Category: Travel

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From Engadget: Google Maps adds walking directions for 44 African countries on web and mobile

Google Maps adds walking directions for 44 African countries, takes the fun out of safari

Whether it’s on two wheels, under cover or across the cruel watery mistress, Google Maps wants to get you there. But what about the long, arduous pedestrian plod? Well, from today, 44 African nations will never need to put a foot wrong, thanks to the introduction of walking directions to their web and mobile versions of the mapping service. The search giant is keen to remind you that the new feature is still in beta, so if you end up somewhere else, you might need to rely on other methods to find out where you are.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: New York MTA announces smartphone-based ticketing trials aboard Metro-North Railroad

New York MTA announces smartphonebased ticketing trials aboard MetroNorth Railroad

Like big sodas, paper ticket stubs may soon become a thing of the past in New York. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced that, come next month, its employees will begin trials of a smartphone-based ticketing system aboard the Metro-North Railroad. While the grand experiment is currently closed to the public, it’s said that railroad workers will use their Android, BlackBerry and iPhone handsets to purchase rail tickets, which may then be validated directly from their smartphone. During the trial, the new system will be compared to the current purchasing scheme that combines both ticket machines and on-board purchases. Should everything prove successful, the MTA will expand the Metro-North’s new system to all-comers. Transit-minded folks will find the full PR after the break.

[Image credit: Masabi (Flickr)]

 

from Engadget

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From Ars Technica: Travel across the Roman Empire in real time with ORBIS

In a clever bit of technological legerdemain, Stanford University has combined historical research, mapping, and Web technology to bring ancient Roman Empire travel to the Internet. A cross-disciplinary team has created and launched ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World. With it, a user can determine how long it will take to travel from any point in the Roman Empire to any other, as well as calculate the cost of transporting goods and people.

This heretofore unnatural union of geographers, technologists, and historians of the ancient world is becoming more and more common under the descriptor of “digital humanities.” ORBIS looks to be one of the most effective examples of its promise.

Built by historian and classicist Walter Scheidel and Stanford Libraries’ digital humanities specialist Elijah Meeks, with the assistance of geographer and Web developer Karl Grossner and GIS analyst Noemi Alvarez, the interactive online atlas is based on a host of data. This includes historical tide information and weather; size, grade, and surface of roads; main cities and ports; land, sea, and river routes; vehicle speed (including ships, ox carts, horse, and walking); and the cost of transport.

 

from Ars Technica

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From Gizmodo: TSA Finds Gun-Stuffed Mickey Mouse in Four Year-Old’s Luggage

The TSA does so many ham-fisted pat-downs of seemingly undeserving innocents—the old lady, the baby, the seven year-old with cerebral palsy—that it’s easy enough to think of its agents as big ol’ bullies. Then they find gun parts hidden inside a four year-old’s stuffed animals, and you realize they’re big ol bullies who have a pretty good point. More »


from Gizmodo

 

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From Engadget: Amtrak readies conductors to trade in their hole punchers for iPhones

Amtrak readies conductors to trade in their hole punchers for iPhones

Pilots aren’t the only ones updating their workflows with modern technology. Amtrak conductors have been getting schooled on how to use iPhones to scan passenger tickets on select routes since November — forcing hole punches to collect dust on a lonely shelf at the station. By the latter part of this summer, 1,700 conductors will be using the aforementioned smartphones on the outfit’s trains throughout the US which allows them to track passengers with more ease than manual ticketing. The $7.5 million system affords passengers the choice of printing the tickets or loading a bar code on their smartphone of choice before getting the iPhone’s scan. Inside the dedicated app, riders can book and modify reservations easily without having to worry with a refund from an agent first. There’s only one small hiccup: currently Amtrak’s app is only available for iPhones. But, the government-owned corporation says that an Android release is in the hopper and should see daylight this fall. For now, non-iOS users must load their tickets though a mobile site in order to save a tree or two.

 

from Engadget