In Voluntary Support
One of my favorite sites
MacSurfer has the following note prominently posted today:
FROM: Phil Pearson, Editor-In-Chief
TO: 500,000+ Loyal MacSurfer Readers
SUBJECT: Subscription Request
A brief intrusion... In order to improve MHN's salaries, add features, and enhance our website interactivity, I'm making a polite request to our dedicated fan base. Preferring not to limit content, I need a strong response from the majority of you to help fund MacSurfer, so think of it as an IPO investment or magazine subscription. (We're exceedingly more useful than MacAddict or Macworld, right?) Amid great personal and financial sacrifice, I think I've presented a helluva news site and fantastic daily resource for near on 8 years. Now it's your turn to reciprocate. To keep matters simple, and avoid net privacy/security issues, all you need to do is send a check payable to "Phil Pearson" for a yearly subscription to:
1 Year MacSurfer subscription: $25
1 Year MacSurfer/TechNN subscription: $35
I have no problem with MacSurfer asking for some support from it's fans since it does provide a site that I like to visit and is very informative. I was a little suprised to not see a similiar request at MacSurfer's sister site TechNN.
I do however feel that there are a few things that MacSurfer could do to increase the value of hte site and better justify the cost of the "Subscription".
- Redesign: Since I first visited MacSurfer about 3 years ago the site has seen only minor changes to its layout and design. I know that this design is functional and simple, but frankly it is also ugly. A site that is functional and simple need not be ugly. There are plenty of examples of compartively simple sights that look very nice (for example Daring Fireball). MacSurfer's audence is very design savvy thanks to the attractive and useful design of the Mac UI. Another large portion of the audience are graphic designers and design professionals.
- No Ads for Subscribers: A few other sites have moved towards this model (notably Slashdot) and I think it is a pretty good trade off. In fact MacSurfer had a similiar system in place until July 2002
- Daily Wrap-up: I would love to see MacSurfer send out a e-mail everyday at 5pm EST with a wrapup of the top Mac related stories of the day.
- Forums: These could either be public or subscriber only, but would likely become a place for MacSurfer users to congregrate and discuss the latest issues and news.
With these improvements MacSurfer would be a site worthy of a $25/year subscription. Until then I think that I will just donate a few dollars to help keep the site running.
Transit Mall Revitilization Open House
I was able to leave work early yesterday and stop by the second of TriMet's
Open Houses for the Transit Mall Revitilization. The open house was held in the board room at the
Port of Portland Building next to the
Chinese Gardens. Inside the boardroom was about 7-10 displays showing various aspects of the proposed revitilization. There was also a small theater area were a TriMet employee showed the virtual "fly-throughs" of two of the three proposed MAX alignments. In the center of the room was a large table covered with a map showing the entire run of the transit mall along with the proposed MAX stations. Those attending the open house were encouraged to leave there comments on this map, fill out a comment card, or simply talk to one of the many city and TriMet employees circulating throught the area.
I personally talked to a couple of the TriMet/City employees. In the area focusing on the amenities on the Transit Mall (i.e. Trees, benches, shelters, etc.) I expressed my concern about the lack of wind shelters on some of the newer shelters (such as those near PSU). I also mentioned my wish to not replace some of the older larger trees with new smaller trees and also to increase the total number of trees in the south side of the transit mall.
Later near the large map in the center of the room I talked to a city employee about the lack of any mention of bicycle traffic in the plans I had seen. He basically said, that since the Transit Mall did not contain a bike lane they hadn't integrated bikes into their plan. I feel like this is really short sighted since I see a ton of bicyclist use the Transit Mall, and this will be much more dangerous once the MAX is on 5th and 6th. I suggest that they improve the bike lanes on 4th and Broadway and find ways to encourage bicycle traffic on those streets.
I also asked this employee what would happen to the transit mall during construction. He said that while this was still yet to be decided, there were three ideas. The first would have the busses use 4th and Broadway instead of 5th and 6th during construction. The second would make 5th a two way, bus-only street while 6th was under construction and then reverse this while 5th was under construction. Finally, there might be a highbrid of the two ideas.
