shirt, in a stadium that would be filled with fans. I call that commitment to saving lives. And she was hot. :D

Post 153/159
Comment below! - and leave an ID/email to get replies
This blog is now:

Escalators Operational on the Subway? Oh My!

New York City Subway's escalators and elevators are locally notorious for always being out of service. The biggest bandit: the ones on the B/D/F/V lines at 34St/Herald Square. Most of the escalators had been out of service since August 2008! I kept on noticing every few weeks that the MTA would just tape over signage indicating what date it would be fixed with a new date. But, as Second Avenue Sagas reports, the MTA is finally addressing these issues, and the ones at Herald Square look like they're running smoothly...for now.

http://secondavenuesagas.com/2009/07/07/mta-escalators-on-the-up-and-up/

Published Post Number:145/151
Comment below! - and leave an ID/email to get updates on blog replies

MTA: More Thoughtful Ads

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), New York City's bus and subway company is some financial trouble. To the tune of a deficit that will balloon to over $10 billion in the next few years. With state representatives stalled in Albany, the MTA has been getting innovative with their advertising to get more revenue. In fact, since 1998, the MTA has more than tripled their ad revenue from $38 Million to $125 Million in 2008. Second Avenue Sagas talked about how they have begun plastering the exterior of subway cars with ads since late 2008. I recently saw another new ad technique that actually cannot be easily replicated elsewhere in the NYC subway system. At Lexington-53St, on the escalator ride down from the concourse to the E/V platform, the escalator has a low clearance and the ceiling is shaped like an arch (in fact, you can hear the conversations from other people on the escalator even though they are whispering, see: http://american_almanac.tripod.com/quincy2.htm). The full-length of the ceiling is plastered with Continental Airlines ads. My pictures are included:



Published Post Number:123/129
Feel free to comment below!

2 Innovations for the NYC Subway

(1) On Tuesday February 24th, a new era rolled onto the tracks on New York City's subway. The L train, from Brooklyn to Manhattan, was the first to have its trains running automatically. The computer-driven trains will still have someone to monitor the train's operation, as well as a conductor (if only the transit union didn't win in their court battle against the MTA a few years back when the MTA tried to go conductor-less on the G train.) Right now, the trains will run with this technology during the morning rush hour as well as during off-peak hours. The technology, developed in-house from their Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC)
and new signaling technology.

(2) Secondly, I just wanted to point out that there exists a better New York City subway map. KICK Design came out with KICKMap, a revitalized version of NYC's subway map. It shows each line as its own separate entity, with stops (day, night, etc.) and transfers with symbols at each station. These two features allow for a more coherent distinction between which and when trains stop at which stations, instead of the MTA's current map, which often throws all of the information at you in one block. Its "combination of both diagrammatic and topographic features," make it just so much more easy to read. As my own encounter with a mother and daughter from London (October '08?) showed, tourists often have a hard time attempting to understand the map. (Admittedly, sometimes I do too, especially for lesser-traveled lines.) Unfortunately, the MTA decided against adopting this design, even ridiculing it, when its creators presented it to the agency.

Published Post Number:112/118
Feel free to comment below!

R160s on the E!

In a previous post, I gave my account of the exhilaration I felt when I saw new trains, the R160, being tested on the F line. Just recently, I got videos of two R160s in revenue operation on the E line. The end of the video also has some oddities in a new sticker the MTA put on those new trains.

Link to my YouTube video-watch in HD!

Published Post Number:107/113
Feel free to comment below!

New South Ferry Terminal

Ben from Second Avenue Sagas got invited to a press tour of the new South Ferry Terminal in Lower Manhattan and shares his pics...their awesome! I can't wait to go see it for myself.

