8 ms·
A few months ago my friend saw an ad in his university newspaper for a hackathon that was scheduled to start the next day. I happened to not have anything sched
by blackhole 14y ago
A few months ago my friend saw an ad in his university newspaper for a hackathon that was scheduled to start the next day. I happened to not have anything scheduled that weekend, and he asked me if I could team up with him to participate.
The thing was, he lives in California, and I live in Washington. He found one last remaining seat on the last flight headed out that night and bought a ticket for me. By 9 PM, I was stepping off an airplane roughly 1600 miles from home. When I woke up that morning, I had no idea I'd sleep on a couch in a dorm room at SJSU.
We seriously live in the future.
- melling 14y agoI live 4 miles from work. I left my house at 8:20am and arrived in my office at 9:25am. Try to grab a train from San Francisco to LA. That's about 400 miles. How long would you expect that to take in this future of which you speak?
- blackhole 14y agoFor reference, the plane flight itself was 2 hours. I didn't know I was going until 3 PM.
- rachelbythebay 14y agoPerhaps the future isn't evenly distributed. Regarding the article, I'd like to see them plot the rate-of-change: how long it took to go from a month to a week to a day and so on, and then continue it into the present day. I think we've hit something of a cap on speed.
- pyre 14y agoNot necessarily. IIRC, outside of the East Coast corridor, the rails only allow the trains to go ~35mph. There are also high-speed / bullet trains as well, none of which are available in the US (for now).
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThe train from LA to Flagstaff hits 70+mph at times, though the average is around 50mph once you factor in stops and waiting for freight to pass. The biggest thing slowing down US passenger trains is that the routes are leased from freight lines and the freight trains take priority.
- jzwinck 14y agoAnd inside the East Coast corridor, regular bicycles are prohibited on all Amtrak trains at all times. I would literally pay an extra $50 per bicycle round trip if they offered it, but they do not. Oh, and the train from NYC to Montreal runs slowly, which gives it an ideal duration for a night service, but none is ever offered. You have to do the 12-hour trip during the day, which for working people is nonsensical.
- lurkinggrue 14y agoThe future is rarely evenly distributed.
- sneak 14y agoIf you value the precious few minutes you have on this Earth, I suggest you get a job on the Internet instead of whatever the hell you're doing now.
- objclxt 14y agoYes, flying is quick, but the more people who fly the larger the airports you need, and large airports need to be situated outside of urban centers. Getting the Eurostar from London to Paris would take you no more than three hours (2:15 for the journey, checking in 45 minutes before departure). Flying from London to Paris would take two hours (1:15 for the journey, again checking in 45 minutes before departure), but you've got to get to and from the airport, whereas the train is taking you directly into the city. Across medium distances (SF to LA, Paris to London, etc) high speed rail typically provides better passenger comfort, lower CO2 emissions, and travel times as fast as flying once you factor in transit.
- jzwinck 14y agoFrom London's business district, it is actually faster to get to London City Airport than St. Pancras station for the Eurostar. This is made even more bizarre by the fact that St. Pancras where the Eurostar terminates is one of the only train stations in London which is located such that trains heading out need to "turn around" to get where they are going. You'd think the Eurostar would terminate south-east of London since that's where the train travels, but this one breaks the rules. Oh, and EasyJet is probably cheaper than Eurostar to Paris if you don't have a lot of advance notice. I still love the trains, but you didn't pick the best example!
- samwillis 14y agoThe Erostar terminates in North London so that the vast majority of its passengers who are from north of London don't have to get across the city. Despite heading in the wrong direction its quicker than the underground. You have ebbsfleet and Ashford for passengers from south of the city.
- jzwinck 14y agoI'm having a hard time understanding your justification. Ebbsfleet is 25 miles ESE of London (Ashford 50+ miles), with no local (TfL) connections. I'm also curious to know the basis for your claim that "the vast majority" of Eurostar customers are from north of London. I hear lots of people live in Surrey, not to mention London proper.
- reycharles 14y agoHave you considered biking? If the terrain is somewhat flat I guess it would take about half the time, and you will get daily, light exercise as an added bonus. Edit: Also, I would be interested to know how long it would take by bike if you happen to know :-)
- sown 14y agoIf you jog you can get there in 30 minutes. :)
- dualogy 14y ago> I live 4 miles from work. I left my house at 8:20am and arrived in my office at 9:25am. You walked to work? Good on you... ;)
- TylerE 14y agoOr he lives RIGHT on the edge of a timezone ;)
- maneesh 14y agoThe future is really amazing. It was raining in NYC in mid october (screw that) and I REALLY wanted a steak. Seeing as how a good, high quality grass fed steak can end up in the $100 range in NYC, I thought "I wonder how much it would cost to go to Buenos Aires tonight?" I pulled up aa.com and checked the Award Reservations---it was only 40,000 ffmiles + $42.40. For a same day reservation. Since I run a site all about how to get unlimited free airline miles, I had several million--so the total real cost to me (to get to Buenos Aires) was $42.40. Four hours later I was boarding a plane, and 13 hours later I was eating the best steak known to mankind. Definitely worth it :)
- stevenwei 14y agoShould have flown to Kobe, Japan instead. :)
- sliverstorm 14y agoSignificantly more expensive airfare, and the beef still costs $100!
- ashbrahma 14y agoWould love to know more about racking up a million miles for free. What website do you run?
- maneesh 14y agoit's called http://www.hackthesystem.com http://www.hackthesystem.com . The guide to getting free miles is the Travel Hacking Report. It also talks about how I get free offices in almost every country in the world.
- daeken 14y agoSaw your previous comment and hunted this down. Just read the whole thing -- very, very cool. Regus Businessworld will definitely come in handy; $300/yr isn't bad at all, but 6 months free can't be beat! Nice job.
- bjhoops1 14y agoOn the way back from my honeymoon this past summer, I woke up one morning in Bangkok, spent that night in Abu Dhabi, and the following night in my own bed in Kansas City, having traveled more than halfway around the world. The future indeed!
- rayiner 14y agoThe future is 1975?
- venturebros 14y agoIt would been even better if you got there in half the time. I would love for Concorde to come back with some improvements of course.