This may be an utterly boring topic to most, but typically interstate highways in the US are required to adhere to a very strict set of rules concerning lane width, curves, slope, exits; everything you can think of is supposed to be standard. I find it amusing to see such standards stretched and even broken. There are very few places where this happens, but two interesting ones are pictured below. 1) The Washington Dulles toll road is actually is an interstate within an interstate where the traffic on one highway never mingles with the other for many miles. It ensures a hassel free ride to the airport. 2) Even more radical is interstate 93 in New Hampshire's Franconia Notch where for quite some distance the interstate narrows to one lane in each direction, an almost unheard of compromise which minimizes the impact that a wide highway causes in a narrow and otherwise pristine gorge.

From one extreme to another... I forgot how cold if gets in August in San Francisco. Getting out of the taxi in the Haight late last night it was almost commical as i shivered in my short sleeve shirt in the freezing fog. Not much warmer today, although it's nice and sunny.

I just flew from New York to Milwaukee on board what is becoming the new standard in aviation for short(ish) flights - the Regional Jet. In this case, the Canadair RJ. Basically, these are small jets designed to serve markets more frequently and more cheaply than full sized airliners, which are both fine goals. The problem is they stink. There is virtually no legroom, your head hits the ceiling if you approach 6ft, the overhead bins are so small you can barely fit a laptop in, and the things will produce claustrophobia in even the most seasoned flyer.

Occasionally when I turn on my laptop, the WiFi connects to something called "Library". The signal is usually excellent. Thing is, it's not a WiFi network it's some kind of interference. I've found it in buildings, on airplanes, on moving vehicles... whatever it is, it's completely useless.

Stuck in traffic somewhere near New London... So I opted for the luxury method of getting to Boston, rather than the economic. The main reason was that Limoliner advertises itself as having internet on-board, and therefore I could work and thus justify the expense. Unfortunately the speed of the connection renders it completely useless. If this actually gets posted I'll be impressed.

Still, they are very nice and appologetic, and claim the lack of speed is unusual. They also have very comfy seats and all sorts of goodies, including films. I just watched the new version of the Italian Job, which was ok, but a pale imitation of the original.

In a move designed to protect residential areas from big trucks, it's generally prohibited (with clear signage) to drive one into most residential streets in California. Moving Trucks are generally excepted. These signs are all over the place, and similar signage is common all over the country. But, until Slate wrote this very interesting article, it didn't dawn on me that the majority of big SUVs actually violate this law, which predates the craze for monster trucks.

Though clearly not the intention of the law to ban non-commercial vehicles, it would be rather amusing if they started enforcing it - every single street in Beverly Hills, aside from main thoroughfares, falls under this ordinance. Even more amusing is the fact that many big SUVs have been classified as commercial vehicles in order to qualify for a tax break, so the law does, in fact, apply to them.

DOH!!! Just when you thought it was safe to shop online, a numerical search on Google pulls up hundreds of random people's credit card numbers on websites with really lousy security issues... bad news. [behold] (click a few links down).

via newyorkish

Went to a fabulous blogger party last night at "the delancey"... well, it was funnier than fabulous, but I can't get over how successfully networked people are here in New York, all over a bunch of generally innane rantings on websites. Cool stuff anyway, people were very nice.