June 20, 2012

There were 6 posts published on June 20, 2012 (this is page 1 of 1).

Tough RCAC meeting

When I woke up this morning, I could feel a disturbance in the Force. My chi was simply all wrong. I felt unease most of the day and wondered what big challenge would present itself today. I knew one would, though.

That challenge came in the form of tonight’s RCAC meeting, where I expected the board to read and accept updated bylaws that have been worked on for weeks by the board’s bylaws committee. Instead there was instant suspicion on the part of some members, and I and the other bylaws committee members were put in the defensive early on. When the committee finally was able to explain the proposed changes and pointed out that these were minor edits of the same documents we’ve been staring at for the better part of a year, resistance softened quite a bit. We had a good conversation about it and lots of feedback was collected but ultimately no vote was taken.
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The need for probation reform

After digging up some info on the two suspects in my neighbor’s burglary, I found out even more distressing information. Edwards had been arrested March 30th for the very same charge, Breaking and Entering, skipped bail and missed court date, which apparently resulted in his Failure To Appear charge. This is of course all after he was convicted in December of multiple property crimes. I haven’t found out yet what Enyinnaya’s story is but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a similar one.

Where was his probation officer? Who knows? Edwards got a suspended sentence and probation for his December thefts but felt confident enough that he wouldn’t get caught to bust into more homes three months later.
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Is Stealing Music Really The Problem?

A good response to David Lowery’s response to Emily White.

What started this was a post on NPR’s website by an intern named Emily White who admitted to buying very little music in her life but owning a lot via various levels of legality. This led to an impassioned response by Camper Van Beethoven/Cracker frontman David Lowery, who eloquently argued for the ethical and moral obligations Emily should have towards these artists and how stealing music has dramatically impacted their financial lives. This post has sprung up impassioned responses by, among others, Bob Lefsetz and a manager who is also, coincidentally, named Emily White. People have dug in their heels and have spilled many hours defending and vilifying both sides.

Yet lost in this discussion is one important element. Facts. Because if you’re going to argue that stealing has impacted your business, you should actually prove that…y’know…a lot of people have actually stolen your music.

via IS STEALING MUSIC REALLY THE PROBLEM? – FutureHit.DNA.

Weatherford Drive burglary suspects identified

Bango Eninnaya


I heard back from Raleigh Police on the Weatherford burglary suspects. The two suspects are Bango Benjamin Enyinnaya, age 16, of 2334 Keith Drive in Raleigh; and Tyler Gregory Edwards, age 19, of 1317 Hazelnut Drive in Raleigh. Enyinnaya was charged with Felony Breaking and/or Entering, Larceny After Breaking/Entering, and Felony Probation Violation. Edwards was charged with Felony Breaking and/or Entering and Larceny After Breaking/Entering.

Tyler Edwards


Both Enyinnaya and Edwards have criminal records for breaking-and-entering. It seems around Thanksgiving of last year the two decided to go on a burglary spree. Edwards has a longer rap sheet, including an arrest in Charlotte for marijuana possession in August of 2010. He was arrested most recently on April 25th on a Failure to Appear charge.

No word on how many other burglaries these two are tied to. Raleigh Police tell me the vehicle did not belong to either suspect but was one that they had access to. That might explain the parade of strangers through our neighborhood following the break-in, returning to find the car.

Burglars busted!

Friday evening, I learned from my neighbor that two suspects who allegedly broke into my neighbor’s house have been arrested. I knew it wouldn’t take long, since the hapless burglars had fled on foot and left their getaway car in the driveway. Rumor has it that at least one of the kids was arrested when he was caught when he was breaking into another home.

Friday afternoon, I took note of a strange car making a loop down Weatherford Drive. There was a young kid in the middle of the back seat and it looked as if he were being chauffeured around. I remember from our own break-in a few years ago that police detectives will drive burglary suspects around to the homes the suspect might have burglarized, giving the suspect the opportunity to own up to each break-in. I don’t know if this is what was taking place with this kid but it made me wonder.

I haven’t heard back from my police contacts about the details of the arrests. If I get those details I’ll post them here.

Update 1:15 PM: Info on burglary suspects is here, courtesy of the Raleigh Police Department.

HD radio online

Yesterday I got curious about HD Radio so I pulled up the Wikipedia page on it. It turns out HD Radio a proprietary mess. Standard-owner iBiquity could’ve used one of the dozens of openly-available CODECs to create HD Radio (and the FCC could’ve mandated it) but instead it hacked the MPEG4-AAC standard into something proprietary. In the long run, this will set back American radio innovation as compared to Europe’s open standards-based approach. What a shame.

The end result is that radio manufacturers have to pay a royalty to make HD radio receivers. Station owners pay a large fee for the encoder and sign away 3% of their net profits. All of this is for a digital format with a nascent, unproven audience.

Looking to Raleigh’s leader in broadcast advancements, Capitol Broadcasting, I clicked on WRAL-FM’s homepage and found a link to listen online to the station’s HD broadcast. An Adobe Flash-based player instantly launched, streaming a nice mix of music with apparently no commercials. Quite nice!
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