urbanism – Hugh McGuire

STM’s New Dumb Card: Opus

Hugh — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:43:00 +0000

I wrote to the STM, about their new Opus Card:

Hello,
Why can I only put 6 rides/tickets at a time onto my OPUS card? I don’t want a weekly or monthly card, but I want to load up with many rides, not just 6. This does not make any sense at all. Are you planning to change this? Because if not, you will have very many very unhappy clients.
Thanks …

They responded:

Hello,

It is currently possible to load up to two six-ticket booklets on an Opus card. However, should you have 7 tickets left on your card, it would not be possible to load another booklet, as the total would be 13 instead of 12 tickets.
These limits have been set mostly to avoid mistakes during the new system’s deployment. It is planned that these limits will eventually be reconsidered.

A new STM product will however be available as of January 2009: the ten-ticket booklet to be loaded on an Opus card.

Your comment will be forwarded to the authorities in charge to be taken into account.

Thank you and have a nice day,

QQF??

Avoid mistakes? Like: oh, I am too stupid to know how many tickets I want? … Maybe a screen that says: “How many tickets do you want? 6, 12, 24, 48, etc…” Or: “How much money would you like to add to your card? $5, $10, $25, $50?”

Goddammit. Smart card, my ass.

Send your emails to: SAC.Commentaires AT stm.info

My Map of San Francisco

Hugh — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:23:36 +0000

I had a great evening with Aaron while I was in San Francisco, talking books, reading, maps, photos, geo, politics, CBC, beer, Selagh Rogers, Yahoo, Mexican food, hand-waving, museums, and all sorts of other things. I had just got my iPod Touch a couple of days before, but after trying to rely on inferior technology to help me get around, I went back to my old navigation standard: drawing a map of the parts of the city I planned to be in.

Aaron took a photo:

Wifi and Space

Hugh — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:50:14 +0000

Wi-fi structures and people shapes, from Dan Hill:

One of the ideas I’ve been exploring relates to how urban industry – in the widest sense of the word – in the knowledge economy is often invisible, at least immediately and in situ. Whereas urban industry would once have produced thick plumes of smoke or deafening sheets of sound, today’s information-rich environments – like the State Library of Queensland, or a contemporary office – are places of still, quiet production, with few sensory side-effects. We see people everywhere, faces lit by their open laptops, yet no evidence of their production. They could be using Facebook, Photoshop, Excel or Processing. [more…]

save griffintown

Hugh — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:09:43 +0000

I’m always excited when the web starts having an impact on the actual city (or country) we live in. I am unlikely to go to a protest march or city hall to demand meetings with the mayor. I do send the odd nasty email to newspapers and politicians though, and I’ve seen three times online cage-rattling in which I did some banging of the bars seemed to have an impact: with the Parc/Bourassa stupidity; with the latest copyright kerfluffle in ottawa; and a the fed election when a copyright/RIAA lackey was beaten out by the NDP. Who knows whether the online activism did anything, but it sure didn’t hurt.

Well, Griffintown is under attack from the kind of stupid urban ‘”planning” that involves big developers ruining neighbourhoods. If that bugs you, have a look at Save Griffintown to find out more.