Belated congratulations to RTC member, fellow blogger, Drupaler, HSU student and advocate for green transportation Aaron Antrim on winning one of the Economic Fuel grand prizes of $25,000 for his already running business of Trillium Transit. Aaron is a great example of someone following his passions and channeling them in to practical solutions.

The technological advances that Aaron is pushing for to improve our environment are great. But I can’t help thinking a great shift in human thinking still has to happen. I live on a bus line. I watch this huge bus go by hour after hour empty or with one person on it. I passed a bus on 101 the other evening. It too was empty. The buses run, but in spite of advances like the ability to buy passes or plan bus trips online the system seems way underused. I admit I never think of using the bus. Will gas need to get to $7/gallon before I start changing how I view transportation? Probably. And it will probably reach $7 sooner than we dare imagine.

Leave a Comment | Permalink

Tags: buses, economic fuel, green wheels, transportation

We’ve been doing recycling for several years. I’m pretty happy that itt’s reduced our garbage output by more than half. I go down to the Eureka recycling center every other week. They’ve recently made it simpler and faster by reducing the amount of sorting you have to do considerably.

What’s funny, or sad, depending on my mood, is the number of huge SUVs that roll in to the transfer station to recycle struggling to squeeze in to a parking space in order to unload their few tubs of recycling materials.

I know we can’t all be in perfect alignment with green living precepts, but there is something increasingly egregious about these huge vehicles lumbering around in face of  climate change, raising gas prices and the political and security hazards that dependency on imported oil imposes on us.

1 Comment | Permalink

Tags: energy, green living, oil prices, recycling

That could be roman numeral four, but it could also be IV like in intravenous, as in fiber and other wired and unwired pathways for data which our body politic needs so badly to be healthy. OK, I’ve strained the analogy too much. In any case, if you’re interested in the health of the region’s telecommunications infrastructure, marke the date for Broadband Forum IV to be held August 22 at Fortuna’s River Lodge.

There should be plenty to discuss as Redwood Coast Connect should have assembled the data they have been gathering and be  ready with a presentation. People will be reporting on state efforts to improve broadband services. And I have high hopes that by then at least one solid plan for an alternate fiber route will have been unveiled.

In a time when fuel prices continue to skyrocket, the Internet will become an even more crucial factor in economic and cultural development as more and more of our transactions will need to take place in the global data network.

Leave a Comment | Permalink

Got an email from Eureka City Councilmember Jeff Leonard the other day announcing his participation in Open Humboldt Government that Jeff describes as “a new on-line forum designed to increase dialog between local elected officials and the community.” Jeff and a few other local officials are currently participating in this web site which allows office holders to pose issues and allow constituents to voice their opinions on each issue. Currently there are 2 Eureka City Council members, 3 Arcata council members and 2 from Trinidad. No one from Fortuna or County Supervisors are online as yet.

The service is being provided by a company called Peak Democracy. Heraldo over at the Humboldt Herald says they are based in Humboldt, but the whois record for eakdemocracy.com says the domain is owned by VoterHub, LLC based in Berkeley. So, not sure where he got that information.

According to the site, there is not cost to taxpayers for this service. Though participating elected officials pay $10 per month to cover the expenses of running the site. I assume Peak Democracy expects to have lots of officials from all over the country participating in order to make this pay.

It’s a simple concept and could be a valuable tool in gauging public opinion and forming policy. Certainly more efficient that sitting through hours worth of 3 minute rants at meetings.

5 Comments | Permalink

April 16th’s Eureka Reporter had a strange, vague article about the progress of alternate fiber efforts in Humboldt County. Strange, in that it comes at a time when there is no real exciting news. Vague in that it comes at a time when there is no real exciting news. What motivated the article at this time? Who knows.

I do know that there are several potential projects that will bring alternate fiber to the area by organizations other than AT&T. I also know that these projects are all still at the talking stage, that no one has made a commitment in dollars and until someone does, its vaporware.

I also know that AT&T, in spite of what they say in the article, has been building fiber along the Highway 36 corridor. But when or if they will complete the build is unknown especially given their statement in the ER.

