Depends on where you are. Here in San Francisco over 2/3 of residents use bus or light rail on a regular basis, so there is very strong support for public transit despite persistent reliability problems.
But here it is. Yes, San Francisco Muni just retired the last Boeing streetcars, which were amazingly unreliable. But they're not all dead yet! Manchester, England is buying a few to tide their system over until they can get some new cars.
Maybe your friends want to use yahoo, or altavista, or some other search that provides more buttons etc. I find google extremely useful because it is so minimalist. I'm Feeling Lucky is fun - and the user figures it out after using it once. Where's the problem?
(Sure, IT-manager-suit types wouldn't "approve" it for their "foundation architectures." Good news is they don't matter here.)
mass transportation needs to be nearly door to door or it will not gain wide acceptance.
And that is exactly why it works well in urban areas, and in fact promotes urban growth and reduces sprawl. In the city people routinely choose to live near the bus or subway because it's much more convenient than driving a car. Even out in the burbs, the recent growth of "transit villages" where you can buy a condo walking distance from the subway is a sign of people's preference to avoid traffic.
On your other point, mixed flow of transit vehicles (of any kind) and autos is bad because it's much SLOWER than a dedicated right-of-way. The idea of taking the cars off the track into normal traffic seems pretty inefficient to me, for that reason. Of course, if you're way out in the sticks, no traffic, but then also no critical mass to support the transit system.
Here's the WVU page describing it. Seems like a fairly clever system, though IIRC it was federal pork (WV = home of Sen. Byrd) that made this happen.
I wonder, however, whether in urban areas (where most transit trips occur) this makes sense. Where's the cost savings over more traditional services like light rail and buses? If subject to large volumes of people, this would quickly be overwhelmed, while light rail vehicles that can hold 150-200 people wouldn't have that problem.
IT dept. "recommending" PDAs is a double edged sword. Of course it's nice to have one bought for you.. BUT: if the IT dept. buys it, they own your data! Get laid off, sorry, your whole life for the last three years is shot unless you backed up recently. Plus they are likely to demand features you DON'T need (remote management, for example) at the expense of features you DO (MP3).
PDAs are way cheap now. People should, and do, buy their own.
I have to me-too the other posts: you're saving taxpayers' money. Bashing Microsoft may be fun (and many of your constituents may agree with you) but it doesn't mean anything if there isn't real savings and/or improved productivity.
You may also be benefiting the community by opening the source of work done for the city; custom work is done for cities' web tools, etc., and this could be useful to your constituents as well as other municipal webmasters (for example).
I must say, though, that I bet this is not your constituents' highest priority. Here in SF, CA it's the usual suspects: the economy, jobs, homeless, crime, transportation, housing, etc., etc. The OS used in city government is not on the radar of even one percent of voters, I guarantee it. So make sure you have other issues you're running on as well!
Most Americans don't need
the 1,000 songs the iPod can store
Huh? Virtually everyone I know has over 100 CDs, which would fill the iPod nicely. Everyone I show the iPod to, without exception, thinks it's brilliant. When I tell them the price, of course it's a different story - but this is 1.0, and there will be more, from Apple, Archos, Creative, and others.
Well, if you believe Josh "I love Steve Jobs and everything he stands for, especially his uber-hip black turtlenecks" Quittner, the new iMac truly is The Next Big Thing. And since his employers at AOL were perfectly happy to give Apple a cover in exchange for an exclusive, we know that they at least expect a lot of AOL and Road Runner subscriptions to come out of the deal.
Time's journalistic quality issues (Buy at ThinkGeek Now! oops, sorry) notwithstanding, the thing actually does seem like a nice machine. The "lamp" design is a very nice touch. If my iPod is any indication, it will be fairly solid if easily scratched, and if I weren't a hard-core laptop user, I might just buy one.
Will this save the PC industry and civilization as we know it? Probably not, but who cares? Nice designs are a Good Thing on their own. One hopes that they will be emulated by others, in the way that what is invented in a BMW might make its way into a Volkswagen - but even if they don't, their users are happy, which is what counts.
