No specific topic so why limit myself?

Things have changed quite a bit since my last post here. I’ve graduated from college, chilled around for a little bit, and then moved 500 miles across the country after I got a job in Washington DC. To get to Washington DC the first time, I took the Amtrak Capitol Limited. The Capitol Limited is a train service that leaves Chicago, Illinois at 6:40 PM CST and goes through the Midwest making stops at cities such as South Bend, Indiana, Toledo, Ohio (where I got on), Cleveland, Ohio, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and eventually terminating in Washington DC at 1:00 PM the next day. The trip was OK but it was less than ideal.

My phone has GPS capability, as most phones now a days do and if turned on, it could display the speed at which we were moving. The highest I saw was about 72 mph in rural Ohio, near Sandusky. However, most of the trip was spent at much lower speeds and at times in Pennsylvania and western Maryland, it seemed like we were going only about 20 to 30 miles per hour on the tight turns through the mountains.

Since moving to the Washington DC area, I’ve taken two trips to New York City on the Acela Express, the only “high speed rail” in the United States. I use quotation marks because I don’t really consider it high speed rail as it only averages about 70 mph between Washington DC and NYC. The Acela Express is fast, using my phone, it said that we were traveling at 125 mph but those fast spurts are leveled out by the slow speeds through various cities with legacy rails that looked ancient (Baltimore, MD mainly but Philadelphia, PA too).

The rail system that the Acela Express travels on is known as the Northeast Corridor and is special in various ways. The main way is that there are no at-grade crossings between Washington DC and NYC and only a few between NYC and Boston, MA. The other reason why it is special is because it’s electrified all along it’s length. Combined, these two factors allow the Northeast Corridor to be the only high speed rail corridor in the United States, if only in name only.

What this background information gives is that the current push by the Department of Transportation of “high speed rail” is an absolute joke. Increasing the speed on freight lines to 79 mph is not high speed rail. High-speed rail in my book is a dedicated, electrified line with no at-grade crossings that averages at least 200 km/h. Diesel locomotives running on freight lines having a top speed of 79 mph (127 km/h) is not high speed rail. Spending money on it is a waste that gives the illusion of high speed rail when other countries have high speed rail that makes the American high speed rail embarrassing.

If I was the Benevolent Dictator of Transportation, what would I do? Step one would be to support the California high speed rail plan as much as possible, as it is actually high speed rail by my own definition. I’d also like to see a plan for the development of high speed rail in the Midwest with Chicago as the main hub. There would be lines from Chicago to Detroit, Toledo-Cleveland, Indianapolis, and to Milwaukee-Minneapolis. The line to Detroit is important as Detroit is across the river from Windsor, Ontario.

Windsor, Ontario is the first city in the Windsor - Quebec City Corridor. This corridor is where over half of Canada’s population (~18 million) live. Ideally, Canada would build an interoperable system with the US high speed rail and if the network effect lives up to its promise, both countries would benefit. Another added benefit would be to cut down the distance between Chicago and New York City by going through Buffalo - Hamilton (Toronto) - Detroit. I’m not overly concerned about customs problems as I genuinely believe that there will be a Schengen-like open border agreement between the US and Canada when common sense prevails.

I’ve read about Quebec wanting to develop a high-speed rail line from Montreal to New York City for both economic and sovereignty reasons. I’d certainly welcome it. Ideally, Canada would have a high-speed rail corridor from Windsor through Toronto to Montreal anyway but that is their choice. After all, I’d be the Benevolent Dictator of Transportation of the US, not Canada. Or would I…?

Oh, I guess this would be a good time to mention that I’d like to have a high speed line from New York City to Buffalo. I’d also improve the Northeast Corridor to maintain an average speed of 125 mph from Washington DC to Boston, MA. This increase in speed should cut the time from Washington DC to NYC from 2 hours and 45 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes. I’d like to see the speed increase even more but having stops in many of the major cities (Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Newark) in the North east gives diminishing returns to increases in speed.

