Good Riddance. Time to Come Up for Air

April 5, 2013 Leave a Comment

Whew. Long several months here at the new job. Spent the last several months working on some new and exciting things at Mindflash and loving every minute of it. It’s finally launched and probably one of my most proudest things I have accomplished.  Not to take any credit away from the awesome team I have here, because I sure remember bugging them like crazy.  It was fully a team effort and I really couldn’t get things off the ground without them, let alone complete the project.  Clearly, didn’t have time to post anything new to the blog! But I did learn an incredible amount of things about how small teams are run and how to run it efficiently.

Few things that come to mind from this experience and things that I probably should improve on:

1.  Working with teams who are busy with other stories is not as trivial as it seems.  Respect their time, but also let your requirements be known.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  Sometimes I felt like I really needed to know something, and felt a little embarrassed to ask.  Next time, Ask!

3.  Make sure everyone is working towards the same goal.  I’m pretty goal oriented, so I need something to work towards to get me motivated.  I feel strongly that this really helped propel our company forward.

4.  Don’t assume.  Easy.

5.  Even in an agile environment, writing stories clearly, and spelling out details is still ok.  Seems to reduce some questions when you’re doing the acceptance.

6.  Working with a 3rd party integration partner is also not as easy as it sounds.  We had a really good one here during the implementation.  I highly suggest anyone doing the same to make sure you pick the best one (to your knowledge).  Ask around.  Get some references.  Find friends who have worked with ones that have had positive experiences.

7.  It’s good to take breaks. I do still try to go outside in the afternoon and go for a stroll just to take my mind off things. It really does help make the last bit of the day run better.

8.  Treat yourself out.  Don’t burn yourself out.  Get out of the house, disconnect from your leashes (phone!) and decompress with something you enjoy doing.

In the end, it was a great run, and I can’t wait to keep pushing forward in my job, and also in my personal ife.

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Great Customer Service… a Dying Act?

January 15, 2013 Leave a Comment

It’s been a whirlwind the last few months.  New job, new hobbies, less time. I figure I write something about a good experience I recently had. I was in the market for a new pair of gloves for go kart racing.  A comfortable pair is very important to me.  Any pair of any type of gloves just won’t cut it.  Sorry, no garden gloves for me. Having something comfortable that fits my needs and purpose made lessens the distractions while on the track.  Few key things that I look for in its comfort is are:

  • Does it fit well?
  • Do the finger tips dig into your finger nails?
  • Are they too tight? Too loose?
  • Easy to put on and remove?
  • Provide good grip on all steering wheel materials?

After digging through several different brands and styles, I chose a pair of Alpinestars Tech 1-K Race Gloves.  They easily met all my needs and the price point was right. Immediately used them at the next event I was able to attend and couldn’t be happier. Fast forward a few months later, the gloves had only around 40 minutes of total use.  I got a call from some friends to do a indoor go kart race at a local indoor track.  A 3 hour endurance race in teams of 3.  Couldn’t turn it down so I committed and participated.  After a rigorous drive and a good finish, I noticed something dangling on from my gloves.  The tacky material on the palms of my rather new gloves had come off.  I couldn’t believe it since they were still quite new.

I call up Alpinestars customer service the next day.  My expectation was that I would get your typical run around and investigation needed into how I used my gloves before they could do anything about it.  Not so.  4 minutes into the call, I was speaking with a rep and an RMA number + shipping instructions was immediately given to me.  The following day, they were in a bag on its way to Southern California.  Once again, I expected this to take several weeks to process before I hear anything back.  I was wrong.

Three days later, a kind gentleman rang my phone, notifying me that they have received my damaged gloves.  To make the story short, they did not have any Tech 1-K gloves in stock and apologized for the inconvenience.  To make things right, they decided to send me a brand new pair of a Tech 1-ZX Gloves as a replacement instead so that I do not have to wait for the same model to come in stock.  I couldn’t be happier.  Within 10 days, I had a new pair of gloves sent back to me, minimal questions asked.

So the answer is simply, no.  Good customer service is definitely not going away. We always hear the horror stories from your friends and family about how they were on hold for 30 minutes, got the run around, and nothing was actually solved.  There are companies out there that provide this great service, and it does show that these companies do care about their customers.  Alpinestars gave me that service level I didn’t expect, and only hoped for.  No doubt that this will make me a repeat customer.

