The Metro light rail and it's effect on me

The opening of Metro light rail on Dec. 27 will provide the ASU community with yet another convenient method for travel around the greater Phoenix area and across the four ASU campuses. Once the light rail service begins, the West and Polytechnic intercampus shuttles will transport riders to the light rail line where they can then board a light rail train bound for the Tempe campus. The Downtown Phoenix intercampus shuttle will be discontinued, as light rail will provide a direct, 20-minute connection between the Tempe and Downtown Phoenix campuses.

Boo, the intercampus shuttles are extremely convenient for university business and they are faster and far less of a hassle than the public bus system. As our campuses expand, and if the shuttle program was allowed to mature, ridership would grow exponentially.

So next semester is when the downtown shuttle ends. A step backwards.

I do not know how great this light rail thing is going to be.

April 30, 2008 1:08 PM

My stance on Net Neutrality

My professor recently brought up a question that I'd like to share my answer to.

We are not preventing progress by holding onto the principle that the internet should remain an open standard. In fact, by ensuring that the internet acts as an open, nondiscriminatory pathway we have only promoted progress. The architecture of the internet has not changed very much since the 1989 introduction of the World Wide Web as a standard for sharing and accessing information. But the content on the internet has changed drastically in those - almost 20 - years. Each year new services and new techniques are brought onto our World Wide Web and each year millions more people gain access to an open, unrestricted internet. By allowing owners of the networks to restrict flow we would cripple innovation online more than we could ever imagine.

It actually may not be hard to imagine how badly it would be crippled. As a society we do not interact with closed networks often. But there is one example I would like to compare a closed internet to: cell phone networks. Cell phone networks are closed. Cell phone network providers sell phones that have been locked to their network, so that consumers are forced into using their service.. even more so they specifically lock out features in phones that are there at the factory such as computer connectivity - allowing someone to put MP3s on their phone for free so that instead they have to pay $3.00 for a 30 second MP3 ringtone from the network provider.

That would be how network providers would handle business on the internet if it were closed, and that is why they want more control. So that this kind of seediness can be allowed.

We need an open internet, and we will always push for an open internet, but the telecommunication corporations are always going to push for profit, while stifling innovation.

Imagine if telecoms were allowed to degrade the quality of your voice on your home phone when you called a doctors office, library or university and only permitted standard quality calls to businesses that paid a premium subscription. THIS is exactly what net neutrality prohibits and this is exactly what telecoms want to do to the internet.

Congress would never allow telecoms to control their phone networks this way and I believe they will continue stepping in to defend net neutrality.

April 29, 2008 4:21 PM

Upcoming Shows in Arizona

I spent so much time today diving deep into the tools that Yahoo's Pipes provides to build a list of all the upcoming shows around Phoenix and Tuscon in one central automatically updated place. There may still be some venues that I need to add in the next few days. But check it out, bookmark it and make use of it in some way.

Upcoming Shows in Arizona

April 28, 2008 11:01 PM

Contextualized Biography Assignment

I am proud of how well my most recent assignment for my Graphic Design History class came out. I had the concept down in a few days, but I didn't start working on the assignment (even the research) until 2 hours before it was due!

This is my assignment. (2.16 MiB PDF)

You are to select a prominent designer. Then you will then be required to do some research, so that you can write up a brief “contextualized biography.” This will be no more than 250 words, and include the following elements: Five (5) milestones in the career of your designer and Five (5) other major events that happened during the life/career of your designer, one from each of the following categories: Society, Politics, Music, Economics and Technology.

You may format your contextualized biography either as a bullet list or a horizontal time line.

I choose Paula Scher and my time line's inspired by her painting of NYC below.

April 25, 2008 11:26 AM

I'd like to have Haas Unica on my computer

Thanks to Tina Eisenberg for pointing me to this document showing how in 1980 a team of typeface designers set out to correct the errors found in Helvetica. Unfortunately the typeface is not available because two type foundries claim the copyright on the typeface; thus making it unavailable to anyone.

9:55 AM

50 ways to help the planet

The cool folks over at Wire & Twine (check out their Fierce shirt) created a list of 50 simple tips for reducing your environmental impact. So far the best seems to be number 17.

April 23, 2008 12:00 PM

Postmodern design

I have recently became a little obsessed with postmodern design. For a while now, I have been looking at redesigning khamishammoudeh.com and khamm.net by merging them into one site. I want want the design either to be very clean (think International Typographic style) or postmodern, completely different paths. LOLZ LLC, a design agency I came across today, has to be the best example of a website implemented with a postmodern design. That may end up to be what I shoot for.

April 18, 2008 12:38 PM

My latest favorite blog

Check out Jan Chipchase's blog Future Perfect. It's updated constantly with his experiences around the world as a Human-Behavior Researcher for Nokia.

April 11, 2008 3:41 PM

I love we♥it

We♥it is a new service I am loving: sign up, add the bookmark, whenever you come across something cool click the bookmark (you have to be logged in though) and then click on the object on the page you love. It shows up on your account and their main page right away. It's great for sharing what I find cool daily without having to blog it (Blogger isn't the best for this type of tumblogging).

I've added my account to the Quick Links.

April 3, 2008 12:10 PM

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