July 2010

There were 50 posts published in July 2010 (this is page 4 of 5).

Is Google stifling municipal broadband investment?

I was thinking more about the Google Fiber project today. It occurred to me that Google might actually be doing more to put the brakes on municipal broadband than Time Warner Cable and its cronies ever could.

As long as the possibility is out there that Google may build a network in a certain city, that city won’t be investing in its own broadband infrastructure. Google is guaranteed to disappoint the huge majority of applicants with its selection of a few cities, but nevertheless I can forsee city officials everywhere holding up Google as an excuse not to spend money on developing their own broadband. “Let’s hold off until we hear from Google,” they’ll say.

Google would do well in furthering its “fiber everywhere” cause by not keeping everyone in suspense.

Google creates fiber Internet resource site

In response to the overwhelming demand that 1,100 communities showed for the Google Fiber project, Google created the Fiber for Communities website. This site is a collection of resources that is intended to pave the way for communities to acquire fiber Internet.

I really like how Google has positioned this new effort. They know that their fiber project will only serve a handful of communities, leaving many to fend for themselves. By creating this site, Google shows it is committed to sharing its findings and supporting those communities who want to make this jump.
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Integrating QEMU with your Linux desktop

Here are some handy tips for making QEMU work much better with your Linux desktop. You can now park QEMU on an unused workspace and not have to click in your QEMU window to use your mouse in a QEMU guest.

Integrating QEMU a bit with your desktop

Presently you have to run QEMU with a slightly lower resolution than your real desktop or run it in full-screen mode to get a decent experience out of it. With a patch I have written and a few tricks it can work a bit better.

via Integrating QEMU a bit with your desktop.

Bradley Manning Wikileaks case

Pfc. Bradley Manning

Speaking of spies, I’m not at all happy with Pfc. Bradley Manning and how he revealed classified information to Wikileaks. Wikileaks, not connected in any way to Wikipedia, is a site purporting to expose secrets.

While I deplore the Iraqi shooting incident revealed in the video Manning had posted to Wikileaks, I cannot get around the fact that Manning broke his oath to protect and safeguard classified information. Manning could have handled this in a way that did not expose classified information but the chose not to.

Manning is rumored to be going through gender identity issues. While the Army isn’t exactly welcoming of that behavior, it is still no excuse to reveal secrets.

Spy swap

Anna Chapman

There has been a lot of speculation on the Russian – U.S. spy swap that took place last week. Some have speculated that the exchange of 10 seemingly-inconsequential Russian spies in America for 4 alleged U.S. spies in Russia produced no real winner.

I didn’t see how that was possible seeing how one, Alexander Zaporozhsky, allegedly helped the FBI capture two of our nation’s worst traitors: former FBI agent Robert Hanssen and former CIA agent Aldrich Ames. Those two spies did more harm to American intelligence than any in history, with Ames being directly responsible for the deaths of 10 secret agents working for the U.S. in Russia. It goes without saying that Zaporozhsky did the U.S. a huge favor by tipping us off to these two. Trading ten supposedly-bumbling Russian spies for Zaporoshsky is a bargain (though maybe we should’ve kept Anna Chapman).

Still, questions remain about the whole affair. Anyone who takes anything in the spy trade at face value is fooling themselves. Back-room deals are the name of the game. I find it hard to believe that the KGB could be so inept. Even Russian officials are incredulous. And how convenient that the alleged spies’ paymaster lands in and out of one of the most porous jails in Europe, only to promptly disappear? Mayberry’s Barney Fife could’ve done a better job! Was Metsos the real target of the FBI investigation? And did a back-room deal ensure his apparently-trivial escape? There are a lot of questions to be answered here.

Like most spy cases, it’s what we haven’t been told that really matters. It will be interesting to see what further details emerge from this not so cut-and-dried case. The spy swap itself may only be the beginning.

Anti-competition broadband bill killed again

Enjoy retirement, Sen. Hoyle!

Good news: Senator Hoyle’s anti-competition broadband bill is dead!

Let me see if I can summarize what took place early this morning. S.1209 and H.1840 both languished in the Broadband Connectivity House committee and never made it back to the floor. That’s all good. Then last night the House added a broadband study provision to the S900 studies bill, a provision which did not require a moratorium or study report be issued. The senate approved this and all seemed good.

