Bart’s blog

Dec 20: Billable on the subway?

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:28:47 -0800

The other day, I hopped into a B or D (can't remember which) at 7av/53rd Street and seated myself. A guy plonked himself next to me at Rockefeller Center and immediately reached out into his backpack and pulled out his Dell notebook. Nothing unusual, except that he fired up Ubuntu, brought up some IDE and started coding away. He certainly wasn't tinkering with his machine or manipulating a spreadsheet - this was serious Java code. Now, if he was a consultant working on code in the subway, he would surely bill for it? Many other such people could want (and be ready to pay) to access the internet or at least get their cell phones working. Now, I know our cash-strapped MTA is piloting cellphone access in a few stations (14st?). So maybe here is a chance to get a few bucks while silencing a few critics as well. Instead of the "Holland Tunnel" model of cellphone access where carriers have been allowed to make their phones work (presumably for free - i.e. Port Authority isn't getting paid), they could use the airline model - where net and phone access are a paid service. That could earn revenue and keep the number of users down to a tolerable number. I should think this is technically feasible. Commercially viable?

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Dec 17: GWB and the skyline

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:06:44 -0800

GWB and the skyline

Originally uploaded by bharat_s_rao

The Palisades Parkway runs for about 100 miles or along or close to the Hudson river. When heading North, you can stop at a couple of lookouts which can give you impressive views of the city and the river. On a cold, early December morning, just after the first snow, everything seemed to stand still. The GWB looked majestic and serene - not adjectives that frequent users of the bridge would normally attach to it.

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Dec 3: 34th Street and 6th Av

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:14:36 -0800

Count the taxis

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If you said 4, you flunked. There is a 5th one hidden on the far side. I happened to wait outside the big Macy's for 15 min - and must have seen a hundred taxis.

And then there were the cyclists and buses

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Factor in the foot traffic and you have true diversity of human transportation

IMG_7092

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Nov 27: My first Black Friday

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:13:44 -0800

I have always laughed at the idea of showing up at a retail store at 5 am and then waiting in a long line to pick up something which I could have done without anyway. But this time, with better half in tow, I actually decided to participate in the black Friday madness. And madness is just what it is.

So I booked a Zipcar to be picked up at 6 (We decided against any 3am adventure). My main interest was in getting a good deal on a laptop. We drove to the Best Buy in Secaucus and could just about enter the parking lot. People were double parked or just stopped with blinkers on. Outside the entrance, there was a long line whose end we couldn't see. We just drove back out. There's a Walmart across the road from the Best Buy, so we decided to stop by. I hold the somewhat rare distinction of never having as much as entered a Walmart in the US - mainly because there aren't that many in the NY metro area. But today wasn't the day. The line outside Walmart was several times that outside Best Buy and a guy outside with a megaphone was directing the crowds - with only partial success. We drove to another Best Buy which we could actually enter - only to find the computers and cameras aisles jammed like a rush hour Mumbai local train. If you strained, you could maybe catch a peek of the least wanted laptop or the most expensive one.

Finally, we drove back and went to the BJs near our place which was some much better. I did buy a laptop though I am still going through the post purchase dissonance. I haven't opened the box and will do so only after today passes and I am convinced there are no other deals I am missing.

We rounded off the day witha visit to Garden State Plaza in the evening. Again, parking was a veritable musical chairs. I strolled into the Best Buy over there where the store personnel were drumming up interest by periodically showing up with a box and announcing "Last Compaq New Book going for $299...." and have shoppers lunge at them to get it. I didn't even know Compaq as a brand was still alive. The better half shopped for art supplies at Michael's - which seemed almost serene and calm.

All in all, been there, done that - -and not doing it gain!

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Nov 14: Back on the "E"

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:53:53 -0800

After a 3 month hiatus (when I was on a project outside New York), I am back to being a regular on the"E" (For those who are not familiar with what I am referring to, The New York E Subway Line is what I mean). I do the WTC - 7Av/53rd street stretch daily. The E trainset composition is now all R160 - which is great. That conversion of trainsets was well underway even before my travel. The other change I noticed was that, in off-peak hours, they open only one door per car when the trains wait at WTC. I am guessing this is for energy conservation ans seems like a sensible move. The only catch is that, if you choose to walk past a car to the next one, you have to recalibrate your judgement - for you cannot just hop into the next door.

7Av/53rd Street is unique in that you can seemingly head off in opposite directions while actually going the same way. So, on the upper level, you have the "E" going one way and the "B" and "D" going the other way but you can take either and still get to, say, W4 street.

