I sketched up what I feel would be perfect (or at least good enough) of an idea for LRT in this part of the metro. I also put in some of the bus routes to get an idea of how it would work out.
Openhouse Meetings are this month, more information here.
]]>I sat around and made up my own instead. What bothers me is how can these be useful to the average employee if they have a wildly different view of what compensation means?
So, for your enjoyment a comparison of charts between my perspective and my employers perspective.
]]>Yes, the bridge guys were too busy with light rail to deal with bridges. This sounds like the classic "transit takes away from roads" argument. Why was it even printed?
Dan Dorgan, who succeeded Flemming as state bridge engineer, acknowledged that "it appears that we made a choice not to push it that quickly." He said that MnDOT had competing priorities at the time, including building Minnesota's first light-rail line.
]]>I'd also like to get my hands on new maemo code, especially if I'm going to be using features that are upcoming -- Apple /does/ provide seed releases to developers. I'm honestly just 'developing' by writing some python glue, but its likely I'll do more in the future. Making this 'harder' and less accessible through hiding stuff from developers until its released is not helping. Getting cranky about it through blogs and/or mailing lists isn't going to help either, too.
And re: ubuntu (and by some extension debian) working with developers on issues critical to follow-on development (in my case systems integration at the time) was not met with a 'one way' channel. I had /no/ problems working with developers of both projects (I am a Debian Developer) and fix problems right on the spot so things were working for release. Harnessing developers is hard. Harnessing outside developers is harder.
[I may have the following wrong, but it is my perspective]
My experience with Maemo is that much of the development is nokia driven. New code (ie: diablo) doesn't quite make it into any sort of firmware loadable onto any maemo-supported devices because nokia developed firmware includes non-free stuff. There is no really installable image aside from what nokia builds as far as I can tell, so the way maemo.org is setup it blurs the distinction between maemo and nokia. Sure, I installled the SDK on a machine, but it definately wasn't anywhere near the 'same' as my tablet. It was a very basic framework for developing apps on that can happen to run on the tablets. Palm at least had full-test-environments to run apps under that didn't feel so utilitarian.
The Debian/Ubuntu/Canonical situation is more clear. Debian packages 'stuff'. Ubuntu takes 'stuff' and denotes some of it as part of their 'main' distribution for support by the Ubuntu core team. Canonical makes money by taking Ubuntu work (and funding it) and adding support contracts and OEM customization for pay. Canonical supports Ubuntu by deploying a novel project management system, launchpad. I don't see these easy-to-delineate boundaries with Maemo/Nokia.
Maemo is the platform that Nokia uses to build up a set of software for use on the tablets, but much of the software is kept close to keep a competitive advantage. Developers are inconvenienced because of this management decision to hold back significant parts of the 'secret sauce' until firmware image release. Ubuntu/Canonical does not do such a thing. Sure, you can't go to LKML and ask when Ubutnu is getting Bug XYZ fixed -- but I can just plug a comment into launchpad or contact a developer on IRC and see if its on their radar. Likely I will even be able to start a dialog with developer on the issue, something substantive that helps Ubuntu harness my thoughts on the issue rather than telling us to go away.
]]>A CenterPoint contractor (never allowing them into my house, obviously, as they are happy to be mis-informants for the police) tipped off the Brooklyn Park police department to a chemical smell. Turns out it was common household chemicals used for maintaining a saltwater fish tank.
I don't want to think what happens if someone smells some film developer or sees a 'strange room' without windows with lots of mixing tanks and trays.
I think the city should issue an apology and train their officers to treat citizens with respect when investigating cases, especially for suspects with no prior conviction history. Beating down doors and ignoring citizens will only generate animosity towards our police department. Obviously something went wrong -- a door was beaten down based on limited evidence instead of just stopping by and saying that there was a concern and involving community policing techniques. This is not acceptable for our city. We should not accept this as standard operating practice.
[via Consumerist]
]]>We're not offering enough serious choices for advanced learners in these subjects. I'll admit, I was bored out of my mind in AP Calc and it took 3 times to really beat it into my head -- but if I had a course that was more project driven like a combined Calculus and Physics course, I may have done better.
I asked why such a course was not being offered at my High School back in 1998 (Maple Grove Sr) and was told flat out that it was due to available funding. I know two of the teachers available for the course were more than willing to teach it. Students were willing to attend it. There simply wasn't enough FTEs to go around to make it work.
Instead I spent a significant amount of credit hours in my senior year playing system administrator as part of a 'tech team' that gained a ton of low level operational experience as desktop administrators. This let me get into some higher level work right out of High School while taking college courses. I'm still working on my degree (got sidetracked, but enjoying it) and consider myself successful because I was offered such an opportunity.
