5x cost increase

Crossref, a previous employer, has moved their infrastructure to the cloud. There are some good reasons for this, eg publication metadata depost volume is highly variable and being able to add capacity on short notice is good. But others not so much, eg search does grow but slowly over long periods where normal hardware purchasing can occur. (This may have changed since I was employeed.) What shocked me was the cost:

Moving from a physical data centre to the cloud also has some trade-offs; for instance, the cost will be approximately five times higher than running the system in the data centre; with initial data, it’s not unlikely the annual cost may be up to 2,000,000 USD. We aim to optimise and control this cost going forward.

For a non-profit with a duty to carefully steward their members' money this seems hard to justify.

My RIPTA support letter

My letter to my local state Senators and Representatives to support RIPTA.

I am hoping you can help RIPTA get the funding it needs to avoid the draconian cuts to service that are being proposed.

I am lucky in that I can work from home and only commute to my employer's Providence office a few times per month. Nevertheless, I still incur the costs of operating a car here in RI. The golocalprov.com 2022 article reports that it cost over $3000 a year to operate a car here. With average repair costs in the $150 to $250 range (which, given my recent experience, is higher now).

https://www.golocalprov.com/business/rhode-island-is-new-englands-most-expensive-state-to-drive-in-says-report

When I first started working for my current employer I took the 65x RIPTA bus each day. The ticket cost was very low, $2, and the bus was always full over the course of its route from Salt Pond to Kennedy Plaza. If I drove I would have had not only the car operating expenses, but also the $15 a day parking fee. Parking alone would be over $3000 per normal working year.

I can't image what it would feel like to face a $6,000 per year cost of living increase. An increase solely due the state of RI reneging on its commitment to fund public transport for all Rhode Islands. I hope you can help convince our legislators and governor of the importance of adequately supporting RIPTA.

Reneged is the right word because the Transit Forward RI program is less that 5 years old!