Slashdot Mirror
What on earth are you licensing for that price? Visual Studio for every salesman?
Depends on where you are. Here in San Francisco over 2/3 of residents use bus or light rail on a regular basis, so there is very strong support for public transit despite persistent reliability problems.
But here it is. Yes, San Francisco Muni just retired the last Boeing streetcars, which were amazingly unreliable. But they're not all dead yet! Manchester, England is buying a few to tide their system over until they can get some new cars.
(Sure, IT-manager-suit types wouldn't "approve" it for their "foundation architectures." Good news is they don't matter here.)
Vandal-proof my ass. At least in the US the punks will have those windows etched in no time.
And that is exactly why it works well in urban areas, and in fact promotes urban growth and reduces sprawl. In the city people routinely choose to live near the bus or subway because it's much more convenient than driving a car. Even out in the burbs, the recent growth of "transit villages" where you can buy a condo walking distance from the subway is a sign of people's preference to avoid traffic.
On your other point, mixed flow of transit vehicles (of any kind) and autos is bad because it's much SLOWER than a dedicated right-of-way. The idea of taking the cars off the track into normal traffic seems pretty inefficient to me, for that reason. Of course, if you're way out in the sticks, no traffic, but then also no critical mass to support the transit system.
I wonder, however, whether in urban areas (where most transit trips occur) this makes sense. Where's the cost savings over more traditional services like light rail and buses? If subject to large volumes of people, this would quickly be overwhelmed, while light rail vehicles that can hold 150-200 people wouldn't have that problem.
I have work to do
iPod. Good for Steve, he's right, and UMG are pointing a double-barrelled shotgun at their feet.
Wireless spam, that's the wave of the future.
Qwest is a company all its own. You make a good point, but come on, ESPN and Qwest are obvious. How many more mistakes are there?
PDAs are way cheap now. People should, and do, buy their own.
nobody's upgrading? My old Palm still works fine.
If only they had used this on their football coach before Notre Dame hired him!
Unless, of course, the theater is in fact on fire.
10 print "HELLO WORLD"
20 goto 10
this comment - it was ancient news then!
Download, yes; keep, no, not when that .CRAP format is required.
Fork over the bucks, bucko. And don't move this post to your iPod, or I'll sue!
I have to me-too the other posts: you're saving taxpayers' money. Bashing Microsoft may be fun (and many of your constituents may agree with you) but it doesn't mean anything if there isn't real savings and/or improved productivity.
You may also be benefiting the community by opening the source of work done for the city; custom work is done for cities' web tools, etc., and this could be useful to your constituents as well as other municipal webmasters (for example).
I must say, though, that I bet this is not your constituents' highest priority. Here in SF, CA it's the usual suspects: the economy, jobs, homeless, crime, transportation, housing, etc., etc. The OS used in city government is not on the radar of even one percent of voters, I guarantee it. So make sure you have other issues you're running on as well!
What, you were reading slashdot again?
eight big men and their tiny Cox
Most Americans don't need the 1,000 songs the iPod can store
Huh? Virtually everyone I know has over 100 CDs, which would fill the iPod nicely. Everyone I show the iPod to, without exception, thinks it's brilliant. When I tell them the price, of course it's a different story - but this is 1.0, and there will be more, from Apple, Archos, Creative, and others.
Time's journalistic quality issues (Buy at ThinkGeek Now! oops, sorry) notwithstanding, the thing actually does seem like a nice machine. The "lamp" design is a very nice touch. If my iPod is any indication, it will be fairly solid if easily scratched, and if I weren't a hard-core laptop user, I might just buy one.
Will this save the PC industry and civilization as we know it? Probably not, but who cares? Nice designs are a Good Thing on their own. One hopes that they will be emulated by others, in the way that what is invented in a BMW might make its way into a Volkswagen - but even if they don't, their users are happy, which is what counts.
Because you get referral payments, perhaps? Note the "ref" piece of the url.