Cleaning up the neighborhood

Last week I got so sick of the trash littering the neighborhood streets that I decided to do something about it. So I sent out an email to neighbors announcing a day of picking up trash. While I heard from one or two people saying they would be there, I had no idea who would actually show. Six other neighbors showed up! When Kelly and the kids joined us we had a formidable team indeed.

Raleigh’s Community Services supplied us with vests, pick-up tongs, trash picks, and bags. They even arranged for Solid Waste Services to pick our bags up when we were done. If I seemed impressive when I passed all of this stuff out I have to give all the credit to Charlene and Community Services.
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John Drescher is an idiot

The N&O’s new editor John Drescher is an idiot. In today’s column, he labels both Dole and Hagan as “dodgers,” claiming Dole and Hagan sidestepped important issues.

Drescher claims Dole dodged the whole Outlying Landing Field issue until the rest of the state had made up its mind.

That’s absolutely true. Dole was asleep at the switch.

Drescher also claims Hagan dodged whether she would support the recent bailout bill.

That’s a whopper, Johnny.
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Steel-belted nerves

Had a flat tire on the way to Durham yesterday evening. A good test of bravery is to change a tire on the side of the Durham Freeway in the rain while cars zoom by at 70 MPH. I passed the test, but boy was I challenged! In another half hour I had the tire changed and actually made it to my appointment on time.

I looked the tire over thoroughly but couldn’t find any sign of a puncture or leak. I’m completely stumped.

David Byrne tickets on sale today

Musician David Byrne and company were in Asheville recently and took a pass on visiting Biltmore House, judging the $47 ticket price too steep.

I think its a steep ticket price, too, but so is the $44 Byrne wants for his upcoming show at Meymandi Hall December 8th.

As I watch the markets sink even further today I’m not feeling so inclined to part with that much money. Maybe I’ll meet Byrne on one of his expected bike rides around town.

USB camera platforms

Here’s one for my fellow Linux geeks, particularly the ones who enjoy embedded Linux.

I’m looking to deploy a number of USB streaming cameras for a security project. I would like these cameras to use whatever network is available to stream high-quality video to a central server. I would like these camera platforms to be maintainable from the network. I also want the camera platform to be as unobtrusive on the host network as possible (though stealth is not required).

The hardware must run Linux, it must have at least one network port (wired and/or wireless), and it must have at least one USB port.

My question to you, fellow hackers, is this: what hardware would you use? I know a Linksys NSLU2 would work but what other hardware might work?

Downtown library

I was walking in to work this morning when a woman in a blue minivan stopped in front of me.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Where is the library?”

I paused. We were at the corner of Hargett Street and Person Street and there isn’t a library for miles. I gave her convoluted directions to Cameron Village Regional Library but somehow doubted she would keep it all straight.

It sure would be nice if Raleigh had a showplace library downtown. It not like this area has a bunch of highly-educated, intelligent citizenry or anything.

The case of the pilfered pumpkin

I woke up to find one of our three foam pumpkin decorations had wandered off from the steps of our porch. Looking around I didn’t see any obvious place it could’ve rolled. It was just gone!

I stood there scratching my head, fuming that some neighborhood miscreant would walk off with my fake, two-dollar pumpkin. Then my neighbor walked by with her dog.
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