May 18, 2012

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Winthrop Opens Ferry to Boston

For the next three months, Winthrop residents will have an easier time commuting to Boston. That’s because a new ferry between Winthrop and Boston opened August 3. It will continue to run for the next three months, at which time the city will decide whether to continue the service. Winthrop’s town leaders hope that the three-month trial will lead to a success so that they can continue operating the ferry next year on a permanent basis.

Winthrop’s mayor, James McKenna, hopes that the ferry will make it easier for the town’s residents to commute into Boston, but he also hopes that the ferry will entice Bostonians to visit the small town just to their east.

Currently, Winthrop’s city leaders are working on a harbor walk project in a part of the city called Crystal Cove. The Harbor Walk will include restaurants, shops, and numerous sightseeing opportunities that will attract people from the Boston metro area. If your not too interested in the Boston area you could try Florida, which has the greatest outdoor activities for all ages year round. Florida vacation homes are the perfect place to go and try the pirate cruise, parasailing, water parks, and even the zoo.

The Crystal Cove harbor walk’s success, however, depends somewhat on the success of the ferry. After all, there are plenty of things to do in Boston without traveling to Winthrop. Sure, it’s a relatively short drive, but one that few Bostonians will make regularly. The ferry, however, will make it easier for people on both sides of Boston Harbor to travel. Even those who don’t find that the ferry saves them a substantial amount of time could still enjoy the novelty of the experience.

Winthrop has a lot riding on the ferry and Crystal Cove concepts. The planned harbor walk project will cost about $2.35 million.

It could be difficult to get the project up and running, however. This is largely because the Crystal Cove project relies somewhat on the success of the 149-passenger ferry. The ferry’s success, however, depends on a good reason to visit Winthrop. Seeing as how the city does not plan to begin its harbor walk project until next year, the ferry could struggle during its three-month trial.

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Filed Under: Boston, General Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

WikiLeak’s Boston Connection?

Boston has long been an important location to the hacker community. The presence of a strong computer tech industry, MIT, and the near-by Harvard means that there are plenty of tech-savvy people living in Boston. Many of those people started their careers by getting interested in computer hacking.

To most of us, hackers are dangerous. They steal information, write viruses, and create all kinds of havoc. Within the hacker community, however, you will find various types of people who have their own ethical codes. Many of them simply enjoy solving complicated puzzles, while others take apart security systems in order to discover weaknesses. Knowing where the weaknesses are is just the first step. Deciding what to do with that information is where the ethics come in. Some hackers use their skills to steal information, but the vast majority of hackers use them to alert companies to potential security flaws.

Boston first became popular as a hacker town during the 1990s when a group calling themselves Lopht Heavy Industries started publishing security flaws related to major computer software such as the Windows operating system.

Some people question whether such tactics do more harm than good. The hacker community, however, maintains that censorship has no place in modern society.

It’s not surprising, therefore, that the recent WikiLeaks scandal has many authorities eyeing elite computer hackers in the Boston area. The big question is whether someone helped Bradley Manning, the young Army Private who initially leaked documents about the War in Afghanistan.

Leaking thousands of documents would require a certain level of expertise. Imagine downloading more than 90,000 documents from a database without drawing attention to the activity. That’s quite an accomplishment. Chances are that Bradley does not have the skills to do it by himself.

According to computer experts and hackers in the Boston area, there are other hurdles that Bradley would have to jump to sneak the files out. First, he would need help downloading all of those files from the Pentagon’s server. Second, he would need to know how to scrub them of metadata. It’s more complicated than laymen know.

Filed Under: Boston, General Tagged With: , ,

Gazebos and New England Weather

Boston is the quintessential New England city – it draws in millions of people for financial, cultural and social functions, and it has the kind of weather that could only be described as “predictably unpredictable.” After all, there are not too many cities in New England that do not experience plenty of temperature changes throughout the year, ranging from “bone chilling cold” to “almost hot enough to cook eggs on the side walk.” And with enough rain to nearly qualify for rain forest status (minus the forest, of course), Boston is the kind of city where a person might want to take up a little bit of shade.

