Morning turned around

Goldsquare completely reversed the mood of my morning. Thanks!

The bus that runs out to North Waltham is the 70A. If I'm out there before 8:08AM, I am guaranteed to catch it, or so says the grumpiest bus driver on that route.

At 8:03 this morning I was walking up towards the official stop when a new-style bus comes toward me. I wave it down, as the only bus on that road in that direction is the 70A, but then I see it's displaying the 170 sign. 170 is extremely rare and not really helpful, so I wave it on. In retrospect, that was probably a mistake.

I then stand at the stop until 8:35, fuming. The MBTA can't get their schedules straight, can't get their signs straight, and they're asking for a big fare increase. I briefly imagine the desirability of a Mussolini to make the buses and trains run on time. Then I scratch that in exchange for a robotic public transport system that makes sense. Doesn't stop my blood pressure from rising, though.

Goldsquare waves at me -- what's he doing here? -- and I wave back. As he stops behind the red-light jam, I walk over to say hi and he offers me a lift.

We have a nice conversation about our families and his work, he drops me at Watertown Square, and I catch a 71 in along Mt. Auburn Street. I like the electric bus a lot -- it's quiet, the acceleration is smooth, and I get into work pretty quickly from there on.

Morning turned around

Goldsquare completely reversed the mood of my morning. Thanks!

The bus that runs out to North Waltham is the 70A. If I'm out there before 8:08AM, I am guaranteed to catch it, or so says the grumpiest bus driver on that route.

At 8:03 this morning I was walking up towards the official stop when a new-style bus comes toward me. I wave it down, as the only bus on that road in that direction is the 70A, but then I see it's displaying the 170 sign. 170 is extremely rare and not really helpful, so I wave it on. In retrospect, that was probably a mistake.

I then stand at the stop until 8:35, fuming. The MBTA can't get their schedules straight, can't get their signs straight, and they're asking for a big fare increase. I briefly imagine the desirability of a Mussolini to make the buses and trains run on time. Then I scratch that in exchange for a robotic public transport system that makes sense. Doesn't stop my blood pressure from rising, though.

Goldsquare waves at me -- what's he doing here? -- and I wave back. As he stops behind the red-light jam, I walk over to say hi and he offers me a lift.

We have a nice conversation about our families and his work, he drops me at Watertown Square, and I catch a 71 in along Mt. Auburn Street. I like the electric bus a lot -- it's quiet, the acceleration is smooth, and I get into work pretty quickly from there on.

Bringing balance to the force

I was just reading Rob Pike's screed about how operating systems research came to a dead halt (written circa 2000) and came across this line (again):

Bruce Lindsay of IBM: HDLC ~ HTTP/HTML; 3270s have
been replaced by web browsers.

Yeah, early web browsers were like that. All the intelligence resided on the mainframeserver side; people stared at terminals and filled in forms.

Web 2.0 and subsequent have been about balancing the computing power between local and remote sides. We all have fantastically powerful CPUs and lots of storage in our pockets; when the bandwidth is bad, we would prefer to use the local resources as much as possible, and when the bandwidth is good, we would still prefer to have as much snappy response as we can, but have the interesting information brought to us from far away.

MMORPGs are good examplars: have the local client do the fancy user interface, and have the remote servers hew wood and haul water. Things will continue to shift.

Bringing balance to the force

I was just reading Rob Pike's screed about how operating systems research came to a dead halt (written circa 2000) and came across this line (again):

Bruce Lindsay of IBM: HDLC ~ HTTP/HTML; 3270s have
been replaced by web browsers.

Yeah, early web browsers were like that. All the intelligence resided on the mainframeserver side; people stared at terminals and filled in forms.

Web 2.0 and subsequent have been about balancing the computing power between local and remote sides. We all have fantastically powerful CPUs and lots of storage in our pockets; when the bandwidth is bad, we would prefer to use the local resources as much as possible, and when the bandwidth is good, we would still prefer to have as much snappy response as we can, but have the interesting information brought to us from far away.

MMORPGs are good examplars: have the local client do the fancy user interface, and have the remote servers hew wood and haul water. Things will continue to shift.

Could we stop being in a recession now?

It appears we are in the market for a new (used) car.

Could we stop being in a recession now?

It appears we are in the market for a new (used) car.

Walking

25 minutes, plus two minutes watching construction. An extensible forklift arm can do amazing things.

Walking

25 minutes, plus two minutes watching construction. An extensible forklift arm can do amazing things.