Using The MBTA's Rapid Transit App

Having used the Massachusetts rapid transit system (a.k.a the "T"), run by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), for a very long time; I am still amazed and impressed at how quickly technology has come to the transit system. Especially within the last few years. This includes Wi-Fi in Commuter Rail cars, and as of the last couple of months, an app (code name mTicket) that lets Commuter Rail riders purchase electronic tickets. The MBTA plans on providing purchase functionality for other modes of transit in the future.

mTicket is an elegantly designed and simple-to-use app that allows commuters to purchase single, round-trip, or multiple trip commuter rail e-tickets via credit card in advance (or on-board, if you like to cut it close). Once a commuter purchases an e-ticket, the commuter can view the e-ticket and is prompted to activate the purchased e-ticket once on-board. The activated e-ticket shows the ticket zone, and has a button that once clicked, will display the e-ticket's bar code.

My biggest surprise (considering m-Ticket is in its infancy) was that the conductors were all very confortable with me flashing my iPod Touch with the e-ticket displayed. Plus, for those of us whose closest Commuter Rail station requires purchase on-board, you'll save money off the nominal fare.

mTicket is currently available for Apple iOS and Android mobile devices. A Blackberry version is in development.

The Emancipation Proclamation At 150 Years

A happy new year indeed. On this date in 1863, a different United States president hailing from the state of Illinois; Abraham Lincoln, brought forth the Emancipation Proclamation.

What I remember being taught about the Emancipation Proclamation in elementary school was that it freed the slaves and brought a victorious end to the American Civil War for the North (i.e. armies of the Union). While this is not false, it's not the complete picture. Still, it was appropriate for that point in my elementary education.

It wasn't until I read, several years ago, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, did I get a deeper perspective of the Emancipation Proclamation. Most importantly the path to its birth, including the political jousting between President Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

I learned that its purpose was primarily to end a costly war and reunify the fractured United States by defeating the South economically and militarily. More specifically, to end the economic engine of slavery in the South and enlist black men, able and willing to fight, for the the Union army. To expedite this, the Emancipation Proclamation declared that all slaves in states that had seceded from the Union were free. Now if you were a black man in 1863, that was a heck of an incentive, considering the alternative.

Without the Emancipation Proclamation and what it brought to pass in the history of the following century, odds are I wouldn't have volunteered for the military, nor I suspect hundreds of thousands of black men over the decades.  I salute you comrades.