Biking season – tentative plans

So I am not going to do STP again this year (but I may attempt a single day ride next year). But I will definitely do flying wheels and I am considering doing the high pass challenge (basically biking up the back of Mt St Helens). Not sure if I am going to need a compact crank for the HPC.  Probably will but don’t want to spend the money. Any other cool rides you think I should participate in (has to be close to Seattle)?

Yahoo is getting out-played

So MSFT just turned up the heat on Yahoo and I agree with Henry Blodget that Yahoo has been out maneuvered. I am not sure that there is much left for Yahoo to do unless some other deal gets done in short order. I also think MSFT has already figured out what kind of quarter Yahoo will announce. They run similar businesses and I am sure they have active benchmarks comparing the businesses. As such they probably know that Yahoo’s quarter will not be that great (pure conjecture on my part). In other words they know what cards Yahoo holds. And other than another deal getting done, having a stellar quarter is probably the only defense Yahoo has left.

For those saying this proves that MSFT is evil, I am not sure what they are on about. This is business, pure and simple. MSFT is doing something that they think will improve the value of MSFT. That is actually their responsibility as a public company.

Update: BTW I told you MSFT has a plan.

UK Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads

Here we go.  I am amazed that there is not more outrage about this.  Don’t people care about the civil liberties?  This is so over the top.  BPI says that ISPs should stop hiding “behind bogus privacy arguments”.  What is bogus about privacy?  It seems fundamental to democracy and the way we live.  And ISPs should show “corporate responsibility and partner with us to allow our digital creative economy to grow”.  Well, the digital economy has grown substantially in the last 10 years.  Witness Google, mobile phones and 1000s of startups.  Why is that the music industry is unable to make their “economy” grow?  Legislation has never helped to rescue industries facing major change.  It’s been tried with subsidies and more and it does not work.  Why do legislators do this?  There is a ton of demand for music products.  Evolve already.

Horizon and Bombardier Q400 grounding

So the Swedish press is reporting that the investigation results into the failure of the landing gear of have determined that wear on a certain bolt caused said bolt to come off and thus causing the problem.  The report is preliminary.  This Bombardier press release seems to indicate something similar.  Why do I care?  Because I fly from Seattle to Portland every week and often on the Q400 (in fact Horizon is simplifying their fleet and getting rid of their Q200s).

Seattle tunnel/viaduct vote – it’s a no-no.

Update on my previous post.

So the results are in.  Seattlites voted no on the viaduct and no on the tunnel.  This may not be a bad outcome as perhaps the surface street option with public transportation and serious bike lanes may be considered.

Viaduct or tunnel: TUNNEL!

OK, I should state up front that I don’t know all the facts on the pros and cons of this one, so the argument is more of a gut thing than a rational argument.  So here goes.

Seattle’s waterfront has a long viaduct running along the length of the waterfront. The viaduct is ugly and not safe. It thus needs to be replaced. For the last couple of years the politicians here have been debating whether to replace the viaduct with a new viaduct or a tunnel. I don’t know why we would consider a new viaduct. The waterfront is really not very nice right now because of the viaduct and that would not change with a new viaduct (slight improvement but still a large blocking structure right on the waterfront). There are amazing views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains that are currently blocked. It could be just an amazing place. Seattle’s location on Puget Sound makes it a stunning downtown location.

So I don’t know all the details but it seems obvious to me that the tunnel should be the preferred choice. I lived in San Francisco when they tore down the Embarcadero freeway/viaduct after the Loma Prieta earthquake (was there for that too). In that case they did not replace the freeway with anything but just went put in a surface street. However, it changed that part of the waterfront for the better in a big way.

Yes, the construction will be painful but it will yeild a new and beautiful part of Seattle. I also think public transportation should be a huge part of the answer. Add a light rail that runs along the length of the tunnel. It could move a lot of people and cut down on car use. For that matter add really nice bike lanes. People here like to bike but we need to add more bike lanes to promote biking.

Here is a link to the mayor’s site that has some data.

My vote:  tunnel + public transportation + bike lanes.  And a beautiful waterfront for Seattle and all the tourists.