October 2011

There were 39 posts published in October 2011 (this is page 3 of 4).

Occupy (insert place name here)

I don’t know what to make of the Occupy Wall Street protests and the other protests that have spawned from these. I mean, I too am shocked at the wealth disparity between the very rich and the rest of us and am sick like everybody else of corporations shirking their tax obligations. Still, I don’t see how staying put in some place can be considered a “movement.”

This quote crystallized it for me. A protester at Occupy Chapel Hill was asked how long she intended to stay camped out:

“Till things are better,” Stephanie Daugherty said when asked how long she plans to sleep outside the Franklin Street post office. The 30-year-old unemployed IT worker was among the first 31 people to pitch tents and lay mats Saturday night after an Occupy Chapel Hill rally.

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Datacenters in North Carolina


Earlier this month much hoopla was made by the Governor’s office when Gov. Bev Perdue visited Facebook’s datacenter in Forest City in Rutherford County. Facebook announced it was adding another building to the site, doubling its capacity.

In a press release, Perdue touted the jobs it would bring:

“Creating jobs is my top priority. Facebook’s additional expansion into North Carolina means more high-tech jobs and investment in Rutherford County,” said Gov. Perdue. “Facebook continues to be a ‘friend’ to North Carolina.”

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Iran assassaination plot

Over the past few days, the US claims it uncovered a clumsy plot by Iran’s Quds Force to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. The Iranians supposedly approached an informant posing as a Mexican drug cartel member in an effort to bomb a DC-area restaurant that the diplomat frequents.

I’m having some trouble buying into this plot. Yes, Iran engages in terrorism and assassination but this plot that officials have called “amateur hour” isn’t keeping with Iran’s history. This is the same Iran who allegedly carried out truck bombings in the past which obliterated the bombing vehicles to the extent that only scraps of metal were recovered (with no serial numbers)? How could this Iran suddenly have gotten so sloppy? Iran has shown that it is perfectly capable of carrying out its own bombings. Why would it need to enlist a supposed member of a drug cartel?

I’m a little wary of these charges until I learn more.

Getting restless

It was a day not filled with good news. It wasn’t a bad day, necessarily. Just not one that contained a job offer.

It’s funny. I’ve been working from home for a few years now and never really felt cabin fever until I was not working from home. I wanted desperately to have some assignment to be done today.

With no job to do, I dusted off a project I’ve been meaning to complete for some time now. It’s a Raleigh-themed web forum I’m hoping fills a gap I see in the online discussions around here. I’m still hammering out details so it’s no where near ready for public unveiling. Still, I’m enjoying working on it and it’s teaching me a lot.

I’m just ready to be out of this in-between state I’m in. Kelly’s working now and I’m not: it’s a total change in responsibilities. I have to play a bigger role around the house than I have before and still find time to job hunt. Then when I do get a job, the kids will be in an after-school program for the first time ever, which means less family time for all of us. At least at that point, though, we’ll be in a routine that will hopefully last us a while.

Maybe some luck will come my way. I feel I could use some right now.

Dennis Ritchie, 1941-2011

Dennis Ritchie, legendary creator of the C programming language and co-inventor of the best operating system ever (UNIX), died earlier this week. He was 70.

Ritchie was every bit as influential as Steve Jobs in shaping our computing world. Perhaps even more influential than Jobs.

Dennis Ritchie, creator of the C programming language and co-creator of the Unix operating system, has died aged 70.

While the introduction of Intel’s 4004 microprocessor in 1971 is widely regarded as a key moment in modern computing, the contemporaneous birth of the C programming language is less well known. Yet the creation of C has as much claim, if not more, to be the true seminal moment of IT as we know it; it sits at the heart of programming — and in the hearts of programmers — as the quintessential expression of coding elegance, power, simplicity and portability.

Its inventor, Dennis Ritchie, whose death after a long illness was reported on Wednesday and confirmed on Thursday by Bell Labs, similarly embodied a unique yet admirable approach to systems design: a man with a lifelong focus on making software that satisfied the intellect while freeing programmers to create their dreams.

via Dennis Ritchie, father of Unix and C, dies

Political, not principled, stand on gay marriage

The Charlotte Observer rightfully takes Gov. Perdue to task for her mealy-mouthed stand on the marriage amendment.

Yes, jobs are important but so is taking a principled stand against constitutional bigotry.

In a press release late last Friday afternoon, Perdue said she’d vote against the amendment. No, not because she supports gay marriage but because “I cannot in good conscience look an unemployed man or woman in the eye and tell them that this amendment is more important than finding them a job.”

We agree that this ill-advised constitutional amendment could hurt the state economically, deterring good businesses and workers from locating in North Carolina. Some N.C. business leaders have begun belatedly speaking out on that issue.

But the governor missed a chance to stand up against the amendment for a bigger reason: The amendment is discriminatory. Her johnny-come-lately assertion came across as spineless and political.

via Political, not principled, stand on gay marriage | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper.

Good election day

It’s been a long but good election day! All of the candidates I supported won election, with Nancy McFarlane becoming Raleigh’s next mayor, Russ Stephenson reelected as at-large councilor, Eugene Weeks being elected outright to the District C seat, Randy Stagner winning a seat as the District A councilor, and Kevin Sutton reelected to the school board. Also, both the housing and transportation bonds passed by a good margin. To top it off, school board chairman Ron Margiotta was sent packing when Susan Evans defeated him tonight. There’s still a runoff pending for the District 3 school board seat held by Kevin Hill, but that’s within reach.

A fantastic day, politics-wise!

Google search-by-image

Because I love to see where my public-domain photo of Raleigh will show up next, I decided to give Google’s new search-by-image service a test drive. I uploaded a small size of my pic and lo and behold, Google provided me many, many search results showing where my photo is being used.

So far that’s ABC11 (WTVD), NBC 17 (WNCN), the City of Raleigh (who Photoshopped a light pole out of it!), MSNBC, Business Week, Yahoo! Finance, several local businesses including Four Points Sheraton in Cary, Allied movers, Signs By Tomorrow, and several real estate companies and taxi companies among many, many others. Good to see how far it’s traveled!