Using GPS data from NYC taxis, a group of Columbia students created this animated heat map where they traveled.

“Taxi! is an analytical model that maps the trip data for 10,000 taxi rides over the course of 24 hours. Geographic location data for the origin and destination of each ride is combined with waypoint data collected from the Google Maps API in order to generate a geographically accurate representation of the trip. We used data from taxi rides originating or ending in the neighborhoods of Lincoln center or Bryant Park. The visualization recreates a ‘breathing’ map of Manhattan based on the migration of vehicles across the city over a period of 24 hours, displaying periods of intensity, density and decreased activity.”

I wonder what it would look like if they were able to account for taxis that departed from or drove to other places besides Lincoln Center and Bryant Park.

To pass through Grand Central Terminal, one of New York’s exalted public spaces, is an ennobling experience, a gift. To commute via the bowels of Penn Station, just a few blocks away, is a humiliation.

So true. I never saw the old Penn Station but every time I walk into Grand Central, I feel really good. There’s something about GCT that’s special and I feel a sense of loss just for not experiencing something that was beautiful and magnificent with Penn. And to walk underground through Penn, now, between 7th and 8th Avenue, is numbing and sad.

I can only hope, in my lifetime, to see Penn Station transformed into something it once was.

No one should be surprised, though. This is a non-controversy if you ask me. I knew my address book was being uploaded. I knew it the moment Path sent me a notification saying someone I knew joined the service. The only way they could know they joined and they were a friend was if they had that information on the server.

And while I certainly would have liked to be asked to upload my contact data, I knew it was happening within a day or so of using the app and I continued to use it. Moreover, I didn’t make a stink when I figured out what they were doing.

Unless Path only matched new users in my address book for me, no one should be surprised.

“There’s even the possibility that Apple could bring the same subsidy model that exists in the mobile space to TV operators. To a certain extent, carriers already subsidize TV hardware, by making set-top boxes available to customers. Assuming an Apple TV product would enable those carriers to deliver cloud- and IP-based programming guides, it could act as a set-top box replacement. Whatever money was being put toward that hardware could be committed to reducing the cost of an Apple iTV purchased by subscribers.”

I really wonder if that would work. I certainly would love to replace the set top box FiOS gives me for something more “Apple-like”. And the model could be a great source of revenue for Apple. Imagine setting up a two year product cycle where the operators or customers buy new TV hardware like they do with the iPhone. But I don’t know if I’d want to invest in new TV hardware that often when I want to get away from watching TV (and stream it online or over my iPad).

Still, as Lawler mentions, it would be a fast and relatively painless way to get content get users buying more Apple gear.

“Honeywell claims the infringed patents relate to “simplified methods for operating and programming a thermostat including the use of natural language, user interfaces that facilitate programming and energy savings, a thermostat’s inner design, an electric circuit used to divert power from the user’s home electrical system to provide power to a thermostat, and controlling a thermostat with information stored in a remote location.””

Someone’s obviously worried about their business when it fights a disruptive and innovative entrant using patents.

“So here’s the new world order, AT&T “unlimited” customers. AT&T has decided that you may very well be an unlimited data customer, and recognize that by law they must honor their contract with you. However, they never promised you that you’d be able to get both unlimited data and fast data: you have to pick one or the other.”

This is the one thing about the iPhone experience I hate. AT&T sucks and the only two reasons why I didn’t jump on the iPhone 4S from Verizon is the ability to use voice & data at the same time and the unlimited plan I have grandfathered in. But by changing the value proposition on me without warning, I have no reason to be so loyal. When the next iPhone comes out, I doubt that AT&T and I will be doing business together.

Wyatt Hodgson takes Koyaanisqatsi and speeds it up 1552%.

Kottke says:

“Reggio uses time lapse in the film to great effect — you notice different things at different playback speeds — and Hodgson’s clever use of the same technique reveals the overall structure of the film much more than watching it in realtime…but the emotion of the film is completely removed.”

50,000 safety bet! Best superbowl!! @ESPN_Colin @sportsguy33 @darrenrovell @SloanSportsConf @billbarnwell @WagerMinds http://t.co/lomuO9w7

February 5, 2012 7:34 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@BenjaminLyons

Benjamin Lyons

Someone placed a $1,000 bet saying the first score in this year’s Super Bowl would be a safety against the Patriots. He’s now got $50,000 more than he had six hours ago.

Nick Bilton says Facebook owes him money for using their site:

“I helped build this thing, too. Facebook laid the foundation of the house and put in the plumbing, but we put up the walls, picked out the furniture, painted and hung photos, and invited everyone over for dinner parties.”

I use Facebook, too, and they don’t owe me a thing. I get more than $50 out of the deal. The deal is Facebook offers me a service – a service I enjoy by connecting and interacting with people I’ve known or meet over great distances – at no monetary cost to me. All they ask is I get served ads – which I block anyway.

What happens when I stop using Facebook? Are they going go after me and say I owe them something because they built this framework?

What world does Bilton live in? Oh yeah… the same group of industries which can’t seem to adjust to the digital age and go after Google for linking to their sites and driving readers and page views their way.

I don’t know he’s just panhandling, has an entitlement issue, or if he doesn’t understand the value proposition here.

Wow. Cereal boxes have come a long way. Click the image or the source link for more including Trix, Lucky Charms, and Boo Berry.