Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 88 of 153).

SAS buying rPath’s assets

I learned yesterday that rPath’s assets have been sold to SAS, essentially bringing rPath to an end, it seems.

Business analytics software company SAS is acquiring the assets of Raleigh-based startup rPath.

RPath, which was founded in 2005 by former Red Hat employees, is in the process of shutting down. Some of its staff – 19 employees – will accompany the technology and join SAS, forming the Platform Deployment Technologies group within SAS’ research and development operations.

I interviewed there more than once for a sales engineer position last year. I also set up rPath’s first phone system, based on Asterisk. For a while there I was sure rPath would be the next VMWare. Instead it’s been chopped up. It’s a shame, but I’m glad I didn’t sign up there only to be looking for work now.

via SAS buying Raleigh startup’s assets – Triangle Business Journal.

Holiday Gift Guide: Ideal gifts for the techie on your list

This is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen printed in the News and Observer:

For the DIYer

Getting Started with Arduino Kit v3.0: $65

www.makershed.com/Getting_Started_with_Arduino_Kit_V3_0_p/msgsa.htm

The Arduino Starter Kit from Maker Shed is a gift beginners and pros both can appreciate. The kit opens the door to the popular microcontroller lauded by DIY computing geeks, and is designed as a companion to the “Getting Started with Arduino” book by Massimo Banzi, founder of the open source Arduino project. Some minor soldering is required for the power supply, but the other components plug into the board. This should make for some great parent-child team projects. Look out science fair.

BoingBoing also linked to a video made by Arduino cofounder Massimo Banzi explaining basic electronics. Arduino is one project I need to explore further!

via Holiday Gift Guide: Ideal gifts for the techie on your list – Life – NewsObserver.com.

KB Home to build “Oakwood North”

Oakwood North site plan


I found out today that KB Home has filed its subdivision plan (S-28-2012) for “Oakwood North” on the Weatherford Property near my home. Plans call for 39 single-family homes in the subdivision, with Tonsler Dr., N. State St., Edmund St., and Plainview Ave. connecting together.

I’ll miss having the end of our street all to ourselves but I am intrigued about what KB Home intends to do with this subdivision. I am also hoping to use this information to attract a quality supermarket to the flea market property on Capital Boulevard. Wouldn’t that be nice?

NeighborWoods shifts focus to tree maintenance

I was quoted in today’s Midtown Raleigh News about NeighborWoods:

With fewer subdivisions being built amid the slow economy, NeighborWoods organizers said they are spending more time searching for new areas where they can offer trees.

The revised approach will put greater priority on pruning and maintaining trees that were planted since the program began in 2003, said Zach Manor, the city’s tree planting coordinator.

A greater emphasis on maintenance makes sense, said Mark Turner, chairman of the city’s parks board.

“I know of several NeighborWoods trees that did not thrive for whatever reason,” Turner said. “Having the opportunity to focus on keeping trees healthy should result in a better outcome.”

Incidentally, I haven’t heard whether the Midtown Raleigh News will also be going behind a paywall, since it gets distributed across the city for free. Thus, I expect to still be able to link to it.

via NeighborWoods shifts focus to tree maintenance – Raleigh – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Sidewalks

The sidewalks along Frank Street across from Conn Elementary don’t reach to Brookside Drive. Being the civic geek that I am, I thought I would petition the City of Raleigh to put one in.

It looked like a slam dunk to me: the city will install sidewalks and pay for them provided the affected property owners agree. There’s been a well-worn “goat trail” from the Brookside crosswalk to the corner of Frank and Norris from years of kids coming and going to school. The city owns 75% of the affected property, with only one private property owner to deal with.

Therein lies my problem. The city may own most of the property affected but it doesn’t take a position on these projects. Thus it doesn’t count towards the petition. That means instead of getting the normal 75% of property owners to agree, I have to get 100% of one property owner to agree.
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Secrets, Schemes, and Lots of Guns: Inside John McAfee’s Heart of Darkness

Here’s an interesting look at John McAfee, the eccentric founder of the McAfee antivirus company.

It’s not too unusual for eccentric gringos to wind up in Central America and slowly turn stranger—”Rich white men who come to Belize and act strangely are kind of a type,” one local journalist told me. But this one’s story is more peculiar than most. John McAfee is a founding father of the anti-virus software industry, an inveterate self-promoter who built an improbable web security empire on the principles of trust and reliability, then poured his start-up fortune into a series of sprawling commune-like retreats, presenting himself in the public eye as a paragon of engaged, passionate living: “Success, for me,” he has said, “is being able to wake up in the morning and feel like a 12 year old.” But down in Belize, McAfee the enlightened Peter Pan seems to have refashioned himself into a kind of final-reel Scarface.

via Secrets, Schemes, and Lots of Guns: Inside John McAfee's Heart of Darkness.

More ‘fewer angry white guys’

Tim Funk at the News and Observer also points out the value of the non-white vote.

Tuesday’s voting results held some good news for North Carolina Democrats hoping to keep the state competitive in future election years.

Black voters, who make up 22 percent of the state’s population, cast 23 percent of the vote and went for Obama 96 percent to 4 percent, according to exit polls.

And Latinos went for Obama 68 percent to 31 percent. “You’re talking 2-1 in a group that’s getting to be a bigger part of this state,” said Bitzer.

But exit polls also said this: White voters, who now represent 70 percent of the state’s electorate, were even less supportive of the president than in 2008.

That year, 35 percent of white voters in North Carolina cast their ballots for Obama.

In 2012, he got 31 percent.

via 5 reasons why Obama didn’t carry North Carolina – Elections – NewsObserver.com.