Traffic

The February, 2008, issue of Wired identifies 33 things that the writers feel suck, and then offers some insights. One of the items is traffic, and the byline reads, "The number of cars on the road isn't the problem. It's all those idiots braking when they don't have to." Read the article here. This is what I have been saying for quite some time now.

My daily commute to work is approximately 12.5 miles each direction. As I attempt to make this trip as quickly as possible (at least going to work) in order to arrive on time, I have become something of a student of the art of traffic, and I would like to share some of my findings. Please note that a few of the conditions of my trip are a bit unique and need to be taken into consideration: particularly, of the 12.5 miles, approximately 8 miles of this trip is straight on one road with two lanes going in each direction. There are 27 traffic lights to be contended with in this distance. The road is not particularly congested, but there are a good number of daily commuters with whom I share the road. Here are my insights for you to make the trip as quickly (and, potentially, as safely) as possible for you as well as your fellow commuters:

1.) Take as many reasonable measures as possible in order to ensure that you make it through the green light.

When you get stuck at a light, you not only lose the time that you must sit, but you also potentially lose time due to the inefficient driving techniques of the people that you are effectively letting get in front of you. If time is important, go through the intersection on the yellow light to make sure that you get in front of the slow pokes. It should go without saying, of course, that if you must take some chances when going though on a yellow light (such as accelerating or going through close to the red light), be very alert--particularly for drivers facing you attempting to make a left turn and for police officers.

2.) Remain in the right lane as much as possible--unless most of the left-hand turns on your route offer turn lanes.

Many people advocate always staying in the right lane since getting stuck behind a car making a left turn destroys efficiency, but I argue that when approaching intersections with a left turn lane, make sure to stay in the left lane since this will often be faster. Most people take their right turns too slowly and will force you to brake (and possibly miss the light--see #1). If there is no turn lane, you will have to use your judgement regarding the odds of the cars ahead of you making a left turn. (If you drive the same route every day at the same time, you may be able to learn where other drivers are going as well--at least on your little stretch of road.) Generally speaking, it is usually faster to be in the right lane in such a case. Note that the people who take these left turns have probably not planned their route effectively, and they are doing both themselves and you a disservice. Learn from the company that runs the tightest ship in the shipping business, UPS: "In fact, the parcel carrier has technology in its systems that help map this out routes that minimize the number of left turns the driver has to make."

3.) Focus on driving--and nothing else, especially talking on a cell phone.

A recent study concludes that drivers talking on their cell phones are adding to the time of your daily commute--up to 5%-10%. Plus, they are less safe drivers and are as dangerous as drivers who may be legally drunk.

Keep these tips in mind to arrive at your destination quickly and safely.

Apple Lisa Emulation

I'll readily admit that I like collecting computer hardware, especially older, vintage items. Many items in the past were built for very specialized applications, and the inspirations and engineering behind them are oftentimes fantastic.

Unfortunately, collecting computers and peripherals can take up quite a bit of space. The Command Center currently holds 5 working computers (a 1.0 GHz Mac G4, 1.0 GHz AMD Athlon PC, a 600 MHz G3 iBook, a 180 MHz 603e PPC Powerbook 3400c, and a 16 MHz 68030 Apple SE/30), and there is not a lot much space for many additionally. The rest of my collection has, sadly, been relegated to the attic.

Most of my collection consists of vintage Apple computers My earliest Macintosh is a 512k Mac, and I also own a couple Apple II's: an Apple IIc and a currently non-functional Apple II GS. However, one of the most significant pieces of Apple computer hardware, short of the Apple I, has eluded me: the Lisa.

While a commercial failure (and carrying a $10,000 price tag), the Lisa was the first computer mass-produced with a Graphical User Interface when it debuted in 1983. While its 5 MHz 68000 processor was considered somewhat pokey even at the time, it was the first computer designed to be usable by anyone via a mouse and drop-down menus. Its fame was soon eclipsed by its related cousin, the Macintosh, a year later, but the Lisa was, in many ways, a significantly more powerful machine despite its slower clock speed, and it would be many years before the Mac OS incorporated some of the more-advanced features of the Lisa OS that included protected memory, cooperative multitasking, and support for 2MB of RAM. By comparison, the Mac OS did not gain protected memory until 2001 with the release of UNIX-based OS X. Despite the superiority of the hardware, and particularly the software, the much lower price of the Macintosh contributed to the commercial failure of the Lisa. Indeed, the final fate of the Lisa is quite sad: of the Lisa's that exist, most are no longer capable of running the Lisa OS since Apple offered a free upgrade that replaced some of the hardware with that capable of running only the Mac OS. Later Lisa's with the newer hardware were sold as the Macintosh XL ("extra large"?) and, with specialized software, were capable of fully emulating a Mac Plus and running up to System 7.5.5. Worst of all, in 1989, Apple threw away approximately 2,700 unsold Lisa in a guarded landfill in Logan, Utah in order to receive a tax write-off on the unsold inventory.

I almost bought a Lisa on eBay a few years ago, and am somewhat disappointed that I did not since it was in pristine condition (and never upgraded to a Macintosh XL), contained all documentation, and was being sold for less than its value. So, it was with great delight when I read that Ray Arachelian, after 8 years of working diligently on the only Lisa emulator (I had followed his sporadic progress for years), finally developed a completely working emulator! You can read an interview with him from Low End Mac's Ted Hodges here. And, make sure to give the emulator itself a try, as well. It now does not require the actual ROMs to run as earlier versions did. I did manage to acquire the ROMs for the earlier releases, however, and had my emulator running back in April, 2007.

The Lisa/Macintosh XL pictured at the beginning of this blog is not my own; the file is from the Wikipedia Commons. The screen capture was made running LisaEm 1.0.0 under OS X using a desktop designed by a "friend".

Selling Out To The Man

You'll note that this blog now contains (or will soon contain) ads from Google Adsense. I'm providing this solely as a service to you, my readers, in order to provide you with goods and services that I feel you may be interested in.

[Full Disclosure] Plus, I make a small amount of money each time you click on one of the ads. So click often!

I'll let everyone know when I achieve the following milestones:

$1

$5

$25

$100

$500

$1000

$50,000

$250,000

$1,000,000

I hope to someday be able to quit my full-time job and sustain myself strictly by blogging (combined with my wife's income). We shall see . . . 

My Inspirations and Sources

The inspiration for the format of this blog is boingboing.net. Interesting assorted stuff. Another obvious inspiration is The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Again, good stuff.

Other sources that I visit nearly every day include:

Macintouch

CNN

MSN

I'll always credit to my sources when I share interesting information!

About This Blog

Hello, my friend. Are you drowning in a sea of data and information? Have you lost your sense of direction in life? Are you searching for value and meaning in your existence? If so, welcome. You've come to the right place. I like to think that this is a place where I can share meaningful content and insight that I've gleaned from this vast world . . . all carefully distilled and doctored in my own little forum.

Hi, I'm not Franz Schleicher. Glad to know you. Now that we're introduced, feel free to visit whenever you can. I'll try to share what I can. And I encourage you to do the same by replying. I've made it easy by allowing anyone to respond anonymously. This policy may change if the site gets spammed, but I want it to be easy to share things. And your confidentiality is always assured.

My postings may be items that I personally find interesting, or that I think you may find interesting, and I may add some commentary or simply let links speak for themselves. I don't anticipate that the content from me will be too heavy, but these are good times--but times are subject to change.

At any rate, welcome, and enjoy!