Is it bad form to start singing along with someone’s ringtone if they leave their phone ringing on their desk?
Accipiter: Everything Old Is New Again
Ten years ago, I was one of the original startup employees at Accipiter, the web advertising software company. Accipiter was founded by Raleigh entrepreneur Chris Evans and soon grew on the edge of the web advertising boom.
That Accpiter company got sold to CMGI, a smoke-and-mirrors dot-bomb company that soon cratered in a big way. Accipiter became part of CMGI’s company Engage Technologies, being renamed Engage.
CMGI went bust when investors got wise to dot-com companies. (If your company ever gets bought and your New Overlords can’t stop calling the founder a “visionary,” run – don’t walk – to the exits!)
Engage’s offices on Highwoods Boulevard sat vacant for years. In 2002, someone at Engage talked management into spinning Accipiter off again. They did, and lo and behold Accipiter was reborn.
Yesterday, the new, improved Accipiter was sold once again, this time to a company called aQuantive for $30 million in cash.
No one I worked with at the original Accipiter appears to be with this Accipiter. Looks like the same name and product but an entirely different team. I find it funny to see this company’s name in the press again, so many years after it was first assimilated.
On a similar note, I wonder what Chris Evans is up to nowadays.
Arctic Ice To Be Gone in 30 Years?
At a recent dinner party, a few colleagues and I were discussing the problems of the world. Someone asked me what global problem was on my mind. I had just read Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and knew right away what my answer was: the melting of the Greenland ice shelf.
The Greenland ice shelf is melting at an unprecedented rate. Should it finally slide into the ocean, the world’s maps will have to be redrawn, to quote David King, a science advisor to Tony Blair. Sea levels would rise twenty feet overnight. A similar rise in sea levels would occur if a threatened ice sheet on western Antarctica breaks up.
Today I read that the ice surrounding the north pole in the Arctic Ccean could be gone in 30 years due to global warming. Some scientists say even 30 years is optimistic.
Hang on for some bumpy climate changes, folks.
Why Aren’t Raleigh’s Traffic Lights Synchronized?
Seems like it was over two years ago that voters approved a city bond to be used for traffic light synchronization. So why after two years is it still such a challenge to drive down Capital Boulevard without stopping ten times?
NSA Bugged Princess Diana’s Phone
CBS News says an official British report on Princess Diana’s death claims that the American NSA was bugging Diana’s phone at the time of her death. The NSA closely cooperates with its British counterpart, GCHQ. However the report claims Diana’s bugging was done without the knowledge nor permission of GCHQ.
Interesting. I can’t imagine that Diana was a threat to anyone’s security. Unless, that is, you happen to be an arms manufacturer, particularly one who makes landmines.
See Muncie, Muncie, Muncie
I’m off in an hour to visit beautiful Muncie, Indiana for the day. I’ll be back in time to put the kids to bed Monday.
Blog at ‘cha later.
Uh, Left Of What?
You know someone at McClatchy (owner of the N&O) is out of touch with they seek a reaction “from the left” and quote Sen. Joe Lieberman.
A Look At Two Burning Buildings
Take a look at this YouTube clip to see how steel frame buildings usually burn. Then take a look at how WTC7 burned, which as you know was never hit by a fuel-laden airliner. As the clip says, any questions?
About every two weeks I walk right past the hole in the ground that used to be the World Trade Center. There’s a window in a building facing the site with a big peace sign in it. Next to it is another sign saying “DISSENT IS PATRIOTIC.” Seeing that sign at the scene of the biggest crime in American history gives me a little more hope in this country. Continue reading
Shuttle Launch Scrubbed
The launch of space shuttle Discovery on STS-116 was scrubbed at 9:36 PM tonight due to a low ceiling violation with the weather above Kennedy Space Center. An hour before the 10 minute launch window the weather looked like it would hold. As the seconds ticked down on the launch window, you could see the disappointment in the faces of launch controllers. While I’m sure they’re disappointed, I’m pleased they didn’t compromise the safety of the shuttle and crew.
The next window allowing a launch is later this week. Odds are it won’t be a spectacular nighttime launch, though. Bah. Continue reading
Shuttle Scheduled For Launch Tonight
Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled for launch tonight at 9:35 PM EST. If you’ve got a view of the southeast sky at 10 degrees above horizon, you may see the launch as the shuttle progresses through the sky.
I remember seeing a eerily beautiful glowing cloud in the sky as I was driving home from work a few years back. If I recall correctly, it was exhaust from a rocket launched from California: the sun shining through it long after its rays had moved west across Earth. I’m hoping tonight’s launch is just as eerily beautiful.
In related news, I was happy to hear NASA is planning at least one more service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, in my opinion one of the greatest scientific devices ever constructed.