Local geek Andy Withers had an excellent point of view piece in today’s News and Observer regarding Raleigh’s lack of bandwidth. Withers compares Raleigh’s options to nearby Wilson’s, which has blazing-fast municipal Internet service.
I wonder if Raleigh could take on municipal Internet some day.
My mind was in the gutter yesterday. Or at least my gutters were on my mind. Yesterday afternoon was the first rain since I put the gutter guards on my house. I can say the guards worked with flying colors: all gutters handled the rain beautifully.
Of course, I’d expect the first one to do well, as I cleaned out the gutters before I capped them. The real test will be to see how clean the gutters remain. So far so good, though. It could be that the dozen tiny cuts I sustained to my hands when wrestling with the gutters will have been worth it.
Elvis Costello’s birthday is almost exactly a month away. August 25th, to be exact.
Start celebrating early by watching the video for Peace, Love, and Understanding.
Now these telemarketing clowns are pitching satellite TV to my mobile phone. This time the caller ID read 949-256-9106.
This is getting quite annoying. And potentially expensive. And it looks like I’m going to have to set up a separate category for these telemarketing scams.
A stiff wind pushed against me as I rode home one day last week. Its strength and steadiness reminded me of a sea breeze and it surprised me how intensely I miss the sea.
The human remains found near the car of missing Johnston County woman Kelli Woolard were identified as Woolard, police say. Police say there were “no indications of foul play.”
If you’ll recall, Woolard’s car was in the parking lot of a day care center and her remains were found in the nearby woods. This was four miles away from her job at Duke Raleigh Hospital. I’ve seen nothing in the news to indicate she was a mother and I assume Woolard wasn’t into geocaching and so would not ordinarily be wandering through the woods. How is this not foul play? Or does “no indications” mean the Johnston County Sheriff is still gathering evidence?
I wonder if the autopsy revealed how she died. Heart attack, maybe? As a nurse, wouldn’t she know how to get to the nearest hospital?
Questions, questions.
Update: Apparently Woolard had a drug problem and killed herself. Sorry to hear that.
Great. The Great Atlantic Warranty scumbags are now calling my cellphone with their warranty scam recording. Got one at 11:12 this morning. This is even more annoying than the calls to the house because each and every call costs me money. Today’s call came from the bogus caller id of 562-288-7125. The previous call was from 408-587-2143.
I’ve not given these jackasses much attention lately but that has now changed. Its time to give them the full-court press.
After some discussions with the current chair, I’ve volunteered to take over as the chair of Raleigh’s East CAC. I was nominated for the post at last night’s meeting but will be (hopefully) voted in next month.
The volunteer job consists of running a monthly meeting where things of interest to our neighbors are discussed: such as crime, new developments in the area, etc. I’ve been impressed with the number of regular attendees at the meeting so I’m hopeful there will be plenty of participation, too.
This all builds on my Raleigh Neighborhood College experience so I’m glad to have an opportunity to put it to use. And I get to work with Charlene Willard again. How could I say no?
This News and Observer headline is wrong on a few levels:
Woman may have been sex slaves, policy say
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr., The Charlotte Observer
Comment on this story
Police say two women arrested after a prostitution investigation may have been sex slaves — illegally trafficked into the United States and sleeping on mattresses at the back of a Monroe massage parlor.
I, for one, wasn’t aware there was a policy on sex slaves. Even so, the slang “policy say” is a bit too hip for a newspaper. Also, its unclear how one woman may have been more than one sex slave, unless there was perhaps some sort of outsourcing going on.
Hmm. Could it be that McClatchy is missing some of those staffers it recently canned?
Update @12:19: Looks like the N&O has fixed its headline. Thanks, y’all!
Just got a scam email into my $WORK inbox. Someone claiming to be from an Asia domain-name registrar says someone named Karl Fischer is trying to register domain names related to my employer (where my company’s name is xxxx):
Dear Manager,
Asia Network is the company of internet services that the domain registration is one of the major online style of our service range. Now we have something need to confirm with you. We hope you to cooperate with us. On July 21th 2008, we received an application from one person named “Karl Fischer†who wants to register some domains(xxxx.jp xxxx.kr xxxx.pk xxxx.co.in)and internet brand(xxxx). According to our investigation, we found that domain names have relevance to your company’s name and trademark, so we send this email for you to confirm it. We are dealing with this affair in these days, so we wish to get the confirmation and the assent of your company. If Karl Fischer doesn’t belong to your company and you don’t authorize him to register these domains, Pls contact with me soon in order to prevent some guy from abusing your trademarks and the company names.
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