Basically, I’m a Midwestern boy who relocated to the east coast but believes that the Great Lakes Megalopolis should flex its might and develop a world class high speed rail network. After all, the GDP of the region where I’d like to see this network is astounding. The economy of New York is 1.1 trillion, Illinois is 633 billion, Ontario is 532 billion, Ohio is 471 billion and Michigan is 380 billion. The Northeast region of North America is an economic powerhouse and it should have the infrastructure to show it.

I live in the United States and I'm a huge fan of the BBC2 show "Top Gear". It airs on Sunday evenings and a digital copy of the show gets posted to the internet very shortly after (after all, it is extremely popular overseas from the United Kingdom). I find it amazing to look at the IP column in uTorrent where you can see all of the countries where people are either downloading or uploading this weeks episode of Top Gear. Right now in my particular cluster, there are users from Finland, Germany, Canada, United States, Portagul, Greece, Estonia, Singapore, Australia, Israel, Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Japan, Belgium, Poland, China, and Ireland, all attemping to download the episode that aired about 6 hours ago. I don't like using the term "world wide web" but I definitely feel like there is a comradery between us foreign Top Gear watchers.

What is even more important than our shared liking of a particular TV show from the United Kingdom, is that all of us speak the same language of cars and humor, regardless of our country.

P.S. Thank you to Top Gear producers who put the cutest English girls of the audience in clear view during the "star in a reasonably priced car" segment. It's a nice distraction considering I almost never know the people being interviewed.

I was never much into radio. My parents always listened to the Oldies (104.3 in Detroit) and the most popular station for my demographic is 89X, a Canadian modern alternative station. Why people my age feel the need to promote 89X, I don't know, but they do. Anyway, I never was into radio until the summer of 2005. I work at a park in the summertime and I mow grass a lot on a riding mower. I purchased some earmuff headphones which came with a radio.

I listened to 89X to begin with but since I was working in the morning (I started work at 6:00 AM), the programming was less than ideal. I stuck with it and I ended the year still listening to it though I didn't like it that much. I also listened to 89.7, CBC2, which played classical a lot which was somewhat nice while turning in circles cutting grass. I ended the season stuck in between stations.

I started back up in 2006 and I started listening to talk radio on 97.1 (WKRK). I really liked it because the morning drive program (Rover's Morning Glory) started at 6:00 and ran until 11:00 which meant that I could hear the whole show. I did like the show though it was a bit too wacky and some of the bits were unbelievable (not "unbelievable", more like "wow, this is lame"), even though I'm quite naïve. I definitely got into it though and they had a bit at the end of the show where they ask a question about something that happened that show and I got it right every time. It was just a simple thing like that that I enjoyed and made me a listener. Plus, “Dare Dieter” was awesome.

Apparently, Rover's Morning Glory didn't do that well in the ratings...in just about any market they were syndicated in and they eventually got taken off the market in Detroit. They were replaced with “Opie and Anthony” but luckily, that occurred after I stopped working so I found out about it through the internet. I was pissed and I didn’t really give Opie and Anthony a break. I’ve heard of them previously to this, mainly due to their run-ins with St. Pats and what not, but I honestly never listened to them. I turned in one day while driving to school and my mind was already made up. It seemed like there were 10 people talking all at the same time and Jim Norton, to be honest, annoyed me. He just seemed really crude and white trashy, for lack of a better term. I turned it off.

I gave it another whirl. The day was 26th, October, 2006, a day that will live in infamy in the Opie and Anthony universe. They were talking to a homeless man who tried to give them cake and Opie proceeded to stomp it. I will never forget that moment because even now, I can remember Jimmy talking about the cake stomping incident the next day and how he knew what Opie was going to do and in fact, in the video, you can hear him say “no” right before it happens. On that day, I gave Opie and Anthony a chance.

I listened on and off until a fateful day in December when the day after “baby bird incident” incident occurred. They were talking about it and I was in my car so I obviously couldn’t watch it but I watched it later that day. It was amazing. I was an O & A listener.

I went to school in the morning only 3 days a week so I was sans O & A on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I “may have” took to what any other tech savvy kid does, The Pirate Bay. I “may have” downloaded Opie and Anthony episodes from there and “maybe” I could listen to the XM portion of the show which was somewhat different from the CBS FM portion. More laid back, less commercial breaks, and they could talk more in depth about anything they wanted. Plus, they could swear and they certainly did.

