Media

There are 262 posts filed in Media (this is page 26 of 27).

Graffiti problem gets attention

The news media have begun picking up on the graffiti problem on state-maintained roads around Raleigh. I’m hopeful that these stories will convince our state transportation officials to take the graffiti issue more seriously.

I got interviewed by Anthony Wilson of WTVD at lunch today, during which I offered my story of how I’ve been pleading with N.C. DOT to give this attention but to no avail. I’m not looking for an overnight solution, either. A little progress on the issue would be enough.

I’ll be watching the news tonight to see if the story runs. There’s a chance that the state will agree to deal with the issue and that might fundamentally change the story. I would be thrilled if my story never ran because the state stepped up to the plate and made the story moot. We’ll see what happens.

Graffiti is a problem that affects us all. It takes a coordinated effort to get rid of it. If one party opts not to tackle it there’s little others can do to pick up the slack. That’s what’s happening here. If the N.C. DOT won’t fix it, let Raleigh crews fix it, or hire a contractor. Putting it off only makes the problem worse.

Jonathan Trappe rides balloons across English Channel

Jonathan Trappe's SpiritCluster

My balloonist friend Jonathan Trappe flew his balloon chair across the English Channel today. He landed safely in a cabbage patch in Dunkirk, France after a five-hour flight.

“It was just an exceptional, quiet, peaceful experience,” Trappe told Sky News television, which covered the adventure.

Asked why he went, Trappe replied: “Didn’t you have this dream, grabbing on to a bunch of toy balloons and floating off? I think it’s something that’s shared across cultures and across borders – just this wonderful fantasy of grabbing on to toy balloons and floating into open space.”

Just so you know, Jonathan isn’t like the nuts who attach balloons to lawn chairs and take off without any training or preparation. Jonathan is a fully-licensed FAA balloonist and meticulously plans each and every flight. He obtains all the proper clearances and absolutely knows what he is doing. This flight was anything but crazy for Jonathan, but it would be quite crazy for you to try it without proper training.

Congrats to Jonathan on his most exciting flight yet! Find out more about him at ClusterBalloon.Com (currently melted down due to all the publicity. Jonathan should consider a clustered webserver!) Here’s a link to find out more about Jonathan.

NBC 17 interview on Club Envy

I was interviewed by NBC 17 on an East Raleigh club with a troubled history. Club Envy was the scene of two shootings early Monday morning.

My interview ran during last evening’s news and the story can be found here.

Thanks to Justin Moss of NBC 17 for the great reporting!

After a shooting at Envy nightclub in Raleigh on Monday, there are growing calls for the business to be shut down.

“The neighbors have put up with this for years and they’ve had enough,” said Mark Turner, Chair of the Raleigh’s East Citizens Advisory Council.
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Sen. Hoyle tries to block municipal internet

Sen. David Hoyle (D-Gaston)

Remember the battles against the big telecoms in the state to keep the cities’ right to own and operate their own Internet service? It’s time for round three, courtesy of Sen. David Hoyle (D-Gaston). He’s pushing a bill, S.1209 (the so-called “No Nonvoted Debt for Competing System” Act), that will hamstring North Carolina municipal Internet projects into using only general obligation bonds. Not only will this hurt municipal Internet projects, it will prevent initiatives such as Google’s 1 Gb fiber Internet. Bye bye, Google Fiber!

Previous attempts by Time Warner Cable, AT&T, CenturyLink (Embarq), and others tried to make the case that municipal Internet should not use taxpayer money. Now they’re saying these systems should use only taxpayer money, not the revenue bonds that they currently use. I think it shows their real motive is to block competition, sewing up Internet for themselves. With governments sidelined, they will be free to impose caps on Internet service, killing competition from video services such as NetFlix. The public loses.
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Mark Cuban swings and misses

I used to think Mark Cuban was a smart guy. If smarts were judged by the amount of money in one’s bank account, Cuban would be a genius. So I don’t understand how Cuban could think that cable will threaten NetFlix.

The other thing to note is the percentage of Netflix subscribers that already subscribe to a TV provider. Netflix has to be concerned that it will be easier for those people to give up Netflix if their TV provider expands their VOD offerings and allows for queuing of streams to a TV channel than it will to give up the TV provider.

Maybe Cuban is worried because he owns a cable TV station and depends on subscribers. Maybe his billion-dollar bank account has blinded him to the burden that a $100+ monthly cable bill presents to the average American. Cuban’s certainly got to keep his cable television masters happy or face his HDNet channels being dropped. To say that a working-class family would opt to choose an ever-escalating cable bill with horrible service over a $15/month, all you can watch NetFlix streaming account is unlikely to me, but I admit I don’t watch much TV.
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Army spy plane tracked Times Square bomber?

Wired is speculating that a secret Army spy plane tracked alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. According to the story, Shahzad called and reserved his plane ticket on his way to the airport.

What I don’t understand is why a plane was needed to track him. His cellphone was being tracked by the cellphone company, potentially within 50 feet of his location. Why put a plane up to suck down all electronic signals if you can already pinpoint his location easily?

And I was wondering how Shahzad got on a plane with the No Fly List supposedly protecting us from harm. Fortunately, CNN covered this part – saying that the list doesn’t get updated in real time but every 24 hours. Airlines are now being urged to refresh their databases within 2 hours.

WRAL misses the point

WRAL’s Cullen Browder brings news that some publicly run venues in N.C. are losing money. I have a few problems with this story:

1. Some privately-run venues are also losing money. In fact, many businesses are losing money now. How is this news?
2. Making a profit isn’t the point of public venues. Public venues are designed to put “heads in beds.” They are designed to generate revenue from the tourists who visit because the venue drew them here.
3. Said tourists spend lots of money on restaurants and hotels while they’re here.
4. Hotel and meal taxes from these tourists go to pay for the public venue.

See how it works? If venues can fund themselves through ticket sales, all the better. But that’s really just gravy. Public venues really fund themselves through the business they generate. For WRAL to miss this important point is quite mind-boggling.

Raleigh works to woo Google fiber

I got a little ink in this week’s Independent Weekly, discussing the Triangle cities’ efforts to lure Google’s proposed 1Gbps fiber network:

East Raleigh organizer and blogger Mark Turner said the Bring Google Fiber to Raleigh! Facebook group he created the day that Google announced the fiber program now includes more than 600 members and has drawn the support of elected officials. He hopes upcoming Internet conferences in Raleigh will add muster to the effort.

“I see fiber and Internet connection as being almost as vital nowadays as sewer service and water service, as far as building communities,” Turner said. “It would really position us for some long-term growth.”