A pirate listens at 40

Kelly and I saw Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band again last night, courtesy of a friend’s comp tickets. Jimmy and the band played Raleigh on their “SummerZcool” tour, and while they did play here last summer, band appearances have become rarer in Raleigh lately. I’ve never understood why this is the case, as Jimmy has consistently sold out here. I admit to wondering what we might have done to upset him.

We rolled into Walnut Creek Amphitheatre around 6:30 with a little time to check out the crazy parking lot scene. There were Parrotheads everywhere and we had to scramble for one of the few parking places left in the lot. I was in awe at the kind of machine Jimmy has built in thirty-plus years of touring. The guy gets little or no airplay and yet he still attracts a huge following of loyal Parrotheads.
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Playing for Change

During the “recess” in last night’s Jimmy Buffett show, I was captivated by a music video shown of various international singers singing Bob Marley’s One Love. Watching these talented, diverse singers perform this beautiful song was powerful and spellbinding, so much so that a minute went by before I noticed Jimmy had quietly wandered back on stage, strumming a ukulele and singing to himself with the video. It’s all part of the Playing for Change foundation.

More of this, please!

Owl calling

Around 5 AM this morning I was dozing happily when my attention was drawn to a quiet but repetitive sound outside our bedroom window. A Great Horned Owl was saying good morning from the nearby woods. It may have been the one we’ve seen recently, that last made an appearance in our back yard in March.

I listened to it call for about ten minutes before it meandered away. In the calm, quiet morning, I found this hooting especially soothing. It was a nice reminder that nature is all around us.

Time Warner Cable CEO raked in $14 millon last year

According to an Associated Press analysis, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt received over $14 million in compensation last year in salary, stock, bonuses, and benefits. And this was down 8 percent from last year.

…. Britt received a salary of $1 million last year, unchanged from 2007, and a performance-based bonus of $6.4 million, down from $7.8 million a year earlier, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

He received other compensation worth over $82,500, which included more than $25,000 in life insurance premiums, a car allowance and a company savings plan match.

Britt also received nearly 104,000 restricted stock units worth $2.86 million on the date they were granted. He received 374,610 stock options as well with an exercise price of $27.51, worth $4 million when they were granted on March 3, 2008. However, the options are currently worth less given that Time Warner Cable shares closed at $27.37 Monday, slightly below the exercise price.

It’s interesting to note that Wilson built their own triple-play (voice, video, data) fiber network that will serve them for the next twenty years all for the cost of just two years of Glenn Britt’s compensation.

This is a company that needs protection from municipal broadband systems. Yeah, right.

Raising the broadband bar in NC

There’s been plenty afoot in the N.C. General Assembly this session regarding broadband internet, as those couple of you who read my blog are well aware. Now there’s an effort by the telecom industry to define “broadband service” in North Carolina. House Bill 283 would define any Internet service with speeds faster than 1.5 Mbps down and 384 kbps up.

So let me ask you … how many of you would consider that “broadband?” How many of you would die a slow death using the Internet at those speeds? A measly 1.5 Mbps/384kbs might have been considered “broadband” 15 years ago but it certainly doesn’t pass for that today, now that countries like Japan have jaw-dropping 160 Mbps cable modem service. Arguably these slow speeds weren’t considered “broadband” 15 years ago, either!
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Kintiskton

I found a bunch of web hits from a subnet belonging to an organization called Kintiskton. Their server was spidering my blog without identifying itself as a bot or a spider:

65.208.151.113 – – [23/Apr/2009:07:50:24 -0400] “GET /wp-content/uploads/2009/03/amazon.gif HTTP/1.1” 403 362 “http://www.markturner.net/category/Musings/” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”
65.208.151.116 – – [23/Apr/2009:07:50:29 -0400] “GET /2009/01/06/interview-day/ HTTP/1.1” 403 350 “http://www.markturner.net/category/Musings/” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”
65.208.151.114 – – [23/Apr/2009:07:50:33 -0400] “GET /2008/06/ HTTP/1.1” 403 333 “http://www.markturner.net/category/Musings/” “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)”

Bad spider! Bad!

Here is the whois record:
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Raleigh opposes H1252/S1004

Yesterday afternoon, Raleigh City Council passed a resolution opposing H1252/S1004, the so-called “Level Playing Field Act.” This opposition was mentioned prominently in today’s committee meeting, where I definitely think it swayed opinions.

Here’s the text of the opposition resolution:

A RESOLUTION TO EXPRESS THE CONCERN OF THE CITY OF RALEIGH ABOUT CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF RECENTLY INTRODUCED LEGISLATION REGULATING GOVERNMENT PROVISION OF BROADBAND SERVICE AND CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE.

Whereas, Senate Bill 1004 and House Bill 1252, companion bills entitled The Level Playing Field Act, have been introduced in the 2009 Regular Session of the North Carolina General Assembly; and

Whereas, it is possible that the bills do not provide the level playing field implied in their titles for local governments versus private providers; and
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Buffett

Oh, more good news today: I scored two tickets to tomorrow night’s Jimmy Buffett concert … and Kelly scored a babysitter for us! This will be my or ninth Buffett show or thereabouts, though I’ve frankly lost count.

Can’t be there? Tune in on Radio Margaritaville

Between Buffett and the upcoming Elvis Costello and Dan Zanes shows, we’ll have seen more shows this year than during the rest of our marriage combined. Apparently it’s okay to still tour in a down economy!

Mr. Turner goes to Raleigh

The anti-municipal Internet bill written by Time Warner Cable and pushed by Ty Harrell has really pissed me off. We fought this battle two years ago but like the undead it keeps returning.

I’ve been spending my Copious Free Time participating any way I can in getting this defeated. The past two Wednesdays, I’ve spent my lunch break in the N.C. House Science and Technology Committee room, watching as Harrell and others pass this train-wreck legislation as quickly as possible. As last week’s meeting, six out of seven speakers opposed the bill, with the debate running so late the committee could not take a vote. The only speaker in favor was Time Warner Cable’s Brad Phillips, whose company effectively wrote the bill.
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N&O layoffs

I’ve long thought that Raleigh could use more community newspapers. I just never thought the News and Observer would become one.

A large number of N&O staffers had their last day yesterday. There were a lot of familiar names in the group that will be missed, but one I thought was particularly disappointing to see was the Take It Outside writer, Joe Miller. I’ve long maintained that the two things that keep me subscribing to the N&O are the columns of Barry Saunders and Joe Miller. Of them, I always thought Joe had one of the best jobs in the country.

I wish the laid-off reporters and writers well and hope I’ll see more of their work soon.