I listened to O & A every day in the summer of 2007 and I loved it and I tried to promote it to my co-workers who listened to the radio from 6:00 – 9:00. I don’t think they listened to me but whatever, I did my part spreading the virus. But all good things must come to an end and eventually, my favorite radio station, WKRK flipped into an all sports talk channel and my show was gone from Detroit. Or was it?

I’ve been interested in satellite radio for some time. I liked the concept and considering my parents spend ~85 bucks a month on cable television which amounts to the same thing, I bit the bullet and spent $180 dollars on a Pioneer Inno from Wal-Mart (I got a 10% discount because if not, I wouldn’t go there ever). I activated it and tried to listen to it but it didn’t come in that good. I was in denial over everything and just assumed that was how it was supposed to sound, with drop outs every couple of a seconds.

Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and bought a car kit for it. Sweet relief, it sounded immensely better but there were still a few drop outs every once in a while. After closer reading of the instructions, you have to mount the antenna outside the car. I previously had it sitting near the back window. I had some reservations over the wire being visible outside the car and the fact that the antenna is only attached with a small piece of Velcro but I went for it and it worked. I haven’t had a drop out since.

So I am a subscriber to XM satellite radio which is somewhat weird because I come from a Ford family (both my parents worked/are working at Ford and all of our cars are Ford) and they have an exclusive agreement with Sirius. But pretty much the only reason I got XM was because of Opie and Anthony. Howard Stern may have the name recognition but honestly, I never listened to him and I only know of him through his television shows on the E! channel. Anyway, the channels I listen to on XM are The Virus – 202 (the channel Opie and Anthony are on, as well as Ron and Fez who I recently started listening to which are good as well), XMU – 43 which plays indie music, and Ethel – 47 which plays modern alternative rock.

Not all is peachy keen though. I think some of the channels are sort of dumb, mainly the channels XM is forced to carry to be broadcast in Canada, and the channels XM is forced to carry due to an old agreement with Clear Channel. The audio quality is not that great but I find it acceptable, HE-AAC does sound the least objectionable and for most music, it does fine. If someone is not familiar with the artifacts (for me, the high frequency clipping sound, sort of like cymbals) inherent with HE-AAC, you are lucky. I won’t make an outrageous claim and say it sounds better than CD quality and stupid subjective claims like that. I don’t have golden ears and I can hear the difference but I think it sounds as good, if not better than FM. Besides, “CD quality” is sort of losing its meaning when CDs are getting more and more compressed and louder and louder as time goes on.

Anyway, you want a channel idea? OK!! I know this won’t happen for some time, considering the merger and what not, but I think a tech channel would be great. I read about this idea on a message board (OrbitCast I think? I don’t know) but I think it has potential. How about simulcasts of “Attack of the Show” and “X-Play”, rebroadcasts of popular tech podcasts like “DiggNation”, “Epileptic Gaming”, “DL.tv”, and “TWiT”, and a show that showcases popular Youtube videos with an easy-to-get-to site that links to them? Plus, having live coverage of keynotes (CES, MacWorld, etc) would be simply awesome. Another idea is for a show that talks about popular tech news of the day, perhaps a partnership with Engadget? How about a show that covers the automobile news of the day (perhaps plays The Truth about Cars daily podcast?)? Plus, there has to be an obligatory tech help call-in show.

I personally think that sounds really cool but to be honest, I probably wouldn’t even listen to it so this is all for nothing. What I like so much about “The Virus” is that I can tune in at any time and be entertained; I don’t like being forced to listen at a certain time to hear a show. Of course, My Pioneer Inno has the ability to record audio on a schedule but I’m too lazy to set it…

I haven't written a blog in some time. Not for lack of time because I have an abundance. If not an excess. Anyway, I'm bored and I'm watching videos on youtube. I've never been much into auto racing but I have a new found respect for Formula 1 as of late. I can only speak for myself, but it seems like the only auto racing Americans are exposed to is NASCAR which I find unbelievably boring. The only time I find it remotely interesting is when they are racing on a road course. Only because they turn in a direction other than left. But Formula 1 is amazing. The technology put into each car. The amount of money, time, and effort put into each engine. And most important to me, the transmissions! When I hear a F1 car downshift before a corner, I am just simply awed. As opposed to NASCAR which uses technology from the 1950s. Iron blocks, carburetors, 4-speed manual transmissions, and pushrods. I really don't follow F1, mainly due to lack of coverage in the United States (though I'm guessing the races may be shown on Speed channel, I don't watch Speed either so that's why I say may be shown) though I do enjoy reading about it and watching videos of it on youtube. I also have a new found respect for Honda. I knew they were in F1 but I did not know that they first entered F1 in the 60s! I'm sorry about the incoherantness of this entry...

