prog: (Default)
prog ([personal profile] prog) wrote2006-09-22 12:10 pm
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The man who never retruned

I found a blog about the T: http://www.badtransit.com/ I have been learning a lot about the whole Charlie business through it. The RFID-bearing Charlie Cards sound cool and I look forward to seeing how they work, but... everything so far as been handled so short-sightedly that I kind of dread it too.

I also imagine I am not the first one to find irony in the fact that this new fare system is named after the tall tale of a man who was so screwed by a crappy mass-transit UI that he could not even figure out how to leave his subway car, and so never saw his home again. I thought the name choice was clever and charming at first but now it just reeks of unfortunate appropriateness.

[identity profile] radtea.livejournal.com 2006-09-22 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)

The story of Charlie reminds me of an award-winning computer-controlled parking structure in Winnipeg that screwed up when I was leaving, so I gamed the exit by begging a new entry card off the guy about to drive in, resulting in an off-by-one error in the computer's car count. I'm pretty sure I left it in a state where if there is ever just one car left, it will never be allowed to leave...