North by Northeast

I’m on my lunch break in the second and final day at the University of Pennsylvania’s Higher Education Web Symposium 2008. My own UIE helped to put the conference together and I must say that I think it’s going exceedingly well. Big congratulations go to Ben Adams and the Penn Med Web team for really getting the conference going smoothly. Plus, it’s all being held in Wharton’s Huntsman Hall, which is a structure that’s less than 10 years old, and is a wonderful scholastic building.

I’ve had the privledge of attending with presenter perks, thanks to UIE’s involvement, and it’s pretty nice to get a nice dinner and lunch without having to conduct a 7 hour workshop. One day, maybe.

They’ve put us up in the Club Quarters Hotel. From what I can tell, only organizations that “belong” to the Club can have their members stay there. A neat business model for CQ, and it seems hotel rooms in the heart of Philly are really cheap there for the member orgs. Overall it’s a classy place, the room was comfortable, if compact (think European proportions). I had the misfortune of arriving to a room with a few issues, but my gripes were quickly addressed. A fine enough place to spend sleeping hours.

Working at UIE, I have the good fortune of being able to schmooze with all the speakers, which is a real treat. They’re always a lot of fun as people, beyond just being very intelligent people. The two are not always found in a single person.

I took the Acela down from Boston’s Back Bay Station, and just found that the train goes all the way to South Station (maybe another mile down the track) which would be much more convenient to my travel. The question is, will I be able to stay on the train 5 minutes longer than I paid for? We’ll see.

I was impressed with Philadelphia’s 30th street station. Reminiscent of New York’s Grand Central, with a very high ceiling and a classical design. I had expected something less, and compact, like Boston’s Back Bay which architecturally uninspired, but perhaps functional. Boston could really use a beautiful train station. (See post update below) Of course, we could also use a tunnel that connects North and South Stations, so Amtrak can travel on to Maine! If you are unaware, currently, to travel by train from, let’s say DC to Maine, you have to get off in South Station, and travel by another mode (there’s a subway connection for example) to get to North Station, and hop on another Amtrak train. That’s pretty lame, if not downright embarrassing. Especially given the Big Dig project.

I’m thinking we’re going to see a major shift to train travel in the next few decades, due to its efficiency. Amtrak needs a lot of help, but the basics are there. Following Europe’s and Japan’s lead, high speed rail works. Maybe not the fastest for trans-continental travel, but for most trips, it is a pleasant mode of travel. Especially when the tracks have been converted for high speed travel (>100mph, which means banked rails and few stops). But I digress.

I felt pretty awful this morning, but I’ve recovered and hope to maintain till I get home to Medford. Sadly, this meant I had to strategically skip today’s authentic Philly Cheesesteak lunch. If you know my tastes, despite eating a reduced-animal protein diet, this saddened me greatly.

That ends today’s dispatch.

UPDATE: I short changed Boston’s South Station here. I had not been in the portion that Amtrak travelers would see until the night I returned from Philly. It’s pretty cool.

Granted, it isn’t Global Trottage like my good friend Ash is doing right now, but damn it, I’m going on vacation.

We’re headed to the northern Adirondacks. It’s become a yearly tradition to go visit my Aunt and Uncle at their lakeside “camp” in the summer. It takes six or seven hours to get there, but it’s worth it. Even with gas prices as they are.

When I get back, I immediately head to Philly for UPenn’s Web in Higher Ed conference for a couple days. Should be cool.

Spent a good portion of the night in my headphones, after completing a bunch of work for school. After listening to a bunch of Radiohead podcasts (search iTunes to see if they’re still available, I downloaded them months ago) which had rough cuts of all their tracks from In Rainbows, along with video of the band laying the tracks down in the studio, I decided to finally, actually purchase the “new” album at iTunes.

I’m way behind on this, I know.

I should have participated in their “download and set your own price, if any” experiment, to show my support for their innovative attempt at breaking the stranglehold that traditional labels have on music distribution and rights.

Then, once the album was fully, regularly released, I was happy to see it was an EMI track, at least, so that it qualified for iTunes Plus (no DRM, 256kbps). I’ve set out a rule for myself that I no longer buy DRMed stuff.

