Filed under: Feature | Tags: Bike, Bike Commuting, Biking, Daily Marauder, Downtown Los Angeles, LA, MacBook, Recreation, Road, West Hollywood, West Hollywood California, Wilshire Boulevard
LA STREET WARS: COMMUTING VIA BIKE PART 2
110 Freeway Downtown LA
At the end of October, after being in LA for about a month, I took to the LA streets for my maiden voyage from my house in West Hollywood to Daily Marauder offices downtown. As exhilarating as the ride was, a former shoulder injury flared up from the 26 miles I rode with my MacBook Pro baring down on my left side via messenger bag. Not smart.
For this trip, I borrowed a Chrome backpack from Intelligentsia barista master, Christopher “Nicely” Alameda. Computer. Check. Bike. Check. Ready to roll.
I took to the streets a bit earlier this time around at around 8AM armed with a new route: Wilshire Boulevard.
The Road
This route proved to be a much better option as compared to my first attempt down Venice Boulevard. Wilshire is 3 lanes for most of the trip and predominantly, cars gave me my own lane. Wilshire is super choppy, clearly in need of repaving, and not for the skittish rider.
Daily Marauder Offices, Downtown LA (note Urtth coffee cup in bottle holder)
There’s nothing like being out on the open road commuting to work in the morning. You probably don’t realize the world you miss by commuting via subway, train or automobile. I see it all. I see that runner make a racist comment to the guy waiting for the bus. I see skid row up close and personal. I see the guy proudly rocking his Dodgers hat as he crosses the street with the paper under his arm. If you want to know what our US cities are really like, take a ride through one. You’ll be intrigued by what you discover.
Distance: 22 miles roundtrip
Time: 1 hour and change
Hills: Much less than the Venice Boulevard route and much less steep.
Challenges: Wilshire is super choppy in many areas forcing the rider to ride in the middle or left side of the lane. Be aware of car doors in areas where Wilshire becomes two lanes. Also, unless you’re with a group, I recommend staying off Wilshire at night.
NYC
Bike Commuting in NYC:
Bike Commuting in LA:
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Business, Chief executive officer, Ellen DeGeneres, Financial services, General Electric, Hollywood Reporter, Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal
With the star power of Ellen DeGeneres, Kobe Bryant and Carlos Santana, George Lopez pulled in 3.2 million viewers with the premiere of his talk show. The debut of “Lopez Tonight” was presented across Turner nets TBS, TNT and truTV, with TBS accounting for 1.7 million viewers. The Hollywood Reporter(11/10)
NBC Universal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Zucker will lead the joint venture currently being negotiated that would control the media conglomerate, according to unnamed sources cited in this report. Comcast is in talks with current NBCU owner General Electric about taking a majority stake in the company. Reuters (11/10
It may not be long before the troubled MGM studio is forced by its creditors to seek a buyer. That’s the word coming out of a Nov. 4 meeting between MGM CEO Stephen Cooper and the debt-hobbled film company’s 140-member creditor committee. According to one source with knowledge of the meeting, the creditor group turned thumbs down on a proposal by Cooper to convert the studio’s $3.7 billion debt into equity as part of a restructuring plan to keep the studio out of bankruptcy. (BusinessWeek11/11)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Apple, Google, Google Chrome, Midnight Meat Train, Searching, TechCrunch, Virgin America, Wi-Fi
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
After previously only having an option to rent HD movies, back in March, Apple added the option to be able to buy HD as well. The problem? A complete and utter lack of options. Even now, some 8 months later, there were only a few dozen HD movies you could buy, and the majority were movies like The Midnight Meat Train— movies you probably had no desire to buy, let alone for the amped-up $19.99 HD price. Yesterday, that changed. (Techcrunch11/10)
While PCs have been able to use Google’s Chrome browser for some time now, the rest of us Macs have been waiting patiently for a proper, non-developer build that we too can use. That day may be coming very soon. (Mashable 11/11)
Well, the spirit of giving arrived a little early this year! For my birthday last month, Google announced it was partnering to offer free Wi-Fi on all Virgin America flights until January 15th. Great, thanks Google, now I have to check the feeds even while flying at 500MPH. But I guess that just wasn’t enough kindness to satisfy the Goog. They’ve just announced that they’re going to be extending the free Wi-Fi to 47 entire airports. (Crunchgear11/10)
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: Arts, Blackberry, iPhone, Karaoke, Lady Gaga, Music, TechCrunch, Urbanspoon
In major metropolitan areas, the BlackBerry at lunchtime is a force to be reckoned with. And now it can be a device to help those urbanities actually find a place to eat with the launch of Urbanspoon for BlackBerry. (Techcrunch11/10)
Karaoke fans will soon get the chance to turn their iPhones into full-fledged karaoke machines, thanks to an upcoming new application called iOKi. This is no wannabe karaoke app either — music sensation Lady Gaga has partnered with iOKi to launch her own fully Gaga-ized version of the app featuring some of her most popular songs, which will make its debut alongside the upcoming release of her new album on November 23. (Techcrunch 11/10)
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Filed under: GAMING | Tags: Facebook, Facebook Connect, Last.fm, Massively multiplayer online game, Ohai, Social network service, Twitter, World of Warcraft
Earlier Techcrunch broke the news on the upcoming launch of City Of Eternals, the first Flash MMOG from Ohai.I have the rough footage below of in game play, and will add a proper screencast shortly. This is a World of Warcraft style MMOG that’s free to play and Flash based. It’s also integrated with Facebook Connect to allow easy signup and, more importantly, you can play with your friends and see the real identity of other players. (Techcrunch11/10)
Although it’s not yet live to everyone, a new Xbox LIVE Dashboard Update that adds social networking integrations with Facebook, Twitter and last.fm is currently in preview mode to beta testers and will go live to the public in short order. (Mashable 11/11)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
Amazon is offering the Kindle for PC application in an attempt to attract and retain customers as pressure from other e-readers builds. The software allows consumers to purchase and read e-books on their PCs, Apple iPhones or iPods as well as the various versions of Kindle. Amazon soon will roll out a version for Macs. InformationWeek(11/10)
