This is a close up shot of the underside of the hard disc that I froze to recover the contents from it. By the way, that same disc is running just fine as one of a RAID-1 pair in another machine now (both my main office machines are now using RAID-1 pairs – shame the laptop cannot, but the X40 only has space for half a hard drive as it is.
Since Bayport in Alameda is a very new development, I wondered how good the mapping services online where at getting updated. I chose three that offer maps and satellite photos: Yahoo Maps (beta), Google Maps and Microsoft’s Live.
All three have the same mapping results in terms of the number of roads within the new development that they know, although Google shows more of them on the hybrid view (both Yahoo and Live can zoom further in when the hybrid mode is disabled, and then they too show the names of the smaller roads).
Google and Live seem to have identical photos for the area. Both show the site before any work had begun on building the houses (probably 3 years ago at least). Yahoo however is a clear winner here since it has photos showing completed houses in the south east corner of the development. The models and the early phases are clearly visible and completed.
Was looking over some photos on Flickr when I came across this one of people eating in an AC Transit bus. So what? Well, the comment under it reads:
Help keep buses clean by saving food and drinks for when you get off.
This reminded me of one of my posts a while back about commuting on BART, and the fact that BART bans food and drink on its trains; a move that means they miss out on the opportunity to have food and drink sold on the platforms. In the UK, where I grew up, most stations have vending machines. Larger ones have cafes and bars. Some trains even have restaurant cars or a service trolley that is wheeled through the train selling food and drinks.
Why is it that so many Americans seem to think that if people are allowed to eat and drink on public transit that it will make it dirty? Do Americans believe that their fellow citizens are that inconsiderate? Are they that inconsiderate?
Perhaps they are… on Friday night, while sitting on one of the benches waiting for my ferry home at the ferry terminal in San Francisco, a couple standing next to the bench lit up cigarettes. In addition to the smoke blowing over me, I also had to contend with the ash that they kept flicking into the wind. To cap it all though, they walk up almost to the gate, then drop their half finished cigarettes on the ground and walk onto the boat. Who did they think would clean up after them? Why do they think that what they did, in plain sight of everybody standing at the gate area, is acceptable behaviour?
Perhaps there should be a hall of shame where people can submit photos of people being inconsiderate.
PS For more of the unusual smoking etiquette posters, visit the Japan Tabacco Manners Graphic Gallery.
One of many street fire alarms in San Francisco; this one is outside the Ferry Building. Some have a blue reverse side that calls the police instead. Not sure how likely the side walk is to burst into flames, but at least I know that help can be summoned easily. And it doesn’t have far to come either; there is an SFFD fire station on the water front opposite the Gordon Biersch brewery.
While the effects of the recent decision by some scum spammer to use my domain name in their email addresses (there really should be a way to stop these people since they are clearly falsifying their identity) are starting to tail off, I have received a few more amusing bounce messages. Here’s my favourite so far, from the US Department of Energy:
Your message contained inappropriate language which is unacceptable at the U.S. Department of Energy. Please make the appropriate changes and resubmit your message.
Thank you.
09/14/06, 00:19:13
Re [2]:
Sadly, they didn’t include the original message, so I cannot tell what the inappropriate language was!
The view from a boat house, along one of the many rivers in the delta area on a quiet summer’s afternoon. The clouds were just drifting gently through the sky, and the water was like glass, except when rippled by a passing boat.
A view along the San Francisco Embarcadero; the bright colours of the large bow and arrow sculpture (Cupid’s perhaps?) contrasting with the Ferry Building.
Taken in one of the mens’ restrooms at San Francisco Airport.
The other half of the billboard I posted yesterday further confuses the issue by telling you not to be a potato. Problem is that on the left side of the billboard (see yesterday’s post) both the gym and the martini recommendations came from potatoes, so now I should do neither to reduce my stress? Very confusing!
The left half of a billboard in San Francisco advertising a gym, I think. The options in this half of the sign make me wonder if they are really operating a martini bar though.