Here's his preview:

Ravitch: Lower Fare Hike with Tolls, Taxes

Richard Ravitch was announced earlier this year to be the chairman of a committee that would investigate and propose plans to help the New York City MTA get out of its debt and back to better financial standing in both the short and long terms. He was appointed by Governor David Patterson mainly due to his prior appointment in the 1970's to head a similar committee to do the same thing. Back then, the MTA suffered from a lack of investment, bringing unreliable service, deteriorating stations and trains, and along with these, crime. However, his recommendations then helped bring the MTA back to a "State of Good Repair."

This Thursday (today), he presented his findings which were supposed to "spread the burden" amongst the working, middle, and upper classes. In addition, it would affect every commuter in the region that worked or lived in New York City. His proposals included an 8% fare hike for next year, compared to the MTA Board's proposed 25% hike; tolls on all of the currently free East & Harlem River crossings (~$1 billion); a commuter tax (~$1.5 billion) while establishing a Capital Finance Authority and other recommendations. He stated that these proposals "came as a whole," and were not separate deals. The Governor, Mayor Bloomberg, and the MTA lauded the plan.

However, the politicians were at their usual game of whining and stupidity. Moments after the press conference ended, people such as Rep. Anthony Weiner blasted the plan by stating that it was "the same old answer" and that "Ravitch is basically an MTA insider." He also said that the plan was not available online but after a reporter pointed out that it was, he played the class card by saying that it was unfair that the general public could not get access to it. Yet when he was questioned on what proposals he had in mind to save the MTA, he declined to comment. Makes me wish I had not voted for him this past election.

This plan will surely face skepticism, as it already has, although my hope is that with the Straphangers Campaign and some politicians on board will ultimately force politicians to realize: an underfunded mass transit system is a dead one. After all, there is a reason why the city's subway and buses are called the "lifeblood of the city."

Answer Lost

So I was on the train Monday morning and I was happily attempting to fall sleep on my coveted, rare seat when a lady walked in at Roosevelt Ave. She held a handful of small pamphlets with the word "Hell" in large print. She then started a seemingly never-ending talk about God and how we should be religious and how Jesus is our savior and how he helped us out and how were all formed from the earth. I just felt like I wanted to question her about religion vs evolution... It must have been ten minutes until she finally caught my eye and attempted to hand me a pamphlet. At that point, I summoned up the courage and asked her, "So who created God?" She looked at me, shut up, and walked towards the other end of the car. I felt gratified but regretted that I had not spoken up sooner (to save my and my fellow travelers' souls.)

Now, I do not mean to be bashing religion or the overly religious, and perhaps I was somewhat out of line with my question at that spur of the moment. But it was definitely a valid question: neither she nor myself can answer that definitively. However, what made me have a lesser respect for [them] was her refusal to answer or at least address my question. Was it because she was too embarrassed to answer it because she was a blind follower of religion/God? Or was it because she knew that someone like me would likely have a long debate about her beliefs? Maybe I should go to a public place in a conservative city and start preaching about science and evolution. Hehe.

BTW, the title of this post is a reference to Milton's Paradise Lost.

R160 Sighted on F! And the MTA's Tech at Use

On Thursday at around 12:13 PM, I was sitting inside a regular F train car and facing the Manhattan-bound station wall at Kew Gardens/Union Tpke, when I noticed a strange reflection off the opposite side's window. I saw what seemed to be electronic LED lettering seemingly glistening from a train's display. I instantly remembered what Lost City said about seeing a new R160 train being tested on the F line, and turned around to peer into the station. Sure enough, there was a R160 on the Jamaica-bound tracks departing from the station. Since it was undergoing non-revenue testing, there were no passengers on-board. But I was just so excited that I got to see a train undergoing testing that would soon be opened to the public. One of the car's numbers was 8708.

