Dang, I hate it when I think of a fantastic topic to write about and then I don’t have time to write about it! Day job, you know. This one will take a few dayss to write and research so it’ll have to wait until later.
For now, nibble on some Mickey D’s.
Google Maps is great for its pretty satellite pictures, but for finding you way from one place to another it sucks. Part of my confusion in getting to my customer site in Boston Monday was due to using Google Maps over Mapquest. I’ll never make that mistake again!
This morning I decided to see how to get from Raleigh to Knoxville. One would think that I-40 would be the way to go, but then one would be wrong. Google Maps gives you a scenic, meandering trip through Virginia before heading southwest towards Knoxville.
Attention, Google: the West has long been settled! There’s no need to detour around the Appalachian Mountains. Believe it or not, there are now roads< which go through them. You no longer need pack mules or to go it on foot to go west. Lewis and Clark have done all the dirty work for you, hundreds of years ago.
Only Lewis and Clark did a far better job.
We’re down to the last 24 hours for donating to the March of Dimes’ WalkAmerica. Thanks to everyone who donated this year. Shout outs go especially to Woody and Wade, who not only donated but pitched us on his blog, too. You rock, Wade! Thanks!
Tomorrow the family and I will be at Nortel’s campus in RTP with thousands of other festive volunteers to take the walk. If you’d like to join in on the fun, drop us a line, or just look for us there.
We thank you and thousands of preemie babies and their families thank you, too.
I bought my first copy of Make magazine this weekend after first checking it out at Linuxworld a few weeks back. Let me tell you, if there was ever a magazine produced just for me, this is it! It’s a fat quarterly magazine filled with do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, some of which push the boundaries of what you thought was possible. I used to read Nuts and Volts for this kind of thing, but Make blows it away.
A sample of this issue’s highlights: an interview with Woody Norris, the wizard of untrasonic sound and inventer extraordinaire; a profile of DIY electric cars and the tinkerers who built them; a primer on Free to Air (FTA) digital satellite television; engines you can make out of Coke cans; and much, MUCH more! If the TV genius crimefighter MacGyver ever subscribed to a magazine, it is Make.
This weekend the magazine is sponsoring the Maker’s Faire at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds in California. The two-day family event will feature exhibits on DIY antenna building, electronic recycling, hardware hacking and tinkering. Television’s most famous makers (well after MacGyver, of course) the Mythbusters will also be at the Faire. If you’re in the area, the Faire is a must-see. It reminds me of Bob Young’s Lulu Tech Circus, only better focused on the DIY crowd. Perhaps Bob’s idea wasn’t so crazy after all.
I’m already sorting through my cool project ideas to see if any are Make-worthy. I might get an article published yet!
I’m back from my day trip to Boston. I landed there Monday morning around 10:05, well ahead of schedule. I had two hours to meet my customer, so I was thinking I was in good shape.
I was wrong. I got on the Mass Turnpike heading west when I decided to stop and check my directions. Dumb move! Turnpikes don’t easily let you back on, so I decided to see how far Route 16 took me.
As I’m driving along, I pass groups of schoolkids on the sidewalks. There were balloons tied to fences. People were sitting out on their porch steps. Planes trailing banners competed for space with F-15 Eagles flying overhead.
“Hmm,” I thought. “Must be something going on.”
That something, I soon discovered, was the Boston Marathon!
Now that I was off the beaten path of I-90 I was doomed. Roadblocks were everywhere. New England can be confusing enough to navigate without having to backtrack several miles to get around a race course. I found my way to Route 9, which took me up to 495. From there, I missed my turn and had to backtrack to 495, which thwarted me again since the exits I wanted to use to turn around were blocked by police for the race.
I wound up at the customer’s site a half hour late. Fortunately we had a good laugh about it.
I did my thing there and got back to the airport early with an eye on getting an early flight back. I was the fifth standby for four empty seats. D’oh! Oh well, at least my Boingo account got me on the Internet.
I did manage to get home in time to tell the kids goodnight, which was the highlight of my day. As much as I hate leaving the family I have a number of trips lined up for the near future.
Whatever happened to life slowing down?
I’m heading to Boston for the day after a fun and full Easter weekend. More details when I get a chance.
I’ve been enjoying the podcasts that They Might Be Giants have been putting out. Very entertaining stuff. John Linnell and John Flansburg are so talented. And goofy. Their podcasts are full of odd songs, G iants hits, and insightful commentary by the host, public radio’s beloved Cecil Portesque, the Duke of Dead Air.
Download the latest free podcast here or look for it on iTunes.
Now if they’d only play in Raleigh!
Do plants get jet lag? By that I mean, what would happen if you took a plant from a place on the planet experiencing fall and put it directly into a place experiencing spring? Would it bloom or go dormant?
I suppose stupid questions like these are why countries have quarantine laws . . .
Kelly and I are once again raising money for the March of Dimes to fund research for saving premature babies. Those who know me know our daughter Hallie was born eleven weeks premature. She may not be with us today if it wasn’t for the miraculous advances in medicine that the March of Dimes helps fund.
We are truly grateful to the March of Dimes and to all those who have donated to help further this lifesaving research. Should you wish to sponsor us for this year’s WalkAmerica (on April 22nd), you can donate online here. You can also join us for the walk if you’d like. It’s all for a good cause: raising money to help premature babies get a healthy start.
Thanks once again for your generosity!
As my earlier post suggested, the evidence of rape in the investigation of the Duke Lacrosse team appears to be dwindling every day. The N&O noted the same doubts are now appearing in the Crimestoppers reports:
In an April 3 news release offering cash rewards for information, CrimeStoppers coordinator Cpl. David Addison wrote, “The victim was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed. This horrific crime sent shock waves throughout our community.”
Tuesday at 11:16 a.m., Addison e-mailed the same release, but modified the first sentence to read: “The victim alleges that she was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed.” The second sentence calling the incident a “horrific crime” was deleted.
Eighteen minutes later, an amended CrimeStoppers release was sent. The only change was that “the victim” was now referred to as “the complainant.”
Mike Nifong, are you listening?
