pointing out the obvious

I realize that I have become a bit of a ‘public transit’ pusher. Everywhere I go, I want to take transit over taxis, or driving. While the TTC has it’s own set of problems, I believe it to be the better way. Maybe not the nicest way, but the better way all things considered.

So much so, that I might invest in a TTC Metropass at full price (I used to get a discount) to make it that much easier.

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It should be ridiculously easy to log everything I have listened to on my ipod touch, into my last.fm profile. Unfortunately, this is not the case. It doesn’t matter what version of last.fm, or scrobbler I use, they all can’t seem to figure it out.

While I’m thinking about it, I’ve read that if you do get the ipod touch / last.fm thing working, tracks within a podcast are not tracked. I recall last.fm mentioning that podcast id3 tags are less reliable than single song id3 tags. Surprising. Aren’t both user generated?

If and when I get my cbc radio 3 podcasts properly logged in my last.fm profile, I’ll ask the next question - why aren’t the last.fm recommendations very good? I thought collaborative filtering would work better than this…

I might get the chance to think about this problem a little more at work.

This personalized experience makes me feel cold and alone.

So.. a 1% reduction in GST instead of passing the money on to the cities.

I guess this means a savings of $15 per month for me - 3 more mocha fraps (liquid cheeseburgers) - which really won’t affect my life. However, the $400 million or whatever that the city would have received from the 1% seems like it would make a difference.

Maybe I’m taking the $15 for granted. Would $15 make a difference to someone who is closer to the poverty line? Maybe. But someone closer to the poverty line likely has a higher dependence on social services than I do. So then the question becomes - is the $15 better utilized in social services funding or personal consumption?

For me, the extra $15 dollars really goes towards funding the TTC fare hikes. If they channeled 1% to social services, the TTC likely wouldn’t have to increase fares. So it’s a wash for me. But, I have the privilege of living close to the subway.

If I was in a lower income bracket, I would likely be living in a less accessible area, thus would be more reliant on TTC buses. As a result of the TTC budget crunch, I’m sure buses are less frequent, or even cancelled. So it’s a double whammy - increased fares, and decreased service.

This is just one example, by way of the TTC, but funding for social programs is important to everyone. I don’t like increasing taxes, but accept them if I agree with what they are used for. I HATE decreasing taxes, when we have so many gaps in funding.

Though, I don’t think it’s the lower income people asking for tax cuts. It seems like the rich people - you know, the ones with all the bling and gadgets, who don’t require social services but would rather have more bling - that want tax cuts.

Think about it objectively - how does the tax cut affect EVERYONE, not just you.

This is another reason I love living in Toronto - you see both ends of the spectrum, the ultra rich and the ultra poor, every day. It’s a constant reminder of what our city, province and country is made of.

All good shows get canceled their first year, this is how it works. But replacing a decent, well shot drama like “The Black Donnellys” with yet another lame reality show “The Real Wedding Crashers” is embarrassing. Who watches this stuff?

Amazon has recommendations, LibraryThing has the LibrarySuggester and other sites have other variations of this, but they are never quite right. Why is that? Do we not find the recommendations credible?

Amazon makes recommendations based on the book you are viewing, so if you like Harry Potter, you might also like what others who bought Harry Potter purchased. However, just because I purchased something doesn’t necessarily mean I liked it. LibraryThing makes recommendations based on a single book, which has the same limitation as Amazon. For members, LibraryThing also makes recommendations on all the books in your profile, matching them up against others with similar libraries - I assume your book ratings are taken into consideration. Surely this is as good as it gets?

Or do we need to go one step further and ‘decode’ a book the way that Pandora decodes music? Unfortunately, we all know how hit or miss Pandora recommendations can be. Along with Last.fm, Pandora’s recommendations are probably the best I’ve seen, but they still aren’t perfect. Maybe it’s easier to decode a book than it is to decode music?

I feel as though we can do better.

As a result of a comment by k-fleXxX in a previous post, I realize just how little I do for social causes. I’m certainly not speaking for everyone, but I’m a relatively aware person but do not actively participate in or donate to social causes. I am guessing that most of my peers are in a similar position. It’s a sad state of affairs.

