Author: BrianR

Missing College Basketball

I became a Tar Heel fan rather fast. I’ve only lived in Chapel Hill for a few years and I’m already jonesn’ for college basketball season to start. I love summer weather much more than winter. But the lack of basketball is KILLING ME.

This is not a unique gripe in North Carolina. But its rather odd for me.

One, I am NOT athletic.
Two, I am NOT very competitive by nature.
Three, I think most organized sports are violent and too commercial.

Despite all my differences with the IDEA of organized sports I am still a fan. Each year I become more interested. Each year I yearn for watching a basketball game live and on TV. In a decade or so I could be a complete bball looney! 🙂

Why is this?

So far I believe its Ruby’s fault. 🙂 By that I mean she is such a cool Tar Heel fan. She isn’t the only one either. For some reason Tar Heel fans in Chapel Hill and Carrboro also happen to be the coolest people. They have interesting lives, are very creative, love peace, love each other, etc., etc. Also working at UNC didn’t hurt my love of this great sports tradition.

So I’m seriously thinking about doing a college bball vlog. Would you watch?

BarCamp 2007 was Great!

Getting to Red Hat by 8am on a Saturday (Aug. 4) for BarCamp RDU was hard but totally worth it. It was amazing how many geeks where there self organizing and learning stuff. Lunch was late but Fred moved the schedule around and made work. The WiFi was weird but it worked most of the time. These obstacles that would grind a traditional conference to a halt didn’t phase us. I attribute it to the fact that we were all organizers at this unconference. We came to this event willing and ready to work together.

Normal conferences put you in herd mentality mode (Mooooo!) with a strict schedule where you aren’t allowed to make your own event. Much less help fix it. So when something breaks, as it always seems to, people don’t step up. That’s the leaders job. (?) Plus I would suggest that free events attract people willing to participate. They come for the best reasons. Its no wonder this works.

On the flip side I heard a critique yesterday evening that BarCamp was too social and geeky. This person really didn’t want to spend their weekend working with computers even more. If doing that is your day job then why do it some more. I guess I do because I’m obsessed. (hehe) But I think more sessions that are not computer related would be good. Relaxing even. There was juggling and chess sessions tho. How about a how to surf the ocean session or how to prepare for a spelunking trip.

My favorite part was the Geeks 4 Good session. I proposed it and Ruby took off with it. I did eventually chime in a bit. I was AMAZED at how many geeks are interested in helping their neighbors. I knew geeks have big hearts but for some reason I expected less to attend. I am VERY happy that I was proven wrong.

We talked about tools to use for causes and organizations, strategies for helping others, etc. Ruby talked about how she has used Orange Politics for good and the importance of getting involved in local politics. We collected links that were shared and plan on putting them up on a page linked to from the BarCampRDU 2007 wiki. I learned about New Raleigh a local blog influenced by Orange Politics, too.

All in all a great weekend. The t-shirts rocked!

Muni WiFi helps bridge disaster recovery

MuniWreless.com points me to a good article at Computer World called New Wi-Fi network proves critical in Minneapolis bridge disaster.

“Thank goodness we had it in and that this piece of the network was already up and operational,” said Minneapolis City CIO Lynn Willenbring. “We could not have been as effective if it were not for that.”

The article explains how the Wi-Fi network near the disaster site helped rescuers download maps, connect webcams, and obtain other data. Another benefit was relieving cell networks from the massive increase in connections.

The use of municipal Wi-Fi networks in emergencies has been talked about for years in scenario white-board planning, he said, [Joe Caldwell, the co-founder of Minneapolis-based US Internet and CEO of USI Wireless] but “it has never really been put into play. … What we found out is that it is definitely viable and definitely makes a huge difference.”

HB1587 is dead

The NC House failed to act on HB1587 before they ended this session. So not only don’t we have the bad bill we don’t have the new study version either. The Local Government Fair Competition Act is dead! Goodbye! See ya!

I’m really happy we all got together and killed this thing. But I realize the old skool corporate lobbyist movement to restrict actual fair and OPEN competition in local broadband is alive. Undead if you will.

So keep your zombie battle gear handy. A good way to stay on top of this is by joining the NC Public Broadband list. We’ll have to get back to sending bad bills back to hell real soon.