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B2B Software Companies can Learn from In-N-Out Burger

August 7, 2012 Leave a Comment

Two guys walk into a Cheesecake Factory.  They sit down and are presented with what looks to be an instruction manual for an Ikea entertainment unit.  Pages and pages of choices (and advertisements) from appetizers, pastas, samplers, main courses, steaks, burgers, veggies, fish, wine list, beer list, cocktail list and of course, 2 pages of cheesecake variations.  How do these friends narrow down to what they want?  They want to share an appetizer, so they pick through the 30+ choices.  George likes lettuce wraps, but Peter doesn’t care for the water chestnuts.  Peter recommends the buffalo wings, but George doesn’t do spicy food.  Time to compromise.  The waiter arrives, they order the appetizer, the sampler.  This fits both their taste as it has a little bit of everything they enjoy.

The evening resumes, and they continue to look through the bible of offerings and can’t decide on their main courses.  Club sandwich or big salad?  Steak or Halibut?  Ughhh…  Offering customers literally hundreds of choices to choose from does not mean they will be satisfied with the options.  They will spend more time figuring out what works, and satisfies a craving, where as another choice may satisfy another craving.  Surely, ordering both won’t be an option.

What does all this have to do with B2B software companies?  What happens when George and Peter go to an In-N-Out Burger?  They are presented with a much simpler menu.  Hamburger or Cheeseburger?  (OK, yes, I know there is a Double Double, but that’s just a Cheeseburger with 2 patties).  The answer to ordering French Fries is just ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  There are no sizes.  Order a drink.  Small, Medium, Large or a Shake.  It’s as simple as that.

So, put yourself in the customer’s position.  You are looking for a new enterprise software solution to replace your existing 25 year old DOS based setup.  You have identified your requirements and begin your search for a vendor.  Several options come up and you find one company that might be a good fit.  When looking at their product offerings, you find several different versions.  Small Business, Mid Market, Enterprise, Retail, Mega, Mid Upper Market, Super Enterprise, Medium Business, Express, Lite, Purple, Green, Yellow, Black, Gold…. the list goes for days.  This shouldn’t be that hard, right?  You have your requirements, and you start to compare it with the suite of products this company has.  Nothing seems to fit.  If it has the requirements, it’s too expensive.  If it’s the right price, it doesn’t meet the requirements.  Is your company a Mid Market?  Just because you have 500 employees, doesn’t meet the Mid Market offering will fit the bill.  Do you now look at Enterprise?  Green? Mid-Upper?

Giving the customers fewer options would simplify this process for them.  They are less confused and can select an offering that would just meet their needs at a reasonable price.  The customers may not immediately know exactly what they are looking for, but offering them more options is not the solution.  When they grow and there are more features required, they can upgrade to the next level.  Seat level restrictions need not apply.  Surely, there will be some cases when ordering a simple Cheeseburger may not fit your needs just right.  That’s when you ask about the secret menu and order it Animal Style.  But if no product line is a perfect fit, then maybe they need to look elsewhere.

Bottom line, a B2B Software won’t be able to meet all of a customer’s needs.  The customer will eventually find the right product with the right fit.  The software vendor won’t need to worry about granular customizations to close the deal, and accept the loss.  These aren’t the droids your looking for.  Move along.   Focus on perfecting the product.  You can’t order bacon and avocados at In-N-Out, there’s a reason for that.

 

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Arduino Project

July 23, 2012 Leave a Comment

I recently had a discussion with my friend Brian Ghidinelli.  We were discussing several different projects that would be fun to work on not limited to anything related specifically to software, hardware or mechanical.  Doing a little research on some possibilities for a project ideal, I came across a prototyping device called an Arduino.  You can argue that it can be viewed as an ‘older version’ of a Raspberry Pi, which is based on Linux.

Arduino image courtesy of Arduino.cc

I became quite interested in the capabilities of this device that I jumped the gun and ordered one along with a “Programming Arduino..” Book for me to get started.  At the time of this writing, I was only able to get through a few chapters to get some LED lamps to blink on the board at different rates.  It’s just the “Hello World” of hardware.  Nothing too exciting to see here, but it has so far gave me good insight into programming C.  I’m certainly no software engineer, so only time will tell if my brain is wired this way.  (I’m self-proclaimed ‘mechanical engineer’, even though I don’t have an ME degree.)

