Election wrap-up

This is part two of my election day posts.

After my belly-of-the-beast morning at the Fairview Fire Department, I went home for lunch and a moment to rest. Of course I blogged the whole time I was at home, but what do you expect from MT.Net? I did manage to eat two pieces of pizza and take a quick nap before heading out to Westminster Church for the second half of my poll greeting.

I would be greeting for both Josh Stein and Grier Martin. I had campaign material for Josh but I had to pick up campaign materials for Grier’s campaign. On my way to Grier’s house I drove through the parking lot of the church. A lone poll greeter, behind an Obama sign, was outside surrounded by dozens of campaign signs but no voters. Seeing no Grier Martin greeter to relieve (and obtain campaign material from), I dropped by Grier’s house and returned with the pamphlets.
Continue reading →

Roy Cooper is a winner

One of the highlights of hanging out at the Dem’s party on election night was Roy Cooper. He gave a great speech after winning another term as attorney general and gave up the stage for the other candidates.

Thirty minutes later the crowd has thinned. I turned around and there’s Roy Cooper right behind me, with no entourage or anything, warmly shaking hands with folks in the crowd. I was impressed that the state’s top cop would take time to personally thank his supporters on election night. He was the only candidate I saw who made the effort to cross the rope line.

How cool is it that the one politician who got more North Carolina votes Tuesday than any other candidate (including McCain and Obama) is down to earth?

Keys can be duplicated from a distance

Computer scientists from UCSD have come up with a method which allows keys to be duplicated from a long-distance photograph of the keys. Using software called Sneakey, the scientists were able to accurately measure the key cuts and use this information to create a duplicate key.

Having worked with locks and keys before, I can say that while this development makes for an interesting computer problem to solve, it isn’t all that practical from a criminal’s point of view. There are far, far easier ways of gaining entry to a home or building: keys can be borrowed and pressed into a wax mold, the lock could be picked, or the door could be bypassed all together by breaking a window. And who leaves their keys in plain view where they can be photographed by outsiders?

The software likely can’t handle commercial keys like those for Medeco locks. Each cut of a Medeco key has an angled groove. If that groove doesn’t line up with the ridge in its corresponding pin the lock does not open. Thus, there are three dimensions which would need to be captured in order to correctly measure such a key. Its unlikely a photographer could get into a position in which she could accurately photograph these grooves.

Interesting problem to solve, but not exactly practical.

Fresh ‘maters for Thanksgiving?

I’ve been mourning the impending cold-weather death of my beloved tomato plants but reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated. They made it through the first round of near-freezing weather a bit tattered but still standing.

I just enjoyed a few freshly-picked tomatoes for lunch. And I’m wearing shorts in the office today, too. Did someone say it is November?

White space

Yesterday we got our Channel Master CM-7000 digital TV converter box, which makes our older Sony TV digital-ready. I unpacked everything but due to the lack of sleep I got Tuesday night I didn’t feel up to connecting it. So I’m one step away from being digital TV-ready.

And not a moment too soon. Lost in the election noise was news of the FCC’s approval of new, unlicensed bandwidth. Called white space, these frequencies have for decades acted as buffers between analog television channels but thanks to February’s upcoming digital TV transition this bandwidth will become available for new and novel uses.
Continue reading →

Paper airplanes

The News and Observer has been flying out of downtown newsstands like paper airplanes thanks to the coverage of Tuesday’s Obama win. Out of the elevator this morning stepped an African-American woman clutching six copies. I myself had to grab an extra copy yesterday morning to replace the one Hallie cut up to take to class. That same dispenser was completely empty when I walked by it again at noon. Good thing the N&O printed up 20,000 extra copies.

Yesterday I saw an African-American man walking down Hargett and clutching a freshly-bought paper. On my way home I passed another man who might have walked into traffic he was reading his paper so intensely.

Good to know more people are now engaged. America’s problems didn’t disappear overnight, though. There’s a lot of hard work still to be done.

Another Mark Turner cuts his fingers

I see from my recent incoming Google searches that another Mark Turner (the jazz musician, I believe) has apparently severely injured two of his fingers with a power saw.

According to his friend and fellow musician Aaron Parks:

I’m afraid I have some sobering news to share, though, about one of my friends, someone who is an inspiration to countless musicians, a true genius, and a beautiful spirit: Mark Turner.

A few minutes ago, I received a text message from Kurt Rosenwinkel informing me that Mark severely cut two of his fingers with a power saw, and is in the hospital awaiting surgery tomorrow morning. They will be trying to reattach nerves, tendons, and arteries. With luck, the surgery will be successful, and he will eventually regain the use of his injured fingers. It’ll be no less than 6 months of rehab, though.

Continue reading →

NBC 17 Interview

I was crossing Fayetteville Street in front of a cameraman for NBC 17. I had seen him out and was trying to avoid him when I heard “hey, can I ask you a few questions?”

Bah. Got caught.

He then asked me four or five questions about the presidential election. I answered that the election shows the world that America is ready again to play well with others. I also said Obama’s got a tough challenge with the economy in tatters but he’s a smart man and will build a good team.

Talk about pressure, though: its a huge challenge to answer five questions coherently on camera with zero time to prepare. At least politicians giving news conferences have some control over the agenda, but I had no clue what I would be asked. I worked hard at keeping my bobblehead tendencies in check so hopefully I might look good even if I don’t sound good.

No telling when the segment will run but I’ll record tonight’s newscast just in case.

Update 6 Nov: They didn’t use my interview. Something about my forehead being too shiny or something. Good thing I have my blog stardom to sustain me.

Cheap Thoughts: On-demand escalators

Something caught my eye when I walked by the empty Raleigh Convention Center last night: every escalator in the place was chugging along though there was no one in the building.

What a bunch of wasted electricity! These are hefty machines and they’re left running? And though it would be an improvement if someone would come by and manually shut them off, what would be even better would be to give the escalators the ability to turn themselves on when needed.
Continue reading →