Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 95 of 153).

MyBillJohnsonStory.com

The N&O’s John Murawski covers a Bill Johnson fan site, http://www.mybilljohnsonstory.com So now we won’t get just Jim Rogers’s and Bill Johnson’s version of events, but the people who worked with Johnson, too.

Call it the unofficial Bill Johnson Fan Club.

Current and former employees of Progress Energy and Duke Energy are posting their testimonials about the deposed utility chief executive on a web site created by a former Progress PR handler who considers Johnson a personal friend and mentor.

The site — http://mybilljohnsonstory.com/ — is reminiscent of a virtual memorial wall funeral homes create for the deceased, suggesting the sorrow Johnson’s firing from Duke Energy has engendered among his admirers.

Aaron Perlut, the architect behind the site, wanted to provide legions of Johnson admirers an outlet for their emotions.

via .biz – Bill Johnson admirers fill up virtual wall with testimonials | newsobserver.com blogs.

Apple cancels Rev. Horton Heat event

The band Reverend Horton Heat was invited to play at an Apple store but found the gig a bad fit, with Apple placing some unreasonable demands on the band. The band posted an update on their Facebook page today, explaining how the gig blew up. I found it to be an insightful look at these no-pay corporate gigs:

Reverend Horton Heat
In case you don’t know what happened with Apple….We were supposed to do an in-store appearance at their 1 Polk Street store (Market Street really) on the afternoon of the 14th of July. Of course, they wanted some kind of striped down or acoustic thing. I was working on figuring out what songs would work in that “retail” enviroment. It’s not easy to do a gig like that. It’s completly different than what we do. Of course, it was for publicity only – ie no pay. There was going to be a Q&A with the people in attendence. They wanted to record the thing and make it a podcast. All fine, except then, I found out that they wanted me to come up with an MC and figure the whole thing out – not exactly welcoming. It kind of seemed that they wanted us to play for free, set the whole thing up and get ourselves there too without doing too much to make the event a success. Getting ourselves there is hard because we have an upright bass. It would be impossible and expensive for us to bring the bus with trailer. Anyway, I made a post on facebook about how it wasn’t right to throw everything on the artist instead of doing they’re best to welcome us. That was bad and I’m a bad, bad man evidentally. They got on the phone to our agent and said that they didn’t like the post. Later that day, I took the facebook post down – maybe I shouldn’t have, but I did. Then, today, I hear that they canceled the event. They didn’t call me. I just heard. So, my preparation was for nothing. I think that anytime an artist is coming to your store (and they’re bringing their fans into your enviroment where you are trying to sell something), you should be especially appreciative. The Mom and Pop stores, now closed down forever, used to go out of their way to make us feel comfortable and wanted. Those days are gone forever…evidentally. Call the store if you can. Ask them why.

redhat.com | The first [open source] American

Back in 2006, Red Hat Magazine published an article on Ben Franklin from Amy Anseim which claims that Franklin was the first open source American. Franklin would’ve been right at home with the open source movement that we know today. Not only today’s open source proponents, but all of society owes a debt to Franklin for his devotion to the free exchange of knowledge and information.

Kids know him as the guy flying a kite in a lightning storm. Adults know him as the face on the hundred dollar bill. Historians know him as"The first American." His achievements and contributions to mankind, particularly to the fledgling United States of America, have shaped much of what we do on a daily basis, from the clauses of the Constitution to the maxims of Poor Richard’s Almanack.

But all of Ben Franklin’s ideas, actions, and contributions can be linked back to his own ideals. An appreciation of community. A love of truth. His belief in an inherent responsibility to his fellow man.

Franklin was truly ahead of his time. He wasn’t just the first American, he was the first open source American.

Freedom. Transparency. Collaboration. Accountability. Sound familiar? This was how he lived his life and impacted society.

via redhat.com | The first [open source] American.

Google Maps captures me capturing it

Who’s that weirdo in the bushes with the camera?


I saw the Google Maps car parked outside the Crabtree Blvd. Bank of America last week. It reminded me to check to see if Google Maps has been updated from the last trip the camera-equipped car drove through.

Remember last year when I spotted the Google Maps car as it drove through the neighborhood and I couldn’t wait to see the bald guy with the camera standing in the driveway? Well, here he is!

The Downside of Liberty

Interesting.

THIS spring I was on a panel at the Woodstock Writers Festival. An audience member asked a question: Why had the revolution dreamed up in the late 1960s mostly been won on the social and cultural fronts — women’s rights, gay rights, black president, ecology, sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll — but lost in the economic realm, with old-school free-market ideas gaining traction all the time? What has happened politically, economically, culturally and socially since the sea change of the late ’60s isn’t contradictory or incongruous. It’s all of a piece. For hippies and bohemians as for businesspeople and investors, extreme individualism has been triumphant. Selfishness won.

via The Downside of Liberty – NYTimes.com.

