Author Archives: Joshua O'Connell

Where are all the M8s?

Posted on by in Commuting | Leave a reply

A picture I took of an M8 at Stamford station at a time when I saw them much more often.

Metro-North Railroad is in the middle of replacing its older train cars with a model called the M8, manufactured by Kawasaki. They include such features as pre-recorded audio with station stop announcements (and matching signage), higher headrests one every seat (and easier grips for people to be able to safely move about), and other technology advancements that come with redesigning a train car 40 years after the last major redesign.

The only problem is, I’m having trouble finding them. Continue reading →

Cell service, wi-fi improvements coming to Grand Central

Posted on by in Commuting, Technology | 1 Reply

Someday they’ll have wi-fi on the trains themselves. A man can dream…

One of the more frustrating parts about my commute is the black hole of service that occurs during the 10 minutes each direction that the train is departing or arriving Grand Central Terminal.  Given my commute’s 45 minutes, it takes effectively 1/4 of the time I could use to be productive, and leads me to rarely break out the laptop. Continue reading →

Introducing a Christmas Present

Posted on by in Christmas Present, Music | Leave a reply

Christmas Present

When I first moved out on my own, I roomed with a guy who was a radio DJ. He worked for a station that played a lot of current Top 40 hits, but when the holidays rolled around, for some reason they’d break out Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” I asked him, “why don’t they play songs by some of their current artists?” and he responded, “We’d need about 100 good ones to form a playlist and make that happen.”

Challenge accepted. Continue reading →

Amazon racks up more points with credit cards

Posted on by in Business, Elegant Solution, Saving, Technology, The Web | 3 Replies

Last week, while making a purchase at Amazon, I was prompted with something I hadn’t seen before.  During the part of the process where I can pick from saved payment methods, I was asked if I wanted to link my ThankYou Citi rewards account with Amazon.  When I said yes, I was then given the option of using my points balance to cover the cost of the purchase. Continue reading →

New site is live!

Posted on by in Site Minutia | Leave a reply

It’s been nine years since I last redesigned my personal site, which was deep in college land. In 15 years of doing websites this is the first time my personal site is on a CMS (my “commercial” site, INPursuit, has been on one for seven years, but it too is in dire need of an update). This is also one of my first forays into designing a site; I’m sure I’ve trended into cliche enough with the design, but I got to try some newer techniques, which is always a good thing.

I’ve already got some plans for the blog, and the site itself will expand a bit (portfolio samples of my print/web work, an actual resume) but it’s great to have this at least up and running! Thanks for joining me for this latest venture.