Back to the topic at hand, even though I haven’t dove into the product too much, I already thought of potential possibilities of what could be created.  Some are nothing new, just a test of skills.  And…. here it goes….

Idea Description
Electric derailleur electric bike derailleur with push button shifting
Draft efficiency display measures drafting efficiencies when cycling or in a race car using a Pitot tube
GPS based predictive lap timer predicts your lap around a race track (car or bike?)
Fuel efficiency display Displays efficiency of one’s driving to save fuel
Alarm clock World clock with Alarm
Prime rib readiness notifier temp probe would send a push notification to your phone when your prime rib is ready
MMS text of visitors Who visited your home when you were gone? Receive a text with image.
Automatic shifter for bikes Shifts your bike depending on torque placed on crank
Data Logger Logs performance data

I’m ready to get started.  Arduino. Check.  Breadboard.  Check.  Random jumpers, buttons, LED’s.  Check.  Bandaids.  Check.

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Gamification of Fuel Saving

July 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

Sort of.  I came across this site via a friend who owns a Chevy Volt.  https://www.voltstats.net/ .  It’s an interesting way for Volt owners to track their electricity and fuel consumption usage vs other Volt owners.  According to the owner of the site from the FAQ: “The site interfaces with the web service used by Onstar’s mobile applications.” .  Neat.

All your typical data is available to measure your performance appears to be available, such as username, state, EV miles, total miles, MPGe etc…  Throw them all together, and you get a nice graph.  (randomly selected user below)

copyright voltstats.netThen you have your achievements which obviously do not have any monetary value.  This appears to be a great way to ‘compete’ against your friends and the rest of the community in the name of being more green.  Use more electricity, 1-up to the next level. The stats given are also an excellent way to see how efficient your driving is.  Maybe your lead foot for your 60 mile commute uses too much electricity and you started to burn fuel.  Ease off and increase your MPGe’s.  Let’s just hope that you don’t see every Volt on the road hypermiling for achieving the next level, while holding up traffic.

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Loving Music Again

June 26, 2012 Leave a Comment

Actually, I was going to title this post as “I Invented Spotify!” or “Spotify Stalked Me in High School and Stole My Idea!” , but I didn’t. Back in the early 90′s we used to make “mix tapes” with our favorite songs and swap them around.  And when I say mix tapes, I do mean cassette tapes.  For my younger audience, they are these .  Eventually, we morphed into CD’s.  Now, that was nothing new.  People made mix tapes all the time and shared them with friends.  But what I did was something a bit different.

My father taught me a lot when I was growing up, so I was always tinkering with things.  Learning to solder circuit boards was something quite enjoyable.  I remember repairing old 286 and 386 computers with him in the living room using screw drivers and soldering up some boards.  I used this skill to try something.

I realized that there is a wide spectrum of frequencies for FM radio stations, and several of them were unused, notably FM87.5.  I picked up an electronics kit for an FM Transmitter similar to this one.  I built it up, got a little project box for it, tuned the frequency output to FM87.5 and connected my CD player.  It worked!  I threw in a CD and did a low power broadcast of what was playing on the CD player to a radio in the house.  Eventually, I moved this to the car and hid the box under my seat.  During a mini road trip with the family, I was able to do this broadcast of what we were listening to in one car, and shared it with the other family in another car, albeit up to 100ft away.  It was a one-way solution, but it worked.  We shared music.

Fast forward to today, I saw all the hype about Spotify, and wanted to give it a try.  Amazing product.  Don’t think it’s anything ‘new’ (Rhapsody was the first attempt at this from my memory), but it is a fun, easy way to solve this problem of sharing music, legally, with your peers.  A game changer.  I was amazed at the amount of music that is currently available.  Many of which I used to own on CD and Tapes which I have misplaced over time.  Friends and I would build playlists and share them with each other much like we used to do.  As an added bonus, we could collectively share a playlist and both contribute to it.  If opt-in, you could see what your friends are listening to and easily play that song too.  Throw in Pandora like features, mobile app, and also in-app Apps, and you got a great product. I wish Spotify the best, as I see a very bright future for them.

