![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I've been marvelling at how the Internet and Internet-enabled services I use day to day have been getting better lately.
Communauto has hooked up its computers to Ottawa's Vrtucar, completing a reciprocity agreement that has been a long time coming: first Communauto users got the RFID dongles that Vrtucar (and Communauto in other cities) uses, then Vrtucar started accepting reservations by phone, the Communauto publicized this fact, and now the two systems work together online. As far as I can tell, nothing bad has happened in the transition, either! This makes being a non-car-owning Ottawahullian just a bit easier, which is a good thing.
Firefox 4 took about 11 beta versions to do it, but it now runs Flash properly on my machine. It's in Release Candidate shape now. The app tabs are really very smart, even if the (optional) tab groups still kind of baffle me. Also, the add-on compatibility tester means that I can be up and running with most of my preferred add-ons before they are formally updated for FF4. I find the RC's highlighting of tabs a bit less highlight-y than before, but other than that, I am quite impressed.
ING got around to selling mutual funds to Quebec customers, added an almost no-fee chequing account, and put in configurable e-mail alerts for situations that customers might want to know about: balance getting low, cheques clearing, that sort of thing. All I want now is a programmable bank account, but we're getting pretty close, with those alerts as well as scheduled transfers to, from and within accounts.
OC Transpo's route planner has gotten much better, adding in STO buses and modernizing its look. Unfortunately, OC Transpo also made the boneheaded move of dropping public access to its route and schedule data after a small developer built a wildly useful and popular bus tracking app.
Communauto has hooked up its computers to Ottawa's Vrtucar, completing a reciprocity agreement that has been a long time coming: first Communauto users got the RFID dongles that Vrtucar (and Communauto in other cities) uses, then Vrtucar started accepting reservations by phone, the Communauto publicized this fact, and now the two systems work together online. As far as I can tell, nothing bad has happened in the transition, either! This makes being a non-car-owning Ottawahullian just a bit easier, which is a good thing.
Firefox 4 took about 11 beta versions to do it, but it now runs Flash properly on my machine. It's in Release Candidate shape now. The app tabs are really very smart, even if the (optional) tab groups still kind of baffle me. Also, the add-on compatibility tester means that I can be up and running with most of my preferred add-ons before they are formally updated for FF4. I find the RC's highlighting of tabs a bit less highlight-y than before, but other than that, I am quite impressed.
ING got around to selling mutual funds to Quebec customers, added an almost no-fee chequing account, and put in configurable e-mail alerts for situations that customers might want to know about: balance getting low, cheques clearing, that sort of thing. All I want now is a programmable bank account, but we're getting pretty close, with those alerts as well as scheduled transfers to, from and within accounts.
OC Transpo's route planner has gotten much better, adding in STO buses and modernizing its look. Unfortunately, OC Transpo also made the boneheaded move of dropping public access to its route and schedule data after a small developer built a wildly useful and popular bus tracking app.
