Sexy Shuttlegirl Aids Quadlings

Thanks to the efforts of a pair of Pforzheimer House roommates, Quad dwellers now have one less reason not to go to class in the morning.

ShuttleGirl, an Internet-based computer program that parses Harvard's shuttle schedule, went online Sunday night.

Located at www.shuttlegirl.com, the program allows users to choose points of departure and arrival and then tells them the times of the next three shuttles serving those locations.

ShuttleGirl replaces Shuttleboy, the Unix-based program that operated out of the account of its creator, David Malan '99. The start of the fall semester required a new program; Malan found he no longer had time to maintain it.

Anthony Delvecchio '01 and Jason R. P. Karamchandani '02, roommates in Pforzheimer, decided not simply to take over the old program, but in the words of Delvecchio, to "add a little flavor" to it. And so, with Malan's help, ShuttleGirl was born.

While Shuttleboy contained only text, ShuttleGirl's website boasts a logo--a red silhouette of a female wearing boot-cut pants.

For those who have cell phones with Web browsers, there is a wireless version of ShuttleGirl available at wireless.shuttlegirl.com. A Palm Pilot version may be in the works.

And a Unix version--similar to Shuttleboy--will go online sometime in the next week, Delvecchio and Karamchandani said.

According to ShuttleGirl's creators--neither of whom are actually computer science concentrators--the program has been successful so far in assisting shuttle users.

Less than 24 hours after they sent an e-mail message publicizing the website to Pforzheimer's open e-mail list, Delvecchio and Karamchandani reported over 1,000 hits.

Early feedback was very positive, they said. No one reported any mistakes on the site, and many inquired as to the identity of the woman on the site.

Delvecchio and Karamchandani said they were not at liberty to say who ShuttleGirl is--if she is, in fact, a real person at all.

Shuttleboy, they said, was not actually based on a real person.

The program's founders said they consider the apparent sex appeal and mysterious identity of ShuttleGirl an added bonus to attract people to the site. Their ultimate goal is convenience.

"It's nice to create something that people--including ourselves--can use," Karamchandani said.

"You get up in the morning, sleeping in your clothes," Delvecchio added. "You go over to your computer, click twice and go to class."

"Like us this morning," Karamchandani joked.