In many cities, the transit systems have GPS data on the vehicles to allow exact prediction of when trains and buses will arrive at stops. This is quite handy if you live near a transit line, and people are working on better mobile interfaces for them, but it's still a lot harder to use them at a remote location.

It would be nice to have a small internet appliance for shops, cafes and other hangouts that are short walks from transit stops. The appliance would be programmed with the typical walking time to the stop, and of course which stop to track. It would then display, on a small screen when a vehicle was coming, and how much time you had before you could walk easily, and then before you could run and make the train or bus.

Failing the live GPS data it could just work on schedules. It might make a low-key but audible noise as well. It need not have its own screen, if the place has a TV already it could do an overlay on that, though flat panel screens are now only about $100.

Some transit lines have placed expensive outdoor "next bus" signs on their stops and shelters for these systems, which is great, but in fact it might make more sense to put an appliance like this behind a local shop window, where it doesn't need to be outdoor rated, and pay the shopowner or local homeowner.

To turn this into a moneymaker, it could be combined with a system to sell transit tickets (presumably through the cash register.) This is a win for the transit system, since transit lines without controlled stations waste a lot of time as the driver collects change and tickets as people get on. People with a pre-paid, pre-timestamped ticket can get on quickly and don't need a transfer. This even works for systems with distance based pricing. I have often wondered why you don't see more selling of transit tickets at the shops around stops in order to save this delay. SF Muni went to "proof of purchase" instead of driver collected tickets so they could put ticket machines at busy stops to save the driver time, but they aren't everywhere.

For a cafe, it's a nice thing to do for customers, and even makes them more willing to stay, safe in the knowledge they can get their vehicle efficiently. A taxi-summoning function could also be added (press a button on the box to call a taxi) which could, in theory, also predict when the taxi will arrive since many of them have GPS networks now.

It’s getting harder to figure out the special role of Laura Roslin. We just know it keeps getting more special.

A number of interesting things happened as the season closed. She had shared dreams of the Opera House with the Six and Sharon Cylons, along with hybrid Hera, in which they see the Final Five. She’s had visions before but a shared dream requires some sort of pathway into her brain — easy to explain for a Cylon, but harder for a human. Sure, she had some half-Cylon blood injected into her to cure cancer, but is that going to give you a virtual reality interface in your brain as an adult? The Cylons all have a Projection interface in their brains, but it is grown for them. What Hera has we don’t know.

In her dream she looks markedly different. She appears younger, and is wearing a brocade dress and other unusual clothing she would not have brought on her flight. I originally was convinced this special look had a meaning, but word from RDM is that it’s just the makeup. Unlike the others (who aren’t dressed up all nice,) she is locked out of the main chamber where they see the F5 on the balcony.

And then there’s the power failures. Just before the big fleet-wide power failure, Roslin herself almost collapses, and recovers just before the lights go out. In addition, a few seconds before she calls Bill Adama to flirt with him on the phone, the power flickers in his cabin and he cuts himself.

Of course she’s had visions before, when she takes the Chammala drug, including the ones that match the scrolls of Pythia about dying leaders and a dozen snakes, as well as the ancient views of Kobol. But those could have just been imagination, these are not.

I had Roslin fairly high on the Cylon list, but Moore stated that, at least in picking the 4 revealed this season, Adama and Roslin were off the table from the beginning. With some validity he feels it would much up the story too much to make them be Cylons. Others have argued that having them be Cylons, even the different and non-warlike F5 faction, would remove all human heroism from the story. However, I still think it’s possible as a final reveal, and in any event there must be some explanation for all the oddities around Roslin.

Is she just a Moses? Even so, there must be some mechanism (other than spiritual mumbo-jumbo I hope) for these things. As I’ve noted, one of my leading theories is that the colonials are also artificial beings, similar to the Cylons but created by the Lords of Kobol for a different purpose. This makes it easy to explain all visions and special events which happen to non-Cylons, including Starbuck, Baltar, Roslin and the Oracles, all of whom can’t be members of the Final Five. However, Roslin’s special story is not yet very well revealed to us.

Here's the stuff for issue 1.

This has shown "Uploading file" all night, and doesn't show "complete" (or something like that) so I have NO CLUE if it actually made it there.

It finally passed the "Uploading file" bar, so I'm sending this to make sure that it does actually get attached before going through the same with the other parts.

Let me know if Part 1 (issue 1) made it there. Thanks.