You see, when someone rides the bus they tend to want to arrive on time.  So if I go to the Fresno Area Exchange (FAX) website and the schedule says the bus arrives at :15 and :45 after the hour the bus should arrive at this time.  In every other major city I have ever been to it works this way.  When I went to Switzerland for three months it worked this way.

Well in Fresno it doesn’t work this way.

You see, every morning when I ride the bus I try to catch it at 9:15AM.  The other morning my bus never arrived until 9:35AM.  What gives?  Well many other people always ask this question every morning when the bus is late at random times.  This particular morning the drivers excuse was “this bus is slow.”  Give me a break.

The general attitude I tend to detect from almost all FAX drivers is that they are doing us a favor.  By me trying to give back to my city and paying their salary, they act like they are doing me a favor by even giving me a ride.  I’m sorry but this is not the case.  It is a two way street.  By me paying you money, you are paying me by getting to my destination.  The attitude with many bus drivers tends to be overly negative and non-confrontational and I don’t understand how the city tolerates it.  It’s almost as if I feel I’m having to deal with employees at the DMV.

That’s not to say some of the drivers do arrive on time.  The reason I know this is if I take the 8:45AM bus it is the same driver most of the time and he’s very courteous.  But shouldn’t this be how it always is?  How are you doing people a favor when they need to be at work or at interviews at a specific time?  It seems the city really doesn’t care.  Some people actually do have to be at work at a set time.  Or others have doctor appointments they need to be to and cannot be late.

I thought about it all week and came up with some suggestions I think could help the city embrace their local riders.  Especially since more people are trying to take the bus to save gas, go green or whatever you want to call it and not be restricted to only low income folks anymore.

Provide Real-Time Data

In other metropolitan areas, you can actually get real time information on transit routes from many sources online.  Check out Google Maps in the San Francisco area and you will see how transit information is already integrated nicely with arrival and departure times.  You can also get many iPhone applications that also do this.

So why hasn’t Fresno?  I’ve heard rumors that some bus transit systems have strict control over their route data and don’t want to open it up and expose it.  This is major fail and is just another example of companies and/or governments not embracing the people who need it.  I hope Fresno embraces this one day and opens up their data.  This also could present some great opportunities for local companies as well.

Get Rid of the Mandatory Breaks

This is what really irks me riding the bus in Fresno and a lot of other people as well.  It’s just baffling.  If you have ever rode the bus you may have noticed that randomly at some stops the bus driver will stop, get out and go into a fast food restaurant or store and get something to eat.  They then will come back, eat the food there while the bus is idling and make everyone wait until they are done.  This usually lasts about 15 minutes.

Does this make any sense to you?

I understand that all employees regardless of what field they work in require breaks, but there are optimal ways to go about it.  For example if I was ordering food at a restaurant and right before I went to give them money the cashier says:

“Hold on sir, I have to go on break.”

And sits there for 15 minutes not allowing another cashier to continue my purchase or order.  Doesn’t this seem wrong to you?  To me it does, and it seems actually pretty stupid.  Every other company where services is provided understand how to treat the customer, us riders, as top priority.

Each route has a beginning and end of the route.  In between or at the end, why can’t schedules be correctly defined that another driver would take over while the current driver takes their lunch or break?  I mean logically this makes so much sense.  Why do the paying customers have to pay for the fact the drivers causes people to be late to their destination?

I think if the FAX bus system fixes or addresses these two issues the bus route will be a much better and efficient system.  I am sure there are more things that can be done to improve it but these seem like steps in the right direction to me.

For now I will attempt to continue utilizing a failing system for the sake of saving gas.

High Definition Channel Availability

The availability of HD channels with Comcast is absolutely pathetic!  To get to your HD channel listings, you have to go to a completely separate area of the guide to find them.  And the options are puny; right now I see 28 not counting premium channels and half of these are things like ESPN and Home & Garden.

I recently was visiting my grandparents and noticed on their Dish Network, almost every single channel has it’s HD counterpart, right next to it in the guide.  What’s the deal?

Cost of High Definition

Why do I have to pay Comcast an extra $10/month just to get HD when the FCC forced the OTA broadcast channels to use HD?  In my opinion everything should be broadcasted in HD and we shouldn’t have to pay extra.

