Matt Silverman

Okay, this may seem easy to some DC natives, but even after living here for four years I still had problems getting concrete information on how to get to BWI using the DC Metro. Let me tell you, unless you are getting a ride from a friend or taking a cab, there is no pleasant way to get to BWI from DC or vice-versa.

I first tried the method of taking the Metro to Union Station, and then using the MARC train, but frankly, that method sucks. You pay for the metro, you pay $6-$12 for the MARC (depending on weekday/weekend), and then you still have to take a 10 minute (albeit free) shuttle from the MARC BWI station to the airport. That’s right, you wait to get on the metro, you wait to get on the MARC train, then you wait to get on the shuttle bus to finally arrive at a place you probably don’t really want to be. YES!

While the WMATA isn’t exactly a magic carpet ride, it at least saves you some money, and saves you from dealing with Union Station, which is a very questionable place.

In case you have stumbled here looking for step by step guidance, here you go.

GETTING TO BWI USING DC METRO:

1. Check the B30 Bus Schedule [PDF] ahead of time.
2. Take Metro to Greenbelt station, which is at end of the Green Line.
3. Look for the B30 Bus when you get off at Greenbelt, the stop will be outside in the parking lot. It costs $3.00 with a SmartTrip, or $3.10 with cash (don’t ask).
4. The B30 is an express bus that will take you right to BWI Airport. The bus ride takes around 35 minutes or so, but depends on traffic.

GET TO DC METRO FROM BWI

1. The hardest part for me was finding the public transportation bus stop. There will be about 500 bus stops for shuttles to take you to a parking garage, but you have to keep following signs to “Public Transit” or “Regional Bus” in order to find the B30 Bus stop. It is on the lower level outside baggage claim, but depending on which baggage claim you get out at, you may have to walk for 5-10 minutes to get there.
2. Once you actually find the bus stop (B30 will be posted on the wall), take a sigh of relief. The hardest part is over. They have the bus schedule posted on the inside of one of the bus shelters. The B30 will take you directly to Greenbelt, just make sure you are getting on the B30.
3. Follow the instructions above for any further details.

BWI’s Official(ly Lacking) Instructions are here.

I will try to get some pictures to aid your voyage soon. Check back.

On November 23, 2007 I posted the Don’t Ever Drink From Hotel Glasses video on bestviral. Since then, the video has spread around the globe and back. As of today, the video has received over 2.1 Million views from 197 different countries. These are the views from bestviral.com alone, not including views to the same video on LiveLeak, Break, and a number of other video sites.

Even more disturbing was the follow up video in which the same news team hid a camera in 4-star hotels and found that even a higher price does not dictate improved cleanliness in a hotel. While comments from viewers have ranged from outrage to apathy, it is hard to argue with what is caught on camera.

I like to think that I am pretty experienced with contextual advertising by now. Every once in a while, I see a “relevant” text ad that just blows my mind though. When viewing the Kermit Watches 2girls1cup video, I noticed the following text ad on the right:

Why God?

What does Kermit the Frog have to do with the 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid SUV? What kind of ridiculous keywords is Ford’s web marketing division bidding on if they are paying for clicks to a Kermit The Frog link? Really, what kind of ROI could that possibly yield?

Mind boggling really.

Update 12/30/07:

Apparently Ford has some sort of Kermit the Frog campaign going for their new hybrids. Still a questionable bid for blind Kermit the Frog keywords that have nothing to do with cars.

YouTube has been reportedly down for over 30 minutes, as of 11-25-07 at 12:55pm EST, with the following error message:

Http/1.1 Service Unavailable

This seems to be affecting all YouTube sites including:

• UK YouTube (uk.youtube.com)
• CA YouTube (ca.youtube.com)
• YouTube Blog (youtube.com/blog)

This is not the first time YouTube has gone down for an extended period of time. It experienced over 5 hours of downtime in August of 2006, with little explanation from the company.

More details to follow as they become available.

Update:

• As of 1:20pm EST, YouTube is back up. No word yet on the cause of the outage.
• On 11/29/2007 YouTube was again inexplicably down with the same error message. If you can’t take the traffic, get off the highway.

After wanting to do this for a long time, I finally was able to get my Blackberry 8800 to work as a USB modem for my laptop. This means you can get internet on your laptop/desktop wherever you get ATT/Cingular Service. I got it to work on Vista, but the instructions below are for XP. Vista basically has the exact same setup instructions though. It was confusing at first, but below I wrote out instructions that even a CHILD could follow.

You need the following before we begin:

• Blackberry 8800 (Most likely will work with any ATT/Cingular phone)
• AT&T Wireless Service with unlimited data plan (unless you like paying fees)
• USB connector cable

Okay, you’re ready to begin:

1. If you have not already, download and install the Blackberry Desktop Software.
2. Go to the Windows Device manager. Quickest way: Start > Run > devmgmt.msc
   
3. Click + button next to Modems, double click “Standard Modem”
4. Click the Advanced tab
5. Enter this into the empty box (no leading space): AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”wap.cingular”
   
6. Hit Okay, and close device manager.
7. Go to network connections. Quickest way: Start > Run >
   Paste in the following line and hit enter:
   explorer.exe ::{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
8. Click Create a new connection on the left, and follow these steps:
   1. Welcome to … Wizard –> Next
      
   2. [Select] Connect to internet –> Next
   3. [Select] Set up my connection manually –> Next
   4. [Select] Connect using a dial-up modem
   5. Type in a connection name of your choice (example: ATT dialup) –> Next
      
   6. Enter this as the phone number: *99***1# –> Next
   7. Enter user name (ALL CAPS): ISP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
   8. Enter and confirm password (ALL CAPS): CINGULAR1 –> Next/Finish
      
9. Open the desktop manager and plug in your Blackberry via the USB cable. Make sure it detects the Blackberry as connected.
10. Go back to your network connections window (step 7), and double click the new ATT Dialup icon.
11. Your password, username, and dialup number should already be saved. Just click “Dial”

This worked for me on the first try. It will not incur extra charges to your Blackberry plan on AT&T as long as you have the unlimited data plan.

What kind of speed will you get with this? According to my bandwidth test, not much. It’s still very useful to check e-mail and do light web surfing. The speed clocked in at around 78Kbps which is slightly faster than a 56k modem.. ick.

Updates:

• Thanks to Ken Hanscom for further improving these instructions, and linking back to me. I will be making a revision to my instructions per his improvements after testing.