What’s the future for Spotify?  Acquisition?  Sounds like there are some people talking on the web that Netflix would be a good fit to acquire Spotify.  I could agree with it.  Apple apparently has already tried to block Spotify from entering the US, but has since failed.  Cloud products are everywhere now which has morphed from mostly enterprise products into consumer.  Music in the cloud is here.  We used to buy music LP’s and CD’s from music stores.  Gone.  We used to download it from friends via Napster.  Gone.  Buying digital music online? Not yet gone, but it could be if music in the cloud works out.  If I added up the 1,500 songs I have just in playlists on my Spotify, that would be $1,500 worth of MP3′s I would have purchased instead.  But for the price of $0.00, or $10/mo if you want to take it mobile and ad free,  I’m already ahead with access to more music I could ever listen to.

**Update**  Well then… Looks like Spotify has something going on with Y!.  http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/26/a-new-chapter-for-yahoo-music-a-deal-with-spotify-replacing-rhapsody/

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A bit behind

June 25, 2012 Leave a Comment

Just a random thought.  I just realized that I started 5 different drafts for a blog post that’s saved. They are all work in progress right now.  I should really finish them and post something.  The original goal of trying to post something every 2 weeks or so just hasn’t worked out.  :|

A few excuses are as follows:

- Watching friends do their first Triathlon

- Keeping up with the gym schedule

- Riding the bike

- Work

- Other random hobbies

- Family time

 

Filed under Random

Being Green at Work

May 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

It should come as no surprise that we are becoming more and more green in the home.  Recycle.  Turn off the lights.  Unplug unused appliances.  Keep the thermostat off.  There shouldn’t be a reason why this doesn’t apply to an office. Not everyone is as green as they are in the office than if they are at home.  I do catch myself being ‘un-green’ at times both in and out of the office.  We try our best, right?  A few things to consider to try to be more green in the office:  (oh no, not another list….)

  • Bring your own cup.  Can’t be that hard right?  Need coffee?  Bring your own cup.  I’ve always made sure to bring my own personal cup/mug to the office, especially when I start a new job.  I’m not sure what excuses could come out of those who don’t.  If you need separate ones for coffee and one for water, bring 2!  Not only does it create excess waste, it can get pretty expensive.  The Office Depot brand disposable coffee cups are $6.29 for 50.  That’s $0.125 per cup used.  Figure some use 2 a day, that’s a quarter a day for cups.  At 260 work days a year, you’re looking at $65 per employee savings if it was eliminated.  Now I’m not saying that you are completely banned of using disposable coffee cups, but limiting your use could help your company out.  Besides, you don’t use disposable cups at home, do you?
  • Recycle.  This is an easy one.  But split up the bins so people know where to put items. If you have a compost pick up at your office, have a bin designated for biodegradable items such as food scraps.

 

 

  • Turn the lights off.  Also an easy one.  Conference rooms not in use, bathrooms unoccupied, lots of natural lighting… These are all reasons why you don’t need the lights on.  If you have an office that has lots of natural lighting, use it!  It’s probably more pleasant to the eyes than the artificial lights from above.  Overhead fluorescent lamps are efficient, but why use energy when you don’t need to?
  • Unplug when not in use.  From what I hear, even if an appliance is not ‘on’, it’s still using some kW when it’s still plugged in.  This applies to your phone chargers too.  If you’re not charging anything, they are pretty pointless to have plugged in.  Now, I do know that it can be quite the hassle and unrealistic to unplug everything including monitors, printers, and desk lamps.  I wouldn’t expect people to do this.
  • Sleep your computer.  Lunch time is sleepy time for your computer.  Stepping out for lunch?  Going to a meeting that doesn’t require your laptop to be present?  Put it to sleep.  It will save some energy when it’s idling and not sitting there trying to process information.  Not being an expert on this, but I would assume a computer that’s sitting there processing information such as when emails are coming in, and Facebook updating on you browser, is using a bit more energy than if it were to be put to sleep.
  • Climate control —> Off.  This one doesn’t apply to every office.  If your office has the luxury of windows that actually open, open them.  Too cold?  Close them.  This one is a compromise.  Two real life cases come to mind that may affect the decision for this.  1.   I worked on the 4th floor of an office building that had their climate control break in the middle of winter (Bay Area winter).  Outside temp:  50′s.  Inside temp: 85.  It was not pleasant.  2.  Another company I was at had a climate controlled warehouse.  I was told by finance during a random conversation that we would save $10,000/mo by turning off the climate control just in the warehouse.  zOMG!  Apparently, it runs 24/7.  So yes, this doesn’t apply to all offices.  Another money saver.
  • Stop Printing!  There are reasons whey we need to print, and in those cases it’s ok.  I have seen people print emails.  I just don’t get this.  the ‘e’ in email means ‘electronic’.  It should stay that way.  Email already saves paper by design, so why counter that by printing it?  This leads to a product idea:  Printing credits.  Each employee should have printing credits that is allotted to them each month with no roll over.  Every time you print, you use X number of credits.  Use them up for the month?  Sorry, you need to wait until next month.  Yet another money saver.

