Five Day Forecast, But We're Not Talking Weather

A television station in Sacramento is going to begin broadcasting five-day TRAFFIC forecasts today, according to this story on NewScientist.com.

Here's a snippet:

A traffic forecasting system capable of predicting traffic conditions seven days in advance will go live to the public in California on Wednesday.

Alongside the weather forecast, viewers of KXTV News 10 in Sacramento can now get 3D animations of their local road network, showing not only where the gridlock is but also where it is likely to be.

The system, called Beat-the-Traffic, is the first public traffic forecasting system that combines real-time traffic density and speed with historical trends on major routes.

It looks as though the system is from a company called BeatTheTraffic.com, who combines traffic sensor data (from the DOT) with their own predictive systems, based on season, previous traffic issues, sports events, etc.

This is totally cool. What I am waiting for is the convergence of this info on in-car screens. With so many cars now having GPS screens (as well as DVD monitors), how hard is it to display traffic info? I know the Acura RL has a traffic system on-screen in it's new car, can we expect to see this provided by others?

-aB

Sprint's New Logo

Via Gizmodo, here's a look at Sprint's new logo, updated from the red & white after their merger with NEXTEL.

I like the little logo and the typeface of the wordmark, but the logo is pretty blah. It really doesn't say too much about the company. It could be a logo for a software company, an airline or just about anything.



I think Cingular did a good job with their logo after the merger with AT&T. (Disclosure - I worked on the merger and on the Cingular brand launch.) They decided, correctly that the Cingular "Jack" (and they hate when you call it that) had more positive equity and personality than the AT&T globe. They simply changed the Cingular wordmark from it's Cingular orange color to AT&T Wireless blue.

I'll wait and see if the new Sprint logo grows on me...

-aB

DSL or Cable Modem?

VHS vs. Beta. GM vs. Ford. Pepsi vs. Coke. GSM vs. CDMA/TDMA. Cubs vs. White Sox. Yankees vs. Mets.

Our world is full of choices. We try to make the right one.

Right now, for me, the choice is DSL or Cable Modem at my house. As some of you know, I have recently moved from Atlanta to Pittsburgh, and even after being here a week I still have not hooked up the Internet access at home. (Shame.)

I have two welcome kits sitting on the kitchen counter. One from Verizon for DSL, one from Comcast for a cable modem.

Both sets of hardware were free. Both service plans are $40/month (with six months @ $20).

Now, I've had DSL for a number of years in Atlanta. No problems - probably only a half dozen failures in five years. I was getting 800k-1.2mb/s on my DSL at home.

I've never had an experience with cable modems. The guy who came out to install our cable said that the drop to my house had the capacity for 6mb/s, but that obviously that would slow down as other people on the street logged in, too. He said that they would generally guarantee 1.5 mb/s, which is faster than DSL.

So cable modems seem to win the speed issue. Then there is the issue of dealing with the cable company or dealing with the phone company when there are issues. Nothing like having two crappy choices to pick from.

Well, I'm going to research today and over the weekend and install at least one of them. I think it's honestly going to come down to where I put my desk in the office - close to the cable jack or closer to a phone jack.

-aB

Gump's Moved North

Where's Gump Been? We've misssed his thoughts and rants on gadgets, computers, Tiger and marketing.

Gump's been busy, moving north of the Mason Dixon line for the first time in my life. Over the past two weeks, I've sucessfully moved from Atlanta, which has been my home for the past eleven years to Pittsburgh, my new home.

So, goodbye Braves, grits and sweet tea. Hello Steelers, snow and Pepsi products.

I'm looking forward to writing here in Gump Rants about my move and the transition. So far, so good. The people in Pittsburgh are very nice and so far the weather has been incredible - absolutely incredible. (I do realize that it will change come November.)

So, until I get my DSL hooked up at home, expect more sporadic posts to the blog here. Which brings up a question - Cable Modem or DSL? I have welcome kits for both, now I have to decide which one to go with. That sounds like a topic for tomorrow.

-aB