Seattle Snow 2007

No, it's not deja vu. But maybe it's history repeating itself. First we had a snow storm. Then, we had another snow storm. Then, we had a wind storm. Now that we're in a new year, I guess it's back to the snow storm.

This one wasn't as bad. Some buses actually had chains installed from the get-go. And, Seattle didn't get nearly as covered as it did last time. Still, folks in the outlying areas had trouble getting into work today because of snow and ice on the roads.

One consolation: at least it's pretty outside.

Home, Sweet Home

It's easy to lose touch with the news of the day from a place where you grew up near and lived in during college. In my case, I'm referring to Atlanta, Georgia.

Fortunately, there's news stories to keep me in touch as well as blogs. And what a great one that hit the blogosphere today: Atlanta police arrest an Oxford historian for jaywalking. That's right; Felipe Fernandez-Armesto was arrested, thrown in jail, asked to post bail, and eventually released for crossing the street incorrectly.

Check out his bio page. Wow: global environmental history; comparative colonial history; topics in Spanish and maritime history and the history of cartography. Dangerous stuff and a dangerous character, too. What, with all of that tweed he's wearing! Definitely a guy who'd disturb the peace, hmm?

I hang my head in shame.

Flip-Flopper, Part Deux

In the 2004 election, it was all about how Kerry supposedly was a flip-flopper, and wasn't a reliable, "stay the course" kind of decision maker. Putting aside where that mantra has led us, looks like one potential political candidate for 2008 has had his share of flip-flops.

I'm all about people changing their minds, provided with more information about a subject. But when it comes to some pretty key policy issues (energy, torture, taxes) that we've had enough information about for a while, these types of changes smell less like "more information" flip-flops and more like "cave to the Administration" flip-flops.

Bad Usability: US Airways Flight Status

So I go online yesterday to check on the status of a friend's flight on US Airways' website. We're picking him up, and we want to see whether the flight is early, on time, or late, to adjust when we leave our place to head to the airport.

I click on "flight status" and I get this simple form:


I enter the flight number, and I click on Retrieve. Then, I get this message:

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
Please enter a departure city in the 'From' field.

Well, I don't know his departure city. In fact, this is the second leg of his journey, so even if I knew where he was flying out of, I didn't necessarily know his connecting city.

What gives? US Air has the schedule for this flight number. Why doesn't it show me the full itinerary and let me figure out which portion I'm interested in?

Fortunately, Yahoo Travel both had this information and was willing to share it with me. Thumbs down, US Air. You took an obvious task and made it harder than it had to be.

So Long Bloglines, Hello Google Reader

A long while ago I wrote about using Bloglines to keep up with my online reading. Since then, I've tried to use a few other browser-based readers, but nothing really made me compelled enough to switch. That is, until, on a recommendation from a coworker, I tried Google Reader again. Now, I've switched.

There's a few reasons why:

• UI - Google Reader looks better. Sorry, but when it comes to spending time with something, I want it to look good. With feed reading, the presentation of the content is important. Would you read a newspaper or a magazine if the copy was not easy to parse?
• Reading experience - there's one irritating feature of Bloglines that I've never liked. As soon as you click on a feed (or a category of feeds), all the items in the feed are marked as read. Even if you haven't read a single one of them! Google Reader marks things as read as your read them. Just like email. Much more sensible.
• Importability/Exportability - All of these readers are hot to trot on allowing you to import and export your list of subscriptions. That makes sense for consumers, so you can easily move from one reader to another. This allowed me to switch without having to resubscribe to all of my feeds of interest.

What's ironic is that that last bit is what really made me switch. If I had to resubscribe to all of my feeds, I would say "no way", since I have about 150 feeds I subscribe to. Yet, with Bloglines supporting import/export of subscriptions (as most all newsreaders do), I was able to use this feature to abandon Bloglines. Compare that to Netflix: if they allowed you to easily take your queue of movies to a competitor, how many people would they lose every month?

A last note: Bloglines never approached me for feedback, in the form of a "we care - tell us what you think" link for me to voice the above. There's no feedback link anywhere in their newsreading UI, on last check. Sure, the feedback cycle back into the product isn't instant. But people who are irritated tend to share their thoughts (as I am here).

Of course, I'll occasionally check Bloglines to see if they've improved. With import/export features in all readers, it's just as easy to switch back.

