Not to be copied, reproduced or broadcast without the express written permission of the Toronto Transit Commission - Copyright 2007.

So, we'll leave it as an exercise to someone else who feels like tangling with the TTC's legal team. In the meantime, watch for the amazing old footage of the streetcars, the cool rebuild of a streetcar's drive system, concept footage of the new Light Rail and Subway cars coming in the next ten - fifteen years, and talk of the new transponder system currently being installed which allows for the nifty automated station announcements and (ominously?) for the possibility of automated train control. Is it just us or does the TTC's new command centre remind you of 1983's War Games (that was twenty four years ago?!)? And also, where are all the women in this futuristic nerve centre?

It's great to see material like this which goes deeper than a simple puff piece to really give a sense of the complexity involved in running North America's third largest transit system (following New York City and Mexico City). Suddenly makes it seem entirely reasonable that they have trouble paying for it when you realize that it's not just about having buses and subways run but about all of the infrastructure that goes into running them.

Turns out that the folks who work at Microsoft are good people! We're particularly enamoured with John Oxley, Director Community Evangelism Microsoft Canada, who graciously ignored the above mentioned glowing fruit and invited yours truly down to Bellevue to participate in the first Microsoft User Experience (UX) Round Table. Despite any harsh criticisms of the past, I'm not above turning a new leaf and it's definitely true that Microsoft's UX Research teams are the hot spot du jour (not disimilar to Xeorx PARC in days of yore). Besides, free trips are always good trips, particularly when accompanied by Mr. David Crow, whose penchant for double bourbons is well known (particularly to my own precious liver who strains vainly to keep up).

We caught an Air Canada flight from Pearson to Settle-Tacoma which turned out to be delayed an hour. The plane was an Embraer 190 which was equipped with the very latest in En Route Inflight Entertainment systems, a topic which I'm becoming increasingly familiar with (see my recent I've-never-even-touched-it review of Virgin America's Red). The E190s feature the Thales Group's TopSeries Inflight Entertainment system, in this case heavily branded with the Air Canada livery and delivered in both English and French. I wasn't able to snap any shots on the way down (I'll try to grab some on the way back), but picture your basic 9" touchscreen embedded in the seat in front of you. These units lacked remotes and many of the features were "Unavailable" (including the Map, News, and Games), though they did feature a USB plug to the left of the screen for charging your ever present array of electronica. Placing the plug at eye level guarantees you'll see it - though the lack of markings might make you hesitate before you plugged in your trusty iPod. Not I! In the interest of journalism, I can confirm that it provides a steady charge but no much else (it might be more natural to place the plug in the armrest, nearer to where the iPod is likely to rest, but progress is progress and who are we to stand in its way?).

The system seemed a little buggy - David's seatmate crashed his twice (though no Blue Screen of Death, so one supposes that it's running on some Linux derivative). There's some markedly weird Information Architecture in the menu system (e.g.: going into the Kids section and selecting Movies drops you into a hidden section of the Movies menu, bizarely merging the first and second level menus), and the touch screens weren't overly responsive (the "Fullscreen" button in movie mode had to be mashed at least three times before it stuck, as did the "Turn off Display" button in the "Screen Brightness" control), but the fact that you can watch or listen to (almost) whatever you'd like elevates airtravel from tedious to almost pleasant. As noted in the review of Red, introducing this kind of tech into a cramped space repleat with expected interactions can bring some unexpected behaviours into play. The screens definitely pumped out a fair amount of heat - noticeable by placing your hand near them - and the cabin was a fair bit warmer than usual, bringing to mind all kinds of stories about library architects not taking into account the weight of books. I also found it surprisingly difficult to settle into Clint Eastwood's excellent Flags of our Fathers after my seatmate started the same film about three minutes before me. Whenever the action lulled, my eyes were inevitably drawn to his screen where the future was foretold in off-colour, angled LCD watching. All the same, the mere fact that I could choose to watch a seemingly unedited print of a great film instead of a heavily censored version or poorly selected rubbish more than made up for it. Sure, it lacks the über cool social chat features and inseat food ordering from Red, but it's aeromiles ahead of craning over heads and seatbacks to see a blown out projection and listening to a tinny soundtrack through a set of hollow rubber tubes.

Further excitement lurked in our shuttle when we blew out a tire on the highway from the airport to the hotel. It was pretty uneventful in the end; a fifteen minute wait on the shoulder until a different van - complete with cracked windshield and flaming skull license plate frame - picked us up. The Westin Bellevue hotel itself is brand new and beautifully decorated and I'm moments away from crashing in the Heavenly Bed. More tomorrow as we start the sessions!