AT&T, NCNGN, and Google Fiber

fiber_house
I’ve had a lot of people ask me last week what the deal is with the City of Raleigh’s announcement that AT&T has been selected as an NCNGN provider. Most want to know how this affects the city’s work to get us Google Fiber. I was curious, too, so I gave the City’s CIO, Gail Roper, a call.

OMG! Did Raleigh just kill Google Fiber?

Let me say right up front that Google Fiber is safe. The city has been working hard to complete Google’s checklist which is due back on May 1st. The city is still on track to respond by the May 1st deadline. With that out of the way, allow me to explain a bit what NCNGN is all about.

The N.C. Next Generation Network (NCNGN, pronounced “NC engine”) is a regional effort to define common standards for building out fiber networks and to attract providers willing to meet these standards. The participating government entities are using the NCNGN plan as a starting point for negotiations with broadband providers. The goal is to bring some uniformity and predictability to what can be a very expensive process by standardizing on as many aspects of a fiber build as possible.
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Renewables are already beating coal

A ridiculous letter to the editor from local curmudgeon George Sharpley prompted me to pen this response:

George Sharpley thinks that investments in renewable energy have not shown “exceptional gains.” On the contrary, solar PV prices have dropped 97.2% since 1975 and ten states have now reached “grid parity” where renewable energy costs equal that of coal. But why stop there? The same market forces that make our smartphones ubiquitous and affordable are destined to make renewable energy cheaper than other energy sources.

No wonder the Koch brothers are worried. If I were in the dirty energy business I’d be worried, too.

I submitted it to the N&O today. Hope they run it.

Oh, and Sharpley mentions that China’s renewable energy production has dropped to %0.23 from a high of 40% in 1971? While that may or may not be true, China’s entire energy production in 1971 was only 3% of what it is today. It wasn’t until Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit that China’s growth began in earnest.

In case Mr. Sharpley doesn’t remember who Richard Nixon is, I’ll give him a hint: he’s the president who created the Environmental Protection Agency.

Vital vitals

My health isn’t all scary, fortunately. I saw the doctor on Wednesday to try to get some answers. Though I’m still waiting on those answers, I was quite pleased to hear my blood pressure is 113/71 with a pulse of 55.

Those are fantastic numbers and I don’t know to what I can attribute them. It’s not like I’m exercising more than I was, or eating better. I think the biggest change between this reading and the unhealthier reading I had a few months back is simply being in a job now that I love.

I suspected that my last job situation was significantly impacting my health. Now there is some evidence that might back that up.

Shattered

Every 6 months to a year I will have these very odd health symptoms. Last week I experienced one of these internal health storms and it happened very inconveniently during a trip away from home.

It began last Thursday morning. When my brain suffers from a fever I start to not think straight. I noticed that taking hold during breakfast and began to wonder what was going on.

By Thursday at lunch I began to feel stomach pains and a bit of queasiness. The stomach weirdness continued though the day until I began our drive up to DC.

I had handed the driving over to Kelly and taking a short nap when I noticed my ears felt hot against my car pillow. I told Kelly that something was going on with me but I wasn’t sure just what. In spite of my stomach pains continuing and the feeling of coming down with something, I managed to complete our drive to Kelly’s parents’ home.
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New York City and Carnegie Hall

Ligon Middle School performs at Carnegie Hall

Ligon Middle School performs at Carnegie Hall


Wow, it’s been a busy few weeks not just for me but for all of us. Hallie took three days off of school last week to travel with the Ligon Philharmonic Orchestra up to New York to play at Carnegie Hall. Kelly, Travis, and I along with Kelly’s parents joined her after taking the bus up.

We arrived Friday afternoon and had plenty of time to do some sightseeing. First we checked in at the Union Theological Seminary which was to be our hotel for the trip. Then we hit the subway to check out downtown.

Our first stop was the Brooklyn Bridge. I’d seen it from a distance of course but had never walked over it before. It was windy, cool, and very crowded, but it was nice to be able to say I’ve been across it.
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Tyson Shows Star Power :: North Carolina State University Bulletin

The tickling photo of Hallie and Travis with Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson made it to the N.C. State website. Also, you can see us pretty easily in the audience in the first photo. Pretty fun to find!