But to take it to the next level, Radiohead then on iTunes released the “stems” from their song “Nude.” Stems are the individual musicians’ tracks, eg the bass line, the drum track, etc. You could buy them and remix them at will. They would also send you a link to a fully editable GarageBand file to remix. Very cool, except that artists like Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) have already done such experiments, without asking people to pay. The whole experiment is great advertising. I don’t think you should make the participants pay to do your advertising.

http://www.radioheadremix.com/

Never the less the results have been impressive. So many masterfully made tracks, all very different from each other. This week I saw a full-fledged video built around Nude, in a way that defies explanation. You need to watch it. Be patient, it takes about a minute to really get into it. Brilliant.

I had a lot of respect for Senator Hillary Clinton before she entered the 2008 Presidential campaign. She had lived through a lot of public turmoil, with many personal attacks from conservatives during her time in as First Lady. She tried to use the First Lady’s position as one that could actually accomplish something meaningful, other than hosting teas and giving tours of the White House.

She set back the cause of universal health care in this country 50 years when she bungled that task. Granted, it wasn’t totally her fault, she was just acting like the Republicans who were attacking her on the issue.

Then, she had the great personal tragedy for all the world to see, all while trying to raise a teenager in the White House. Then she recovers a few years later from all this to successfully become a Senator in a state she’d never lived in. She certainly is a fighter, and she dedicated her life to the public, despite all the personal difficulty it may have caused for her.

But now, we’ve seen her Presidential campaign.

She’s repeatedly been unable to properly budget her campaign’s finances. She’s repeatedly had to “loan” her campaign millions from her personal fortune. All while claiming she’ll be able to run the national budget better than the current administration—who is also always taking out loans to finance its hi-jinx.

She conveniently bends the truth to make it fit her agenda, whenever it’s convenient for her. If you disagree, her surrogates will attack you. She’s all for the rules… that are beneficial to her. She’s against rules that are “unfair” even if she was for them just a few months ago.

She’ll say anything for an applause line. Drop the gas tax? Sure. It doesn’t make any financial sense, but what do economists know? It’s get me a few votes!

She’ll leverage racist poor whites to advance her personal agenda, and tell us “You never know, look what happened to Bobby Kennedy.”

Despite absolutely no chance of winning a fight she’s quagmired in, she refuses to quit, continuing to fight on wasting untold millions, at untold cost to her party’s ultimate success in November. All for personal glory.

Now I have no personal respect for Senator Clinton. Senator Clinton represents all that is wrong with the Democratic Party. Senator Clinton is one example of why I am not a Democrat.

This week’s Medford City Council meeting will include a presentation from EOT (Executive Office of Transportation), Green Line Extension Project Team to discuss proposed Green Line Extension in Medford. 7PM, Howard F. Alden Memorial Auditorium, Medford City Hall.

Be there to voice your opinion on the project!

Below are the comments I submitted to the Green Line Extension public comment web site.

I live in Medford Hillside. My property currently abuts the commuter rail line. I fully support the Green Line extension. It should run as far as possible. It would make most sense to me to run it all the way to the West Medford Commuter Rail stop, since there’s already some parking there and people will be tempted to drive to the end of the Green Line to park and ride. This isn’t a bad idea, although no area in Medford is really suited for it much. It’s also sad that there’s no connection to Medford Square. Maybe a fast (free?) shuttle would be a good idea, like there is from UMass/JFK Station to UMass and the JFK Library. That works pretty efficiently.

I’m writing on May 6th, after it has been proposed that a College Ave and a Winthrop St stop be combined into one stop in between. I think this a bad idea. There are a large number of riders who use the three buses that pick up at the Winthrop Stop. This area is an ideal spot for a station, it’s centrally located.

There are many more riders at the Winthrop stop than the College Ave stop. However, I would expect many more people to appear at College Ave for a train instead of the terribly infrequent bus service. Thus a dedicated College Ave station makes sense, as it would be an excellent spot for students to access Tufts.

