Trains in the News

February 25, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Transit's all over the news today. The LA Times has coverage of yesterday's MTA subway vote with a variety of good quotes from people saying nice things about the subway system. Nice to see that a West Hollywood Councilmember was there to support the motion as well. Of course the Bus Riders Union showed up to protest spending money on anything that's not a bus:

"We think this is a backward, outdated and financially irresponsible approach," Manuel Criollo of the Bus Riders Union said of the subway plan. "The subway has been a complete and utter failure," he said, citing what he described as lower than expected ridership and the Red Line's $4.5-billion price tag so far.

Once again I point to the numbers I posted yesterday. I think it's ridiculous to try to label the subway a failure.

In other news the California PUC ruled on Gold Line noise relief measures, so the MTA has 60 days to install new bells and noise shrouds. Also from the meeting yesterday comes the Pasadena Star News' proclamation that the "Gold Line extension stays on back burner. Local blog the skunks of los felix asks what Antonovich was trying to accomplish with his "ultimatum" on Gold Line extension. I think it's a valid question.

My Limited Spectrum

February 25, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I got in to work this morning to find that my monitor no longer supported the color red. Oddly I had something very similar happen with the color green back in 1999. I'm now back to the full spectrum using a different monitor, though I lost a bit of resolution in the change (1280x960 to 1024x768).

GeoURL: Almost Back

February 24, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Wandering through links I happened just now to click on to the GeoURL site, which has been dead for quite a while now. I first heard of GeoURL quite a while ago (June '03) and really liked the idea. In fact I wrote this about why I thought it was important (actually I im'ed this to Alan and he posted it on his blog:

a blog, when it includes real world elements, helps construct the tapestry of life in an environment. to me it's fascinating to see the views of others in my area to understand how they experience some of the same things i experience. geourl helps connect the real world and blogs. (not just blogs, but i think those are the interesting part)

It's odd to see that this has really been an area of interest every since. That concept is why I've been so excited about sites like LA Blogs and blogging.la.

The contact on the temporary GeoURL page is local blogger Ask Bjørn Hansen. Suddenly his recent post about breaking up huge tiff files seems to gain a bit of context.

Mmmm... Java Calculator

February 24, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I bought new batteries for my graphing calculator yesterday, only to find that it doesn't work anymore (it's possible the backup battery is just out and needs replacing). That got me thinking, though, that with a phone that runs java I shouldn't need to carry a separate calculator. Tonight I took a few minutes to search for a java calculator made for cell phones and I found exactly what I was looking for. Calc is a scientific calculator that supports pretty much any function you have use for. The menu system is really easy once you get a feel for where the functions are. It's pretty much a radial menu, except with just five directions.

The one thing that I'm going to have to get to is RPN. I sort of understand it, but I've never had a calculator cool enough to use it.

LAist on MTA vote; Me on LAist

February 24, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I missed this yesterday, but LAist ran a piece on the MTA subway vote yesterday. The piece is half on the failed motion from last wednesday that attempted to get subway expansion wheels moving again, and half on the motion that went before the full board this morning. I've expressed my non-excitement about LAist various places before, but this piece sort of brings out some of my bigger complaints.

Update (5pm): It looks like the MTA Board vote passed 11-2. — Continue Reading...