Train Ride

　
So I am sitting on the floor, on a slow train to New York.

An elder lady just lied to 5 people who asked for the seat next to her, “My husband is coming back”. She finally gave in, and put her feet on the floor instead of the other seat. It’s either that or the lady who sits next to her now is sitting on her imaginary husband’s lap.

Anyway, for anybody who has no issue sitting on the floor, the number of seating option became infinite.

This kind of reminds me when one of my high school buddies was depressed because he just realized he was bi-sexual. He had been teased by everybody for being too feminine for years. It was not a shock to any of us that he likes guys. However apparently he was surprised by it. To ease his pain, a wise friend congratulated him that he just doubled his options in life.

He later turned full-time gay, of course. I hope he wasn’t surprised again, because we weren’t.

Finally I got a seat. I like riding trains, especially instead of flying. Being a statistical person, I believe everything in life is statistics, including the risk of train riding. However I always feel that I am not an individual, but a percentage when I travel by air. I hope that I would always be the 99.999% that comes back to the ground in one piece, not the unfortunate 0.001%.

My company lost one of the founders at the Pan-Am incident in 1988.

Unfortunate Stanley was the childhood friend of The Other Stanley, who is the chairman of the company today. They were both extremely smart. Being the best friend of each other, they had worked on many different things together through their life. They founded the company, one of their joint ventures and adventures, 30 years ago.

When their business finally started to take off so they weren’t poor anymore, Unfortunate Stanley told The Other Stanley his secret plan: one day he would just take enough money and leave everybody behind. No family, no work, just himself.

So even as today, The Other Stanley is still not sure whether his buddy was on the plane. Maybe he was not the unfortunate one after all. Maybe he owns several islands in the Caribbean’s and has 5 wives.

Anyway people always have their own particular issues with one or two public transportation systems. Air travel has never been my favorite. A friend of mine talked about her fear of missing the train stop a lot. She would remind people that she took off the train too early when she first travelled by herself at the age of 12 or 13, almost every time the subject of train ride was brought up. It must have become a deep-tissue nightmare for her. If I have a time machine, to find that poor little girl and tell her to wait couple more stops would be one of the things on my to-do-list.

I don’t really have a long to-do-list for the time machine scenario. I certainly have a long list for invisible cloak or a device that can freeze other people. Not sure how many of the things on my list are legal though. Time machine is not that practical for me --- not because I do not have many regrets in life. I think I do. However, I am sure for most of things I regretted in life, I could not do any better even if I get a second chance. I am very confident of my inabilities and lack of intelligence. And I am not really interested in meeting dinosaurs.
　

中時觀念平台: ＜觀賽新世代＞

　
落後亞洲先進國家一年左右的美國通訊業，一直到去年才開始正式跨入3G時代，無庸置疑，iPhone正是最重要的推手。上市不到兩年，iPhone已經在智慧手機市場搶下兩位數的占有率。幾年前商場上人手一台黑莓機，在被鎖小燈照射後的鍵盤上，違反人體工學飛快輸入的畫面，現在也被iPhone的觸控螢幕取代。

iPhone開放式的平台，打破了應用程式設計師跟路人間的藩籬。從用戶端不斷湧現的各種創意，雨後春筍般出現在蘋果提供的平台上，很快地，生活的各個層面都出現了便利的應用程式。根據最新的統計數字顯示，目前智慧手機所使用的網路頻寬，光是iPhone的用戶，就占了將近七成的流量。也因為如此，絞盡腦汁吸引消費者的商家們，當然無法忽視這個最貼近消費者的傳播媒介。

職棒舊金山巨人隊的主場，是由iPhone在美國獨家合作的電話公司AT&T冠名贊助。上星期，AT&T提供了一些有趣的數字：每場比賽當中，平均有上千名觀眾在球場裡使用無線網路上網。不少觀眾是一邊看球賽，一邊用手機推特（twitter）賽事的進展或更新自己的臉書（Facebook），也有人是拿著筆記型電腦瀏覽網路。根據巨人隊資訊長的研究，這些球場網民，有八成是iPhone的用戶。

而球場為因應這些新型態的球迷，也推出了不少貼心的服務。在巨人球場，球迷可以用手機上網，只要鍵入自己的座位號碼，無論是想喝特定廠牌的啤酒、吃墨西哥捲餅還是美式熱狗，網站都會告訴你離座位最近的攤位選擇及步行路線圖；吃多喝多了也不必擔心，同樣的工具能幫球迷找到最近的廁所。死忠的球迷只要花十元美金，就可以下載大聯盟推出的iPhone應用程式，投手所投的每一個球、進壘的路徑、速度、球種都鉅細靡遺，這個應用程式也提供了同時間其他比賽的實況轉播。