There are many other things you can do to be more green.  These were just a few.  Just don’t mix it up with being this kind of green.  Although, sometimes you may feel that way at times.

 

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Porcini Mushroom Risotto Recipe

May 7, 2012 Leave a Comment

My first attempted at making risotto was 3 or 4 years ago.  It came out quite well just using the box recipe from a Trader Joe’s risotto package.  Quite simple to make, and a good amount of flavor.  As I started to learn to cook more through cookbooks and online recipes, I began to run across many different variations of risotto.  Apparently, it can be an endless list.  After completing several different variations of risotto, I got to a point where I understood how it was made where I stopped using a recipe anymore, (well, sometimes).

One of my favorite types of risotto is mushroom risotto.  Specifically Porcini mushroom.  The flavor and aroma is wonderful. A good balance of the earthy flavors of mushrooms and the warm gooey texture of the risotto rice.  Here’s a recipe that I ‘created’ that is adopted from the general methodology of risotto, and through several different recipes I’ve seen.  This one works for me.   Unlike most recipes on the web, this one is made for about 2 or 3 servings.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup Arborio rice
  • 2 cloves fresh garlic
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup yellow onion
  • 1oz bag of dried porcini mushrooms
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup of dry white wine
  • 1 can of your favorite chicken broth
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons of butter

Optional but highly recommended:

  • Truffle oil
  • Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup Shitake mushroom
  • Fleur de sel

Tools:

  • Small pot to heat broth
  • Another small pot to heat and soak dried mushrooms
  • Dutch oven (a deep skillet will work)
  • spatula, serving spoon, small spoon knives etc…

some of the ingredients used

Step 1:   Start heating up the dutch oven and toss 1 tablespoon of the butter in to start melting it.  Heat up the broth (don’t boil it!) in the small pot, and in the separate pot, boil some water.  Once the water is boiled, toss in your package of dried Porcini mushrooms per the instructions on the package. (hint: Save the water)

Step 2:  Start by finely chopping the onions and mince the garlic cloves and begin to saute’ it in the dutch oven with the butter.  Move it around, and get every nice and coated.  Optionally, you can use olive oil too.  Let slowly cook until everything is soft.

 

 

Step 3:  Pour the risotto rice into the dutch oven and immediately begin to move it around.  At this time, you may need to put the other tablespoon of butter in to get everything coated.  Keep moving it around until the risotto start to look clear. DON’T BURN IT!

Step 4: Once the risotto starts to look more clear, pour in the wine and quickly start stirring.  There should be enough wine to submerge the risotto, but not too much that they are drowning.  Let it soak up the wine slowly.  You may need to adjust the stove temperature as needed.

Step 5: Start to ladle the hot chicken broth into the pot slowly.  Make sure you put enough to submerge it much like you did with the wine.  Stir it a bit to mix.  Add some salt and pepper.  Once the risotto absorbs the broth, add another ladle.  Again, make sure it does not dry up and burn.  Repeat until the risotto start to get to the point where it’s starting to get softer.

Step 6:  Put all the Porcini mushrooms into the risotto mixture and mix.  At this time, you can also put optional shitake mushrooms into the mix too.  Mix well, then ladle in some of the broth from the Porcini mushrooms.

Step 7:  Repeat step 5 but with the remaining Porcini mushroom broth until the risotto is soft and done.  Make sure you have enough to keep the risotto very moist.  It should still be drippy if you pick it up with a spoon.  Turn off the stove, and cover with a lid to let it sit for a minute or 2 to absorb the moisture.  Add a little bit of broth to keep it moist as needed. 