Soaps, Drugs and Rock & Roll

ESCONDIDO, CA – The Bronner family, makers of the popular organic Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps have released a new video of NarcoPouch® 928 field drug tests of its soaps and other brands. The results prove that the test kit which was used to jail Don Bolles, drummer for the legendary punk band The Germs http://germsreturn.com/ on April 4, will always give a false-positive for the drug GHB (Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate) if used on any true natural soap. However, in an interesting twist, the test will test negative for fake mislabeled “liquid soap” products that are actually detergent-based, not soap.

Warning: this video is TOO long. Its about why soap isn’t GBH… for gawd sakes…. But I really love my hippy soap. Really I do. Ask Ruby. Thanks smalljones for pointing me to drbronner.com. I never would of thought that this crunchy product would be so 21st century. I mean they got a video on YouTube! Yesh Yesh!

The iPhone Hearings – Free the iPhone

Free the iPhone

Sign the petition!

The iPhone has set the stage for the future of mobile Internet — but bad policies allow companies like AT&T and Verizon to shackle great gadgets to their closed networks.

To free wireless Internet, the FCC and Congress must use the 700MHz spectrum auction to create an open network that gives consumers:

1. The freedom to use whatever device we want on any network.

2. The freedom to choose among many providers in a competitive wholesale marketplace.

3. The freedom to access any content or services we want through our devices.

These true open access standards should apply to the entire wireless market.

Orange County, NC Elections Maps

Over on Orange Politics Ruby has posted a entry with links to some amazing Google Maps.
Southern Orange County NC Election Info Map

Last week I created a Google map of all of the candidates in Orange County in this year’s municipal and school board races. Now excellent electoral map maker Damon Seils has added two very helpful resources: a map of every polling site in the county, and another map of the voting precincts. All of these maps will be permanently available on the election info page: orangepolitics.org/elections-2007

This is going to be so useful to so many people. I’ve wanted to know exactly where the local precincts are. Google Maps rock! Overlaying several different kinds of data with Geo info can tell so much. I want to thank Damon Seils and B. Hammill for all their work on this! Also thank you Ruby for putting this out there for people to use. She has lots of other good ideas for maps too.

Now what I would like to see is to see is candidates overlayed with a map showing the average density and average income of each precinct.

Clap, Clap, Clap!

(Map Legend: Flags = poling places, Orange Boxes w/White lines = precincts, purple pins = Carrboro Candidates homes, yellow pins = School Board Candidates homes, blue pins = Chapel Hill Candidates homes)

Where is the WiFi?

At a recent council meeting the Chapel Hill IT Director presented information about a WiFi pilot project. One council member asked How will citizens know where it is? How will we know when its up? The Mayor asked the IT Director to work with the Town Information Officer. A good first step. I subscribe to the Chapel Hill eNews. (A email list.) I wonder what percentage of Chapel Hillians do?

For this pilot project to work not only do the WiFi hot spots need to be where people will be but the Town needs to tell people where they are. A press release will help but it won’t be enough to encourage full participation.

Here are a few ideas for getting the word out. I hope that if the Town is really interested in the success of this pilot that they’ll consider these options. What ideas do you have? Please leave them in the comments.

First, mark the locations clearly where open public WiFi is present. The Town of Carrboro uses a internationally known symbol for an open wifi node.
There is a symbol like this on the door of the Century Center as you head towards the Cybrary. Still this bit of iconography is a bit geeky so some may be confused by it. I think english AND spanish signs that say; Public Wireless Internet Access Available Here, would be good.

Second, plot the WiFi hot spots on a map. Google maps are incredibly powerful tools that are free to use. Last year I created a map for local WiFi called Chapel Hill Wireless. It has pins on a map that you can click on and learn more about the spot. I’ve included WiFi from both Towns and from local businesses. (Sadly UNC’s wifi is NOT on this map. That network is closed to most citizens.) Since this map’s creation we’ve also gotten maps for other towns such as Durham Wireless and Asheville Wireless.

Third, hold events at the WiFi locations. Work with local tech groups like BlogTogether and University user groups to have lawn chair parties within range of the WiFi. I suggest people need to bring their own chairs because it looks like the majority of the pilot project will be conducted in parking lots. Sorta hard to sip coffee and talk to friends and family on asphalt. But I plan on doing just that.

I am sure there are even more creative ways to let people know about these new public resources. As I said in my comments before the council success of public WiFi relies on two way communication with people more than technology. WiFi for people before parking meters!

Cross posted from Orange Politics.