• Windows XP with SP3
• VMware Fusion 5.02
• MacBook Air, 1.8 Intel Core i7, 4MB, OS 10.8.2

It’s not lightning-fast, but it’s responsive enough to be playable (seems no worse than SimCity 4 under the same conditions, and I’ve played that for hours).

Increasing my virtual memory setting in VMware eliminated the display-related crashes I was seeing earlier in the week. (I increased from 512MB to 1GB, and I may try 2GB and see what it does.) Once you’re in the game, you can adjust the display settings in ways that may tax the rendering engine a bit less, which I’ll fool around with. To be fair, I’ve had to do the latter for other games (notably Civilization V, which wasn’t playable on this machine’s predecessor until I simplified the rendering requirements).

The setup is still a little balky. Both Origin and SimCity give me odd errors intermittently, but these seem to be situational (e.g., while the virtual machine is still starting up, or when another instance is running), and patience is generally rewarded.

No need to talk about the catastrophically embarrassing (to EA) server issues that are plaguing players, as everyone else has got those covered. But as of tonight, I’m willing to wait for 19 minutes I do get in, pretty reliably. I look forward to playing around with the game later.

Yes, I’m downloading the new SimCity. I started this shit at 7am and it’ll probably be 11pm before I’m able to start the game. First I had to upgrade my Internet Explorer, then I had to download Origin, which wouldn’t run until I upgraded Windows to SP3 (which I had to do manually because my Windows is too old to do in an automated way), then I tried to launch the game but it initiated an endless self-update. This was about 10am, and I’ve tried the self-update at every point during the day that I’ve been near a decent Internet connection, but none of them have been decent enough to let it complete.

I’m now home and trying again, and the thing is moving faster and is now up to 37%, so I think I’ll probably be able to play before bed. Still, I hope it’s worth all the tsuris.

The most interesting thing about Alaska’s story is how much the company has relied on fundamentals to keep its business strong: technology, people, metrics. It invested early and substantially in satellite navigation technology, in response to the treacherous approaches and difficult weather that Alaska’s pilots have to deal with routinely. It is deeply committed to staff training, with an Arctic certification that takes its pilots six years to complete. And it takes data seriously:

The airline has established 50,000 points of data to improve its on-time performance, from the time bags are loaded and passengers board to when the pilot pushes back from the gate. It also figured out that if it could shave just a minute of taxi time from each flight, it could save 500 minutes, or over eight hours, a day — the equivalent of flying an extra plane daily, said Ben Minicucci, the chief operating officer. If such small efforts allowed the carrier to free up a plane, it could generate $25 million to $30 million in revenue a year.

$30 million isn’t a fortune — that’s less than 1% of the company’s total revenue. But successful businesses with strong margins are built by steady attention to all the levers that are within the company’s control. That’s a lesson that’s worth the attention of any management team, whether they’re building a neighborhood restaurant or a global technology company.

I have one quibble, though. Gingrich says that “in many ways identity politics beat economic politics,” and I think that formulation is awfully generous to the GOP. Even if you accept the substance of it (which I’m not sure I do), the issue wasn’t identity politics but the rejection of the negative identity politics of a party built around fear of otherness.

It’s hard to look at the situation and say that “identity politics” played a bigger role for the Democrats in 2012 than in 2008. But on the GOP side, Romney’s whole campaign was just a big ol’ not-too-deeply-coded appeal to identity politics — and he was among the least fanatic of the bunch.

It was a nice ride, in light traffic on the Pulaski Skyway in the early morning chill as the sun gradually came up. I wish every ride were as simple as this one. Here’s video shot from the helmet-cam with no narration, just the ride itself with some zippy music.

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Google Maps says 101 miles and 2 1/2 hours (150 minutes), meaning an average speed of 40mph. That may actually be realistic, so allowing 3 1/2 hours for the trip (including stops) is probably generous. We’ll see how it goes.

I have a new power pack for the camera, so I should be able to shoot some interesting footage on the way down. I’ve also installed Kuryakyn throw-over saddlebags (which are quick-release but hold fine on the road) — they aren’t a perfect fit but the convenience outweighs that. Pics below.

More importantly, I demonstrated this weekend that I’m capable of achieving decent gas mileage if I take the bike out on the highway. A tank that was about 3/4 highway miles returned over 63MPG, which is good enough that I’m no longer particularly concerned about my abysmal mileage in the city. That’s a lot of oscillation (from the high 30s to the low 60s), but I guess I have to expect it, given the way I ride in the city.

I put up a couple more helmet-cam videos — a quick ride across the Brooklyn Bridge, and then a crosstown ride through Queens and Brooklyn, from Ridgewood to Bushwick.

Your verdict will probably be “gosh, that’s a pain in the ass.” But really, it’s the same thing you’d be doing in a stick-shift car, you’re just doing it with your left hand and your left foot rather than your right hand and your left foot.

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I do drive almost exclusively in stop-and-go city traffic in Manhattan, am in and out of first gear constantly, sit idle at lights. And I’m a heavy person, for whatever impact that has on fuel economy.

Posters on the US Enfield forums have suggested that there’s something wrong with my fuel mix. Perhaps there’s a leak in the exhaust system that’s drawing in air, triggering the sensor to rebalance with more fuel.

But today, after a tank that included a hundred miles of (somewhat congested) highway driving, my MPG hit 53.5. That’s closer to the range I would expect. Perhaps the bike is still being broken in. I’m going to take the bike out this weekend (weather permitting) on a long highway ride and see how the mileage is — I’ll let you know what happens.