Step 8:  Use a serving spoon and serve on to a saucer.  Sprinkle a little bit of salt on the risotto (Fleur de Sel works well here).  Optionally, I like to grate some cheese onto it along with a little drizzle of truffle oil to really bring out the flavor of the mushrooms.

And there you have it.  Porcini Mushroom Risotto!  An easy to make, and wonderful dish that’s easy to make.  Goes well with a nice Cab, and a side of fresh French baguette.

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Japanese Efficiency

April 23, 2012 Leave a Comment

According to Wikipedia, the population of Tokyo is over 13 million people.  13 million!  One of these most densely populated cities in the world.  Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Japan, specifically Tokyo most of the time.  On the long 10.5 hour plane ride there, I knew what I was going to get myself into.  Trains, trains and more trains.  I couldn’t help but wonder what it took to move that many people in and out of the city with minimal use of automobiles.  Fast forward to recently spending a few days in Tokyo, there really wasn’t that many vehicles on the road other than buses and taxis.  It wasn’t Manhattan gridlock, or the 1 hour commute to go 8 miles on 101N through Mountain View and Palo Alto, Ca., but it was hectic.

Here’s a photo of the famous Shibuya crossing in the rain.

I took it upon myself to remember to make some observations of how people got around Tokyo on a daily basis. Given that I was there during the weekends and weekdays, traveled around in or around rush hour, I got a pretty good sense of what the Japanese did to ensure that everyone was orderly, and tried my best to document everything with various cameras (Nikon D7000, old Canon SD1000, iPhone 4S).

Starting from when you enter the station, you will need to figure out where to go and which platform to take the train from.  There will be several signs, but they are generally easy to read. Just follow the arrows towards the correct platform for your train.  To minimize pedestrians from crashing into each other, Japan’s railway system lays down arrows to keep everyone flowing in the right direction on specified sides of the walkways and hallways.
This really helped the confusion of which side you should stand on, especially during rush hour where there could be 500 people ascending a staircase, while you and 5 other are trying to go down it.  Again, follow the arrows!

Eventually, you’ll need to pass through the ticket gates. The ticket gates are as simple as they appear. Enter your ticket, or slip in your PASMO then walk through.  However, during my frequent observation when we had to pass through the same station several times during our stay, I noticed that the reversible ticket gates switch directions for which way you may pass depending on the flow of the commuters.  That is, if it’s rush hour, it may go in one direction and flip to the other direction during the other part of rush hour.

ticket gate

An interesting observation I did make is how flexible this system is.  Notice the arrows in this photo noting that the gate is open, and the (-) ones noting that it is close for that direction.  I noticed that *sometimes* the (-) sign could just be a suggestion.  During times of sudden heavy pedestrian traffic in one direction, commuters can just use their passes to pass through these ticket gates.  This temporarily switches the direction of the gate to help the flow of pedestrian.  So basically they let the crowds decide which way it should go!

Once through the ticket gates, you’re met with more arrows directing traffic. Eventually, you’ll make it to the platform where you should await your train’s arrival. But where to stand?  Never fear!

Although this photo does not show it, passengers should be standing and lining up where the yellow and white shoes are.  Some stations use this method, some use dotted lines.  Nonetheless, you should stand in these locations to ‘line up’.  90% of the time, the subway car stops at the perfect spot denoted by the grey area in the photo above.  Some stations have a yellow landing area.  The reason for this is to open up space for passengers to disembark the subway car, keeping the boarding passengers to the side.  An observation was that there is a lot of courtesy the locals give to others by leaving this space.  No one gets on until passengers leave the train first.

But wait, there’s more to this madness.  At the Shinagawa Station, there is a train that uses the same track and platform, and heads towards different final stops.  The overhead screens provide the clear data of when and which subway goes to which station.  Since this is a very busy station, they put landing areas for boarding passengers to wait on.  In the photo below, one area is designated for passengers heading towards 1 location (Haneda Airport), and another area is designed for passengers heading to another location (sorry, can’t read Japanese).

What’s even more efficient about this is that the subway stops so that the doors align with the correct landing area.  This is a great example of a simple solution for a potentially complex problem.  And just for fun, a humorous photo of a warning sign helping prevent collisions.

So there you have it.  Several examples of how simple ideas can make daily life just that much easier for everyone.  This along with the incredible on-time record of the trains down to the second, makes for an efficiently run city.

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