DVR

If you have ever used Comcast’s DVR, you know it is horrible.  The snappiness is really slow, it’s very clunky and had just general usability problems.  Like for example when I go into certain menu items and back, it can never remember my previous menu.  Take a hint from Tivo, please.  On top of that, the options available in the DVR for regarding are very basic.  If I tell it to record only new shows and no repeats it ends up recording the exact same episode 5 times and it’s not even new it’s a repeat.

Price

Right now I am paying almost $70/month for the starter HD package without any premium channels.  Seems like a lot for only watching maybe 6 channels maximum.

Alternatives

One alternative I have been waiting for is U-verse from AT&T.  This is a pretty slick option and the price isn’t bad for what you get.  Also their DVR features are much richer.  The only bad thing for me is U-verse isn’t available at my apartment still even though most of Fresno already has it available.

Also, I could probably call Comcast to try to negotiate a lower special pricing rate, but this is only a temporary solution.

I have tried DSL in the past but it seems I just have too many problems with DSL.  I think fiber options like U-verse will be a better option for all of us.

But for some reason I feel like I’m paying for it.

For example, my monthly costs for my lines are now more expensive.  AT&T still hasn’t pushed MMS or tethering and still will not give a expected date of when it will be arriving.  But the worst problem I have, agreeing with Arrington is the lockdown and control AT&T and Apple are having on the applications with the iPhone.  As a software programmer it’s really disheartening to see how much control they want to have over their devices.  We should be pushing more towards open and shared platforms.  Not locked down, controlled environments where AT&T is dictating who gets approved to the App Store or not based on internal reasons that make no sense for consumers, only them.   If I didn’t just resign a two-year deal I probably would think about bailing ship.

I really wanted to start writing iPhone applications as soon as I got my iMac, but maybe I will just look into writing applications for the Palm Pre and their webOS platform.

And another thing.  Why is it so difficult for Apple to implement more common features with their software and hardware, at least relating to iTunes?  The Microsoft Zune has Wi-Fi syncing and a lot of other cool features and it seems Apple is never going to put these into their hardware.  What about iTunes streaming?  Oh, gotta buy an Apple TV for that.

One of the things I love about being in the field of software and programming is the fact I get to be exposed to new and exciting technologies all the time.  Learning new languages, hearing about startups being acquired by this company or that company.  So why is it almost impossible to meet other developers in Fresno that think the same?  I met a handful in the bay area within two weeks of moving there.

Most of the other people I know love their 9-to-5 job where when it’s 5:00 they are out the door, not wanting to look at another line of code again until the next morning.  Maybe this is what separates “Career Programmers” from “Passionate Programmers”.  At least that’s always been my argument.

I understand one of the big issues that arise with people here in Fresno yet alone the Central Valley is their families.  Family is a big driving factor here, and I think a lot of times people trump this over the whole process of continuing their love for programming outside of the job.  But I really don’t think it needs to be this way.  Who says just because junior or 1 or 2 years old you can no longer pick up a good ASP.NET 3.5 or Ruby on Rails book at home?  Or code up a side project for fun?

The main reason I began thinking about this was the term everyone uses today as “rockstar programmer”.  Honestly I love this term, and it gives a sense of enlightenment when most of the bullet points mentioned are similar to what I do or feel (give or take a few).  Not to be conceited in any way, I just love technology and I love learning new things both at work and at home.

But I think rarely any credit is given to programmers who try to achieve this mentality here.  They are often taken for granted and overlooked for mediocrity.

This is something that’s been bothering me for a while.  If you weren’t aware, there is a local startup located here in Clovis, CA called PlasticJungle. They are a small company filling a big void right now: gift cards. But what they do is allow you to buy/sell discounted gift cards.

Everyone wins right?  Well yeah, but not the central valley.  Recently it was announced by PlasticJungle that they’ve secured a round of Venture Capital funding which would allow them to grow and expand their services. The problem is they’re packing up and moving to the bay area.

There goes the quick glimmer of hope for any Fresno developers hoping to work for a hot local startup.

Is it wrong to be upset?  No I don’t believe so.  The central valley is so niche itself that when something does make it big here we tend to applaud it and put it in the spotlight. But at the same time a big congrats to PlasticJungle for their continued success.

Maybe this is just another feint echo from a guy hoping that boom of startups does finally hit the valley one day.

No one has done my idea yet…a tattoo/sushi bar combination of some sort.