Very nice.
Given the smoothness, I first thought this was real-time:)
As someone who lives in Berlin, I didn't know there was an open API for the VBB. I'll have to have a look at it.
And loving the Minimetro vibes!
(Running this on android 10 on a OnePlus 7pro - runs smooth in Chrome)
I too thought for a moment that this was real-time until I noticed the absolutely frighting speed at which these trains would be passing through the tubes.
People waiting at a station would be sucked onto the tracks by the vortex created in the wake of a passing train. The front of the trains would probably be red hot with friction, while the passengers would be screaming until their train reached the end of the line, where it would pass out of existence, presumably into another dimension.
That is, until god slowed reality back down to 1x speed.
I don't know if VBB used this, but most transit agencies publish their data in two standard formats these days GTFS for static schedules and GTFS-real time for real-time data. Any application you build around these formats would immediately scale to pretty much every big city.
Google maps and Apple maps provide transit directions in their apps using GTFS and GTFS real time data (partly the reason why Apple maps was able to add transit directions feature so easily - Google had to deal with the transit agencies years before that and convinced them to publish data in open source standard formats).
VBB has been publishing GTFS (Static/Schedule) data for almost 10 years now. [1][2]
But there is no (truly open) realtime data (e.g. GTFS Realtime or SIRI) available because their API [3]
- requires signing a draconian contract (e.g. ridiculous liability clauses, no permission to pass the data on in any form), and
- API works individual vehicles/trips, so you'd have to poll every single one out there to get the equivalent of a GTFS-RT dataset.
There is an unofficial API though [4][5] that is de-facto open, and I have built a tool that pools the data and creates a GTFS-RT feed. [6]
I thought it was live too, I wonder if there's a way to do that? I like that you can see both the s and u bahn, though I kind of wish the abstract map would carry over.
Thanks a lot for the feedback!! The "live mode" is already developed using hafas-client[1] and VBB-API[2]. I just asked VBB to give me API access, I'll release the feature when I get it.
If you are interested, VBB already made a live map[3]
Do you know about v5.vbb.transport.rest's /radar API [1]? Because it wraps VBB's de-facto-open unofficial API [2][3], it doesn't require authentication or even signing a contract.
If you have problems using it, please get in touch with me!
Hi, I know you! You're hard to miss when working on public transportation. Very happy to see you're looking at my project! I sent you an email.
v5.vbb.transport.rest's frames were missing something I needed, if I recall correctly. With a fork of hafas-client, I got something to work okay. I was going to release it too, but then I realised I should use another user agent than 'my-awesome-program' which only VBB can provide, I think.
> v5.vbb.transport.rest's frames were missing something I needed, if I recall correctly. With a fork of hafas-client, I got something to work okay.
It would be great if you could create an Issue in hafas-client about this, so everyone can benefit from the changes.
> I realised I should use another user agent than 'my-awesome-program' which only VBB can provide, I think
If you're talking about hafas-client: No, you can use anything! It's merely about being transparent towards VBB who/what is using their API, but they don't have to approve it beforehand; They can't in fact, because the "mobile" HAFAS API just uses a static auth token.
Oh okay. Here is an old version of Ubähnchen with the toggle for "live mode / planned mode" on the top right: https://ubahnchen-inona1te6-lzear.vercel.app/?live
The URL parameter still works in the current version by the way.
When I changed 'my-awesome-program' to 'ubahnchen' or something else when creating the hafas-client, it stopped getting valid responses. So I thought I should wait for VBB to give me an ID that works.
> When I changed 'my-awesome-program' to 'ubahnchen' or something else when creating the hafas-client, it stopped getting valid responses.
Please report this as an Issue in the hafas-client repo, so we can discuss this further.
> So I thought I should wait for VBB to give me an ID that works.
This is not how it works:
- The official VBB API is an entirely different API, which they give you an auth token for when you ask.
- hafas-client uses the "mobile" API, which has a static universal auth token. But it sends a (slightly randomised) User-Agent in order to communicate who/what is making requests. It might be that some User-Agents are blocked.
I rarely ever pay for services on the web. But I will pay for theoldreader.
My mind is getting foggy with age, but I think it does everything that Google Reader did, and not much more. The perfect drop-in replacement.
Even more annoying is that Mt is one colour and GOX is another. To me this implies there are two shortened words in the name: Mt and GOX.
And Mt can easily be thought of as Mountain.
iTunes Match [0] does the same thing and is already available in dozens of countries, including Germany [1].
It works for all kinds of music, not just tracks you bought from Apple. Ripped CDs, Amazon MP3s, other sources -- and if the quality of your tracks is less than a 256Kbps AAC file, the service downloads better versions from iTunes.
It doesn't need to. iTunes Match doesn't care about where you purchased your CDs. If you want to continue buying CDs at Amazon, that's fine. Rip them in iTunes, and iTunes Match will keep them in the cloud.
