Year-end Update

I know, I haven't posted all week. Sorry about that. It's been crazy around here, trying to close up as many deals as possible before the end of the year, planning a road trip and, to top it off, I feel a bit of a cold coming on.

Planning the road trip has been far from the least exciting part of the week. I'll be taking an Acela Express train from NY Penn Station to Union Station in Washington D.C. Family from West Virgina will be there to pick me up. Do a little tour of the city, have lunch and then head west. Our first stop is Nashville, TN. Along the way, from D.C. to Nashville, we'll have the pleasure of the smoky mountains. After Nashville, it's Austin for several days.

We're staying at the Driskill Hotel in Austin which, frankly, looks beautiful (and has room rates to match). They say that the Driskill is the most haunted hotel in Texas. I'll be looking for the little boy with the bouncing red ball on the grand staircase.

We'll spend Christmas day in Austin and a few days after Christmas before heading back and hitting up Memphis. We didn't really mean it to, but this has turned somewhat into a tour of America's great music cities. Too bad we won't have time for New Orleans.

Anyway, I'll try to post up pictures along the way, but if I don't (this is my vacation, after all), I'll hit you all up in the New Year.

Google, Meet the MTA. MTA, Meet Google.

Read/Write Web is reporting this morning, via Bloomberg, that Google may be working with the Metropolitan Transit Authority and New Jersey Transit on incorporating New York City's subway and train system into Google Transit.

Google Transit currently covers 15 transit systems worldwide, which includes all of Japan and several major US cities. Google won't confirm that it's talking to the MTA and NJT, but both the MTA and NJT confirmed that they were speaking to Google in some capacity.

I say it's about time. They've been a little slow to the punch. Here are some sites that have done it already (or some variation of it):

Greg Brail's Interactive Subway Maps:
Java Version & Google Maps Mashup (My personal favorite)

onNYTurf

Eyebeam

Straphangers

Subway Navigator

New York On Tap: Bar and Subway Map

HopStop