Then an hour later Sen. Clodfelter gutted H.455, which was a “Kidney Awareness” bill, and inserted the “study” portion of S.1209, among other things. Clodfelter’s changes differed from the S.900 changes by requiring a report or suggested legislation by March 2011. The House did not concur. Though a committee report, a provision in H.455 favorable to municipal broadband was salvaged and that’s what was passed in H.455. End result: no moratorium and no report or new legislation required!

A big thanks to Reps Hackney, Holliman, Luebke, Weiss, Faison and Bryant in the House and Senators Snow, Atwater, Vaughn, and Queen (among many others) in the Senate. Now there’s a little time to put some law around municipal Internet and better hold off these challenges.

June was hottest ever for Raleigh – Durham

The National Weather Service says June 2010 is the hottest on record for Raleigh. Let’s hope the rest of our summer isn’t like the miserably-hot summer of 2007.

…WARMEST JUNE ON RECORD FOR RALEIGH AND GREENSBORO…
…RALEIGH-DURHAM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT…

June 2010 at the Raleigh-Durham international airport was the warmest on record as long as records have been kept at the airport going back to 1944. June 2010 was also the warmest on record for the entire Raleigh area with records going back to 1887.

The monthly average temperature for June 2010 was 81.5 degrees breaking the previous record of 80.7 degrees set in June 2008. The top 5 warmest years on record for the Raleigh area dating back to 1887 are as follows:

81.5 degrees – 2010
80.8 degrees – 2008
80.4 degrees – 1943
80.0 degrees – 1952
79.2 degrees – 1939
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Cheap thoughts: the hallway pitch

A coworker noticed my Pandora shirt as we passed in the hall.

“Pandora … what’s that?” she said.

It took me a beat to answer. I was on my way to getting my first cup of coffee and wasn’t expecting a question.

“It’s a music service,” I responded.

“Oh, yeah,” she said as we continued in opposite directions.

It made me realize that this is a good exercise for entrepreneurs. In addition to an elevator pitch, where you get 30 or more seconds to describe your business, you also need a hallway pitch where you can summarize your business in the time it takes to pass in the hallway.

Update: looks like another extremely wise, successful, and attractive individual has thought of this, too.

RPD officer parks vertically

A friend forwarded this FailBlog picture of an RPD police car that inadvertently got parked vertically. It looks like a new model car, so I’m thinking this happened somewhat recently.

Anyone know any details, like when/where this took place?

Update: My brother Jeff thinks this is the area near Six Forks Rd. and Millbrook Rd. I think it might be somewhere along Six Forks Rd., or maybe Lead Mine Rd. near Glenwood Ave. It could also be Six Forks close to Strickland, near

Look at the light pole in the top of the picture: it seems close enough to make this a narrow road, perhaps two-lane. On the other hand, the retaining wall looks new, too, so perhaps this road has gone through some widening recently. The close telephone pole could simply be an illusion caused by a telephoto lens.

The large bundles of copper telephone wires seem to point to a location close to downtown. I’m trying to identify that building in the background, too.

Sen. Hoyle’s anti-competition broadband bill expected to die

Internet hero

It turns out that no news is good news for Sen. David Hoyle’s anti-competition broadband bill, H.1840 (and formerly S.1209). The bill, which would block North Carolina municipalities from offering a choice of Internet services to their citizens, is stuck in the Broadband Connectivity House committee.

This committee is chaired by Rep. Bill Faison, who appears to be none too keen on letting this bill see the light of day. Rep. Faison learned first-hand the dangers of this scheme when it was pitched last year as H.1252. Faison is also not happy that Hoyle tacked his municipal broadband moratorium language onto one of Faison’s bills.

So, what have I learned about this? It’s good to be the chair of the Senate Rules committee, but it isn’t necessarily successful in getting bad bills passed. Also, it’s good to have two houses of government. Thirdly, don’t let the media hear from only one side. And, finally, sometimes otherwise good people like Josh Stein wind up disappointing you, even after you’ve stood in the rain all afternoon helping to get them elected.