Month: February 2011

Census 2010 Data Site Has All the Latest in Fail

The 2010 data is finally starting to come out, and is available at the new website, American Factfinder, version 2.

Problems:

  1. Using Google chrome (version 9), the ability to add a geographic filter fails silently. This is incredibly annoying.
  2. Many things (including clicking on what should be normal web pages) on the website require JavaScript.  This is not fancy things like scooting data from one area of the page to another.  For some reason, this is one area where accessibility seems to be taking giant strides backwards.
  3. Once I use Firefox with JavaScript on, the filter works, and I start looking at the data. Then I receive a really irritating error message that seems to be blaming me for its random failure. This occurs several times.

So maybe I want to complain about their annoying lack of working with Google Chrome or their bogus error message.  Well, I would, except it’s a state secret who to contact about any website issues.  No webmaster email is in sight upon clicking on the tiny “Contact Us” button. After a long and fruitless search, I give up on trying to send an email.

Maybe the Census bureau folks don’t want email.  Maybe they got too much hate mail when the story broke that Census data was helpful  in rounding up Japanese Americans for placement in internment camps in World Ward II.  Whoops.  I have to say, if I were a Muslim, I wouldn’t get a real warm feeling about that whole incident and giving my information to the Census bureau.

Update: I finally found a “Feedback” button on the site. But it’s too small, and in a weird place – the top bar area where ads usually go. Feedback links should be at the bottom!

Light Rail Etiquette

I’m a big fan of the light rail (RTD) here  in Denver.  Most regulars follow these rules instinctively:

  1. Don’t put your bag on the seat next to you. Lap or floor are the only polite choices.
  2. Don’t sit with your legs crossed. (See also #3)
  3. Don’t slouch so far you leave no room for the person across from you.
  4. Don’t sit on the outside of the seat when no one else is there.  Not only will people step over you to sit on the other side of the seat, but then you’ll be stuck with the less desirable outside seat.

If you do #4 and #1 at the same time, congrats – you’ve won the douchebag award!

All of these rules can be ignored if the train is deserted. Putting your feet up on the seat across from you when someone is sitting there is NEVER OK. It doesn’t matter if they are not sitting directly across from you, this is still an invasion of person space. This only happened once, thankfully, and I was able to restrain my rail rage.

Also, I should say that I am far from blameless – I will sometimes set my bag down on the seat when the train is pretty empty and not move it soon enough, or let my big winter coat take up some of the seat to my right.

Other observations:  people sitting almost never offer their seat to women, (older-looking people do a bit better) and the seats at the end of the light rail cars are not as wide as the standard seats (to allow room for bicycles) so they are not exactly two person seats. This sometimes leads to awkward interactions.

Bonus points for helping tourists out.