Google my MBTA Please

I live in Boston. In case you have never lived in Boston or had the pleasure of taking the MBTA let me tell you that it sucks! For years I lived on the Green Line, an ancient trolley like line that runs over near Boston College where I went to school. I thought the Green Line was the worst, it was slow, it stopped every block, I am not kidding like every block especially on the B line, but it was ok cause I was a college student and I did not need to go all that far to get to the drinking holes frequented and it was a fine way to get home once you were in the bag. A couple of years ago I moved to Somerville and I at first thought the Red line was the bees knees, it ran in a straight line, unlink the Green Line the station were underground (except Charles), but now after 3 years I realized that the Red line just sucks a little less than the Green line cause well they all suck. Just do a Google search for the MBTA or put #MBTA into Twitter sometime and watch as everyone and t heir brother rails on the T (should I point out the pun?)
Ok so the T sucks it’s in debt up to its ears, the trains derail, there are always signal problems (what the hell is a switching problem), and right now as I write this there are 13 elevators out of service. The Mass government does not really have a plan to really fix it, at least not anytime soon. So here is what I propose, I think that Google should buy the MBTA. Now the property for the MBTA is owned by the state, so Google would really just pay a license to the state and then they could run the MBTA however they wanted.
When I tell people this idea most of them give me strange looks, because Google is an internet company why would they want to run a transit system especially one that sucks so bad. I realize that there is no chance of this happening but I think it’s a fun idea so I am running with it. Here is the logic, Google makes their money in ads, the more information Google has, the more people they have using their services, and well the more eye balls that are pointed at Google the more money they make. From the beginning Google has basically given away their products for free, and free is attractive, its even more attractive is the free service is good and let’s face it Google is good. They kicked the butts of everyone else in the search sector, their email is definitely better than the rest, Google Docs is pretty sweet, and its free unlink MS’s Office and its lighter weight than Open Office, since it lives on the internet. Your data is back up to Google so even if your computer crashes your entire Google document are still out there (fear of the cloud aside, which is for a different post).
Ok how does this correlate to the MBTA, well a large amount of people take the MBTA every day, they are in fact stuck taking the MBTA everyday cause well they don’t have a car or they don’t want to deal with parking in Boston, and who can blame them. We T commuters are basically a captive audience sitting on the train on your phone, ipods, Kindles, laptops (if you can get a seat) trying not to look at each other while we bide out time till we can get the hell off the train. That is a lot of eye balls that are all in a captive place, Google could totally advertise whatever they wanted on the T and the commuters would see it, and unlink on a webpage where you can just close the window, or run an ad blocker the eye balls will see the ads. Now I realize that we don’t want our lives to looks like a Geocities (RIP) page with pop ups and neon cats everywhere, but well Google is a master of slick design (which is why I love gmail) so these would be presented in stylish manner. Right now if the T decided to plaster all the surfaces with ads people would be mad, but that is because the T sucks, if the service was good, and reliable, I don’t think people would take so much of an issue.
Obviously I am overlooking some of the logical issues, like unions and what not, but let’s look at some of the benefits that I think could come out of this; Google already has paid for free wireless to be put into some airport, they could create wireless on the train, in fact I would even be willing to watch an ad prior to being able to use the wireless, like you would watch an ad on Hulu. I would be game to sit through 30 seconds of just about anything if I was getting something I wanted, like free wireless, at the end. I see there being no reason that a computer system couldn’t run the entire train system. They run the same trains everyday from and through the same places, and it’s all on a track, so its not like there are a ton of variable, which leads me to think that signaling problems and switching issues must be humans error. Having a computer run the trains would eliminate the computer error.
People are afraid of computers running things in case there is a screw up, but the MBTA already derails trains, and is plagued by a myriad of other issues, so it’s not like a computer could really be any worse, and in fact it would probably be better. This computer system obviously not be in everything, for instance the MBTA bus system would still require drivers, but what about having the buses integrated with Google maps so that you could actually tell where the bus was in relation to you, and it would not just be a shot in the dark based off a schedule that is less that totally accurate. You would know if it made sense to keep walking to the next station or if you should just wait.
The MBTA has recently made a lot of their data open to the public, which would allow developers to take the data and design useful software around it, but it would be much better to have that software written by people that are known for writing good software already.
This is a total pie in the sky idea, I don’t really think that Google would even consider this, but I like it as a thought experiment.

