A stop for Garner Crimestoppers

I know that for years I’ve been telling people that I served as the president of Garner Crimestoppers for two years. Well, it’s actually not true. It turns out I’m still serving as president of Garner Crimestoppers and no one told me about it.

Apparently, the paperwork didn’t get updated when I resigned back in 2003 and I’ve been listed as president on the state forms ever since. The Garner Police department eventually decided that Crimestoppers wasn’t really needed anymore and decided to close it down. In order to dissolve the corporation they recently contacted me to get my signature.

While I’m sorry to see the organization go, I’m happy to see it’s run its course and is no longer needed!

Update Google services from the command line

I hate using browser-based file uploaders because inevitably they’re not compatible with my Ubuntu Firefox browser. Plus there’s all that unnecessary clicking.

A few months ago I found the GoogleCL package, a script which can update nearly any Google service such as Google Plus, Picasa, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, and many others.

Rather than manipulate a large album of pics through some horrid web UI, I simply use this command and the album gets created the way I want it, the first time!

google picasa create –summary “The City of Raleigh held a stream monitoring workshop to train citizen-scientists to monitor city streams” “City of Raleigh Stream Monitoring Workshop” –date 2012-08-25 *.jpg

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Blogging on and on

The kids and I attended a stream monitoring workshop put on by the City of Raleigh on Saturday. It was great learning how to measure the water quality of our city’s streams and we look forward to doing our part.

The workshop included field time and the group practiced in nearby Little Rock Creek. As I was wading around in the middle of the creek, a fellow participant wandered over to me.

“Are you the blogger?” he said.

“Excuse me? Am I the what?”

“The blogger, www.markturner.net?” he answered.

I laughed and introduced myself to my new friend, Sandro Gilser, blogger at The Daddy Weekly. You should check it out.
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Letters to Grandma: 31 August 1992

[Note: Read this post first for an introduction.]

This one comes almost 20 years ago to the day. By this time I’d been out of the Navy for 7 months. I was new to Raleigh, living in a cheap, roach-infested apartment in a dangerous neighborhood near campus, yet I felt promise. I had no where to go but up, right?

I smile at my constant use of the word “programmer,” as now they’re called developers. It was a time of rapid change in computers, which led to me leaving college behind for real-world experience. I was right about getting a high-paying job in computers. I still know what its like not to have a college degree, though!

Boy, if only I could get those “eye-popping” tuition rates of 1992 today. I’d just might go back to school.

10pm August 31, 1992 [age: 23]

Dear Grandma,

Sorry it’s been so long since you heard from me. I was twisted like a pretzel by all the new directions I had to go. I didn’t settle down for half a year and just now am I getting my footing again.

This is my second week here at N.C. State. I still don’t really believe I’m here. I guess by the time the tuition bills arrive I’ll be feeling right at home!
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More Romney hacking victims come forward


Having given up on Facebook’s less-than-ideal search box, I thought to use the Google to find more unwitting Mitt Romney fans. It turns out there are a lot of them. (Click here to see an earlier list of responses.)

An example:

A friend from High School let me know that on the side-ads bar, it said that I ‘like’ Mitt Romney! Imagine that?!?!? I DO NOT LIKE MITT ROMNEY AND I HATE THAT THE FB SOFTWARE HAS DONE THAT. I WILL SUE FOR DAMAGES IF I EVER SEE IT! I HAVE A TEAM OF LAWYERS AND THIS IS NOT OVER!

…and this

My page was somehow updated to show I liked Mitt Romney, which I certainly do not. There was no entry in my activity log. I had to go to his page to ‘unlike’ it. There is no indication that it was an account level hack.

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Wake schools bus driver: ‘This is the worst I’ve ever seen it’

Wait, isn’t General Tata supposed to be “Mr. Logistics?”

More than 900 Wake County school buses transport 75,000 to 80,000 students per day and make about 25,000 stops. Dozens of buses were taken out of service this year to cut costs, maintain efficiency and keep state funding, according to school officials.

But complaints about service began pouring in Monday, the first day of school for traditional-calendar students. Superintendent Tony Tata said Tuesday that the school system is doing everything it can to listen to parents, address the issues and smooth bus service problems.

via Wake schools bus driver: “This is the worst I’ve ever seen it” :: WRAL.com.