Author Archives: jik

MBTA responds to my public records request

Last month, I sent the MBTA a public records request, trying to obtain more information about how aware they are of the problem of air quality problems in the passenger compartments of their buses, and what they are doing about the problem. The Massachusetts Public Records Law requires “custodians of records” like the MBTA to… Read More »

How Stop & Shop lost me as a customer

February 10, 2013 The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, LLC Attention: Consumer Affairs 1385 Hancock Street Quincy, MA  02169 To whom it may concern: My wife and I spend over ___ on groceries every year. Until today, a large fraction of that was spent at Stop & Shop. However, after what happened to me today,… Read More »

King Features Syndicate comics currently unavailable

The folks at the King Features Syndicate have always made their comics harder to aggregate than those of any of the other syndicates. I had implemented a convoluted workaround involving redirecting requests for images of their comics through the comics aggregator itself, where various special headers were inserted into the request to convince the King… Read More »

Public Records Request to the MBTA about air quality in buses

I just sent the following letter to the MBTA. January 14, 2013 Beverly A. Scott General Manager, MBTA 10 Park Plaza, Suite 3910 Boston, MA 02116 Re: Massachusetts Public Records Request Dear Ms. Scott: This is a request under the Massachusetts Public Records Law (M.G.L. Chapter 66, Section 10). I am requesting that I be… Read More »

xkcd.com added to comics aggregator

I’ve added xkcd.com the comics aggregator. And there was much rejoicing. Alas, because of the architecture of the aggregator, I can’t easily serve up the alt text that Randall attaches to the strips. :-/ As always, feel free to show your appreciation. 🙂  

Mass. Sen. Will Brownsberger to co-sponsor social networking privacy bill

I have just been informed by a member of Massachusetts Senator Will Brownsberger’s staff that he “will be co-sponsoring a piece of legislation that will, among other things, prevent employers from asking job applicants for their social networking passwords.” This issue has been raised in previous sessions of the Massachusetts legislature, but it has not… Read More »