No Comments Please

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Wow another post! This one should be pretty quick and is not really about news. What I want to write about it internet comments. They say the first step is to admit you have a problem; well I have a problem I read internet comments! I find myself 3 pages deep reading the inane ramblings of Apple and Microsoft fan boys flaming each other over some insignificant detail of a Cnet article, or I read the comments left on a YouTube video. As I read the comments my soul starts to tarnish with the overwhelming amount of hate and stupidity that is contained in comments section of almost any web page. For instance I was reading a web comic recently and the first post was to basically call the author gay or something dumb like that (I would go find the example but I think my brain might jump ou out my head and run, and I am lazy), all I can think of when I read it was “WHY!” why did you take the time to write that comment, if you don’t like the comic there is this handy X in the corner of your browser you can click and it will go away.
I have asked multiple people about this (because I am so scientific) and mostly people blame the anonymity of the internet for this behavior that would get you a smack if you did it in real life. I mean imagine a Troll in real life?

A dude that follows someone around and harasses them, you know what would happen? There would be restraining orders, and civil suits, but because there is no face to go with the comments these ass holes think that they can just say whatever they want, no I will take it further, they think they are entitled to say whatever they want.
I can go on and on about this, but I won’t. I made a new year’s resolution to stop reading internet comments. Today is Jan 14 and I have been doing a pretty good job, I occasionally need to remind myself that I am not supposed to be reading the comments. I would dig some kind of zapper that would zap me a little anytime I start to read the comments. I can tell you that just 14 days of comment free internet has made me a happier person. I can also tell you that I don’t buy into the anonymity of the internet, I think that you should be the same online as you are in person, and as the internet becomes more and more important as a means to stay connected to other members of the human race, it becomes even more important that people represent themselves if not accurately then at least not as total shit heads.

Somebody Index Those Huge Balls

So the blog is basically dead. We have not written anything worth posting in a while, I tend to start posts and then mid way through decide they are dumb, however there is some recent tech news that I wanted to put my 2 cents in before it becomes “olds” (is that the opposite or news?) What I am talking about is the giant balls that Google has in their stance towards China.

In case you missed it on every other tech related nerd blog on the internet Google recently told China that they were no longer going to filter their search results for google.cn (which is China Google). Basically China does not want their people to get to choose what parts of the internet they see, particularly if those parts of the internet are critical of China or discuss aspects of Chinese history that the government finds unsavory.

Google like most international companies had been playing ball with the Chinese government, because well, China is a massive consumer base and companies are willing to over look China's human rights and censorship foibles (tongue in cheek) in order to do business. Google makes up about 30% of the Chinese search market, while Baidu, the search engine run by the Chinese government makes up majority of search.

Basically I want to give kudos to Google for basically giving the Chinese government the good old America finger and without warning removing the filtering from their search. Google is willing to negotiate with the Chinese government to see if they can reach a compromise, but if not Google is also willing to shut down Google.cn and all their other business there, which would cut Google off from a huge amount of consumers and potentially a crap load of money. You are welcome to read Google’s blog post about this, and read all their reasons for doing this, its kinda a hodgepodge of reasons all of the good but I personally don’t think they are the “real” reasons Google has taken up this stance, I honestly think that this goes back to Google’s original manta of “Be Good” and they have some ill feelings towards China.

While I have no idea what China will do, they may just tell Google to go screw, but at the same time they might end up making a compromise with the search giant. If China and Google come to compromise that means that Google does not need to filter their searching then Google has basically threatened the a country with trade sanctions and won, and they did it without an army or any threat of force. There is no Google Army (though if there was I would not screw with them, tazer Nexus 1 anybody)

Good job Google you have balls, and are striking points for the good guys. If Google is successful here, I hope it will open the door to using business power and money as both the stick and the carrot to get other countries to behave. So America, we like to say that we are the most powerful country, the richest country (not sure if we can make that claim at all of late) and most influential country in the world, so why is it that we always use our military? No one dies if Google is successful and no one dies if they fail. I mean yeah I guess the stakes are pretty high for a country, it would look bad for America to make a threat and have our bluff called, it would make us look ineffective, but doesn’t it also make us look ineffective and weak to be fighting 2 wars in places that are a stone throw away from being in the stone age, against a foe that we really can’t win against?

Ok enough before I go on a political rant and get away from this nice little post about Google and their giants balls.