Author: Tara

Tara Ramroop has laughed, cried, and commiserated with this amazing community from the start. She's been writing for as long as she can remember and riding Muni for more than a decade.

The NextBus Flap: A Tilted Playing Field for iPhone Apps? (update)

25 comments

Update (Aug. 19, 3:15 p.m.): SF Appeal has more or less wrapped this story of lameness up. MTA and Apple have both told NBIS to take a hike, and don’t let the door hit ya … Oh, and now that Routesy is live once again, we’ll be finishing up our review and posting it soon. It was cut short as this whole brouhaha went down.

Original post (July 10): Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, Ken Schmier and Alex Orloff at NextBus Information Systems (NBIS) got in a fight with Steven Peterson of Routesy. Who are these people? What’s NBIS? Where’s my bus? Good questions.

So, here it goes. We’ve all seen the bus-arrival data flashing at us from bus shelters across town; many of you have probably gotten it on your cellphone. But the matter of who owns this data and who can use it recently became a hot debate when Peterson, the developer of the iPhone app Routesy, got into a disagreement with NBIS, the company that claims to have rights to that sometimes-accurate information flashing at you from the bus stop and on the interwebs.

Oh, and when we say “NBIS,” that is not the same thing as NextBus, Inc.

I know.

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Category: News

Dearly departed: A call for Muni Obituaries

20 comments

Rising Over Muni
Photo by Flickr user smadden

Some of your favorite lines are going the way of the dinosaur come October, folks. But since the SF Municipal Transit Agency is banking on the fact that you don’t even know they exist, it perhaps ain’t no thang to you.

When in October? Mid-October. We can’t get more specific than that. Neither can SFMTA, apparently.

Anyhoo, we’re putting out a call for obituaries* for these dearly departed lines. Though I’ve personally stopped in my tracks and pointed at such oddities as the 53-Southern Heights (southern who?), some of you rode these lines regularly. And, undoubtedly, some of you will rightly miss their presence. Whenever they decided to grace you with their presence, that is.

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Category: News Tags:

You people and your newspapers and your sense of entitlement…

9 comments

the 33 ride home
Photo by Flickr user messtiza

I’m going to get a lot of hate mail for this one, especially since I’m also the person who hates disabled people with casts, as well as small, innocent children on field trips.

It’s really kind of funny. Twenty-somethin’ gal with her BlackBerry and her text messaging and her internets. Older gentleman with his morning newspaper. Odd-couple comedy in the making!

So this man gets on the bus and grabs a seat next to me in a disabled section crowded with fellow commuters. I check to make sure there aren’t other older or pregnant folks trying to nab a seat, then get back to my internets. The gent opens his newspaper (the San Francisco Examiner, which I used to write for) and extends one side of it and his arm far into my seat/space. I politely say, “Excuse me,” and, thinking the issue is over, am actually surprised when he, clearly affronted, wants to know what I was excusing-me for.

Hmm, OK. I note as politely and even-voicedly (though also kind of flustered and surprised) as I can that his newspaper is in my space, and that if he could just fold up a bit more, that would be great. As easy as it could be to tell him he needed to back the F up, I first incorrectly said (who knew I’d actually have to explain it) his paper was touching me. OK (calm vibes), I guess it’s not exactly touching me, but it’s hovering over my lap, and I’m personally folded up as much as I can be, you know? I happen to agree with the fine etiquette ladies at Muni Manners, who noted in a post about this very phenomenon that folding your newspaper to lessen your impact, but still get your news, is the safe and courteous thing to do for all. Read more

Category: diaries, Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: , ,

WTF Is This? Mini-Fridge?

5 comments

minifridge

Heh. Maybe this can become a regular Muni Diaries feature. Tara sent us this photo from the 10 stop at Stockton and North Point … along with this penetrating question:

Is it wrong to kind of wish the mini fridge was still in this box? It’s AC/DC powerd AND can do hot, also.

Are your editors simply out of the consumerist loop? WTF is a mini-fridge, any-freakin’-way?

Send your WTFs and other poignant observations of life on Muni to us!

Category: diaries, Photos Tags:

Public-Service Reminder: Always Practice Safe Sex

14 comments
Unused (?) condom on the 47

Unused (?) condom on the 47

That’s right, folks. Mere inches from my brand-new haircut.

The 47 and 49 (both Van Ness lines, for those of you following along at home) really need to fight it out for the “And I thought I had seen it all…” crown. I personally go back and forth on the question of which I’d rather be on, though yesterday, I would have gladly eaten my lunch off a 49 (ok, ew, not really) considering what I was faced with on this 47.

First, a harmless man singing/yelling to the songs in his head and smelling 10 times worse than a portable toilet got on and sat in the back. Fine. It’s a freakin’ 47, after all. But that resulted in at least 10 people getting up and cramming themselves around the middle of the bus, since no one wanted to be back there with him. This results in a briefcase in my ass, an iPhone in my side, and a front-row seat to the freakishly large condom hanging by the back door.

Condom-leaver: next time, maybe don’t go with the magnums unless you’re absolutely sure you can fit in them, all right?

Category: diaries, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: , ,
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