Clang, clang, clang went the trolley
Yes, the rumours are true. After years of experimental transport schemes involving the drilling of tunnels and buses with unstable middles, not to mention their occasionally explosive rear ends, the Mayor of London in his infinite wisdom has decided that the tram, beloved of Dr Zhivago-era Moscow and Judy Garland's St Louis, is the way forward for transport. Better still, it will link those of us marooned on rock unsuitable for tunnelling, with our friends and jobs op'North and their fancy underground system.
After a lot of whispers and countless rumours it appears that the proposed Cross River Tram has finally gone to, wait for it, consultation. This means that they will probably push some bits of paper around for a long time and then might finish it by the time I'm forty and living in the sticks somewhere. As part of the consultation they want the local opinions of local people to add to their paper pile.
It is thoroughly important that you exercise your democratic right to inform our elected mayor of your opinions. Get your consultation document here. It won't even cost you the price of a stamp to get your opinions on the route and the termini heard.
I am however rather miffed that some locals have already hijacked this scheme and decided it's an entirely stupid plan because apparently artists' studios, churches and businesses might have to be bulldozed to make way for a tram depot, which, after looking at their map, the businesses in question seem to be Trinketz, Ash's Meat Centre, I think a car wash place, and that unsightly factory with the yellowed and broken windows you see as you come into Peckham Rye station from London Bridge. It is, according to these locals, an "area with potential for redevelopment." They have already had their petitions out, you may have seen one floating around your nearest twee shop recently. This attitude says to me that a better, sustainable, and environmentally sound transport system for the area would be entirely pointless if they couldn't buy unique prints entitled "Pain" and "Freedom" to put on the mantelpiece of their Bellenden boudoir.
I have a feeling that they may have missed the point. The tramline will bring better access to jobs in central London for many people. It will provide redevelopment in their "area with potential for redevelopment" and jobs on the trams and at the terminus and depot for local people. It would involve new building, and I suspect a more light and open feel to the area around Peckham Rye station. Not to mention the fact that it will hugely help the redevelopment of the bit of Peckham that no one likes to think about, which includes everywhere North of Peckham High Street as well as the Aylesbury and Heygate estates, by providing them with a fast and much needed link to Peckham town centre, and to Waterloo and beyond, and thus jobs. At then end of the day people living there have far more need for a better transport system.
I might sound like I've swallowed a bit of Ken's propaganda on this, but having seen the change that the tram brought to Croydon (okay, I still wouldn't like to spend too much time there, but the place has smartened up a lot since the tram was opened) I am convinced that the benefits far outweigh the problems of having a depot in Peckham.
I've said my thing, whichever way you lean on this, and whether you think I'm talking rubbish or not, please examine the consultation document and make those opinions heard to ensure that the area continues to thrive in the future.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Pink Zune
Me: Oh look, they've released a pink Zune. Would you like one for Christmas?
Her: I'd rather stick my head on a pike.
Although on closer reading of the article, it seems that the pink Zunes are a very rare limited edition and they are not marked as such. Consequently the guy who bought it thought he was getting a white one, didn't like the pink, saw an opportunity and promptly put it on eBay.
Honestly, that's a stroke of genius only matched by releasing a brown Zune in the first place.
You can just see little Jimmy's parents in some electronics shop going:
Parent: Oh look, there's one of those Zune things Jimmy wants. Excuse me, Mr Shop Assistant, we'd like to buy a Zune.
Shop Assistant: Wonderful, here you go.
Parent: Excellent, he's going to be so pleased.
Of course, the parents left it to the last minute and the black/white Zunes sold out a long time ago - something the shop assistant neglects to mention lest it should damage his chances of making a commission and/or missing his sales target.
Little Jimmy then spends the next six months being bullied at school for having a poo coloured Zune before it's finally stolen and destroyed by muggers on the bus who can't bear to suffer it's existence any longer. Little Jimmy is secretly thankful.
Popularity: 50% [?]
Tiny growl
This just dropped into my inbox:
Hi,
VjAGRA_zd_$1,78
CjALiS_lx_$3,00
LEVjTRA_fz_$3,33www [dot] removed [dot] info
--------
tiny growl is permitted.
Tiny growl indeed. Fuckers.
Popularity: 44% [?]
Vista
I downloaded the release version of Vista today via my work MSDN account and my first impressions were:
Hmm. I can't quite focus on the text on this screen. Either my hangover is really, really bad or I need to get my eyes tested.
Oh, wait, it's just ClearType.
Aside from that, I'm amazed at how complicated they've made everything. For example, when downloading files through IE7, you now have a "Downloads" folder in your home directory. Can you get to this via the start menu? No. Is it a sub-folder of your Documents folder? No. What's wrong with just putting them on the Desktop? Isn't it what it's there for - files you are currently working on and/or might not want to keep?
The Windows Explorer seems to have become a maze of semi-coherent short cuts and file system abstractions - see the address bar for what I mean. Even the Control Panel has succumbed to this mess. It seems they've sat around a table and gone "What are the most popular things people do with the Control Panel" and made shortcuts to them all, rather than organising the different areas in a logical manner in the first place.
And then there's the whole off button thing.
Never mind the hundreds of pop ups "This program wants to do this" "Do you know this program?" "Do you want to let this program do this?" "Are you sure you want to let this program do this?". And the really obnoxious one that greys out your entire screen and puts the dialogue box right in the middle. "LOOK AT ME", it screams. "FUCK OFF", I think.
And what happened to the File/Edit/etc menus? It took me a good twenty minutes to work out how to show hidden files and folders. In the end I had to ask Google for the answer.
Ugh. Maybe I'm just getting old, but does it really have to be this way?.
Popularity: 49% [?]
Magic bullet
Biometric passports cloned. It seems all it takes is 174 quids worth of hardware and 48 hours of a programmer's time to write the software.
Given the government's track record for IT, is anyone really surprised by this?
Popularity: 34% [?]
Beta software
John Gruber has a go at shonky software hiding behind the "Beta" label (so hot right now).
Too bloody right.
Popularity: 31% [?]
eBay infrastructure
There's an article on eWeek.com about the storage requirements of eBay.com. It's mostly large number willy waving, but this quote from the third page caught my eye:
eBay's application servers, according to Strong:
* use monolithic two-tier architecture
* boast 3.3 million line C++ ISAPI DLL (150MB binary)
* have hundreds of developers, all working on the same code
* are hitting compiler limits on number of methods per class.
Now, I could be wrong, but the last three points don't really strike me as much to be proud of, not to mention possibly inaccurate in the case of the first two.
In other news, this morning I did something that some people might find a little odd. I cleaned my bike.
Truly, I am entering into the realm of the unwell.
Popularity: 22% [?]