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Over at Ubuntu, they’ve finally let the Badger out of its cage. Breezy Badger, that is. It’s the third release in a distro that promises to do what no other distro in the history of Linux development has done: bring Linux to the desktop in a mainstream way.
If you haven’t followed my blog for the past 18 months, you should know that I’m obsessed with Ubuntu.
If you use Ubuntu and you’re still stuck with Hoary Hedgehog, upgrading is easy. Change “hoary” to “breezy” in Synaptic’s repositories menu and click on “Smart Upgrade”.
If you don’t have Ubuntu yet (gasp!) you can download it with BitTorrent here to save bandwidth, or from the official download site. Enjoy!
After some digging, I managed to find the master plan of Parking and Transportation’s long term goals. They cleverly hid it with the title “USF Master Plan – Parking & Transportation Analysis.”
As it stands, regional mass transit will always get short shrift, since the analysis determined that regional transit is a non-solution to the growing problem of overflowing, oversold parking lots.
From page one of the master plan: “Public transit will not significantly decrease the numbers of individuals driving to USF. The best transit investment USF can make is to upgrade its existing system, and to work toward developing a ‘Upass’ system with the local transit agency.”
Translation: Build four parking garages in the next five years, raise parking rates, charge higher student transit fees, and add a fare for the on-campus shuttle. Then hope that PATS can muscle HARTline into offering reduced fare semester passes for students in exchange for increased ridership.
The report is filled with interesting information though. For example, for a year I complained about the poor state of the engineering parking situation, citing frequently overflowing parking lots. Turns out I was right. The two primary lots for the engineering building were found to be at 100% and 99.6% capacity, respectively. This means that out of 921 parking spaces, two spots were available.
So I wasn’t making it up after all, we really did have the worst parking on campus. Reference page 13 of the master plan. When they say “they were also the most likely to take more than 10 minutes to find a parking space,” it should be noted “more than 10″ means 30 on a typical day.
So let me get this straight. USF students currently ride fare-free on any local HARTLine buses. USF Parking and Transportation covers the fare at a discounted rate which costs them approximately $180,000 a year.
Now the contract is back on the table, and costs are estimated to increase by $92,196. Okay, it’s been a few years since I’ve taken calculus, but I’m pretty sure that totals an estimated $272,000.
Using 2004 enrollment statistics, USF has 35,081 students enrolled on the Tampa campus. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that all of those students pay for the least expensive Park-n-Ride pass, priced at $35 annually. Note that this isn’t actually the case, since the resident parking lots, priced at $130 annually sold out this year. But again, this is for the sake of argument.
This results in $1,227,835 in revenue from student parking passes alone. So worst case scenario, 22 % of Parking and Transportation’s revenue is devoted to a service used approximately 30,000 times a month. That’s almost a ride for every student every month.
Divide that cheapest fare I talked about before among 12 months, and each USF student is paying at least $2.91 per month. (Again, this is understated) Parking and Transportation pays $0.50 per HARTLine ride. Any way you stack this up, it doesn’t make sense.
It makes less sense when you consider the $362,434 subsidy that USF Parking and Transportation receives from the city every year.
So where does the money go? More people in golf carts handing out citations? I could see how that could get expensive fast. Does anyone know where the real budget is? I’d be interested in seeing it.
According to scientists, the horrific quake in Kashmir was not as bad as it could have been, nor as bad as future quakes will likely be. In such a highly populated area, the implications are unimaginable.
It’s a wonder more scientists don’t suffer from Cassandra Syndrome.
Ken at Florida Rant has some nice words to say about Ubuntu Linux. Their newest release is Breezy Badger (a far hipper name that Windows Vista) and it looks slick.
New users will first notice the abandonment of XPDF for the new, very gorgeous Evince. Evince works on Postscript and PDF documents, provides anti-aliasing on everything so lines look very smooth. In addition the front-end to Beagle (known as “Bleeding Edge Search Tool” among those who don’t abbreviate to BEST) is analogous to Apple’s Spotlight, except like most things, Apple’s tool wipes the floor with C# in general. C# appears to be the new, hip language of GNOME development.
Call me paranoid (it’s practically a nickname for me) but I think I’ll stick with C or Python for my GNOME work, thanks.
This morning, instead of my normal alarm (my cell phone playing the theme to “Halo” in my ear) I was awoken by a construction worker whom I have informally dubbed “Thor”.
He is so dubbed because his weapon of choice is a giant jackhammer. His mission is to utterly annihilate the sidewalk outside my condo in order to install the exceptionally speedy Verizon FiOS to my eagerly waiting computer. Jackhammers are more pleasant when they are the harbinger of fiber optic Internet access.
In honor of “Thor” and his early morning auditory assault, I am compiling Gentoo on an old machine that has been sitting in my closet for months. My intention is to create a new server to take advantage of the ever broadening bandwidth and to give my buddies and I an online haven for time-wasting. Stay tuned for updates.
“I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t like what I saw.”
These were the words Miami Hurricanes coach Larry Coker used when asked about playing the South Florida Bulls this week. Perhaps it’s because they’re occupying that comfy number nine spot that Louisville held just a week ago.
Tony Marquis of the USF Oracle advises us to repeat this mantra, “It doesn’t mean anything.”
I’d advise listening to the White Album a few times.
Number nine, number nine, number nine…
The Bulls aren’t the only team having a strong season this year. The Bucs (that team from Tampa who won the Superbowl) are making an impressive start of it this season.
“Cadillac” Williams is an imressive addition to the team, and he continues to surpass nearly everyone’s expectations. This week was his third consecutive 100-yard game and he’s still going strong. The Continuing Saga of a Buccaneer Fan has some nice words to say about Caddy as well.
I only caught brief excerpts of the game from the radios that were audible from the street as I pedaled along my excursion yesterday.
Bulls: 3-1, Bucs 3-0; good numbers if you ask me.
I’ve found it. The long sought-after route from Temple Terrace to Downtown Tampa that doesn’t leave you feeling as if you’re going to be run down by the next semi.
Round trip took me a little under two hours, with a pretty stiff headwind half of the way.
The route is as follows:
Whiteway Dr east to Riverhills
Riverhills southwest to 40′th
40′th north to Yukon St
Yukon St west to Rowlett Park Dr
Rowlett Park Dr south to Sligh Ave
Sligh Ave west to Armenia Ave
Armenia south to Swann Ave
Swann one block east to Howard Ave
Howard Ave south to Bayshore Blvd
Bayshore into Downtown or Davis Islands
The final leg through SOHO and along the bay into Tampa is particularly nice, leading you beside a part of the world’s longest continuous sidewalk, which you can take, if road riding isn’t your thing.
When the persistant cyclist arrives, he or she may stand beside the Jose Gasparilla and take a picture much like this one.
It’s been said, but allow me to say it again. The game last night was quite simply amazing. Louisville, ranked eighth or ninth depending on who you ask, choked in their conference opener in Tampa. The highlights of the game include a 94 yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the second half, and that was only the beginning of the fun. The Bulls have been vindicated, and I am proven wrong from my somewhat pessimistic post from this time last year. Others around campus are excited about this too.
Images from the game are in the gallery.
On to Miami next week.
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