CDOT Thinks Commuters Are Stupid

Jim Cameron - Chairman

The CT Rail Commuter Council’s “Winter Crisis – Commuter Summit” last week was a big success.  Dozens of commuters turned out to share their horror stories about trying to ride Metro-North this winter… no heat, no information, no seats and in many cases, no trains!

Metro-North and the CT Dept of Transportation made the usual excuses and apologies, which placated few… “we’re doing the best we can”… ‘it’s not our fault the trains are so old”… and the classic, “be patient, the new M8 cars are coming.” 

All of these are true.  But it was in trying to explain the many delays in the delivery and testing of the new M8 cars that things got heated.

As any reader of this column knows, we’ve been waiting since 2005 for new cars to replace our decrepit fleet.  Designed and built by Kawasaki, the new M8 cars look great.  But they’re 15 months late into service with no real explanation as to why... or when they’ll be ready for passengers.  It was time for answers.

The CT Rail Commuter Council, a creation of the legislature, has neither a budget nor much power.  But the one thing state statutes say is that we may request “and shall receive” any assistance we want from the CDOT in understanding what’s going wrong with Metro-North operations.

So, to get to the bottom of the M8 delays, we requested that CDOT bring to our meeting someone from Kawasaki and from LTK (the consultant that’s been paid $27 million to oversee the M8 testing program).  To our dismay, they refused.  No explanation, just a “no”.

We turned to Governor Malloy’s office for help, but they didn’t even return our phone calls.  So much for the first test of the Governor’s promise of open, transparent government.

Why the cover-up?  What do CDOT and the Governor know about the M8 delays that they wanted to keep the experts away from our questioning?  What are they hiding?

At our meeting on February 16^th we submitted a list of 32 specific questions about the M8 program and got few replies.  But among the facts we did learn:

-        The testing program has been underway for a year.

-        The cars are showing not just “software problems” but hardware issues as well.

-        Kawasaki doesn’t get paid until the cars prove they can work.

-        The mandatory 4000-mile test run of the prototype cars has been started and restarted several times as new problems were identified.

-        Metro-North still thinks they can fix the M8 problems and get as many as 80 into service by the end of 2011, two years behind schedule.

When a commuter asked the Interim-Commissioner of the CDOT why he wasn’t speaking specifically about the identified engineering problems with the M8 he was told that “people wouldn’t understand” them.  In other words, because we’re not civil or electrical engineers (though many commuters are!), the CDOT thinks it better to just explain away this $866 million railcar as having “software problems”.

I told the Commissioner that I found his attitude insulting and condescending.  Commuters on Metro-North are not stupid and we don’t need to have things “dumbed down” to be understood.

The CT Rail Commuter Council has done what it can to find the truth about the M8 delays.  We’ve sent our questions along to the Transportation Committee of the state legislature. 

Maybe they can get some straight answers.

Not Groundhog day, but ODTUG month

The hits keep coming from ODTUG.  And why not?  We are talking about the very best Oracle EPM conference, ever.  Yep, even better than last year’s and that was pretty darn good.

What do I mean?  

Take a look at the hands on training.  

There’s going to be some amazing content:

Day	Time	Presenter	Content
Monday	11 am to 1 pm	Adam Bloom, Oracle	Using Actions to Integrate Oracle BI EE with External Systems
	1:15 pm to 3:30 pm	123Olap	EPM Architect against Planning
	4:00 pm to 6:00 pm	Ron Moore, MTG	Essbase Studio:  The Basics and Beyond
Tuesday	8:30 am to 10:45 am	123Olap	HFM Consolidation Rules
	1:45 pm to 5:30 pm	John Booth, Emerging Solutions	Installing the 11.1.2 Release Efficiently
Wednesday	8:30 am to 10:45 am	Ratan Vakil, interRel Consulting	OBIEE on Essbase:  The Future of Ad-hoc Analysis
	1:45 pm to 5:15 pm	Rittman Mead	Oracle BI 11g Answers and Dashboards Hands-on Labs
Thursday	10:30 am to 12:45 pm	123Olap	An Intro to ODI in the Hyperion Environment

That is a tremendous amount of training.  Think about it – how much would that cost you if you went to each one of those classes separately at a training partner or Oracle?  Big, big, big bucks is how much.  A lot more money than the member (you are a member of ODTUG, aren’t you) Early Bird price of $1,400.

Running, not crawling

Did you read the bit about your lab server (and oh by the way, you are going to get your very own for the duration of the lab)?  No more woefully underpowered laptops.  You are going to be in the Cloud.  I hope you’re all a fan of Amazon, because it’s going to be Full360’s EPM Amazon Machine Image (and yes, OBIEE and ODI 11g will be in that cloud image as well) running on a nice big, fat, juicy 15 gigabyte server (Amazon is a little weird with the memory sizes) with four CPUs.  Feel the power.

Bring your laptop and even your Macintosh

You’re going to connect using Microsoft Terminal Services, aka Remote Desktop Connection, a standard part of Windows.  Just make sure you have it by going to Start->Run and typing in mstsc.exe.  If you see this you are good to go:

Macs need a download

Having owned a Macintosh since the 128k Thin Mac of 1984, I am thrilled to announce that Macs can also play in the Windows cloud.  Just make sure that you download and install Remote Desktop Connection Client 1.0.3 for Mac.

So what are you waiting for?

The registration page is right here.  Labs fill up quickly, as I have found to my sorrow when I dawdle.  Don’t be like me – sign up now and get that great value that is ODTUG Kscope 11.

