June 2005 Archives

For all of you current, former, and wannabe Pittsburgh residents, I highly recommend checking out Pittsblog's "Welcome to Pittsburgh" series.

The author hits life in Pittsburgh right-on. I especially like the "Traffic and Roads" entry. I strongly advocate some of these environmental groups to run a campaign in the 'Burgh promoting constant speeds in the tunnel. Imagine how much gas and time is wasted every single day from people slowing down to 30 in the Squirrel Hill Tunnel. As soon as you get out of the tunnel (heading downtown), traffic moves like it was intended, which makes no sense considering that there are no merging lanes and just as many lanes coming out of the tunnel as there were going in.

I've done a fair amount of traveling and have never experienced a tunnel quite like the Squirrel Hill (except for maybe the Fort Pitt).

The Supreme Court just ruled againist Grokster in the file-sharing trial. I'm not a lawyer, but from what I read, it does not violate copyright law to develop such programs, but it is illegal to develop AND push (ie market) the software as a means of downloading copywritten software. Interesting ruling and I don't see it changing things too much from the way they are now (at least immediately).

In more Supreme Court news, it's now legal for the government to kick you out of your house, should WalMart or your neighborhood oil refinery want the land.

Finally, our friends at the Court (must have been a busy day there today) increased the monopoly power of cable companies by ruling that they don't have to share their telecom lines with independent ISPs.

So, today was a great day for fans of big-business. While I think the ruling in the Grokster case is a good one (it puts the liability in the hands of those who market a service for violation instead of the developers), the other two I'm not so happy with. If someone owns something and doesn't want to sell it, the government has no right to force it upon that individual. I've been following this case for a couple of years in my MBA classes and I'm actually quite surprised the ruling came down as it did. Generating additional tax revenue is not a proper use of eminent domain IMHO. While I don't agree with the 3rd ruling, I really don't think it's going to make much of a difference in the long haul. WiMax and wireless technologies will make Cable and DSL connections obsolete within 5 years.

No more CopeACabanna...

Yoi, it looks like long time Steeler announcer Myron Cope is retiring. I can vaguely remember listening to Myron while taking rides with my parents and failing to understand both him and why we were listening.

It wasn't until my college years that I truly understood what Myron meant to the Steelers organization. Turning off the sound on the TV and tuning into Myron became a tradition when we could do it. Myron has had some medical problems this past season and didn't sound like his old self several times this past season, so I can't say his retirement is a huge surprise.

The saddest part of it is that this is the Steeler's year and Myron's not going to be there for it.

Go Steelers, beat the Clowns and the Bungles.

MIT is conducting a survey of bloggers. If you are so inclinced, help them out by clicking here. Survey took me less than 10 minutes to complete.

Flickr just keeps getting better and better. I've come across several tools these past few days that make it even better. The full list can be seen at my delicious stream.

1, A huge list of flickr apps.
2, flickr's official list of apps.
3, A neat Flash app that graphically links a user's contacts and how they interact with each other.
4, Another really cool Flash app that searches for flickr tags and displays pictures with the tag as well as related tags.

I've always been a pretty big fan of Proxim wireless equipment, but it looks like they will be going the way of the dodo. Proxim equipment has always been rather innovative in several wireless technologies including 802.11 and point-to-point antennae. I was especially a fan of their Orinoco line of wireless adapters and access points.

However, the company was never particularly well managed IMHO and I'm not really surprised to see them being bought.

For any botanists or gardners who may stumble across this site...

One of the world's largest flowers, the Titan Arum, is set to bloom at the University of Wisconsin. They have a live video feed (Windows Media, Quicktime, or DVTS if you have Internet2) of the event. They suspect the plant will bloom anytime between now and Saturday.

The plant looks like a leftover from Little Shop of Horrors. As an added bonus, the aroma of the flower can be best described as "rotting meat".

Update: 3:00 EST June 9, 2005; THE BLOOMING HAS BEGUN!

Matt has just joined the blogosphere with his software testing blog. I'm sure he will be posting some good stuff there, especially about the Steelers :)

Matt's Atom Feed

I've decided to log my bike rides over this summer. No particular reason other than to force myself to keep track for stats, etc...

Location: Williamsburg's Lower Trail, between Williamsburg and Canoe Creek State Park.
Mileage: 8.82
Average Speed: 8.7 MPH
Max Speed: 12.3 MPH

Notes:
This was the first time I've ridden this portion of the Lower Trail. I've riden the trail several times, but have always been on the western portion of the trail between Williamsburg and Alexandria. The trail between Williamsburg and Alexandria was heavily damaged due to Hurrican Ivan and only recently reopened thanks to Grannas Brothers donating time and equipment for repair (page 7 of PDF).

The portion of the trail I rode today was opened last year and is actually closer to Hollidaysburg than the other parts of the trail that I have ridden. The trail runs along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River. The trail is well maintained and very scenic in the parts that run right beside the river. Ethan joined me on the trip following in the yellow trailer. I had to make an impromptu cotter pin out of a hex wrench that I fortunately had in my bike tool kit. Apparently the original cotter pin disappeared over the winter.

Notable Landmarks:
Saw for the first time "Indian Chief Rock" which is a huge rock outcropping (similliar to the Chimney Rocks in Hollidaysburg) rising out of the Juniata near Williamsburg. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me to take some pictures but I will be sure to snap a few photos next time I'm on this trail.

Being that I'm a "Netflix Insider", I was contacted by Bruce Love of Love Consulting to do a quick interview about on-line DVD rentals for the Altoona Mirror. The full text can be found here.