CEO Harry You Named Time Magazine Person Of The Year

Time Magazine just named their Person of the Year for 2006. And it's none other than Mr. Harry You, CEO of BearingPoint! From BearingPoint's web site:

Mr. You was named executive officer in March 2005. As CEO, he is responsible for formulating and executing the long-term strategies that position BearingPoint as a professional services leader in strategy, business process expertise and technology.... Mr. You is on the Board of Directors of Korn Ferry International, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Yale Graduate School Advisory Board.

Congratulations, Harry!

Five Ways To Be A Scrooge This Holiday Season

This holiday season, you may be inundated with people spreading goodwill all around you. You know, those giving and sharing types, trying to make the world around them a better place? Well, you can do something about it. Here's five ways to be a true Scrooge this holiday.

Spare change
The holidays are a time to buy a lot of stuff for people who have a lot of stuff. As you rush from store to store in a mad frenzy to buy, you may stop in at a espresso coffee chain and purchase an overpriced holiday latte. If you pay with cash, remember to not give any spare change to those who ask for it on the streets. Just keep drinking your coffee - the steam rising from the cup will fog your glasses so you don't have to look at those who ask for the coins jingling in your pocket.

Leftovers
It's fun to go out to eat over the holidays, as many restaurants have festive menus planned. With the size of entrees these days, it's hard to finish everything you order. Remember to ask for a to-go box, but then ensure you hold on to it tightly as you head back to your car. Even though the food will probably go bad in your refrigerator before you think about eating it, why give it to someone who didn't buy it, fair and square?

Volunteering
It takes a lot of time to get everything done this holiday season. There's shopping for gifts, writing out holiday cards, attending holiday parties...and not to mention the many gatherings with family and friends. Who has time to volunteer for even a few hours at a community food bank, or any number of other non-profits that help those in need? Besides, they hire people to do that work. They don't need extra help nearly as much as you need time to seek out that perfect cashmere top to go along with you new blank pants.

Toys
Every year, it's all about getting kids to go see Santa. You have to find the best place to take your kids to have their picture taken with Santa. Cost is no matter, right? What will the friends and family think if you don't send them that cute picture of the kids screaming their heads off while sitting on a bearded man's lap? While you're waiting in line for the jolly red giant, you may notice some people doing toy drives, collecting toys for kids so they can have a few things to open for the holidays. Make sure to steer clear of that racket! I mean, come on, who do those toys really go to, anyway?

Music
Often times, musicians sing and play instruments on the streets during the holidays, in order to entertain people but also to earn money. It's great that these people want to share their talents with the rest of us, but after a while it can get pretty irritating, can't it? Make sure you never give them money or purchase any of their CDs. There's plenty of places these people can get gainful employment. If they're so into singing and playing music, why don't they audition for the orchestra?

So there you have it - five easy ways to be a Scrooge this holiday season. There are plenty more, so I welcome people's comments on ways they've passed on the grinchy spirit to others!

Seattle Windstorm 2006

Last month was the snowstorm. This month brings a windstorm. And we're not even into the wintery portion of the winter season. What gives?

Seattle weathered the storm in various ways, largely dependent on location. Downed trees and power outages were the primary problems, as were flooding and mudslides. Seattle City Light reported 170,000 without power this morning. And, there were places that felt the effects of too much water falling too quickly. The Seattle Times and PI newspapers couldn't print their dailies because of power outages at the presses. The online editions didn't suffer, however. As for us, the central city was fine this morning, as far as I could tell - no power outages, no flooding.

Redmond and Bellevue were another matter. All of the intersections I went through while driving around this morning were without power, which means no functioning traffic lights. Lots of old trees, fences, signs, and the like were uprooted and toppled. Someone calling into KUOW reported the biggest traffic backups in Bellevue to be because of people lining up for gasoline (2hr waits) or Burger King.

Island County and the Skagit Valley are apparently doing worse than King County. The same situation there: power outages, downed trees, and the like. The problem there is that there's more damage, and people are more spread out, which means it's harder to get power and services back up to a lot of people quickly.

It's been an interesting November and December, from the weather standpoint. Who knows what the new year will bring?

Christmas Song Lyrics Are Weird

Radio stations like Warm 106.9 are playing non-stop Christmas songs this month, so I've gotten my fill of holiday tunes. But, I've noticed some songs are rather weird, when you really listen to them.