Microsoft’s Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant

As a techie, I could see Microsoft’s decline as it unfolded. Still surprising, since Microsoft seemed invincible for so long. I suppose every industry titan becomes lazy from success.

Vanity Fair always has great writing. I might actually buy the dead-tree edition just to read this.

Analyzing one of American corporate history’s greatest mysteries—the lost decade of Microsoft—two-time George Polk Award winner (and V.F.’s newest contributing editor) Kurt Eichenwald traces the “astonishingly foolish management decisions” at the company that “could serve as a business-school case study on the pitfalls of success.” Relying on dozens of interviews and internal corporate records—including e-mails between executives at the company’s highest ranks—Eichenwald offers an unprecedented view of life inside Microsoft during the reign of its current chief executive, Steve Ballmer, in the August issue. Today, a single Apple product—the iPhone—generates more revenue than all of Microsoft’s wares combined.

via Microsoft’s Downfall: Inside the Executive E-mails and Cannibalistic Culture That Felled a Tech Giant | Blogs | Vanity Fair.

RIP Andy Griffith

Fans leave flowers at the foot of Andy Griffith’s statue in Raleigh’s Pullen Park


Knowing this was coming doesn’t make it any easier. RIP, Andy Griffith: a North Carolina icon.

Andy Griffith’s broad shoulders carried a heavy load for more than 50 years. In 1960, he created an iconic fictional character so noble that today, church groups still seek moral guidance in Sheriff Andy Taylor’s every televised word, deed and gesture.

And over the years, when Griffith insisted that Mayberry, the perfect little town he invented, was absolutely not based on his hometown of Mount Airy, N.C., fans nodded, winked, said “Sure, Andy, whatever you say,” and went right on believing what they wanted to believe.

What they wanted to believe was that around the next bend or over the next hill was a place like Mayberry and a man as fair, wise and decent as Sheriff Andy.

Griffith died Tuesday at 86.

via North Carolina legend Andy Griffith dies at 86 – News – NewsObserver.com.

Church, neighbors meet to seek fixes on noise

I was mentioned in today’s Midtown Raleigh News regarding the Glorious Church.

Another neighbor of the church, Mark Turner, said he also has heard noise – while in his house with the windows closed.

Turner, chair of the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council, offered to act as a mediator to help the two parties find common ground.

As I mentioned before, I didn’t offer to mediate so much as I was recruited to mediate! It’s all good, though, if we get this worked out.

I was asked to set up a meeting with all parties within the next two weeks. Right now I’m looking at Monday, July 9th but it all depends on what works for the parties involved. I was first looking at Wednesday, July 11th but most churches have services on Wednesday nights so that’s not convenient.

Incidentally, I cringed each time the church’s services were called “noise” at last week’s Law and Public Safety meeting. Even Bishop Spain did it. Whatever it’s called, though, I think it’s only fair that if one goes inside one’s home, one no longer hears it.

The ideal solution would be for a Raleigh window company to read this article and offer a deal to the church on new windows. It would be a great way for that window company to do a good deed as well as get some free publicity. I wonder who will step up?

via Church, neighbors meet to seek fixes on noise – Raleigh – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Shaffer: How much does your soul weigh?

The N&O’s Josh Shaffer takes a look at the upcoming experiments at the Rhine Center in Durham, attempting to weigh the soul. Shaffer calls it an “oddball” branch of science, but I prefer to call it “offbeat,” myself. It is science and no one knows what the experiments will find until they’ve been tried.

I look forward to the results!

DURHAM — For at least 100 years, the more oddball branches of science have struggled to answer this metaphysical head-scratcher: How much does the human soul weigh?

In 1907, a Massachusetts doctor named Duncan MacDougall settled on the figure of 21 grams – the average weight loss experienced by six terminal tuberculosis patients he strapped to a scale at the moment of death.

A dozen years ago, an Oregon rancher named Lew Hollander tried to measure the souls of one ram, seven ewes, three lambs and a goat. His findings: The animals actually gained weight as they shook off this mortal coil – anywhere from 18 to 780 grams.

Now this summer, the Rhine Research Center in Durham will host the latest experiment aimed at nailing down the intangible essence of mankind.

The method: 1.) Stand on a scale. 2.) Have an out-of-body experience. 3.) Record weight.

via Shaffer: How much does your soul weigh? – Shaffer – NewsObserver.com.