Verdict after 5 minutes: it’s both weirdly engrossing, and creepy. On the creepy side: the only way you can sign up is via your Facebook account. This means it knows who your friends are, and is biased toward feeding you pictures of friends of friends. Which isn’t necessarily what you’re looking for! And it also draws its pictures of you from Facebook, so they’d better be current! On the other hand, flipping through pictures of cute or cute-ish people going “yes, no, yes, no” is hard to stop once you’ve started.

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And here’s a helmet-cam video showing the way:

Free motorcycle parking is provided courtesy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Tell the Port Authority you appreciate it, and tell your friends to use it.

I shot this on a rainy day, and there are droplets on the lens, which create a kind of triply effect, so I don’t mind…

I love films of the early 1970s shot in Southern California anyway, in part for my own reasons — I was a child in the early 1970s in Southern California and I respond to the landscape and the peoples cape and the cityscape. But this movie, Jesus Christ. It’s just as trippy and absurdist and “what the f*ck just happened?” as that synopsis would suggest. And the dialogue — if you’ve never heard a prissy queen in motorcycle denim in a gravel campground say “Two forks, we’re having salad,” well, you haven’t lived. Also, sidecars! Put it in your DVD player and enjoy the next two hours.

The snowfall wasn’t the issue (although it did muck up the visor); the problem was that the crystals weren’t melting when they hit the pavement, so there was some accumulation that was slippery under my boots. That made me a little nervous, although I assume a 550-pound bike-plus-rider melts even moderate accumulation more efficiently as it rolls along than my 120-pound left side does as I walk.

It was just as well. I want to develop basic all-weather riding skills anyway, because you never know when they might come in handy. And it was mostly tolerable. I kept my eyes out for wet steel plates, and wherever possible I stayed in the wheel track of the car ahead, under the assumption (apparently accurate) that his traction 3 seconds earlier would have melted whatever was in my way.

I also stayed on the busiest streets. My normal route takes me down 5th Avenue and then across 7th Street (or is it 6th?) to 7th Avenue. I didn’t want to chance that crosstown route with freshly falling slush, so I cut over to Broadway which I knew would be heavily trafficked.

And, obviously, I rode very, very, very gently — slower than usual, no jerky movements. And I made it home safely.

Photo: Andrew Rothman

Getting out of NYC, the route is obviously Holland Tunnel to 440 to the Outerbridge Crossing, but what after that? I’m considering taking US 1 the whole way — does anyone think that would be crazy?

The projected time saved via the Turnpike is only half an hour (because the Turnpike doesn’t really go to Philadelphia, so a lot of the time saved is spent turning west across New Jersey).

View NYC to Philadelphia motorcycle route in a larger map

In particularly, it has happened to me that I find I am “not authorized” to enter a Hangout even though I am certain that one of my currently logged-in identities is authorized. (Today, I clicked on a link sent to me in Google Chat to my then-primary active login and was told I was not authorized.) The solution, which is tedious and time-consuming, is to log out of Google, log back in under the Hangout-authorized identity only, enter the Hangout, then log in to other accounts via multiple sign-in.

The proper behavior should be: if any of the accounts that I am currently signed into via multiple sign-in is authorized for the Hangout, Google should let me in, no questions asked.

I’ve written here before about my struggles with productivity and task management — I’m on a new kick in the new year to try to keep myself organized and focused, using the Evernote-based GTD philosophy known as the Secret Weapon.

To be honest, the Evernote UI isn’t set up perfectly for this, especially on iOS. And on the Mac, Evernote’s UI actually got worse with the last major update — I lost features I liked, like the ability to drag a task onto a tag. But (like any productivity system) this system works if you work it, and I’m doing my best.

(Photo: Apple Store, with Google’s NYC headquarters at right)

I’m at the Apple Store Genius Bar on 14th Street this morning, because at some point in the past week I dropped my iPhone on its back and the back glass splinter-shattered. It’s safety glass, so it held, but it’s ugly and has been shedding tiny glass bits.

I did a little research, and it turns out that Apple will now replace the back glass panel for $29 plus tax, no questions asked. (Rumored on the Internets, confirmed by my personal Genius.) Getting presumably inferior aftermarket parts to do it yourself (including the star-shaped screwdriver) costs $20-40 and then you have to, you know, do it yourself. So this is a fair deal.

It’s an especially fair deal on Saturday morning. I logged in late last night and had my pick of Saturday morning Genius Bar appointments; showed up here on time and was immediately served; the thing was done 8 minutes later. As I tweeted, it’s so civilized in here on a Saturday morning I half expect to be served wine and cheese by a tuxedoed caterwaiter.

On the way in, locking up my motorcycle outside, I got stopped twice to talk about the bike, by a young Harley-rider dude from Pennsylvania (which he pronounced “pee-ay” with the accent to go along with it) and by a well-dressed European tourist in his 20s who had just got off a group-tour minibus (Meatpacking, y’know).

Then I got home and learned that the city has already corrected the misleading no-parking signs on John Street that resulted in this parking ticket which I successfully challenged. So it’s now explicitly clear that weekend parking is permitted on that block (and I helped). That’s a type of bureaucratic efficiency I can get behind!

I also need to start keeping a car mileage record for tax purposes, but I really would love to be able to do it via SMS in the same way. Just found Delighta, which allows you to link your mobile phone to your Google account, and then add rows of data to a Google Docs spreadsheet by sending a text message. It works as advertised and there seems to be no catch. (What’s their business model, I wonder?) So I’ll play with it for a while and see how I like it.