One example is that festive, merry song, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." The lyrics begin:

It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you
"Be of good cheer"
It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Ah, yes - what canonical visions of the holidays! But then things get weird:

There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories
of Christmases long, long ago.

What? Ghost stories? Glories of Christmases long ago? What is this, a song about Blackbeard and stories of plundered treasure? War and strife? What gives, song? I don't think I've ever told someone a ghost story over a Christmas gathering, especially having to do with past glories of some sort.

I must be missing the point...who can enlighten me?

The Darfur Wall

A friend of mine, Jonah Burke, recently launched a web site that smartly combines technology, novelty, and humanitarianism. The Darfur Wall is set up to collect aid money in honor of the victims of genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

The premise is simple: 400,000 gray numbers are on the virtual wall, one for every victim. For $1, you can light one up. From the site:

The numbers 1 to 400,000 cover the 40 panels of The Darfur Wall. Each number represents a person killed in Darfur. By donating $1 or more you can light a number, turning it from dark gray to brilliant white. As we light the wall, we acknowledge the importance of each life lost, we cast light upon a tragedy too many have ignored, and we overcome one barrier to peace.

Better yet, Jonah & co. are paying the costs of running the site, letting 100% of the proceeds go to four organizations which are helping address the crisis in Darfur.

Please help spread the word, and donate a dollar (if not more) when you get a chance.

Bad Video Game Advertisements

Remember those old video game print ads? Remember how bad some of them were? Well, the folks over at 1up.com are doing some round-ups of the worst. What's sad: I remember several of these. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

A Second Snow Storm

It snowed again this week, this time Wednesday night. A lot of people in the neighborhood came outside around 10pm to make snowmen, throw snowballs, and enjoy the winter dusting that made the familiar look unfamiliar. The snow was transient, however: most of it had melted off by the next morning.

Seattle Snow 2006

So we had a bunch of snow in Seattle yesterday. A "bunch" here is just a few inches, but with a city that's not prepared, filled with drivers equally so, that can be more than enough to shut things down. And guess what? That's exactly what happened.

First, some pictures (not mine):

• Pug in the snow!
• Icy roads
• Snowy driveways
• Snow in mid-air
• Snow man...er, snow monster!

The fun began in an anticlimactic sort of way. On Sunday night, the weather reports were wishy-washy. Would we get snow? Would we not? No one was sure. Turns out that we did get some, but it melted before the morning commute was underway. During the workday, snow would intermittently fall, but nothing seemed to stick. People gazed at the snow outside of their windows, and then got back to work.

Then, around 5pm, the bottom fell out. Tons of snow started falling, and sticking. Cars filled the streets and packed down the snow into sheets of ice. Soon, cars were spinning out and traffic came to a halt. On the way out from work, I helped push a car that was having trouble climbing up a rather shallow hill. Looking back, I saw a long lineup of cars waiting to meet this same hill, one after the other. I didn't stick around to see who else would end up being stuck.

I thought I was being smart by taking the bus in the morning. "Surely," I thought, "surely the buses will be prepared to truck folks home in this inclement weather." The short answer: they weren't. The buses didn't have chains on them, and it took hours to deliver the chains to the buses before they could commence their trucking.

After about an hour and half of waiting outside in the cold, snowy weather, a generous soul came by and offered a ride to those going to his neighborhood...my neighborhood! I hitched a ride along with two others. Fortunately the guy had a 4-wheel-drive car, so I felt pretty good about our chances of getting home without incident. Now, you'd think that we'd be home in no time, right? Wrong. It took 30 minutes to get from the parking deck to the highway, all because of traffic jams. Once on the highway, things were eerily fine; sure, there was snow on the road, but there was very light traffic. We arrived in our neighborhood about 15 minutes after hitting the highway, happy to finally have returned home.

Sound bad? Actually, we were some of the more lucky commuters yesterday. Another guy on my team took 4 hours to get from work to home (a trip that likely takes 20 or so minutes, usually), in large part to the other drivers who couldn't navigate the snow and ice. Even worse, I heard of one person who lives in Lynnwood that left work at 5pm, and arrived at 4am. That's right - 11 hours of wintery commuting hell.

The moral of this story? The only one I could glean was: at the sign of a snowstorm with accumulation, leave early. Someone that left before the 5pm downpour got home in a matter of minutes. Ah, hindsight: I shake my fist at thee!

