OSCOM3 looks interesting. Nope, won’t be attending. Mostly for personal reasons, but it didn’t help to have a few of the talks I was looking forward to not get accepted, and having Dave Winer as the keynote was perhaps the last bucket of ice water on my excitement. Still there are going to be some great people there, if I wasn’t busy elsewhere, might go just to chat around the coffee pot.

Also I’ve had a half dozen people thank me for my instructions on getting from New York JFK airport to Harvard (and by extension Boston) on the cheap. JFK to Boston in 6 hours, and $13 dollars. So I’ve posted it below.

JFK to Chinatown Bus

Catch the free shuttle from JFK to the subway (there is an information desk near baggage claim, they can tell you where to catch it) Take the A line to Canal St., then walk a few cross town blocks to the Fung Wah Bus depot (139 Canal St.). They leave almost every hour for Boston, cost $10 one way. (currently in a price war with Greyhound)

Once in Boston

Fung Wah drops you off in Boston Chinatown, near both South Station and the Chinatown T stops, ask someone for directions, probably not the bus the driver, but your only a couple of blocks from either one so it should be easy to find. (also some bus drivers are willing to drop you off at South Station, but there is no guarentee) If you end up at the Chinatown stop, take the T inbound to Downtown Crossing and transfer to the Red line there.

Time & Cost Estimates

It will probably take just over an hour to reach Fung Wah from JFK and cost $2, another 4-5 hours on the bus (a bit faster then Greyhound, about 30 minutes slower then the Accela) for $10, and another 20-30 minutes from Boston Chinatown to Harvard, $1. ### Optimizations

You could trade time for money catching one of the van services into Manhattan (but many will want to drop you in mid-town which doesn’t help), or catching a taxi directly to Chinatown.(maybe $15-$20? not sure) No matter what you do, its going to take the better part of a day. ### Why JFK?

Well one reason is JetBlue flies in and out of there, and JetBlue is is an airline for my kind of travel; last minutes fares are cheap [same as they are the rest of the time] and 1-way flights cost half the amount of round trip. update [12-jan-2004]: Apparently the free subway to airport shuttle has been discontinued and replaced with a new, non-free train.