July 2011

There were 38 posts published in July 2011 (this is page 3 of 4).

Compelling photograph

N&O photograph by Takaai Iwabu

I was sad to read in yesterday’s News and Observer about a fire at the Gorman Crossing apartment complex in Raleigh. Accompanying the story was a compelling photograph of one of the affected residents, Connie Starkey, being comforted by her father, Fred Starkey.

Connie’s grief screams out of the photo. Her face told me all I needed to know about what happened there – and how I should feel about it. Everyone who sees this photograph knows what this woman was feeling at that very instant. It’s a powerful image.

N&O photographer Takaaki Iwabu captured a masterful photograph. I believe it’s the best photograph I’ve seen in the News and Observer in months, if not years. It’s outstanding photojournalism.

As for Connie, I hope she’s able to recover from this tragedy.

Update 22 July: While Connie lost all of her possessions in the fire, at least her dog and one of her two cats survived. Hooray! See the NCSU Technician’s excellent photos of the efforts to save Starkey’s cat, Sissy.

Update 2: WTVD’s Anthony Wilson spoke with Connie a day after the fire.

CERT training

Tonight was my first night of CERT training. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team and it’s a free program designed to get people trained to help their neighborhood in the event of an emergency.

Tonight’s topics were disaster preparedness and CERT organization. The next class will go over fire safety and disaster psychology. There will be other fun things to do as well.

Being in tonight’s class convinced me that I already know a lot of this stuff, having helped out in disaster events before. I know I still have more to learn, though, and I’m looking forward to improving my knowledge.

Tonight’s class also reminded me that I still have to blog about the lessons I learned from the April 16th tornado. There are plenty of ways the response could’ve been improved and I made notes of this immediately afterward but never shared them. That’s a blog post for another night, though, folks!

Gerrymandering

The problem with gerrymandering (no matter who does it) is that it makes it impossible to vote for leaders solely on the basis of who has the best solutions to our common problems. The goal should not be “how can we remain in office?” Instead, the goal should be “how can we find the best solutions to our problems?” If one team has a better idea of how things should be done let’s put that team up for an honest vote, not a vote that’s a foregone conclusion. We voters aren’t stupid – why shouldn’t we be trusted? Why are politicians afraid of giving us a fair choice?

I guess I’m old-fashioned, but the partisanship-at-all-costs stuff got old a long, long time ago.

Earthlink’s email blocked by Hotmail?

It looks like I’m not the only one who’s been going to battle against Microsoft Hotmail’s anti-spam measures. Now Hotmail is rejecting emails from Earthlink accounts. We’ve seen our emails sent there being bounced for the past few days. Here’s the message:

[redacted]@hotmail.com
SMTP error from remote mailer after MAIL FROM:<[redacted]@[redacted]>
SIZE=3777:
host mx4.hotmail.com [65.55.92.184]: 550 SC-001 (SNT0-MC4-F19)
Unfortunately, messages from 207.69.195.66 weren’t sent. Please contact your
Internet service provider since part of their network is on our block list.
You can also refer your provider to
http://mail.live.com/mail/troubleshooting.aspx#errors.

Like many ISPs, Earthlink has its own anti-spam measures. I’ve not found anything on Earthlink’s website that explains the current Hotmail block, however.

How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

Informative look at music industry math.

Recently, the UK government passed The Digital Economy Act which included many, perhaps draconian, measures to combat online music piracy including withdrawing broadband access for persistent pirates. Much was proclaimed about how these new laws would protect musicians and artists revenue and livelihoods. But how much money do musicians really get paid in this new digital marketplace?

via How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?.

Grayson Highlands State Park

Along the Virginia Creeper Trail


We got back this evening from a three-day weekend spent camping at Grayson Highlands State Park in Mouth of Wilson, VA. Highlights include a deluge of rain Friday night that started as we were setting up our tent Friday night and didn’t let up until 9 AM Saturday morning.

We took our bikes with us and drove to Damascus, VA Saturday morning, where we arrived in time for lunch at Quincey’s Pizza, a fine eating and drinking establishment, indeed. After a tasty meal, we drove over to the bike shuttle place, where we boarded a van and were driven with our bikes up to our starting point for the Virginia Creeper Trail in Whitetop, VA. The next 17 miles were spent chasing the kids down the trail at breakneck speeds, with me stopping only as long as I dared so that I could snap photos of the beautiful scenery.

We arrived back at the campsite around dinner time, so Kelly cooked up a tasty turkey chili to recharge us. Then after listening to a musician play in the park amphitheater, we sat around our campfire roasting marshmallows until about 10 PM. Unlike Friday night, sleep came quickly and easily this time!

My view, most of the way!


After an excellent night of sleep, we enjoyed some hot oatmeal for breakfast, broke camp, and drove over to one of the many trailheads in Grayson Highlands. We hiked the Rhododendron Trail up to a scenic overhang, where we met a man and his two young daughters and stayed for a while. Peering through binoculars, we could see groups of wild horses on the hills surrounding us. It was cool.

We then ventured down a loop trail and made it back to the van in time for lunch (and just before the heavens opened up again). On our way down, though, we flushed a wild turkey out of the woods mere feet away from us. What a surprise that was to see this huge, startled bird bust out of nowhere!

The ride was an easy one back and we’re now in for the night. In spite of the spotty sleep I got during Friday night’s non-stop rain, it was the best camping trip I think I’ve ever been on. We’re already making plans for our next trip out this summer!

Be on the lookout for this scooter

My friend Jason had his scooter stolen from his front yard this week. It’s a red, 150cc-size Q-Link Achilles brand and is a 2007 model. Jason says he’s never seen another one like it in town.

If you happen to see this scooter around Raleigh, call 911.

Update 17 Jul: Scooter found and returned. Thanks, RPD!

Roku magic

Roku

A week ago, I decided to dust off our Roku player. It had been spending most of its time umplugged because it competed for the only S-Video jack on our bedroom’s old TV. The Roku can kick out a 720p HD picture, though, and our HDTV has a ton of unused inputs so I ordered a new HDMI cable and hooked it up once it arrived. The Roku looks beautiful on the HDTV.

Yesterday, Netflix announced the company is hiking its prices by up to 60%. While I’m disappointed by Netflix’s move (and think BitTorrent traffic will undoubtedly rise as a result), having the Roku available means I have plenty other choices for Internet TV. Not only does the Roku play Netflix’s streaming, it carries dozens and dozens of other channels, both video and music.

Tonight I used a handy Javascript page to load up the Internet radio station I’ve been building so that it plays on my Roku’s Shoutcast channel. The Roku streams online radio stations very, very well. I like being able to fire up a station on the Roku, turn off the TV, and listen to the station on the stereo. Beats having a full-size computer doing it.

I’ll continue to tinker with the Roku. I’ve been pretty impressed with what it can do.