When will this alternate fiber get done? When someone decides they can get a return on investment in a reasonable amount of time.

2 Comments | Permalink

The Redwood Technology Consortium’s monthly meeting will feature Chinmaya Lewis from the County of Humboldt. He will give a thorough introduction to the County’s new publicly available online Geographical Information System (GIS). GIS allows you to create maps with layers of selected data. This is very cool technology but the interface can be a little confusing. Mr. Lewis should make it all clear for us.

The meeting is at the Humboldt Area Foundation Conference Room off of Indianola Cutoff at 5:30 PM.

3 Comments | Permalink

Tags: GIS, maps, Redwood Technology Consortium

As noted here before, we upgraded the RTC web site a while back. In the process we installed a suite of modules called CiviCRM. They allow us to do a number of things for membership management. One of those we are starting to implement now: We will be building a list of tags (or keywords) of skills and associating those with RTC members. Then we’ll be able to allow users to search the member roster for people or companies that have specific tech skills.  This could be a big benefit for tech businesses and people looking for assistance. I don’t know of any other place in our region where such information can be found easily. The range of skills and services could be quite great. After announcing the service today we have received an impressive list ranging from graphic design to C++ programming to network management support.

2 Comments | Permalink

Tags: RTC, tags, tech skills

It seems like newspapers everywhere are revamping their web sites in hopes of staying ahead of the wave of people going online to get their news. The Eureka Reporter unveiled its site in December, and a couple months the Times-Standard released the lastest version of its site.

The previous version of the Times-Standard was chaotic and hard to look at. While this version is an improvement, there is still way too much going on, particularly on the home page.

For one thing they have lots of ads and if any of them are animated this lends a feeling of chaos. Also, the nature of ads, unless they are carefully controlled, is that they clash with the overall design. Their whole point is to draw attention to themselves and away from the content. Additionally, they are still using annoying pop up ads. I realize they need to find a way to monetize their content, but those things are so aggravating they are probably more a net negative to advertiser. Of course, I don’t have any metrics to back this up. Just my personal reaction.

Additionally, the T-S wants to become more than just a newspaper, with video and blogs, an event calendar and more. But they seem to want to cram links to everything on to the home page. And today, they had not one, but two embedded videos competing for my attention.

I like that you can still comment on articles. But I’m not sure what value the location tool is since it uses the IP you are assigned by your ISP and that could be any number of locations. It’s just confusing.

But the bigger question here is will all of these new web sites save newspapers in the long run? Does the revenue earned from online ads really offset the cost? How can newspapers compete with Craig’s List? And with so many options for news will newspaper web sites be able to retain their importance as a primary news source? Eric Alterman’s recent essay in the New Yorker subtitled “The death and life of the American newspaper” notes the following statistic:

Only nineteen per cent of Americans between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four claim even to look at a daily newspaper. The average age of the American newspaper reader is fifty-five and rising.

But if newspapers, that pay for original reporting disappear, where will we get the news that bloggers like me comment on? What will we link to? I think as newspapers die, a new model will rise as the hunger for information does not seem to be diminishing, but growing.

Leave a Comment | Permalink

Tags: journalism, new yorker, newspapers, times-standard

Cancer is a scary disease. It can lie hidden for years and suddenly a test reveals your bones/lungs/liver/brain/colon is riddled with it. But I have been fighting the good fight. I have been fending off cancer by drinking red wine. Not only that, but the same cancer fighting ingredient, resveratrol, is also helpful in staving off some of the effects of diabetes. And there is some indication that red wine could be good for the heart.

I just got done hauling and stacking wood. I think I will have a nice glass of red wine and little nap. I’m such a health nut!

1 Comment | Permalink

Tags: cancer, diabetes, health, heart disease, red wine, resveratrol

Well, after strutting around all winter with nary sniffle I came down with one of this year’s versions of the crud. Really, just a cold. But a mean one with a debilitating dry cough that caused my  entire torso to ache and found me spending two nights in the living room chair trying to sleep in a semi-upright position.

I tried to work, off and on, at home. I tried to read when I could concentrate or focus my eyes. But really, I spent a lot of time just sitting and trying not to disturb whatever it was that my lungs were trying to expel.

