Sidewalk Closed

I took the bus from the Pittsburgh airport to downtown, then caught a bus from downtown to Silas’ place. Of course since it was the second day of the G20, they had a big chunk of downtown completely blocked off with roadblocks and police. I’ve never seen so many different kinds of security in one place. City police, military, riot squad, private security, roadblocks, barbed-wire fences.

Private security force

Police Rescue Vehicle - I have no idea what the thing on top is for

It's not like there was actually anything going on

On our evening tour of the city, we drove by the University of Pittsburgh, apparently while the members of the G20 were getting a tour of campus as well. There was a ridiculous amount of security present, and helicopters flying overhead with giant spotlights shining down. We walked around a bit, staying well away from any groups of people so as not to be mistaken for a protester. You can find videos on Youtube of why we did not want to get involved in the protests.

Police roadblock at University of Pittsburgh

Here are the GPS logs from my brief tour of Pittsburgh! Silas had rented a Zipcar, so we were able to cover a lot of ground.

Tour of Pittsburgh

On a lighter note, I found a great Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. The cook was standing outside while I walked up, so I asked if he could make something vegetarian with polenta. A couple minutes later he had whipped up a tasty spinach and polenta dish.

Spinach Polenta

This one I just thought was mildly amusing. The screens that are supposed to tell you when the next flights are coming in are apparently Windows computers running Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer error in overhead display

At the Starbucks in the Logan airport just outside the JetBlue terminal, I noticed this writing on the deli case:

Just because it has no corn syrup does not make it not unhealthy!

In case you can’t read the letters, it says:

• no artificial flavors
• no artificial trans fat
• no artificial dyes
• no high-fructose corn syrup

Also note the handwriting font, as if this somehow adds to the legitimacy of the statements.

Since I’ve already been logging GPS data for quite some time, I thought it’d be interesting to log as much data during flights as possible. Of the three flights so far, I’ve been able to log data on two of them. I think it has to do with the fact I had a window seat on both flights. I’m pretty sure the plane is shielded in a way that blocks the satellite signals. I’d be interested if anybody can fill me in on why this might be.

I put my phone into “airplane mode” so that it doesn’t broadcast anything, but turn on the GPS logger. I was able to keep a lock for the entire flight!

GPS at 30000 feet!

San Francisco to Long Beach

Takeoff from San Francisco

This is the beginning of the flight from San Francisco, loaded into Google Earth. It also includes taking the BART to the airport. The actual flight starts at the gap at the bottom.

I also have altitude data at every point, but I can’t seem to get Google Earth to display it. If you have any ideas please let me know!

San Francisco’s BART and MUNI couldn’t be any easier to use! I had no trouble getting from the airport into the city. Once in the city, it was easy to get around as well.

Burmese Salad

On Tuesday night I met up with my grandma and uncle and had dinner at a Burmese restaurant. Their Burmese salad was quite good and quite strange as well.

Afterwards we went to the swanky Cliff House for a drink, and for the view. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was dark. and foggy. If you look really closely you can see a wave.

View from the Cliff House at night in the fog

On Wednesday night after the conference I walked around by the Fisherman’s Wharf a bit. I decided to look for any web or tech-related events happening but figured it would be a long shot to find something starting that night. A quick Google search later I found the Microformats meetup happening in less than an hour at 21st Amendment. Knowing nothing about who would be there or what to expect, I got on the next bus that direction, and hung out right outside the door.

Like any good stalker should, I spent a few minutes researching microformats and the people involved. I was able to find a couple names and photos of people who might be there, so I kept my eye out for someone to approach who resembled the tiny photos I found on my iPod. At 8:00 sharp, Tantek walked up and started poking around on his phone, which was a good clue. After a brief introduction I found myself having dinner with some great people!

Ariel and Tantek

Thanks for the great evening, guys! If I’m ever back in San Francisco I’ll look you up again!

Made it back to the house after a subway ride through the fog.

Did I mention it was foggy?

The Long Beach airport wasn’t quite what I expected. Walking through the airport I feel like I’m in the middle of a 70’s movie. I got off the plane into the terminal which basically just had a bunch of “leave now” signs directing me out of the airport onto the street. The font used for the airline signs in the airport is old-school!

Using Google maps on my phone, I located a coffee shop to hang out in for a few hours between flights and went to the bus stop. I was surprised when I saw the bus come 20 minutes early, so I got on. As soon as it left the airport loop I realized I was going the opposite direction. I took the bus down to Circle Center and saw a Chase branch.

I figured this was a good a time as any to break my $50 into small bills. I had to walk through a metal detector carrying my laptop bag and backpack full of metal to get inside. The tellers were arranged in a circle so that all the customers were on the outside. Is this a more effective layout for preventing a robbery?

How did I get here?