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Nov 3: New York comes to Manhattan

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:03:38 -0800

The USS New York - a battleship that has 7 tons of steel from WTC recycled into its hull - sailed into New York on the Hudson river yesterday (Nov 2). It was quite a spectacle. It was about 8am on a gloomy morning. The all grey USS New York almost blended in the background and the photos look like they are black and white!

I went down just as the USS New York came into view with an advance aerial welcome party.

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NY Waterway ferries scurried up and down, almost treating the USS New York like a minor annoyance during the morning rush hour.

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The ship briefly stopped in front if the World Financial Center (WFC) - which is in front of the WTC site. There was supposed to have been a 21 gun salute, though I didn't hear it. On both sides of the river, fire departments turned out smartly and played their bands.

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All in all, an entertaining Monday morning.

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Oct 29: NWA Flight 188 - A thought for the pilots

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:41:54 -0700

I think all concerned should pause and reflect on the events on NW flight188 a little bit. I think suspending the pilots' FAA license was premature. Yes - the incident was quite shocking though not completely unprecendented. No harm was done though alarm bells had gone off and there were red faces all around. Apparently Northwest allowed pilots to use laptops (like passengers can), though Delta does not. There was a stiff tailwind which got the airplane to the Minneapolis area a little earlier than usual. An unusual sequence of events led to pilots missing some of the earlier messages (stewardess came in and was talking to the first officer while the pilot went for a restroom break). Both pilots apparently had spotless records. It doesn't excuse their preoccupation with laptops and they do need to face disciplinary action. But, given the combination of events, I don't think ending their flying career is right - at least not yet. Can other forms of penalties not do? Just the negative publicity in the media is severe, if not sufficient, punishment. Do the FAA and Delta need to be seen taking extraordinarily stern action given how far things had gone - jets being scrambled, White House being informed etc.? The incident of a Delta flight landing on a taxiway in Atlanta seems more serious to me - but that somehow didn't get the same level of attention.

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Oct 27: Circle Line and the LSC

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:02:21 -0700

Circle Line and the LSC

Originally uploaded by bharat_s_rao

Last Sunday (Oct 25) was a very nice fall day - close to perfect from a photographer's point of view. As we approached sunset, multicolored hues took over the sky. Pink gave way to amber, orange, yellow and red. Ferries and boats docked at the Liberty Marina glistened and the canal shimmered. All in all, a pretty picture.

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Oct 21: Fall @ Lake george

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:19:57 -0700

Fall @ Lake george - 2

Originally uploaded by bharat_s_rao

A picture is worth a 1000 words? Well, most Fall pictures should be. This was taken at Lake George. We drove on the Taconic State Parkway, which was itself quite pretty. We got to the Lake George area probably 2-3 days before peak color. unseasonably warm weather probably delayed fall a little bit. But itwas very nice anyway.

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Oct 9, Thank You Delta

nobody@vox.com(Bart) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:17:30 -0700

More specifically, thank you to the Delta agent who was manning gate D5 at Minneapolis airport on Sep 11, '09 at around 4.30 pm or so. Didn't get his name, unfortunately. As I said in my previous post, this is an account of Continental leaving me in the lurch while Delta came to my rescue. It was a somewhat bad weather day in New Jersey and Continental had cancelled the 6.25 pm flight to Newark - on which I was booked. The Continental call center and the airport agents basically said I'd need to come back next morning - and that they were only trying to accommodate passengers with connections onto Delta and other flights to the NYC area airports. I was in no mood to wait overnight, so I called Orbitz for business (our official travel facilitator) and got myself a one way ticket to La Guardia (LGA) on a Delta flight for over $600. I then noticed that the 4pm Delta flight to Newark had still not left and decided to try my luck on that one (becase Newark works better for me than LGA).

So I sauntered to gate D5 where the Delta agent heard me out and I casually also mentioned that I was from the cancelled Continental flight. He saw that there were a few seats on the Newark flight. Instead of just transferring me from the Delta LGA flight onto it, he called Continental on his own, verified my details and got them to transfer me onto the Delta flight. This meant that my new Delta ticket was redundant. He further reminded me that Delta/Northwest had a policy allowing cancellation of a ticket within 24 hours with no penalty. Sure enough, I was able to cancel the ticket with no trouble and travel to Newark on Delta on the Continental ticket. In essence, the Delta agent did for me what the Continental guys didn't. And he saved me (or, in this case, my company) $600 and the trouble of traveling home from LGA. Now that was customer service that made a difference.

To be fair, Continental has been reasonably reliable and they do a pretty good job of updating flight status, their online experience is good and, yes, they do serve meaningful (free) food on their flights. But I don't particularly like the tiny Embraer 145s that they operate on EWR-MSP (Delta flies bigger Embraer 190 or Airbus) and, on this occasion, Delta beat Continental on the ground as well.

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