It is fair to point out that with iTunes match you will not have the pressed CD shipped to you. In addition to the hassle of burning your own, burned CD's can degrade over time. The nice thing about both services is that you can always burn another!
I recommend you read the post I responded to. For someone who bought CDs in Germany through Amazon, their new service is of no help. However, if you bought music at Amazon's site in Germany, iTunes Match will serve you as well as Amazon's site does in the US.
1) Search for "Google Maps" and it is the 5th result. The app is literally called Google Maps. The results before: Fine Maps, PD Maps Worldwide Edition, Google Earth(?!).
2) 300 comments and the topic of Apple anti-competitive behaviour with regard to App availability is hardly touched. In fact the top most comments are on UI and nitpicking over details such as Bookmarks and response speed.
> 1) Search for "Google Maps" and it is the 5th result. The app is literally called Google Maps. The results before: Fine Maps, PD Maps Worldwide Edition, Google Earth(?!).
I suspect that this is simply due to some part of the searching algorithm that takes things like number of downloads and publishing date into account. Over time the position will probably change.
Apple has blocked things like "Google Voice" in the past claiming it duplicates existing functionality in the phone.
I suspect (And this is entirely speculation on my part) that if iOS Maps had not been under such a cloud of scrutiny since it launched, we might not have seen Google Maps.
With so many having major issues with iOS Maps, and Apple needing to do a lot of catch up, being seen to block a reasonable solution would be very, very bad. Especially the same week as the well publicized "Sending people into the middle of the Australian outback with no mobile reception instead of the city they put in" news on iOS Maps.
Not trying to sound conspiracy theorist here, but observing past behaviours and the likely influence of current demands.
Geez, I hate Google localisation. It NEVER works. It is always off.
I'm sitting in Germany, all my Chrome settings are set to English. Go to the main Nexus blogspot website and its in English. Great. (despite being blogspot.de)
Click on Nexus 10. Its in german. Understandable as I'm Germany. But please respect the browser settings.
Go back and click on Nexus 7, and its in English.
Go back and click on Nexus 4, and its in FRENCH!! Why?!
Click on the expanded memory option on the French page and it goes to the English version of the Nexus 4 page.
This infuriates me no end. This is the single reason why I will not use Google Play. I know that if I buy a book or a movie, the chances of it being in the language I set for the device will be slim. I have no desire to through money away like that.
i am by no means at all knowledgeable in finance,
but do these credit ratings really have any value?
According to S&P
Spain has AA
Italy has A+
many others have A.
is this really a credit rating, or more about how much faith citizens have in their own country.
with all due respect, i find it difficult to believe that the US could have a AAA rating. of course, the earning potential of the US is huge, but its current standing with regards to debt is not so good.
or maybe i dont quite understand how the ratings work?
They do have real value. All central banks and banking regulators use them to determine the quality of the collateral that can be posted.
So, for instance, say you are a big bank that wants to borrow cash overnight at a low-interest rate - you have to put something up as collateral. Various central banks have various instruments for various things, but for the most part they tend to require 'investment grade' securities - which is why Greece has been causing such a kurfuffle because if they have a 'selective default', then the ratings agencies will downgrade to junk status and financial institutions won't be able to use Greek gov't bonds as collateral anymore.
That's an overly simplified case, but that can be extended to any where that requires collateral. Most, if not all, financial institutions swear by those credit ratings.
The rating is only concerned with whether he country will pay back it's debt on terms. Only paying back 99% is a binary default. Italy uses the Euro, which it doesn't own. The US owns the dollar. The Treasury could mint $1B coins today and sell them to the Fed for the cost of the metal.
If it weren’t for this mishegas with the debt ceiling, there would be no doubt that the US would be able to pay its obligations, and even if Congress doesn’t act in time, the 14th Amendment ensures that the bond-holders would be first in line to get paid.
The US is one of the largest economies in the world; its overall tax revenues are low compared with other developed countries; as someone else pointed out, it controls its own money supply; it has enjoyed low inflation for the past thirty years; Americans grumble about our taxes but unlike Argentines and Greeks, we generally pay what we owe.
What it really represents is to what degree others think a country can pay back it's debts. The US has a higher rating that Spain or Italy because those countries will have a much harder time paying back their debts.
I think alot of people really underestimate the size of the US economy.
I can almost understand Facebook protecting its own interests.
But its stuff like this that bugs me:
"Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions."
my emphasis. if you going to block/ban something, at least have the decency to say why.
It could be just a time issue though--if they had to write out a reason as to why the account was disabled it could be a very hefty operation depending on their standards. You're right though, It would be nice if they'd do it.
And loving the Minimetro vibes! (Running this on android 10 on a OnePlus 7pro - runs smooth in Chrome)