One of the most interesting parts of the open house was the large showing by members of
The Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates (AORTA). There was one gentleman who was passing out a AORTA flier and many members of AORTA milling about the open house. AORTA advocates creating a subway-style underground lightrail line throught downtown portland that would stretch from Lloyd Center to Goose Hollow and include stops at the Rose Quarter, Union Station, Burnside, Pioneer Courthouse, and Portland State. They feel that this would provide long term savings and better service throught downtown. I am happy that the group was a the open house, but I felt that they were a bit to loud and more than a little obnoxious. During the showing of the virtual "flythrough" it was difficult for many members of the audience to hear the TriMet employee over the loud discussion between advocates of the subway.
As I mentioned before there are three different proposals for the alignment of the MAX tracks along the Transit Mall. The first, called the Left Side Stop, whould have the buses on the right side of the rode, the MAX in the center and car traffic on the left except were there was a MAX stop. In these areas the sidewalk would extend out over the left lane and provide an area for the MAX stop. The second, called the Island Stop, whould have the busses on the right side of the rode, the Max in the center and a continous car lane on the left. At MAX stops the bus lane would swerve farther to right leaving an island MAX stop to the right of the MAX track. The final, called the Right Side Stop, would have the buses on the right, the MAXin the center and a continous car lane on the left. At stops the MAX track would swerve into the buslane and the MAX station would be on the right side.
Of these plans I really favor the Left Side Stop for a couple of reasons. First, it keeps the current feel of the Transit Mall. It also happens to be the cheapest option because it doesn't require you to tear up all the curbs. Also, one of the features I like the most about the Transit Mall is that it doesn't have to many cars on it. The other two plans add a continous car lane to the transit mall and increase the likelyhood of a car/bus or car/MAX accident.
I suggest that anyone interested in the future of the transit mall, the future of MAX and the future of downtown Portland comment on the proposals as soon as possible. I heard time and time again from TriMet/City employees at the open house that many aspects of the plan are not yet "set in stone".
For more background on the Portland Mall Revitilization visit
TriMet's page about it and read the Portland Communique's
excellent story from Tuesday July 8th. I especially recomend watching the virtual "fly-throughs" available in
Quicktime format at the TriMet website.
Undisclosed Location
So, I am back at work today after a nice 4-day 4th of July weekend. I went backpacking to a "undisclosed location" in the
Jefferson Wilderness near
Marion Lake. The reason I won't disclose the location is that I don't want anyone else to know about my favorite backpacking spot. I don't mean to sound snobish or exclusionary, but when I go backpacking, one of my primary goals is to get away from people and to try to see as few as possible. So it was a little disapointing that when my group got up to our remote lake there was already a couple people camping on one side of the lake. We did our best to ignore them and they did leave on Saturday morning so we did have a full day to ourselves. All in all it was a great trip and a lot of fun.
TypePad Beta Tester I am
I was pretty excited a few weeks back when
Six Apart anounced that they would start offering a hosting service that featured there wonderful
MoveableType software. So when they asked for beta testers I decided to sign up. I am not sure if I will move to
Type Pad when the service comes out of Beta, but I think it is very likely that I will start using Moveable Type soon. While I am beta testing, I will duplicate all posts at
my TypePad site. Feel free to go over and have a look and leave a comment. I won't be talking much more about TypePad since I am under a non-disclosure agreement, and I wouldn't want to crititisize a product still in beta.
Apple Shill (a.k.a. iShill)
So yesterday Apple announced a program whereby I can get a free renewal for my .mac account simply by getting 5 friends to sign up for .mac service. So, in an attempt to save my self $100 I ask that if you decide for some reason to buy .mac service that you put me down as the person who reffered you. My e-mail address is noahbatmacdotcom. Shouldn't be to hard to figure out. Also, you can go to
the refferal page to learn more about .mac.
Just for the sake of honesty, it is unlikely I will pay to renew my .mac account when October rolls around. More likely I will find a webhost (I'm leaning towards
DreamHost) and move my e-mail to there IMAP servers, move my blogs over to MoveableType and buy a couple domains. I think it will end up costing me about $50 more a year, but then again, I will have my own domains and more permanent e-mail addresses.
