Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 122 of 153).

High speed rail gets even closer

I’ve been following the Southeast High Speed Rail project for quite some time now Last week, President Obama announced that $545 million is on its way to North Carolina to kickstart the rail project. That’s great news for the state.

The majority of the money will go to improve the track between Raleigh and Charlotte, which is the most used rail route in the state. There’s also $25 million to go to the project to revive the tracks between Raleigh and Petersburg. All in all, it’s a great investment in the future of transportation in North Carolina: rail travel!

Artist in the making

A few weeks ago, Kelly sold Hallie’s ice skates through a Craigslist ad. The mother who picked them up from our porch left us an envelope with the money inside. On the outside of the envelope was the sketch you see above.

The sketch, it turns out, was drawn by her 14-year-old daughter, perhaps as a way to say thanks for the skates. Hallie has named the puppy Icey.

I think it shows quite a bit of drawing talent!

Good rebate policy


I bought a Samsung Bluetooth headset from Woot.Com last month with a rebate deal that made it practically free. When the headset and its rebate arrived, I saw that the rebate program ended January 15th. Thinking I had plenty of time to fill out the paperwork, I let it slide until about a week days ago.

That’s when I was surprised to read the fine print which said the rebate needed to be mailed within 30 days of purchase. It was now roughly 45 days since I bought it. I filled out the paperwork and mailed it in anyway, taking a chance that it would get honored.

Now, all my previous rebate experience told me that rebate companies use the slightest technicality to avoid honoring a rebate. That saves their clients money. I suppose that’s their right: the fine print is the fine print. Legally speaking, I was no longer entitled to a rebate check.

In spite of my gaffe, it looks like they’re sending me one, anyway! I got an email this morning with a message saying my rebate request is valid! Kudos for Samsung’s rebate fulfillment company, Parago for putting the customer first!

FindToto

A neighbor lost his dog recently and found it using this service called FindToto. You can use FindToto to make thousands of automated calls to your neighborhood, alerting others to your missing pet.

It’s an interesting idea, and one that appeals to me as I’m also working on a neighborhood phone alert system.

My webpage from 1995

I’m probably going to regret this, but I put my old homepage from 1995 online again. Surprisingly it renders very well on modern browsers. As for me, I don’t render as well as I used to!

The pic above shows my brother Jeff and my friend Scott (with, uh, me in the middle). We were roommates at the time and working as roadies for Soundgarden. Ok, not really, but we sure do look like it!

The account name “buddha” was the one my roommate Scott picked out. I’m not sure where the “Flea Forum” came from, but there it is. You can see what my life on the Internet was like in 1995 here.

There weren’t many webpages back in those days, kiddies.

Don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight

This weekend’s blizzard dumped over a foot of snow on Washington, D.C. and folks were out Saturday having a good-natured snowball fight. Suddenly a Hummer gets hit with a snowball rolls to a stop. A plainsclothes police officer pulls out his weapon and goes after the crowd. Later the D.C. police claim the officer, Detective Baylor, never unholstered his weapon, in spite of what the video and pictures clearly show.

What’s worse, ABC affiliate WJLA’s horrible reporting pins the blame on “antiwar protesters” dressed in “archist” garb, which from the video appears completely baseless. I suppose anyone who covers his face during a bone-chilling blizzard must be an anti-war anarchist.

I respect the work that police officers do, but Det. Baylor is in obvious need of a long vacation. No one should pull a gun on a snowball fight. Get real.

I feel for the uniformed cop that responded to this call. You can see him pleading with the crowd at 2:28 in the video to just shake it off and keep playing, all but admitting the detective has lost his cool. The guy is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Winter solstice

Today is the winter solstice: the first day of winter and the start of the sun’s long climb back up the sky. Not only that, it’s a beautiful, sunny (if cold), peaceful day. It’s the kind of day that makes me glad to be alive.

NCDOT cleans up

I was concerned last Monday when I drove past a huge pile of garbage scattered near the Davis Drive exit of NC 540. Multiple bags of trash were now all over the road and shoulder. It was a real mess.

Fortunately I have the number for the Wake County division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and brought it to their attention. By the next afternoon there were a dozen bright orange garbage bags where the scattered trash had been. Not only that, but other parts of NC 540 were cleaned as well.

Kudos to the NCDOT for its prompt response!