The spot for the combined spot is poor. It means *everyone* would have to walk a long way, because there is limited housing near there. After living in Brookline for several years, I can attest that there are T stops much closer together in Brookline. And they’re all busy.

It’s so important that while we’re laying track and having major construction that we get as much infrastructure as possible. These types of projects are only attempted every generation or two, so when they come through, they need to be as extensive as possible. Populations are only going to grow in this area. Gas is only going to climb in price, and our environment continues to be in peril.

Electric trains are the answer, and we need as many of them as possible. We need them to run as frequently as possible. The bus service in the Hillside is way too infrequent. I commute to UMass Boston once a week. I *drive* to Alewife, pay for parking, and ride the Red Line in. I should (and would prefer) to ride a Bus to Davis Sq. and get the train there. But the wait going in and coming home is too long, it’s an utter waste of time. I consider myself a treehugger, and I still drive to Alewife. When environmentalists are doing this, you know the public tranist system is not doing its job. If the Green Line were here now, I’d take it to Park Street and switch to the Red Line there.

One last note, it would be wonderful if a pathway was built within the railway area for pedestrians, bikes and other human-powered transportation. I used to commute by bike to Cambridge. It is not for the faint of heart. If it could be combined with the Somerville Community path (and thus the Minuteman Path ) that would be ideal. We should take this opportunity to support all forms of alternative forms of transit, and get the most bang for our tax dollars for this project.

Thanks for your time and effort.

The proposed Green Line extension, north of Lechmere Station, Cambridge, became a little more real now that stations have been proposed.

Here the link to a Google Map showing all the stops, that WordPress.com won’t allow me to embed.

Google Maps showing newly proposed stations on the Green Line.

*Update - the map shows the two stations at Winthrop and College Ave, instead of the newly proposed combined station in between on Boston Ave. I thought it was more updated. Sorry.

That’s advice I’d take to the bank.

Just saw this at Kottke with the description “This video makes me irrationally happy.”I found it entertaining, myself. Stick with it to the end.

from www.kottke.org posted with vodpod

My friend (and for the time-being, co-worker) Ash is going travelling this summer to Asia and I think I finally conveniced her to creat a blog about it: Global Trottage. Her first post on packing (a black art, I’m told) is here.

All she needs now is an Amazon referrer account, so she can get kickbacks on the all gear she’s recommending… enough of it will ultimately add up!

We look forward to reading the tales and seeing the pictures!

Thu Apr 3 2008

Let’s see what an embed from Photoshop Express (online Photoshop web application) looks like.

Answer: this album cannot be embedded in a WordPress.com site. It (like many embeds here) breaks badly. That’s why this is not my main blog.

An excellent speech by Senator Obama today. You should watch it in its entirety instead of just to the sound bites the television will deliver you tonight.

There is a full text transcript available at the campaign web site, as well.

posted with vodpod

Our Greta is a wonderful and smart dog. Sometimes, though, she outsmarts herself. You see, Greta has learned to watch TV. Being a watchdog, any time she sees anything on the TV that appears vaguely animal-like, she freaks out trying to scare it away from her family. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to convince her these animal threats aren’t real.

So naturally, it wasn’t a good idea to show her this video on my laptop. It took her a good couple minutes to calm down after that. However, you should probably watch this.

from bookmarks: posted with vodpod

This may be the funniest thing you read today: Obama Campaign Skewers Clinton E-mail Statement

Pennsylvania is of particular importance, along with Ohio, Florida and Michigan, because it is dominated by the swing voters who are critical to a Democratic victory in November. No Democrat has won the presidency without winning Pennsylvania since 1948. And no candidate has won the Democratic nomination without winning Pennsylvania since 1972.

[What the Clinton campaign secretly means: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE FACT THAT WE'VE LOST 14 OF THE LAST 17 CONTESTS AND SAID THAT MICHIGAN AND FLORIDA WOULDN'T COUNT FOR ANYTHING. Also, we're still trying to wrap our minds around the amazing coincidence that the only "important" states in the nominating process are the ones that Clinton won.]

And the hits keep coming. The entire document is thoroughly entertaining.