Granted, the weather is often beautiful. And if you are one of the sufficiently lucky (and affluent) people who have access to a good view of the Charles River, you can attest to that being only one of the numerous sites around town that you could just sit and take in for hours at a time. Unfortunately, the weather has a disturbing tendency to conspire with itself (and your schedule) to make any time where you could just set up a lawn chair and take in the sites a bad time from a weather perspective. When the Puritans arrived, they probably considered the challenging climate to be a test from the Almighty.

Aren’t you glad that in our modern world, we’ve largely passed that test? Nowadays, gazebos allow you to sit outside without actually having to take the brunt of the outside’s hatred for human beings who want to sit around and relax. You can sit inside your gazebo, all bundled up and enjoying the majesty of the snow fall, without having to feel the full brunt of those arctic winds Ben Franklin was talking about. And in the summer time, you can enjoy a calm afternoon, rain or shine. Rain means very little in your gazebo.

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Filed Under: Boston, Life Style Tagged With: , ,

Outdoor Activities in Boston

Recreational kayak
Image via Wikipedia

Boston, Massachusetts is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the east coast, and for good reason. A veritable feast of historical attractions awaits American History enthusiasts, from Paul Revere’s house to the oldest public park in the United States. There are also museums, plenty of high-end as well as knickknack and gift shopping, old American cemeteries, and delicious dining from five star restaurants to street vendors. Whatever you’re looking for in Boston, there is a weekend itinerary that will be perfect for you. The following are some suggestions for things to do within the Boston area that should be especially appealing to outdoorsy folks.

How about an introduction to Boston by kayak? Take a sightseeing tour on the Charles River and float your way past some of the city’s best spots. On Friday nights, there are paddle tours that leave from Cambridge in the evening that are about two hours long. Book in advance and let the experienced guides take you past scenic landscapes and Bostonian landmarks. You’ll finish the night with a barbecued meal.

Fenway Park, famous home of the Boston Red Sox, is worth a visit even if you can’t score tickets to a game. Tours of the longest running actively operating ballpark in America are reasonably priced, and some tours come with field access and even batting practice privileges so you can pretend you’re a pro. If you want to sail away, why not sail out to the Boston Harbor Islands? About ten minutes from downtown Boston, you can check out the islands by boarding a ferry or joining a boat tour. Get close to nature and soak up some American history with a visit to these islands.

Another great outside attraction is the Boston Public Garden. Don’t miss out on the chance to meander the pathways and people watch on weekends when the weather is nice and locals come out to job or stroll. You can even ride the iconic swan boats, a pastime that is a tradition in the Boston Common lake, and great fun for younger kids and adults alike.

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Filed Under: Boston, Entertainment Tagged With: , ,

“Somerville: A Unique Boston Neighborhood”

Powderhouse, Somerville MA
Image by Chris Devers via Flickr

Far from the “Slummerville” moniker given to it in the old days, the city of Somerville is a thriving, eclectic urban area right next to Cambridge and just north of Boston and the Charles River. Somerville has become a desirable place to live for many Bostonians for several reasons.

Somerville Dining and Nightlife

Somerville has some of Boston’s most interesting restaurants and bars. Since there is a large Portugese population, Somerville has many Portugese and Brazilian restaurants, shops, and bakeries. Walk down Cambridge Street in the morning, and you’ll see groups of Portugese men standing outside the bakeries, drinking coffee and joking around. For beer lovers, Somerville’s Inman Square and Union Squares offer pubs like The Druid and Bukowski’s – each with a wide selection of craft beer. Inman Square also has one of Boston’s best ice cream shops – Christina’s – with exotic flavors like chocolate chili, rose, and ginger. For a more refined dining experience, Oleana – a restaurant in Inman Square – is one of Boston’s very best restaurants, especially for vegetarian diners. Try the Baked Alaska for dessert – a towering creation served toasty-hot.

Intellectual Climate

Since Boston boasts so many colleges and universities, the population is, as a whole, quite educated, and this is reflected in much of Somerville’s culture. Cambridge, a technology haven, is just next door, and some of the world’s leading biotech companies are based there. Both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are located in Cambridge, and many of the students live and hang out in Somerville. Also, Tufts University, another highly regarded school, is located next to Somerville’s Davis Square. The intellectual density has helped support creativity and innovation throughout Somerville, and it helps to keep the economy growing. It’s a great place for entrepreneurs, since they don’t have to look too far to find talent.

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Filed Under: Boston, Entertainment, Life Style Tagged With: , ,
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