On the way back from the mountains, I spotted a few unusual billboards along the I-40 corridor near Greensboro. The billboard said “Do you know Linux? We’re Hiring!” HostGator, a hosting provider, is the advertiser. Apparently they have advertisements in a few other high-tech cities.
Wish I’d gotten a picture. It marked the first time I’ve ever seen the word “Linux” on a billboard.
Along the Virginia Creeper Trail
We took our bikes with us and drove to Damascus, VA Saturday morning, where we arrived in time for lunch at Quincey’s Pizza, a fine eating and drinking establishment, indeed. After a tasty meal, we drove over to the bike shuttle place, where we boarded a van and were driven with our bikes up to our starting point for the Virginia Creeper Trail in Whitetop, VA. The next 17 miles were spent chasing the kids down the trail at breakneck speeds, with me stopping only as long as I dared so that I could snap photos of the beautiful scenery.
We arrived back at the campsite around dinner time, so Kelly cooked up a tasty turkey chili to recharge us. Then after listening to a musician play in the park amphitheater, we sat around our campfire roasting marshmallows until about 10 PM. Unlike Friday night, sleep came quickly and easily this time!
My view, most of the way!
We then ventured down a loop trail and made it back to the van in time for lunch (and just before the heavens opened up again). On our way down, though, we flushed a wild turkey out of the woods mere feet away from us. What a surprise that was to see this huge, startled bird bust out of nowhere!
The ride was an easy one back and we’re now in for the night. In spite of the spotty sleep I got during Friday night’s non-stop rain, it was the best camping trip I think I’ve ever been on. We’re already making plans for our next trip out this summer!
My friend Jason had his scooter stolen from his front yard this week. It’s a red, 150cc-size Q-Link Achilles brand and is a 2007 model. Jason says he’s never seen another one like it in town.
If you happen to see this scooter around Raleigh, call 911.
Update 17 Jul: Scooter found and returned. Thanks, RPD!
Roku
A week ago, I decided to dust off our Roku player. It had been spending most of its time umplugged because it competed for the only S-Video jack on our bedroom’s old TV. The Roku can kick out a 720p HD picture, though, and our HDTV has a ton of unused inputs so I ordered a new HDMI cable and hooked it up once it arrived. The Roku looks beautiful on the HDTV.
Yesterday, Netflix announced the company is hiking its prices by up to 60%. While I’m disappointed by Netflix’s move (and think BitTorrent traffic will undoubtedly rise as a result), having the Roku available means I have plenty other choices for Internet TV. Not only does the Roku play Netflix’s streaming, it carries dozens and dozens of other channels, both video and music.
Tonight I used a handy Javascript page to load up the Internet radio station I’ve been building so that it plays on my Roku’s Shoutcast channel. The Roku streams online radio stations very, very well. I like being able to fire up a station on the Roku, turn off the TV, and listen to the station on the stereo. Beats having a full-size computer doing it.
I’ll continue to tinker with the Roku. I’ve been pretty impressed with what it can do.
I helped put together a meeting tonight of neighbors about an issue affecting the neighborhood. I didn’t have to speak, either. I just sat back and watch an engaged citizenry work to make their community better.
It’s stuff like this that gives me such a kick. I love being useful!
I just finished Area 51: The Uncensored History of America’s Top-Secret Military Base, Annie Jacobsen’s book about the military base in Nevada which officially doesn’t exist. It is a page-turner of a book for those of us who’ve often wondered what goes on at the base, with former workers discussing what life is like there.
Jacobsen says she got the idea for the book after meeting a retired Area 51 worker at a party, who shared some tales with her because the project he had worked on, the A-12 Oxcart, had recently been declassified.
Continue reading
I got a hang-up voicemail call today from 646-467-6665, a number apparently associated with a company known as Universal Survey. According to the comments at 800notes.com, the company can be rude to the people it calls.
I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but any reputable survey company would scrub its call lists against the national do-not-call registry before calling any number. Our phone numbers have been listed on the Do Not Call list for years now. Therefore, I made decide to tee this company up as my first defendant in small claims court for violating North Carolina’s Do Not Call law.
Google Plus
I know Google likes to stir up excitement about its services, but I question the value of the invitation-only nature of Google Plus.
I got an invitation and now I’m in, and certainly it seems better than the Google Buzz service that preceded it. However, by making it invitation-only, Google is limiting the number of friends, family, and acquaintances that can join the existing Google Plus users.
At this point, having a Google Plus account kind of like owning the world’s first telephone: it’s cool technology but it’s useless if you’re friends aren’t using it, too. A social networking site should put fewer obstacles in front of potential users wanting to sign up.
This morning at 11:26 AM, space shuttle Atlantis may or may not make its final flight into space. This will be the last mission of NASA’s shuttle program.
I remember watching on TV as space shuttle Columbia made the very first shuttle launch back in 1981. Of course, I also saw a few rocket launches for things like Skylab and space probes like Voyager, but the shuttle program was different. It was touted as essentially a space bus: making spaceflight routine with a reusable vehicle.
It didn’t turn out that way, as the reusable aspect of the shuttle made it incredibly expensive. Shuttles turned out not to be as reliable as they were initially touted. I remember being in my high school’s library, watching video of Challenger exploding as my math teacher sat nearby, weeping. It was a cruel reminder that nothing about riding rockets would ever be routine. The flagship shuttle, Columbia, proved that when it disintegrated above Texas during landing in 2003.
If all goes well, Atlantis will make a safe trip to the International Space Station (ISS) and then roll its way into a museum. With it, a space program stretching into the early 1970s will come to an end. I’m not sure what comes next for American space exploration but I hope it continues in one shape or another.
Back on March 19th, I took the family to a local arcade for a Saturday of fun and wound up losing my new mobile phone. Though the next day I realized where I’d lost it, I called the business the next day and no one had seen my phone. I gave it up for lost and canceled the Net10 account it used. The phone cost $50 so it wasn’t a big loss. I went back to using my previous phone and that was that.
Yesterday, though, my parents got a call out of the blue from a woman claiming to have the phone. “Brenda” had called a few contacts in the phone’s memory until she found one that knew me, apparently. My dad called Kelly with the information and soon I was on the way over to the place near WakeMed where Brenda was waiting.
We met at a Wake County Human Services office. Brenda, who was there looking for a job, handed over my phone with a sheepish grin. I thanked her profusely for her honesty and gave her a small reward as well as my business card.
I asked her what kind of job she was searching for and she told me she was trained as a phlebotomist, rattling off medical terms I did not recognize! Brenda told me quietly that she was living in a group home for recovering substance abusers and was behind on her rent. I told her to contact me if there was anything I could do for her.
Meeting Brenda was the highlight of my day yesterday. This morning, I contacted a friend I know in the medical field who might be able to find her a job. I just know there’s a business out there who could use an honest and hard-working employee.