CARB standards in MN are a great place to start.
One vocal detractor who can't possibly have /every/ dealer in Minnesota behind him thinks that trucks and minivans would be eliminated under the standards. One comment from me: How many HUMMER H1s did you see in LA last time you were there? Seriously?
]]>In counterpoint -- my Christmas display uses way less energy being on 5hrs a day than many city homes (pre-80s) use on heating in the same month. I've bought a house with energy efficient features and spent way more to add a significant amount of efficiency to it. A lighting display isn't going to fix someones $200+ gas bill. I expect no gas heating bills for a 1800 sqft house over $120 this year, perhaps even below $100! The air source heatpump I use as part of our 'hybrid' heating system is driven by 100% windsource power, so we're not funding the decimation of our planet nearly as much as bozos who think that Christmas lights are evil.
]]>Has anyone at mndot checked out 169 or 252 in the mornings lately? Both of those are far worse than whatever Plymouth is worried about. Brooklyn Park, Anoka, Champlin, Coon Rapids, and Andover have been way more screwed than Plymouth in infrastructure development over the last decade. Plymouth has 2 connected freeways -- we've got a ton of half-built roads that need a ton of work!
]]>I think the best tool consumers have right now against bad providers is anti-competitiveness complaints. Find an issue you can *prove* and run with it. Send lots of letters to your franchise authority and FCC. My experience through the franchise authorities is that the complaint gets to the right people locally instead of dealing with corporate brick walls.
On the telco front you can contact the public utilities commission and they might be able to exert some pressure, but they generally do not regulate internet services.
A question to you -- what behavior bothers you the most? Do you wish the connection was symmetric? Is your connection not reliable? Do you worry about semi-deidentified aggregate URL logs being sold to private industry? Do you want to be able to provide services or have global addressability for all your machines at nominal cost? Do you live in an area where your provider has decided to provide minimal (or no) investment? Is p2p, youtube, or vonage throttled a ton?
Can the 'major' problems be fixed with regulation, rules, laws, municipal networks, or working within the existing frameworks? Are there tangible benefits to changing the system that outweigh added cost to the state/city/etc? Can you prove this to non-technical people, like politicians -- they have to feel its worth the investment when compared to whatever the telcos and cable companies bring to the table. You might just end up being 'used' to get a better deal out of the telcos. Is it worth the work to do so or is it better to just work the angle to get the providers closer to the situation we prefer?
If we focus on blue sky proposals and lose, then the cableco/telco situation may not get any better. If we find places where they are anti-competitive, then theres a reasonable stick that many non-technical people understand as a problem.
]]>speaker: Peter Fleck, pfhyper.com
talking about minneapolis wireless mesh.
]]> He is on the portal content committee. There will be a 'free' portal on minneapolis wireless to all users.Need high speed internet (50mbps up/down, guessing burst -- not CIR) to all homes. Needs to be symmetrical.
Need to stop pressing segregation of content providers from premium vs not premium (ie: 30% loss) internet connections.
universal ftth bill at minnesota state congress. check out 'blandin on broadband'.
iron range fibernet is being pushed back on by qwest and minnesota cable
'open-sourcing government'
stop using 'enterprise' locked-in software, etc.
need to not just complain about poor internet services, but to contact government through the legislature, fcc, and local franchise authorities to ensure neutrality and high levels of service.
need to force investment by qwest and others to drop in fiber.
utility style regulation my help in forced investment and universal service.
minneapolis project is not a utility, it is a private/public 'partnership', the project is owned by usinternet.
technology centers are not the answer, ubiquitous connectivity at homes is highly important. (ie: the minitel experience)
Minneapolis is using belair equipment for their deployment.
]]>Going over how SAN works -- rebuilding raid filesystems is slow, mirroring between multiple silos works, but is expensive. Large cache is expensive, but can help. Async file IO with multiple users stinks.
Possible solution?
]]> Use multiple disks attached to multiple nodes, distribute disks and processing. managed cluster/full peer cluster are the two variants. Many systems have problems with small files. most cluster filesystems are too complex -- lots of setup time. 2 types of metadata, integrated or separate. (ie: metadata servers or alongside on disk -- or on separate disks) $20k for a small scale clustered storage setup. cache on each node instead of having cache all on one processing blade. storage is then closer to a grid model.soft rubber grommets cause more damage to drives since they vibrate more. -- use harder plastics/rubber instead to prevent noise but reduce vibration.
the object based systems are essentially large databases.
beat up your vendors to get hardware to test with, they should be able to get you some because of the current market situation.
some systems claim to be able rebuild disks very quickly by using the entire cluster to rebuild the volume.
750gb disks only had ecc on one side of memory. data was going to disk corrupted.
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