NC State hosted a bona fide superstar last Thursday when astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and host of the Fox TV show “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” came to campus.

If you’ve ever seen Tyson give a lecture or hold forth in one of his 10 appearances on the “Colbert Report,” you know he has a galaxy-sized personality and charisma to match. Both were on full display during his campus appearances, which included a roundtable interview with local media, a meeting with students in the College of Sciences and a public lecture in the Hunt Library auditorium.

via Tyson Shows Star Power :: North Carolina State University Bulletin.

Retreat on Common Core

I get nervous when politicians who can’t look farther than their next election begin meddling with education. Short-sighted NC lawmakers now want to retreat on Common Core:

Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina would begin walking away from the Common Core standards for math and English in public schools under proposed legislation that a student committee approved Thursday.

“Common Core is gone July 1 if this passes,” said Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, one of the measure’s leading proponents.

The full General Assembly will take up the measure when it returns to session in mid-May.

Although the bill does delete legislative language referencing Common Core standards, it does not take them out of play right away. Rather, the measure would create an Academic Standards Review Commission to develop standards “tailored to the needs of North Carolina’s students.”

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Penalties for estate tax!

Oh noes!!1! Now I has the penalties for estate tax! Differently I’ll take legal action!

I love how F-PROT anti-virus is sophisticated enough to say there’s “no malware in this announcement,” as opposed to, say, “no malware in this message.” Good stuff.

Good morning!
You has the penalties for estate tax.
Total: $290.82

===Detailed notice is in the attached file===

You gotta check out paper before: June 25th 2014.
Differently you’ll take legal action.

Very sincerely yours,
Supervisor of North Carolina Department of Revenue.
Alicia Owen
+1 (321) 513-22-52

Any questions? Send an email for more information or help.

No malware found in this announcement. Checked by F-PROT Antivirus. Thu, 24 Apr 2014 12:13:06 +0100

Raleigh tops list of shallow single men?

broken-heart-pixabay.com
Raleigh ranked tops in one category it might have wished to have avoided. My single female friends were nodding in agreement last week when dating service Zoosk proclaimed Raleigh to be the least open-minded dating city in America. Even Birmingham, Alabama, is more open-minded, folks.

Zoosk claims it analyzed one million conversations between the singles who use its service and ranked cities based on how willing someone was to date someone different than themselves. Raleigh ranks last in single men’s attitudes about age and college degrees.

Now, I’m leery of any infographic-driven website. Anyone who’s used Facebook lately knows that numbered lists are sure-fire clickbait: people love to read numbered lists. Mention a few major cities in that list and you’ve got a sure-fire recipe for free PR. Also, with only an infographic to go by and no real data, we’re left wondering how these conclusions were drawn.

It all sounds like a publicity stunt. At the very least, since Zoosk draws its information from its user base, it is really nothing more than a reflection of its users. Perhaps Raleigh’s single men who use Zoosk are simply … well, losers.

Now, back when I was single in Raleigh (you know, before the Internet), my complaint was that there were not enough women around. Too many male engineering geeks crowded the Hillsborough Street bars. Fortunately, Raleigh gained some higher-quality clubs and diversified its job market a bit (I would have preferred that more women would have chosen engineering careers since I find female geeks quite attractive, but I digress) and going out became somewhat less of a swordfight.

There are obviously plenty of men who go the young bimbo route (or, at least, there are men like this who also use Zoosk), but looks alone were never my thing. I think that’s the same for many men, Raleigh ladies, so don’t despair. Keep those standards high, keep your heads up, and stay the hell away from Zoosk if you want to find the right guy!

I has the penalty for public services

Oh noes!!1! I got an urgent email today from the Chief of Texas Department of Revenue. It seems I has the penalty for public services, whatever that means. And, differently I’ll obtain court claim. I sure don’t want that happening!

Good morning!
You has the penalty for public services.
Total: $300.70

===Detailed notice is in the attached file===

You gotta check out paper before: August 26th 2014.
Differently you’ll obtain court claim.

Yours truly,
Chief of Texas Department of Revenue.
Jamal Ortiz
+1 (580) 196-17-52

This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

No threats found in this notification.
Checked by BitDefender.

Phishers crack me up.