"Oh, that's a feature."

This is what our sysads say whenever we complain that something we used to be able to do on our computers is no longer doable. Politicians could learn a lot about spin from these guys.

Today, however, I have conquered feature creep on at least one site. Viamichelin is the Michelin travel folks mapping and trip planning site. (I hear they make tires too.) It's a good tool, partly because it offers pedestrian and bicycle options. But they recently updated it (run away! run away!), and it started to stink. The new version will let you ask for a bicycle route but never quite gets around to displaying it for you. ("Well, sir, that's a feature of our new and improved tool.")

But just now I discovered, waaaay down at the bottom in a big long list, a link to the old site, which still works great and is fast as greased lightning. Unlike me on a bicycle. The link above is to the old, useful site. It's a little Eurocentric in presentation, but the maps of the US work just fine.

One small step for man, one giant leap for computer-using mankind.