The government of California (motto: we never met a business we couldn’t tax) has decided to regulate VoIP services as phone companies. This is a surefire way to kill a fledgling industry, one which will transform communications if left alone.

Don’t forget: this is the same stupid state which tried to tax the satellites orbiting over it.

California is big sux.

I’ve been following the progress of Burt Rutan in his efforts to privatize space flight. Working with ID Software founder John Caramack, Rutan hopes to make the world’s first non-governmental spaceflight, eventually offering tourism flights to sub-orbital altitudes.

Read the Newsweek update, or read the lastest test reports from Rutan’s company, Scaled Composites.

This is truly Chuck Yeager-caliber stuff!
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I put a link to the pre-drupal archives over in the “About Mark Turner” box on the right. This will get you access to writing dating back to January 2002, when my blog was born.

I’ll still need to figure out how to incorporate the old stuff into the new stuff, at least so the search feature will work. There’s a lot of good writing there.

Today is the first day of October, one of my favorite months. The weather is beautiful and Halloween parties are always fun.

As for mt.net, last month was another one of super growth. For September, we had 2003 visits, a stat which has been steadily growing (November 2002 had 699, for instance). That’s a daily average of 66 visits (November 2002 was 23). Thanks for visiting, everyone!

I drive up to Richmond tomorrow to do some meet and greets with new resellers. I won’t be getting back until nightfall, which makes for a lonely day. At least I’ll have my ham radio to keep me company on the drive.

Pressure should be somewhat off today at work since the quarter closed yesterday. Yesterday was one of the busiest days I’ve had at my new job. I hate it when the other SE’s are out of the office!

Time in a Bottle
Jim Croce

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
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Taking the bus was my choice, not a necessity, as Kelly reminded me again this evening. True, I could have had Kelly drop me off this morning, but the bus had something else going for it. I got my lab results back from my physical of last week and they show elevated cholesterol levels. They’re not off the charts, but enough to get my attention.

That means exercise is a must for me. Since taking the bus would give me walking and riding exercise, it seems that the money I’ll pay in fares will be directly invested in my heart. That’s a pretty good bargain, I think.

Since I was limited in how many places I could pedal to go to lunch today, I settled on nearby Lake Johnson park. After ten minutes of pedaling, I was at the new boathouse, squinting into the early fall sun.

A few moments later, I was enjoying a microwaved chicken filet sandwich and some nachos while I sat in a rocking chair overlooking a sunny, breezy lake. I was even tempted to rent a sailboat and go rocketing across that lake, but I had a conference call scheduled that I couldn’t miss.

Lake Johnson will always have the feel of home for me. I remember taking walks around it early in my time in Raleigh. When I thought I was finally “making it,” I lived in an apartment which backed up to the lake property. Even now, I miss sitting on that back porch and watching those thunderstorms roll by. Or watching the geese on “final approach” to the nearby lake.

After finishing off my sandwich and nachos, I dragged myself away from the peaceful serenity of Lake Johnson and pedaled back to the office. Once again, a little diversion from the normal routine provided a welcome change of pace.

I took the bus into work this morning, as Kelly’s car is getting some work done on it today. The trip was surprisingly easy. TTA buses have bike racks on the front, making it easy to get from your stop to your destination. They also increased their routes in Garner, making it super-easy to walk to my stop.

Only problem is that I forgot to pack my lunch today and the usual suspects with whom I normally eat lunch are not here or already eating.

Note to self: next time I take the bus, take my lunch with me. 🙂

Comedian Bill Maher had a great post about what cellphones ought to do.

New Rule: I Don’t Need my Cell Phone to Play Video Games or Take Pictures or Double as a Walkie-Talkie–I Just Need it to Work

Why is getting to level four of Tomb Raider no problem but, to have a simple conversation, I have to stand on a hill with one hand on a flagpole? Thanks for all the bells and whistles, but I could communicate better with actual bells and whistles. Let’s not lose sight of the cell phone’s primary purpose: to annoy other people in the restaurant.

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I had a great idea yesterday while I was in the middle of mowing my lawn. Yard work puts me in that zen-like state. I guess its my meditation. Anyhow, it was something collaborative between area bars. As I posted below, I spent Saturday afternoon at a bar with my dad and brother while we watched the State-Carolina football game. The idea came to me looking back on it.

You know how some bars have fun trivia contests? Like Ri-Ra‘s Newcastle Pub Quiz, where everyone joins in and competes with other tables? What if that was taken city-wide? Like a “bar-league” of trivia games?

There are tools now that can make that possible which weren’t around a few years ago. Ri-Ra could compete with the Sawmill Tap Room, or Harrison’s, or Greenshields, for example (the two former establishments need webpages as well. ). You could support your favorite bar and feel some team pride as you went up against others: a citywide game of darts.

Details need to be worked out, but now that these businesses are getting Internet-enabled, this could take off. Perhaps I should consider some sort of wireless internet tie-in, too.

What does the Peanut Gallery think of this?