Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/11/01/adventures-in-inkscape/
I have always been enchanted by maps, especially transit maps. I have used the London Tube, New York Subway and Santa Clara VTA maps as wall decor. Earlier this year I began working on my own version of a transit map, “just for fun” to cover transit options within San Francisco. I figured I would focus on making a map that would be useful for casual exploration of San Francisco, showing the metro lines and those bus lines which reliably connect between them.
I shelved the project for a while when it came time to move to New York, but I have finally picked up again, due in part to inspiration from discovering this site, and hope to release an “open source” transit map soon.
Speaking of San Francisco, if anyone has a free guest room or couch this Tuesday and Wednesday evening, I would be happy to keep it warm for you! (I have been visiting monthly at my own expense.)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/11/02/electric-sheep/
I remembered a dream this weekend. I was walking in Bangkok and it occurred to me I should turn off the data on my smart phone, lest I get raped by the service provider. Then I was kind of pleased to see that my smart phone was my Sidekick 2, because that thing was just wonderful.
Then I said to myself “I’m in Bangkok with a smart phone and its a Sidekick 2 when I know I own a G1, so like, am I dreaming?!” And so my unconscious was like shitshit, no look, it says Sidekick 4! Whoo! Shiny! Wouldn’t that make an awesome Android phone!? And I was like “damn, that rocks! When did we come up with this?”
I woke up.
(Thanks for the prompt, RJ.)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/11/03/san-francisco-transit-map/
After several weeks of effort and a few false starts, I present my first transit map, aimed at the casual explorer of San Francisco:
You can download the large or 360dpi version from Flickr. Or you can download the InkScape SVG source file from ratchet.
I’m not 100% happy about it, and it is lacking the SamTrans buses I wanted to add. All the same, I’m rather proud. It is train-centric but features connecting bus routes. I managed to include the three levels of rail transit on Market St by consolidating each service into its trunk lines, which let me gloss over the whole KT thing. My original ambition was to populate it with all the landmarks you wouldn’t find on your regular tourist map, but I sort of moved out of town.
Alas, I like to think that modifying info on the map should be pretty easy for others to do. The SVG file contains multiple layers that can be turned on or off, modified, add a new layer . . . you could totally create your own map based on this, if you like . . .
In selecting the size of this map, I went for a square, because despite its free-wheeling ways, San Francisco is geographically quite square, and figured to make the map 15″ x 15″ . . . if one really wanted to one could slice it in fourths and print 7.5″+ on US Letter-sized paper and voila–your own map!
If anyone finds this map useful or hacks on it, please let me know! Enjoy!
Cool link with other maps: http://www.sfcityscape.com/ — see especially the frequent service map in gif or pdf.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/11/18/mutt-tag-prefix-cond/
I just added this to my .muttrc:
macro index Z '<tag-pattern>~f (cron\|nagios\|root)<enter><tag-prefix-cond><delete-message>'
Now if I hit shift-z, all the mail from cron, nagios, and root is marked deleted. If I’m feeling aggressive I can then hit x, which for me means “expunge” deleted messages. (I came from pine.)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2009/11/29/week-of-22-november-2009/
I don’t narrate my life any more, whether for good or for ill. Well, maybe . . . I should try a weekly update. This has been working well at work, anyway.
Saturday, 21 November
On Friday I took Mei out to dinner, since we were going to not see each other for most of a week. We went to an Indian place up near the Kips Bay theater, where we then saw “Where the Wild Things Are”. I think the first time I saw that book I was impressed with its style, and so my Mom thought I liked the story and read it to me a bunch, but I always thought Max was kind of a spoiled brat. At the end of the movie I mumbled to Mei, “if my son pulls that crap he is not getting any chocolate cake.” When asked if he’d get any dinner, I responded that I wasn’t so sure. I wonder if the kid might have some blood sugar issues such that missing dinner may be a bad move.
Saturday morning, Mei was up early to go to work. I slept in a bit, and treated myself to brunch at Teddy’s, which served me two eggs, fried potatoes, Canadian bacon, rye toast, fruit salad, orange juice and coffee for $8.25. Now, Cheryl’s has some tastier food, so I’ll take Mei over there, but if it is just me, I stick with the cheaper, hearty meal.
I went home, washed the dishes and relaxed a bit, until around 1400 when I rode up to Penn Station to catch the 3:45 to Chicago. Now, a plane would have been faster and cheaper, but now that I live in New York, I can “afford” the relative luxury of a train ride home. The train was pretty full, and a guy named Don sat next to me. I got the modem working on my laptop and caught up somewhat on Internet reading. At Albany they took our engine off the train and shunted a series of cars from Boston onto the front. This was exciting to me, so I shot some dark, blurry video from the passenger area.
I treated myself to dinner in the dining car. Lamb shank, half a bottle of wine, dessert, coffee, and conversation with a cute college couple who were switching to the California Zephyr in Chicago, arriving in Emeryville on Tuesday to enjoy Thanksgiving in Santa Cruz. Robin the Film major and Miru the Art History major. They’re both minoring in Making a Living.
Despite ample legroom and a glass of Scotch from the Cafe car, I tossed and turned a great deal. (more…)
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