Of course, I cannot wait for it to be put into service, but at the same time, I prefer the current R46 since its interiors seem much more cozy with the softer lights and a vibrancy of the wallpaper and "disco-colored" seats as compared to the sterile blue/white of the 160s. Plus, those conductors on the 160s can just never get those station announcements/FIND displays working properly, probably because the rolling stock uses a revolution-based distance measurement tool to predict where it is. (BAD)


By the way, I have recently seen and heard the MTA finally putting those Passenger Information Displays (PIDs) to good use. At the Jamaica-bound 71Av/Forest Hills station, after a R, V, or G local train pulls in and opens its doors, an automated (not the manually-announced ones telling you that a train is at XX station) message announces that 'This is the last stop of this R train. Please leave the train." or something similar. In addition, one time my E train was being held at that same platform in order to wait for an incoming local train, and the announcement said, 'This train is being held momentarily in the station to help connecting passengers from another train.' In both instances, the PIDs displayed each message! Hurrah-finally we get to see some results! Hopefully those next-train arrival times can soon be initiated too.


>>>RELATED POST: R160s on the E!<<<

Second Avenue Subway, Maybe Not All the Way

As the transport politic puts it, the Second Avenue Subway is definitely needed to relieve overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue Lines (4,5,6) but should be amended to provide a crosstown connection as well as better serve those further away from Second Avenue. He believes that there should be two major changes to the plan:

1. A crosstown route from 125th St. on the East Side of Manhattan to the West Side, connecting the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, B, C, and D lines in Upper Manhattan. It makes it a lot more convenient for riders, as this would eliminate the need for waiting for a bus as well as increase ridership overall. (Presently, none of the lines in Upper Manhattan truly enable East-West travel there.)
2. A slight diversion from Second Avenue south of 14th St. and down Avenues B/C into the East Village, where it currently maybe just one of the few remaining parts of Manhattan that do not come within a short walking distance of a subway stop. The East Village is also home to many mixed small and medium density residential buildings. In addition, politic stresses that the planned SAS is only two avenue blocks away from the Lex. Ave. Line, making little difference anyways and would attract more riders if shifted East (plus one more station than currently planned). The SAS would then return to its namesake avenue at Chatham Square.

"But the most important point is this: since all three stations will be built where subway service already exists, no new areas of the city become more easily transit-accessible...The Second Avenue Subway’s downtown route should be significantly revised to provide two significant improvements: one, increasing subway access to currently transit-deprived areas of the city; and two, improving transfer opportunities for passengers who currently have trouble moving between lines."

Although the 125th St. Fault may present a problem for the Westward expansion of the SAS, and a deviation from the MTA's plan may cost more money that they do not have, the proposed scheme is of an interesting note and should be taken as an alternative by the MTA. Since the proposed changes do not affect the current Phase of construction, changes would not be met with cries of wastefulness.

A tip of the hat to the transport politic for this and many thought-worthy suggestions. Each day, he provides a lengthy and well-researched article (but a good read nonetheless) with independently made diagrams and maps. Bravo! You have earned my respect!

A Perk to Being a Lehman Brothers Employee

I found a group that was trying to make light of the recent bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. I boarded a subway car this morning and caught an A-Capella group singing the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann. As the train came to a stop at the next station and they finished the song, one of the members said to the onboard passengers, "You can purchase a copy of our CD for only $9.99, but if you have a Lehman Brothers' ID card, we'll give you 2 for $10." Many riders, including myself, smiled. (They were obviously not employees of LB.)

>>>Patrick.net: Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing...all those billions and millions of unsecured funds, oh my! (PDF file - 445KB)
>>>ABC News: As Wall Street tumbles, the world quakes

Naming the Subway

Second Avenue Sagas presented a collection of research ranging from the New York Times to the Waterfront Preservation Alliance of Greenpoint and Williamsburg on why the New York City Subway has so many stations with the same names and why some tell you that it's West 4th when there is only one station with that street number.

>>>Second Avenue Sagas: What’s in a name?

Congestion Pricing Gone

It really sucks that the New York State Assembly did not even gather a vote (thanks to the pain in the butt Sheldon Silver) on New York City's proposed congestion pricing plan. It won wide approval in the City Council, and would have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to help improve mass transit. It would also help plug a $17.5 billion deficit for the MTA. After this blow to the city, I found others who shared my beliefs that congestion pricing was (and still is) greatly needed in NYC. In today's polluted and high-gas priced economy, we need greater mass transit to improve all of our lives.

