May 3, 2011

There were 4 posts published on May 3, 2011 (this is page 1 of 1).

Fallen wires

The tornado that ripped through Raleigh a few weeks ago left much debris and heartbreak for its citizens. It also left a few downed telephone lines, one of which has been lying in the road near my home since the storm struck. I pondered how anyone could find it acceptable for their phone service to be out for over two weeks.

Then I hit upon the answer: no one has landlines anymore.

That copper lying in the street is likely “dead” copper, having long ago beed disconnected in favor of cellphone service or a VoIP connection. AT&T hasn’t been in a hurry to rehang that line because it’s not making any money from it. I wondered how much copper still hanging on those poles is still being used, and if local telephone companies are on a slow march to irrelevance.

Or maybe it’s a quick march.

The Mordecai Interpretive Center

Mordecai House


Thursday evening, some of the neighborhood email lists lit up with discussion of the planned Interpretive Center at Mordecai Historic Park. The center is going through the planning stages and the proposed location has been selected by staff, with the Mordecai Historic Park (MHP) board and the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission both offering their approvals. Three public meetings have addressed the center and public feedback up until now has been overwhelmingly positive, with the project receiving a standing ovation at its public hearing in the Mordecai neighborhood in November.

When first presented with this plan at the Mordecai board meeting, I was concerned that the board was not given time to properly vet this plan. I needed time to study it and get my questions addressed. I recognize the historical importance of the park and wanted to make sure we did this right. It remains the only time I voted in the minority as a Mordecai boardmember.
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Pakistan knew

There is no way that Osama Bin Laden lived in a compound that secure in the neighborhood of a Pakistani military academy without the Pakistan government knowing about it.

I think it’s becoming more clear that Pakistan’s interests and America’s interests are often in conflict.

Make your own cell phone network

I just discovered a very cool open-source project that turns an ordinary laptop into a cellular tower. It uses Asterisk to route calls.

Very, very cool. Now I have to find out how it works!

OpenBTS is an open-source Unix application that uses the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to present a GSM air interface ("Um") to standard GSM handset and uses the Asterisk® software PBX to connect calls. The combination of the ubiquitous GSM air interface with VoIP backhaul could form the basis of a new type of cellular network that could be deployed and operated at substantially lower cost than existing technologies in greenfields in the developing world.

via The OpenBTS Project.