What exactly went wrong

‘Everything’ might be too broad a term, but save the bus breaking down there wasn’t much that didn’t happen.  In short the bus that should take ‘4 hours 20 minutes’ (from Megabus’ website) took close to 8 hours. Where did 3 hours go? In my opinion half was due to traffic, which was at some points bad, but the other half of the responsibility lands squarely on the first bus drivers shoulders. Startlingly, we left on time.

But it really went downhill from there. within 2 minutes of exiting the parking lot on H Street in Washington D.C. the driver had made a wrong turn. While, admittedly, i was not at the front of the bus and could not see the streets ahead, i had seen other Megabus’ leaving from that area as well as walking extensively around that area over the weekend. When, 50 mins later we were passing the parking lot from which we had departed it was clear that he had gotten hopelessly lost in D.C.’s china town. see the map below for the correct route out and an approximation of the route our driver took.

After that we hit traffic, queuing most of the way out to the Washington-Baltimore parkway and up part of it. During this and the roads after it, the driver showed a lack of commitment to his job. Driving consistently slower than traffic that passed–sometimes on both sides–with no energy, listlessly floating down the highway.

The Bus makes one stop, north of Baltimore, which after departing the bus driver subsequently got lost again (proving that the first was indeed him doing it wrong). After 15 mins of sitting in a parking lot of a housing complex trying to turn around we were back on the road, creeping up the coast.

After getting into Jersey, the bus driver pulled over a claimed that he had run out of ‘driving hours’ while i don’t have a problem with this rule or law (i don’t know what it is exactly), it made the whole situation seem like he was consciously trying to run down his hours by driving slower, thereby putting him closer to ‘home,’ wherever that is. He seemed like a nice guy while we waited for the replacement driver to arrive, but i feel there was something else going on.

45 minutes later the replacement driver arrived, who took off like any other driver would. The remaining two hours went quickly, with a driver who was really dedicated to the job she was doing–or maybe just pissed off that she had to come out and collect us.

Conclusions

Do i have a right to complain? In today’s broken-service economy, probably not (you know the one where airlines charge to lose your baggage). At $23.25 a ticket, you take what comes. In the end they got you there, regardless of how long it took. The problem with the travel industry is that there are so many things that can interfere, weather traffic etc it gets hard to tell it apart from when the company is doing something wrong. while this driver may have “dilly-dallied” his way up I-95, he technically did nothing wrong in the end.

It all started off alright. The original Macintosh computer and all the hardware and software innovations that followed were a step in the right direction for computer technology. When the iPod came along the world rejoiced, Apple had perfected the pocket-sized music player that could hold your entire music collection. Apple’s OS X was leaps and bounds better and simpler than Microsoft’s competing products. It was so simple a child could use it.

But this is where the wagon broke loose of the tractor. Something snapped inside “the great” Steve Jobs’ brain. Instead of developing technology that surpasses that of any of his competitors he focused on brewing, and I’m quoting straight from the 1984 ad here, a “garden of pure ideology.” Apple has become less about the technology is offers than the social stratus is portrays. You have a MacBook pro? Good for you, do you feel good because it’s a good machine or because when you open it up in class you’re apple logo glows out, reinforcing the fact that you’re cool enough to own an Apple product.
This anger of course stems from something other than America’s identity crises. The root cause of this is in Steve Jobs’ (pretentious asshole that he is) belief that he has complete control over the future of the Internet and the players in it.

When Apple released the original iPhone 3 years ago, they left out a very specific player in the web. Adobe, whose Flash Player technology is installed on over 85% of computers around the world, found out that this very same Flash Player would not be allowed to display on the iPhone’s safari browser. To me this was a strictly statistical move. At this time Flash Player was slightly buggy for mobile browsing and probably wouldn’t have run well on the iPhone’s particularly weak processor.