A great deal for ODTUG members

Those of you who follow the insane rambling that is this Essbase blog (my mother reads it because I nag her about it and Glenn does it because he loves to heckle me and correct my manifold technical errors before I corrupt the world) know that I had a fun old time trying to run Oracle EPM 11.1.2 on my what-I-thought-was-quite-the-powerful-laptop.  Unfortunately, that dream assumed room temperature some time ago.

I ended up going with Full360 as they have the most complete Oracle EPM 11.1.2 product and their pricing model seemed to work best for me.

And now the deal gets better

I’ve been paying $99/month for the EPM 11.1.2 stack (I am a loyal ODTUG individual member so I get this low price) plus all of my Amazon Web Services costs.  It’s about $150/month and some of you may choke on that but if I were to compare it to buying that $14,000 laptop it really doesn’t seem bad at all.

But you don’t have to spend the way I do, and actually, even I don’t have to the way I do (huh?).  I am in the silent and vocal majority that likes to lower costs, and I suspect you are too.

Full360 has a limited time offer that will lower your monthly cost to…nothing.  

How do I (and you) save $350?

This is so easy.

1. Contact Full360 via the web or on email
2. Sign up for Amazon Web Services at http://aws.amazon.com.  Yes, that same id that you use to buy those awesome Tintin books can get you into the cloud and into 11.1.2 lickety-split.
3. Use this great tutorial to get your feet wet.
4. Pay a one-time setup fee of $49.99 and then until 30 May 2011, pay Full360 exactly…nothing.

Even I can do the math

My current Full360 charges

Number of months between February to May = 4
Current monthly cost = $99
Full360 charges = 4 * $99 = $396

And the future

Number of months between February to May = 4
Current monthly cost = $0
One time set up fee = $49.99
Full360 charges = (4 * $0) + $49.99  = $49.99

When I do the math, that’s $396 - $49.99 = $346.01.  Okay, I rounded up, but that’s still a lot of dosh and a pretty penny all at the same time.

What are you waiting for?

An invitation from the Queen?  You’ve got an invitation from a geek (that would be me, HRH is unfortunately unlikely to request and require your participation).  Go for it and dive deep into the goodness that is Oracle EPM 11.1.2.  The price and effort level is low.  What are you waiting for?

Shameless plug

And oh yes, come to my presentation at ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2011 at Long Beach.  Rohit Amarnath of Full360 and I will walk you through the awesomeness that is EPM in the cloud if you haven’t already figured it out thanks to this great deal.

Metro-North's Winter Meltdown

Commuting on Metro-North has never been fun. But remember the good ol’ days when “Train time was your own time”?  This winter, train time is no time.  Metro-North’s New Haven division is in full meltdown.

Within the past week we have had two derailments, hundreds of late or cancelled trains and one frightening incident (caught on video) of an open door on a moving train.  Half of our fleet of cars is out of service, frozen solid.  Trains have broken down, without power for hours, while passengers were given no information.  And as I wrote last time, we are no closer to seeing the long-delayed new M8 cars in service.

Commuters aren’t angry, they’re livid.  I can’t even reprint some of the e-mails I get on a daily basis as Chairman of the CT Rail Commuter Council.  The language would make a sailor blush.  There have even been fist fights between some passengers.

Weekday trains have been run on a Sunday schedule.  Danbury, Waterbury and even New Canaan branch lines have seen more busing than trains.  On the mainline, trains arrived so crowded with standees that commuters couldn’t squeeze on even if they wanted to.  E-mail alerts from Metro-North would say one thing, the platform PA’s another and you’d see a third version of reality via CleverCommute.  Rumors abound but the facts are scarce.

Waterbury passengers connect to buses at Bridgeport

Finally, Metro-North wisely decided it had to cut service semi-permanently, or at least until the spring thaw, and introduced a new timetable with 10% fewer trains.  Branch line busing will be the rule from Bridgeport to Waterbury, with ‘their’ diesels diverted to the mainline. 

Some of this may help, at least until our oldest cars return to service.  But the trains will be fewer and even shorter of cars than before.  That probably means we’ll be S.R.O. in rush hour.

I am fearful of a revolt.  This isn’t Egypt, but the anger is as strong.  I’m hearing rumbling of commuter protests, like refusing to pay for their ride or staging sit-down strikes.  Some are demanding a 10% fare rebate to match the reduction in service.

To head off such protests, the Council is holding a special meeting:  “Winter Crisis – Commuter Summit” on Wednesday February 16^th at 7 pm at Stamford Government Center, just a short walk from the station.  We have invited the President of Metro-North, the Commissioner of the CDOT, representatives from Kawasaki (builder of the new M8 cars) and LTK, the consultant being paid $27 million to oversee the M8 testing.  Local elected officials have also been invited, not to speak but to listen.

Most of all, we want commuters to join us… to share their stories of late trains, broken promises and outrage.  Commuters need to be heard… but they also need to hear from the railroad just why it’s done what it felt it had to.

Metro-North deserves credit for its valiant efforts to keep rail service running during blizzards and ice storms.  The railroad is not to blame for the weather or the obsolete, broken down equipment bought for its use by the state, cars that should have been replaced a decade ago.

Commuters need honest answers to their questions and concerns.  So, plan to join us February 16^th in Stamford, 7 pm at Government Center.  Tell your friends and fellow commuters to join us.

Top 10 Quotes for Coders

And now for something completely different

I have Dave Farnsworth to thank for a really funny link.  Yes, it is related to our beloved Essbase, at least tangentially.

Some of these are old saws; others are fresh to my ears.

The Spartan helmet is…odd.  But hey, this is an industry that attracts odd people.

You can either click on the embedded video below or here:   Larry The Rejected Spartan's Top 10 Quotes For Coders Countdown




What’s your favorite?  I am a particular fan of number six and they are words I conduct my life by.

Top 10