I know I am not alone. I’ve had many friends tell me their horror stories. I’ve read about the losses in school income due to high  absentee rates. I’d felt so fortunate, even a little superior having gotten to Spring in such a healthy fashion. Now I have joined the many weak of soul and body. I have succumbed to the viral menace.

But things are better today. I can walk through the house without collapsing in to a hacking fit.  I can talk for more that a few minutes without my voice devolving in to an incoherent whisper. Tomorrow is a new day. And hey! It’s Friday already!

1 Comment | Permalink

Tags: crud, health, sickness

Karen Armstrong is a tremendous writer on religion. She was honored recently at the Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conference. Her acceptance talk is revelatory and I thought appropriate for this Easter weekend. She includes a proposal that offers a chance of transcendence for all of us. The 20 minute video is well worth watching and contemplating.

And if you aren’t aware of TED, check out the other talks available.

7 Comments | Permalink

Tags: Karen Armstrong, peace, religion, TED, the golden rule

We’re slowly letting go of the video production side of our business. Lots of
reasons for this but one of them is the stiff competition. I mean with people
like these folks, it’s hard to imaging being able to match the quality and
effervescence they bring to their work. Enjoy!

2 Comments | Permalink

Rich Ryan offered some exciting options in his presentation for the RTC last night. His company, Hunter Communications has a great deal of experience building fiber networks in rural areas. They seem to know the issues that confront a region like ours. They understand the physical and regulatory landscape. They also seem to be able to make economic sense out of building fiber in areas that are generally under served by the telcos.

Rich is also very community oriented and is open to partnering with anyone. He has an interest in expanding his operations in to Northern California. I am hoping we can get him started on some solutions very soon.

Leave a Comment | Permalink

Tags: alternat fiber, broadband, fiber, hunter communications

The Redwood Technology Consortium has invited Rich Ryan, CEO of Hunter Communications from Southern Oregon to speak at the monthly meeting tomorrow, March 13 at 5:30 PM. Ryan has built fiber networks in Oregon and is very interested in finding solutions for the North Coast.

Topics discussed will include:

* Hunter Communications background and current composition

* Development of fiber networks and the implementation of the Rural and
Metropolitan Area Network in Southern Oregon

* Vision for the Northern California Coastal Region and what a
regional fiber network could mean for businesses, municipalities and
other groups

* Hunter’s Plan for our region and how it fits in the “big picture”

Hunter Communications’ formed a creative public-private partnership model that leveraged pre-existing, school budgeted telecommunications funds to build a network infrastructure capable of handling regional demands, and currently servicing over 90 sites. Hunter’s efforts have resulted in unprecedented new communications and connectivity resources for a number of previously disregarded rural communities.

The meeting this month is at the Humboldt Area Foundation Conference Room. 373 Indianola Rd., Bayside.

Leave a Comment | Permalink

Tags: alternate fiber, fiber, redundant fiber, Redwood Technology Consortium

The newly formed Humboldt Film and Digital Media Commission is holding a public meeting tonight to discuss state and the future of these arts in our region. The event starts at 5:30 PM at the Wharfinger Building. You can find details of the event on the Redwood Technology Consortium Calendar.

Update: There was a somewhat small but very enthusiastic turnout for this meeting. Of particular interest was a presentation by the folks putting on the upcoming Humboldt Film Festival. With a new venue, a whole lot more entries to choose from and some interesting judges it should be an exciting and eye opening event.

As for the Film and Digital Media Commission itself, it’s hard to know exactly where things will lead, but they seem to have a dedicated group with a vision for region as a center for film and digital media.

Leave a Comment | Permalink

Next Page →

• Search
Blogline | Newsgator | Yahoo

• Categories

  • Broadband Forum II
  • Broadband/Internet
  • Life notes
  • Local Tech Notes
  • Open Source Web Development
  • SEO

• Archives

  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • January 2005
  • September 2004
  • August 2004
  • July 2004
  • June 2004
  • May 2004

• My Sites

  • HumGuide
  • Morse Media

• Other Blogs

  • Big List of Local Blogs
• 

• Admin

  • Log in
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML