We blew off cleaning the old house tonight (got too late) in favor of taking a walk around the neighborhood. Met my friend Mandy’s sister-in-law, Candace, who was out walking her dog. We chatted for a bit before continuing on to the Path.

The Path is the neighborhood path that leads into Durant Park. We wheeled Hallie down the path and were pleased to find ourselves in the middle of Durant Park. Kelly and I laughed and hugged the whole way down the path, both of us thrilled to be within walking distance of such wonderful woods.

I remember taking Kelly mountain biking through Durant Park early on in her Raleigh days. As we rode past overhanging flowers and open ampitheatres, I remember thinking what a great place it would be to have our wedding. The magic of the park stayed with me and still holds me in its spell.

People say we lucked out in happening upon this house, and upon this neighborhood. The truth is, it felt like home six years ago.

I put up my class materials from the Asterisk talk I did for TriLUG on June 12th. I’m still working on the audio portion, but it’s forthcoming.

I took video, but it mostly features me walking out of the frame. And the few times I’m on camera, my balding head washes everything else out. So audio-only seems to be the way to go. 🙂

Scaled Composites, the commercial venture of Burt Rutan and Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen, successfully reached space this morning during a test flight of its SpaceShipOne vehicle. The pilot, Michael Melvill, becomes the first astronaut to earn his wings on a privately-funded flight to the 62.5 mile boundary of space.

Allen spent a mere $20 million on Rutan’s company, which is most certainly chump-change by NASA’s standards (and by Allen’s. Heh). It costs upwards of $500 million to get the shuttle off the ground: each time! I hope this flight sends NASA back to the drawing boards. A little competition in space flight can go a long way towards lowering costs.

No word yet on when Rutan’s team will make a try at the X-Prize. The $10 million prize will be awarded to the first company or individual who sends three people into space and does it again in less than two weeks using the same vehicle.

My money’s on Burt!

There are a lot of things about Bellsouth that irk me, but one thing I’ve always praised them for is their customer service. When they say they they’ll do something, they do it. Such has been the case for me up until now.

I’m 0 for 3 on trying to get my phone service set up the way I want it. First, the new number wasn’t activated until two days later than I asked – and only after I called them up about it. The reason: someone hooked up the wrong line at the curb.

Next, the old service was supposed to be set up with a recording directing callers to our new number. The rep I spoke with sounded like a seasoned professional, so I had hope this would work. After a few key clicks, she assured me it would be done starting Saturday morning.

Of course Saturday rolls around and the Garner number gives a “this number has been disconnected … ” message, rather than the requested “the new number is …” message. Another call to Bellsouth give me the assurance that it will be activated by midnight Sunday morning.

Guess what? Sunday is here and my “new number” message isn’t. Yet another call to Bellsouth this morning tells me my order “hasn’t been processeed yet” and will now take effect no later than 6PM Monday evening!

What gives?!?!? This was supposed to be a simple change in the phone switch. It should have taken 30 seconds to activate. At the very least, one would think that having to wait until midnight would be plenty of time to make this happen. I mean, they must get this request all the time, right?

I realize the union-burdened phone company has a set-in-stone procedure for getting things done, so I’m willing to cut them some slack for things needing time. But more often than not, they’ve missed their commitments. In fact, every position in the chain required to make this change has failed to do their jobs: order taker, switch supervisor, and field tech.

I’ve been saying all along that voice-over-ip would kill the phone companies. I was wrong. They are doomed by their own ineptitude.