jpreardon.com

There is some confusion among New York City motorcyclists and scooterists about how to legally park (e.g. avoid parking tickets) at a muni-meter. Some think that motorcyclists should pay and attach the receipt to the bike, others hold that one should pay at the muni-meter and hold on to the receipt in case a parking ticket is issued, while others claim there is no need to pay at all.

According to the DOT, motorcyclists must pay at muni-meters AND display the receipt on on the motorcyclists:

Like other motorists, motorcyclists using Pay and Display Muni-Meters, must display their receipt on their vehicle. To prevent theft or damage to the receipt, DOT recommends using clear plastic holders attached to the motorcycle with a lock or other mechanism. Devices made especially for this purpose can be found in specialty stores.

The locking mechanism pictured above seems a little ridiculous. But, if you really want one, you can purchase a locking parking permit holder from Login Parking.

Do you believe in Habit Fields? After reading Jack Cheng’s recent post on A List Apart, I do. He does a better job of explaining what he is talking about than I can ever hope to do here. So, just go read it.

Diaspora* got some ink today in the New York Times. Who new they had a publicist already?

This will spark even more interest in what looks to be a great project. Let’s hope they can keep this momentum going.

It sounds like the call for an open social network may get answered soon. Diaspora* seeks to be “the privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distributed open source social network.”

There seems to be plenty of interest out there for this project. The guys behind Diaspora* managed to get seed funding (and then some) through Kickstarter in just ten days.

Diaspora* is certainly worth keeping an eye on in the coming months.

Facebook? Rogue? Ryan Singel, on the Epicenter thinks so. In his post, he calls for an open alternative:

It’s time for the best of the tech community to find a way to let people control what and how they’d like to share. Facebook’s basic functions can be turned into protocols, and a whole set of interoperating software and services can flourish.

As Facebook continues to twist their privacy policy to meet their monetization needs, I tend to agree with Ryan–perhaps it is time to move on. We’re not alone, there is even a group of people forming a digital mass suicide pact (they are going to delete their Facebook profiles on 20/10/2010 at 20:10 GMT and suggest inviting some friends over for dinner to commemorate the occasion). And no, the irony that the digital mass suicide folks are using a Facebook fan page to get the word out is not lost on me.

via Hacker News

In this video, John Leguizamo gives us a few pointers on how to keep the rubber side down on the mean streets of New York. In the process, he almost gets doored by one of New York’s Finest.

via Streetsblog

The Google Analytics Application Gallery showcases applications that extend Google Analytics. These applications are typically built by third party developers. At the time of writing, there are over 30 applications in the gallery. This number should grow steadily as more developers utilize the Google Analytics APIs to further extend the application.

There is no shortage of good food in New York–there is also a lot of crap. Those unfamiliar with the city may have trouble separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to all of the choices available. To help, Serious Eats offers Tasting Tour: Eating on the Go in NYC. It lists many, many places where one can encounter some deliciousness. All of this is broken down by neighborhood. And, they even throw in some pointers on navigating the public transit system for good measure. Even if you’re a resident, this is worthy of a look (although, you may be able to skip the “Getting Around” section).

Photo by Peter Cunningham