Seattle Toll Study: Don't Mix Apples With Oranges

The results of a recent transportation study were reported on last week. The study involved 275 households being given a pre-paid "driving" account, which was then deducted from based on where and when people drove. If drivers had leftover money in the account at the end of the month, they kept it. The result: people drove less.

Great! But what I fear is an apples-to-oranges translation of this study's findings to defend a traditional toll plan in our region. And I don't think the translation holds water.

• The study had people starting with extra money they didn't have. The incentive was "drive less, and you get to keep some of this money." Toll systems are closer to "have the same as you did before, but now pay up to drive here." That's just not the same.
  
• Certain roads around the region are in very high demand during peak hours. The SR-520 and I-90 bridges across Lake Washington are two great examples. Because of this demand, I believe that, unless you charge exorbitant tolls, most people will continue to use these roads (decreasing the value of a toll as a way to reduce traffic).
• I'm not a fan of tolls costing people of different means and income the same amount. People making $20,000, $200,000, and $2,000,000 annually, and having to pay the same amount to cross a bridge daily, means that the $20,000 person feels a much bigger impact on their bottom line than the other two people.

So, let's implement a system that takes advantage of the study's findings, and addresses some of the disparity issue.

First, let's actually implement a system similar to the one in the study. People get an account (funded from a portion of the transportation budget) that they can draw from when they drive. If they don't spend it all in a given month, kick it back to them (or let it rollover to the next month, at least). The lure of "free money" to cut down on unnecessary trips, or to carpool, will be high.

Second, make tolls proportional to the car being driven. Yes, a person crossing the 520 bridge in a car worth $3,000 should pay less than a person crossing it in a car worth $30,000. To put it another way, don't make the person with less means pay the "full price" of the toll.

Third, make the toll rates simple and easy to understand. Don't charge a toll on every road driven. Make it peak time. Make it only on the roads where you actually want to reduce traffic. Make it easy for someone to understand what & when they pay.

Finally, make the system accessible to all. If folks don't have or want the "deduct from the account" system, or other automatic way of paying the toll, offer other ways to collect money for the peak roads and times (cash, for example). Don't penalize visitors, and don't penalize those who don't wish to sign up for an automated account.

Yes, Seattle has a traffic problem. Yes, tolls are a tool to help address the problem. But let's use this study as a springboard to think about new, creative ways of applying tolls, instead of falling back to something convenient, tested, but not necessarily great.

Uncle George

It's official, you can now call me Uncle George (or Barba Georgis, if you're Greek): we have a niece! Zoe Grace was born early this morning, to my relieved-sounding and happy sister and brother-in-law. She came practically right on time (her due date was tomorrow).

We wish we could be there, but technology will have to bridge the distance for now, until next month. We already have one picture, courtesy of a camera phone. I'm sure we'll have many more (and videos too!) after the holidays.

Now, how shall I start to spoil this niece of mine? Hmm...

No Amazon XBox Deal, And Uncool Consolation Prize

OK, so I didn't get Amazon's $100 XBox 360. Nor did seemingly 99.9% of digg readers who are posting their complaints about Amazon "crashing" or otherwise exhibiting high latency.

I did get a claim code for the Mongoose mountain bike for $60. But I already have a bike. Oh well. Anyone want it? If so, contact me (zorbadgreek a-t yahoo d-o-t com). Note it expires tomorrow, 11am.

Categories, Categories

Administrata: So I switched to using categories to tag posts based on their topic. This means more category pages, and pages that are easier to manage. You'll find the category views as links at the top of the page.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Coco La Ti Da

We checked out Sue McCown's new restaurant-meets-dessert-bar, Coco La Ti Da, last Saturday. I was disappointed a few months ago when Fork unfortunately closed, so we were eager to see what the new place was like. Fortunately, we encountered a restaurant that teems with energy, friendly staff, cozy tables, and really, really good desserts.

Coco transformed the dark, brown interior of Fork into a brighter, more whimsical space. While the mural on the walls is preserved, new lighting has been added, and some of the furniture has a more retro-modern bent. The far room has become a sort of lounge, with three couches, small tables, and curtained walls and ceiling. In front of the kitchen is the dessert bar, displaying some of Coco's recent creations for to-go customers.

After a few minutes' wait, we were seated in the far room and were immediately greeted by a friendly waiter. I counted no less than 6 staff (not including Sue) present on Saturday night, each buzzing around, describing dishes to customers in a friendly manner or making order suggestions. The staff seemed quite knowledgeable about the dishes, and were eager to answer questions about the menu.