在球場上，球迷最不習慣的事情之一，應該是看不到電視轉播提供的精彩重播畫面。稍縱即逝的美技畫面，頂多會在球場的大螢幕上重播一次。假若表現精采的是來訪的客隊，主場更是不可能出現任何鏡頭。不過有了智慧型手機跟無線寬頻，錯過的畫面可以立即在聯盟的官網上下載，或是經由Slingbox觀賞自己家裡電視的實況轉播，球迷再也不必擔心錯過比賽精采的部分。

除了提升球場的周邊服務，球賽本身的品質，也在新科技下受到不同的考驗。在棒球場上，凡是遇到爭議性的判決，都是以不要激起現場球迷情緒為處理的原則，盡量避免在球場內重播爭議的畫面。試想，倘若一個離譜的判決在球場的大螢幕上不斷重播，說不定會引爆四、五萬人的騷動。智慧型手機在提供便利的同時，隨傳即到的重播畫面，卻也打破了球場的安全防線。

不過，科技是沒有回頭路可走的，球賽也只能隨之改變，愈來愈進步。

中時觀念平台: ＜當球員用推特召喚粉絲＞

　
ＮＢＡ總冠軍賽第四場，湖人隊老將費雪在只剩不到五秒，球隊落後三分的情況下，硬是一記三分冷箭，把比賽拉進延長賽。然後在延長賽雙方平手的時候，又補上一個三分球奠定勝局。魔術隊原本有機會把冠軍賽拉成二比二平手，結果在這兩擊之後再也後繼無力。湖人隊史上最有名的中鋒賈霸賽後下的註腳是這樣的：「費雪證明了ＮＢＡ的老世代，其實還沒有過氣。」

六十二歲的賈霸，在他的推特（Twitter）網頁留下上面那段評語。不知不覺中，新的傳播媒體，已經融合進入，甚至逐漸取代了傳統的新聞媒介。像是主流媒體不斷炒作湖人隊的小飛俠布萊恩跟前隊友俠客歐尼爾的瑜亮情結，歐尼爾選擇在他的推特網頁寫下回應是：「請大家告訴大家，我希望布萊恩拿下第四只冠軍戒。」他的推特網有一百三十萬個主動訂閱的用戶，如果把這則留言的傳播效力跟美國的主要報紙發行量比起來，可以排到第三位，遠超過歷史悠久的紐約時報跟華盛頓郵報的訂閱人數。

難怪不少球員寧願跳過媒體記者，主動跟球迷搭上線。寫下紅襪隊血襪傳奇的一代巨投席林，決定要退休的時候，是在自己的部落格上主動披露這則新聞。華盛頓巫師隊的亞瑞納斯在部落格上跟球迷說他抱女兒從樓梯上摔了一跤，球團才得知這個可怕的消息。在台灣，不少球員也用自己的無名小站，或是奇摩部落格建立跟球迷的互動。

不過對新興媒體的依賴也有過頭的時候，公鹿隊的維拉紐瓦在三月的時候狠狠地被教頭數落了一陣，因為他在球賽打到一半時，去更新自己的推特網頁。小牛隊頗受爭議的老闆庫班在今年找到被聯盟罰款的新辦法，他在推特上面抱怨裁判的判決，結果被罰了兩萬五千美金。更慘的像是米迪亞暴龍的人頭執行長在ＰＴＴ上揭露自己球員放水的消息，結果被幕後金主押走毆打。

不管怎樣，社交媒體，像是推特，臉書（Facebook），或是部落格的訂閱（RSS）服務都具有快速而廣泛的傳播效力，也受到球員的廣泛使用。難怪有人說現在的體育記者，主要的工作不再是採訪，而是在網路上閒晃跟做筆記。事實上，新聞寫作的好壞，正在此刻可以見出高下。在消息來源唾手可得的情況下，不少記者選擇讓自己從新聞的狩獵者，懶化成採集者，結果迷失在社交網站缺乏廣度跟高度自我宣傳的盲點裡。殊不知讀者最需要的並不是八卦消息的集合，而是把消息整合過濾的再加工。

訂閱球員跟球評的推特、體育新聞，加上Rotoworld跟氣象網站的RSS，已經是專業球迷的基本功。不用功的記者，真的要當心了