Earlier this year Apple continued to block Flash Player with the release of its substantially more powerful iPad and iPhone releases. During last week’s release of the iPhone 4.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) a clause in the terms of service stated that no outside computer programming language could develop for the iPhone App Store. What this meant was that Adobe’s new Flash CS5, [[[[released this past Monday]]]], which had an iPhone app builder included would not be able to submit application to the Apple App Store. A particularly large blow to one of the biggest new features for Adobe Creative Suite 5.

Steve Jobs countered the uproar against said new TOS with a quick email to a key opponent, “Intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.” I would argue that sub-standard developers product sub-standard apps. Opening the development of applications to multiple code sources would only increase the quantity and possible quality of competing apps. Of course Apple already has this locked down its app store in an unparalleled, inconsistent, and ambiguous screening process (Opera’s iPhone web browser which is quicker, lighter and uses less bandwidth than Safari has still not been accepted) so whatever is said goes.

In recent years, Apple has pushed Adobe out of the online streaming video market. And, as of this week, out of the application market and the advertising market with the launch of iAd. So I ask you Steve Jobs, what part of this is in competitive spirit? Because from this angle, it’s your face I see on that cinema style projection, and I’m with whoever’s swinging the sledge hammer. Simply put, Apple is evil.

(the picture is taken from dashes.com, i was going to make one myself but i found this instead)

This article was originally written for the Hartford Informer on March 25, 2010.

Monday afternoon the Internet giant Google announced that it would leave the lucrative Chinese market as censorship issues plagued the dominant search engine.
For sure this was not an easy decision for Google, but it was a result of four years of negotiation, disagreement and hostility. The fiercest of which has been a hotly debated topic since January when Google suffered coordinated cyber attacks to their network. The source of cyber attacks were revealed to be allegedly connected to the Chinese government as part of a larger Internet surveillance operation of e-mail accounts, specifically Google’s Gmail accounts.

Since arriving in China in 2006, Google has been less than willing to censor its Web search at its google.cn domain. Under this agreement searches like that of “Tiananmen Square” would be edited to show only those which represent the Chinese government’s view of history. This Monday’s decision meant that Google would no longer operate within what has been dubbed the “great firewall of China” forwarding all web traffic to its Hong Kong Web site, Google.com.hk.
On its blog, Google also announced a dashboard where Chinese residents would be able to check the services offered by Google still running in China.
At time of writing, major sites like YouTube and Blogger had been blocked with others partially blocked. What this means for China or in turn for Google could have consequences proceeding far into the future. Look around, for the average American consumer Google is everywhere.
It’s your search engine, your e-mail account, your internet content, your Web browser and your phone operating system.
Google has been for some time a leading developer of technology, inside and outside the internet. Deals struck with Chinese cell phone providers for search and operating system are jeopardized in this move. Corporate users of Google’s application suite may be blocked from using Gmail or Google Docs.
And technologies that Google may be developing to bring gigabit internet to the United States will never be developed for the growing Chinese audience. Out of 1.3 billion people, only 400 million are currently online. While at this time it may seem like an inconsequential market it is certain to explode in uptake.
It will become a market in which the world’s number one search engine will have no part. Despite loss of users, and what will undoubtedly lead to the expansion of local rival Baidu.com, Google also realizes the potential for lost revenue. The upkeep of their servers is pennies compared to the profits a continued operating inside of China.
In the face of these reasons and more, Google would appear to be making the best move from the public relations stand point. Its mantra “don’t be evil” lends itself to the situation. Colluding with the Chinese government to censor its search results was not a plan which could uphold that statement.
Under their new decision, they can provide unfiltered full content to the Chinese people through their Hong Kong servers and leave the censorship to the Chinese government.
It could be argued that they are walking away from democracy and free speech, but it would seem the only way to provide real free speech is in the decision they’ve made and it’s the bed they will lay in until any major changes are made to the way the Chinese view the Internet. Google can only hope at that point it’s not too late to get back in the game.