Dashing around the Farmer’s Market early Saturday morning, I picked up 5lbs of potatoes. The (late teen/early 20’s?) daughters were moving a bit slow as they organized the vegetables and filled my bag with red potatoes. I inquired about this and one mentioned that they “got in late”, then had to get up at 2 for the drive to Madison. I asked where their early morning journey began? Eau Claire – 178 miles.
On Lake Michigan, A Global Village
As Racine has changed, so have its politics. Once, a ritual antagonism for business was a sure vote-getter among Democrats. But Mr. Becker was elected three years ago with a pro-development message, pledging to trim jobs from the public payroll to free resources to attract new residents and businesses.
Racine’s future, Mr. Becker believes, lies in forging stronger links with the regional economy and global markets. Reinvention can be unnerving, he acknowledges, but he says it is his hometown’s best shot at prosperity and progress. “In the past, Racine was a self-contained economy,” he said. “But that is not an option anymore.”
No local economy truly mirrors the nation. But for Racine and its surrounding suburbs, the last few years have been marked by gradually rising prosperity, in step with the national trend. And the recent history of Racine, like that of the nation as a whole, is also the story of how a community comes to grips with the larger forces of globalization and technological change.
A View Near the Kiva Koffeehouse N 37 46.332′ W 111 25.022′
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument & Grovsner Arch N 37 27.267′ W 111 49.969′
North Carolina Daily Paper to Provide Free Local WiFi
I’ve seen a lot of WiFi models lately but this appears to be the first from a local newspaper. (You’ll let me know if I’m wrong, I’m sure.) The Pilot, which covers Pinehurst and several other communities in North Carolina, will provide free WiFi across Moore County. Publisher David Woronoff explains: “The Pilot’s mission is to serve Moore County and we think the technology has advanced to the point that we can help bind the community together in a dynamic and compelling way with The Pilot’s products and Internet service.” They’ve acquired WiFi equipment, hired a GM and will start the rollout with a transmitter on their own building in Southern Pines. This isn’t a value add for print subscribers — it will be accessible to readers and non-readers. The Pilot plans to launch a fee-based WiMax network later this year.
Verizon’s 100mbps Broadband service
This would be funny if it weren’t so sad – at least those of us stuck with very slow telco service:
The Actiontec router’s 100 Mbps capability allows Verizon to continue to provide higher data speeds to the customer, as they become available in the future, without having to install a new router or other equipment in the customer’s home. Verizon’s FTTP network is capable of providing such speeds. In addition, the new router allows Verizon to remotely assist customers in configuring it to meet specific needs within the home. Verizon also provides customers a business-class Internet firewall on the router.
“The ability to remotely diagnose problems and help the customer configure the router was a key goal for us,” Wimsatt said. “In-home networking can be complex, but we have the right people — and now the right equipment — to help the customer.”
Verizon is the only major telecom company building fiber-optics directly into customers’ homes, paving the way for an array of advanced and reliable voice, data and video services. The company is currently building the network in parts of 16 states. By the end of last year, Verizon had passed some 3 million homes with the new technology and expects to pass 3 million more this year. The company began building the network in 2004.
Where’s SBC/AT&T in all of this? They don’t seem to be spending their money on infrastructure….
Southwest Utah: Hell’s Backbone Bridge
An “exciting, backroad, scenic adventure”. Well worth the trip. Learn more about Hell’s Backbone bridge.
I posted additional photos here.
N 37 57.984 W 111 35.638
Concerts on the Square Clearing Storm Photos
 |
 |
 |
N 43 04.493 W 089 23.096
The People Formerly Known as the Audience
The people formerly known as the audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the platform shift you’ve all heard about.
Think of passengers on your ship who got a boat of their own. The writing readers. The viewers who picked up a camera. The formerly atomized listeners who with modest effort can connect with each other and gain the means to speak— to the world, as it were.
Now we understand that met with ringing statements like these many media people want to cry out in the name of reason herself: If all would speak who shall be left to listen? Can you at least tell us that?
Tim Porter has more.
DCStat: Data for Digital Democracy
Starting in mid-June, [the city of Washington] DC began releasing operational data from a variety of city agencies to the Internet, in several XML formats including RSS and Atom.