I'm a new found fan of "Lovers". Her singing is just so intense, the lyrics are deep and the music is simple and haunting at the same time. My favorite songs are "Winter takes a Lover" and "My Heart Never sleeps" (which I've listened to over 60 times according to last.fm). I could listen to both for hours on end. I need to get her latest CD...

I'm also in the writing mood. I started a story 2 months ago and I wrote A LOT over 2 days but I just gave up because I didn't see the point. I wasn't entirely passionate about it and I found out that I just liked to make up dialogue about how I would act in a given situation and write it down, rather than try and advance the story...I had high hopes for it though. I already named it which for me is the hardest part, "Churchill". The dialogue is so painful when I read it. I draw everything out rather than do anything interesting. I do think this excerpt is pretty good though.

"You looked at him the same way I looked at you. Just knowing that made me want to leave. Desperately scrape my memory of your face. Attempt to forget your face. Wince at everything that reminded me of you. Hate myself for not being something that you wanted, as if it were my fault. I know I shouldn't take it personally but I do and nothing is going to ever change that" He looked at her tears and continued. "I used to think that if I was nice to every one, smiled, brushed my teeth twice a day, then people would like me...I've found that not to be true. This experience, more than any other, has taught me to quit blaming myself for how other people are. And by other people, I mean you." James turned around, tried to ignore the intense sinking feeling of despair in his stomach and the palpable breaking of his own heart, and walked away from Corrine, knowing that this was the only outcome where either of them will be happy, by both being miserable.

And to have a happier ending to this post, the following is what I've been thinking for a long time but putting it out in daily conversation has yet to happen.

"Funny that you should mention that because I've been thinking about it for a while but I think it's just a question of economics. While I do enjoy boobs occasionally, asses are always there, not really hidden I guess." He picked up his latte, taking a quick sip, and then added, "as creepy as that sounds, but then again, I have my own theory and it relates somewhat to this”, adjusting himself in the chair, “boobs are sort of weird to begin with, what are guy’s fascination with them? I really believe that boob guys have an Oedipus complex going on or something. Furthermore, I believe that if there wasn’t such a social stigma attached to them being hidden away all the time, I don’t think that any one would even care about them but since they are hidden, as if they are special or something, and that is definitely not the case.”

Wow, it's been a while. I've had other things on my mind and this blog took a backseat...or it wasn't even in the same car, either way. So I've had some ideas for Opera, including the option for different layouts upon installation (Internet Explorer-like, something innovative, etc) as well as the use of microformat collection (from what I hear, Moz.org already hoped on that train but that doesn't mean Opera can't either).

So I've been making some SVGs for Wikipedia as of late. SVG is really amazing and with a minor amount of background work, SVGs could replace a lot of different static raster images on Wikipedia. Since I've spent much of my time making maps of my state of Michigan, my idea for SVG concerning Wikipedia is to have one map of the United States with CSS selectors highlighting the specific state for it's article. This idea could be expanded to state maps highlighting counties, and then county maps highlighting townships/cities/villages. Just wish I knew how to implement it...Of course, this also depends on Wikipedia's SVG backend supporting CSS selectors in SVG, which I haven't actually looked into but I'm guessing it does not.
That is just a really simple idea but a furtherance of it is SVG transforms to "zoom" into a specific area. I'm not really familar with SVG transforms (ha!, that's an understatement) and I'm not entirely sure that this process can be done in a scripted (is that the right term?) way but if it does, then good deal. A nifty, transparent gradiant could be added to the "zoom" effect too...I got the small things down, it's the big things I'm worried about.