Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 124 of 153).

My NBC 17 interview

Due to my role as the chair of the East CAC, I was interviewed today by NBC 17 regarding WakeMed and a nearby club, Black Tie. You can view the interview on NBC 17’s website.

Longtime MT.Net readers know what a huge fan I am of WakeMed. Our daughter spent seven weeks there as a preemie and is thriving in every way thanks to the incredible care she got from WakeMed. Even so, I have to admit I don’t think I’ve heard one complaint from residents about Black Tie over the past year. I’m hoping both parties can agree to work together to help strengthen our community.

Raleigh’s untamed greenway: Walnut Creek Trail

Walnut Creek Greenway

The beautiful morning and the promise of a sunny afternoon in the mid 70s got us itching to go for another family bike ride. After considering a trip out to Durham’s American Tobacco Trail greenway, we opted instead to explore one greenway we’d never tried before, Southeast Raleigh’s Walnut Creek Trail.

Our goal was to start at the easternmost point possible and go as far west as we could. Worthdale Community Center seemed to be the trail’s official starting point but after reviewing the maps I decided the 8/10ths of a mile from there through the surrounding neighborhood to the paved greenway was not worth riding. I know what homes and sidewalks look like: I wans the trail!

We thus drove to the end of Little John Road and parked at its dead end. The residents of the house next to us gave us long looks through the storm door, making me think that they didn’t see many greenway users parking here. Though I felt the neighborhood was completely safe I decided that parking on the narrow neighborhood street was being too disruptive to the neighborhood. Next time I’ll look for a lot at one of the nearby community centers.
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Operation Downfall

300px-Operation_Downfall_-_Map

Today is the anniversary of the deadliest, bloodiest, most devastating military invasion that never happened. It is the day during World War II that Allied forces were to invade Kyushu in the start of a full-scale invasion of Japan – an invasion that would have cost untold millions of lives on both sides.

Fortunately, it never took place.

Sad, sorry newspaper

There was a bank robbery this afternoon on Six Forks Road near North Hills Mall. This kind of thing happens from time to time but usually they aren’t violent. Usually the robber implies he has a weapon, or brandishes one but never fires it.

This afternoon’s robbery was different: the robber toted a shotgun into the bank and then fired on witnesses as he fled. No one, fortunately, was hurt.

Tonight this story is prominent on WRAL’s website but there is no mention of it whatsoever on the News and Observer website. Clicking on the “Crime/Safety” link shows no story, either. The N&O completely dropped the ball. It’s been over six hours since the incident.

I suppose the N&O staff has been too busy chasing Mike Easley out of office to cover anything else. It’s sad to see how far the N&O has fallen.

Southwest will fly to Panama City

I found out today that Southwest Airlines will begin service to my hometown, Panama City, Florida this May. I can’t begin to tell you how psyched I am about this!

Getting to Panama City is an 11-hour trip by car. One can fly there, of course, but that means you’re stuck with flying Delta Airlines and that’s it. As such, there’s little or no competition – and prices are high. Southwest moving in will definitely slash the cost of getting to Panama City, possibly making it worth flying there rather than driving.

On the other hand, the tremendous growth that this will bring the city will forever change it. I’ll miss the hometown feel of my hometown. All in all, though, I think this is a good thing for Panama City. Way to go, Southwest!

IBM’s computer archives

IBM-5520

As a kid I remember my dad taking us to his office at IBM on an occasional weekend. While he’d fetch something from his office we’d all look around at the technology around us. The darkened offices were full of mysterious, silent computer displays and massive copiers. In those days before the IBM PC these strange, exciting boxes always fascinated me.

I recently stumbled again upon IBM’s Computer Exhibits Archives, where IBM’s earlier computers still live on, if only as webpages. It was fun checking out the hardware I remember as a kid.

Back on the map, sort of

On a whim I checked my address again in Google Maps. After first having it in Google Maps, then finding it missing, I wasn’t sure whether when my neighborhood would “exist” again as far as Google was concerned. Looks like my submitting it to Google’s map company affiliate finally did the trick. It’s been exactly one year since I alerted them.

But all is not happy in Mapland, oh noooo. Seems that even though typing the address in will correctly highlight my house, the map itself shows my street as Bennett Street. It seems that Tonsler Drive exists enough in Googleland to pinpoint my house but the street name still doesn’t show up on the map view. And Street View is still broken, though it once worked.

I give up!