These are some of the things I like to do…

• Support small/independent businesses because I like to see the little guy succeed (and feed his/her family).
• Want to see an indie flick? Check out Lightchasers.
• Looking for some fair trade coffee? Checkout Responsible Harvest.
• Avoid unethical companies. Though, watch your sources, some are whacky.
• (rant…) Tip wait staff, taxi drivers and other service industry staff well because I’m only going to burn that extra $5 dollars on something insignificant - I also know revenue canada targets them for undeclared income, which is sad because 1 well-off person likely shelters more income from the tax man than a dozen service staff.
• Donate to something.. usually it’s wwf.ca, and as a result I have a growing collection of animal beanie babies.
• Donate old clothing, appliances to goodwill. They have started coming door-to-door!
• Use recycled building supplies and find treasures.

But my overall financial contributions to the cause are terrible. I spend more on coffee than I do donating in a year. That’s pathetic. Do I really need that car? Do I need that computer? Do I need those jeans? no.. no and no. Is my whole generation like this?

we’re doomed.

and yes, I’m feeling particularly sorry for myself this morning. awesome.

Toronto has traffic problems and I hear if it isn’t solved soon, we’ll be in a Boston situation in the next 10 years. One of the proposed solutions is to charge a fee to each car that drives into the city - thus reducing the traffic. However, there is never any specific discussion of transit in that idea. If you increase the cost of driving into the city, and part of that money goes to the TTC, it would make sense to make transit more affordable - $2.75 a trip is on the edge of crazy.

Think about the $2.75 cost for a second. If there are 2 people traveling somewhere, that’s $11 in transit fees. Parking generally costs less than that for a few hours, and in some cases less than that for an entire day! The cost of transit is too close to the cost of parking to have people choose transit over driving.

Back to the point… if a fee is charged to drive your car into the core, it would make sense to have some TTC fee relief as a result of increased ridership. No?

Increasing parking fees would have a similar result, but that assumes government workers are treated like the rest of us. I know gov’t workers get cheap parking in Manhattan, I’m sure they get cheap (if not free) parking in Toronto which means they all drive to work (who wouldn’t?). Government workers should be leading the pack - if they get free parking, why not switch it up, charge for parking and subsidize a metro pass?  Shouldn’t they lead by example?

Someone created phase 1 - awesome.

We just need someone to add the “get directions” functionality to the same map.  It would be the ultimate tool.  I heard long ago that the TTC and Google were working together to create the ultimate ‘rider guide’, but I haven’t heard anything from it… and it was like 6 months ago.  Boo..

Interesting post by Rob. He suggests that software developers will bend over backwards for their company, as long as they are treated with respect, have decent hardware and are generally kept interested.

Interesting work is sometimes hard to do, while respect and decent hardware should be easy. Either way, the article outlines what devs are willing to do given the company takes care of certain aspects of the working environment.

Unlimited mochaccino’s would definitely keep me happy.

Air Canada just announced that it has heard the voice of the consumer and allows you save money on tickets by foregoing your ability to cancel a ticket for $7… umm, but my tickets are about $500, which means I’m saving 1%.

I can also choose to not accumulate aeroplan miles for an additional $3 savings, or commit to not checking
baggage for $5.

Money is money, but this seems so ridiculous to me. We are talking about 1-2% of a fare. It’s money, but very insignificant when you consider taxes on a flight are upwards of $150, and they charge $5 for a sandwhich. So, for giving up my opportunity to cancel, I get a sandwhich. Awesome.
Isn’t there some other way of offering savings to the consumer for flights? Isn’t there sponsorship or advertising revenue they can get out of having someone stuck in a seat for a predetermined period of time? There must be something… it’s almost like the ultimate user group.

Maybe taste tests - offer snacks that are new to the market?

How about product trials - if I could try a pair of those bose noise cancelling headphones, maybe I’d buy a pair?

What about product placement - have the bathrooms sponsored by bodyshop or kiehls?

Reading materials - enroute is great, but allow other magazines to buy their way onto the flight?

There must be other options..