While the place does serve many savory dishes, we went straight for the sweets. They come in three varieties: plated versions (centerpiece desserts with sauces and powders that surround it on the plate), baby cakes on a stick (just what they sound like), and mini parfaits (tall shot glasses of layered goodness). We ordered a small French Press coffee, a plated Coco La Ti Da (their namesake), and a couple of the mini parfaits.

The pastries are not large, but they make up for their size in creativity, flavor, and richness. You're getting a fairly gourmet experience here: the desserts are creative, the ingredients are unique, the presentation is attended to, and the overall balance of flavors and textures is certainly considered. And, with a large enough party, you can sample many sweets and not fill up too terribly much.

Service was pretty spot-on; we didn't see any mistaken orders delivered around us, and there was only one mix-up at our table (they accidentally brought two Coco La Ti Da's - I now curse myself for rejecting them).

As for price and atmosphere, Coco is somewhere in between everyday place and special occasion. It's a great weekend-evening-after-the-movie-or-show kind of place, but you don't have to get all dressed up to go. We were quite comfy in our jeans, and many others were as well.

So, I'm sad Fork's gone, but I'm happy with what filled its place. Go visit Coco, talk to Sue, and enjoy her culinary creations.

Dear Clearwire, Please Stop With The Light Show

Dear Clearwire,

It's cool and all. You're allowed to set up shop in Seattle and sell your wireless Internet service. That's fine. But what's with the laser light show on the Space Needle tonight? I mean, come on, the disco light effects alone were pretty disturbing. And, considering the storms we've been having, I'm sure several people mistook the lights to be some sort of interstellar distress signal.

So, Clearwire, please stop with the light show.

Oh, and by the way, no one's going to switch to your service until you either a) make it cheaper and faster than cable or DSL, or b) don't require people to carry around a book-sized modem with them wherever they want to connect.

Thanks,
--George

"The Stranger"'s Terrible Election Endorsement

As most people know, next Tuesday is mid-term election day. It's a journalistic tradition for newspapers to endorse candidates and propositions on the ballot. One of Seattle's major free weeklies, The Stranger, has done just that. And, while most of their endorsements are fine by my book, one really stands out as, well, just plain bad.

Here's the background: the 43rd district in Washington State includes some of the more liberal portions of Seattle, which itself is a fairly liberal city. For a while now, Ed Murray has been one of the Democratic representatives to the state House for the 43rd. For 2006, a seat opened up in the state Senate, and Ed Murray decided to run for the seat (which he'll most likely win). This means Murray is vacating a House seat, which will almost surely go to a Democratic candidate.

Our primary last September pitted 6 Democratic candidates against each other. The result was Jamie Pedersen edging out Jim Street and 4 others for the nomination, with 23% of the vote. You could argue that 77% of the Democratic voters were disappointed, but you can also probably bet that most of those voters will vote Pedersen in.

Enter The Stranger. From their election endorsements:

Admittedly, there is one Republican we just can't resist endorsing. In the 43rd District race our Democratic candidate of choice, Stephanie Pure, was eliminated in the primary. As a consequence, the state legislature will once again lack a voice for today's youth. Which is why we're issuing a rare Republican endorsement: vote for Hugh Foskett, the Republican running against Jamie Pedersen for this open seat in the Washington State House of Representatives. Foskett is a sophomore at the University of Washington and, as we've seen over the last few weeks, Foskett is quite literally in touch with today's young people.

Wait, Stranger, you're endorsing a Republican college student? For one of the most liberal districts in Seattle?

I don't want to marginalize Foskett, but he's a sophomore math major at UW. He doesn't appear to have any background in public service (at least, his web site and voter pamphlet statement don't seem to indicate any). He's running on two issues (education, environment) with fairly generic positions. And, for the sake of argument, if he's elected, will he just drop his studies when Olympia is in session each year?

Pedersen is a lawyer, active in many local organizations, and has worked for marriage equality and GLBT issues. He's not my ideal choice, as I believe he's less progressive on issues outside of the GLBT space, but he's the best on the ballot in my opinion.

Since The Stranger's pick during the primary, Stephanie Pure, didn't get nominated, why not recommend that people write her in? Isn't that the best way to cast one's vote towards the person who one feels is best qualified?