>>>Second Avenue Sagas | Blogging the NYC Subways
>>>Streetsblog.org

Car #1224

"This is a Domestic Violence-bound 4 Express train. The next stop is, Possible Drug Use. Stand clear of the odd 'couple' please." That was what I was hearing instead of the normal automated announcements made when I was leaving the 4 train at 59th St. during my trip home. I had just witnessed a somewhat distressed, aged woman and a scarred man who sat across from me argue and frighten the rest of the passengers on the Brooklyn-bound R160 car #1224.

At first glance, the woman's physical appearance showed her looking tired, fatigued, and even a bit suspicious. Why? Well for starters, she had what looked like a faded bruise on her left cheek. Followed by a skin condition that seemed to suggest drug use, as judged from knowledge from Health class. Most of her teeth was missing, and the ones that remained were angled. Moving down, her neck had a wide scar from what appeared to be a scratch. Her fingernails, crusted blood on the tips and sides. Her male envoy also seemed like a drug addict, with what appeared to be a burn scar on his face as well. Her hair was also tied into a ponytail, but on the top of her head. He had a backpack (the ones with strings that, when pulled, easily close the bag's mouth), a new cigarette tucked above his right ear, and a hooded sweatshirt with a pocket in front.

After they both sat down, the woman began attempting to take a nap. She placed her hands on the pole attached to the curved bucket seat and rested her head against her outstretched arms. When this proved difficult to keep in position, she did what any subway passenger would do, sit upright. However, her head began to sway to one side, jerk back up, and then sway to the other, etc. Suddenly, her head fell on an Indian female sitting to her right. Disgusted, she said, "Excuse me" to the woman. The woman woke up, stared at her, and retorted, "What?!, I can't sleep on no f**king train?!" Her friend instantly reacted by attempting to calm her down with what sounded like slurred Spanish. However, the woman continued to shout, "YOU WANT ME TO SLAP YOU? I CAN SLAP YOU AND ...." (the rest was indecipherable). Both women stared at each other for about 10 seconds, until her husband started negotiating with her again.

By this point, most of the passengers at the North end of the car (again, I sat directly opposite from this, next to the Northeast door) were looking. Every now and then, the woman would say out loud, "She'll get over it" in English, followed by some more Spanish from the man. A few more lines later, I heard him say Spanish for "ugly" (feo). A few more, she yelled to him, "YOU HIT WOMEN." He smiled. Shortly after, the man reached into his front shirt pocket and took out a bottle of whiskey/liquor. I stared at the audacity he had, but decided not to confront him, and neither did a young adult who appeared to be babysitting a 7 year old sitting next to him, or my fellow passengers.

"This is, 59th St.. Transfer is available to the 6, N, R, and W trains." My stop. I got up and told myself that I would tell a cop on the platform on the train's conductor. The doors opened and I stepped off, with a few other people from my end of the train. I walked nervously towards the opposite end of the platform. I passed by the conductor, two cars away.

I am not sure what made me not volunteer my information. My good conscience almost always trumps over my guiltiness ("tattle-taleness"). I could have simply said, "I think some drug (inferred)/alcohol (illegal)/domestic violence (inferred, but verbal and visual evidence). I could have saved someone's life, and potentially others'. I could have attempted to prevent the man from possible harming another person. I could have...but I didn't, and now I am a hypocrite and part of another statistic of people that see something, should report it, but don't say anything. Just a minor disturbance on Car #1224.

This did happen in real life, at approximately 4:50-5:10 P.M. on a Brooklyn-bound 4 train, somewhere in between 149th-Grand Concourse and 59th St. on April 1st, 2008. What happened after is up to anyone's guess. This is not an April Fool's Joke.