Blogging Roller

Rockin' the house
Originally uploaded by fieldmouse.

Fieldmouse took some good shots of The Connells show at Mission Valley saturday night. I was there. It was hot and muggy as hell, but after a somewhat shakey start, sound-wise, the guys put on a great show.

I just signed up for the Old Reliable Run 10K, which takes place in downtown Raleigh on November 13, 2005. You can sign up too at active.com. It's been over 10 years since I've run a 10K and despite my daily 3-mile run I still feel pretty out-of-shape, so I'll be happy just to finish without walking. Now I need to figure out my training program and find some good 4, 5 and 6 mile routes. I can tell that BoulderRunning.com's Google maps based route planner is going to come in handy. It opens up in Boulder, but appears to work anywhere in the US.

I don't see the notice on Josh's site, so I'll post it here: Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, July 19) for the fortnightly Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup.

What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village

2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773

Who: Bloggers & people who want to blog (Podcasters welcome!)

Hope to see you there!

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If you want to subscribe to newsfeed of photos from the Triangle area, paste the URL below into your newsreader. You'll get photos of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, NC along with the occasional photo of Durham, England and random triangle art. I think that's a pretty good mix.

http://www.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=raleigh,chapelhill,durham,triangle

My hometown makes me proud and activist bloggers played a part From the News and Observer:

CHAPEL HILL -- They swooped in by the busload to the town they said was filled with "dead churches" that "disregard the Bible," hoping to win over some sinners.

"I came here because I love Chapel Hill," said the Rev. Ron Wood, pastor of Celebration Assembly of God on Weaver Dairy Road and a member of the anti-gay-rights group Called 2 Action.

"I'm an ordained minister, too," he added, referring to several speakers at the Town Council meeting Monday who identified themselves as clergy members. "But I'm not one who believes I have the right to disregard the word of God."

Their message was rejected by the majority of Chapel Hillians who met them at Town Hall with signs, T-shirts and buttons proclaiming their support for gay rights.

Bruce has a great list of links about the Triangle Blogger conference. The first weekly Triangle blogger meet-up is tonight at Caffe Driade in Chapel Hill (Anton Zuiker has the details).

These are the best places I've found in Raleigh to get work done, drink good coffee, and enjoy free wireless access to the net.

• Helios Coffee - in trendy Glenwood South (413 Glenwood Ave). Bonus features: very cool music, outside seating, good smoothies, beer and  wine.
• Percolator Lounge - in North Raleigh at Quail Corners (5039 Falls of Neuse Rd, used to be a Cupajoe)
• Cafe Cyclo - in Cameron Village (2020 Cameron St.). Bonus features: excellent food, full bar, ice cream store next door.

Know any others? I need to find similar places in Chapel Hill. I'll leave comments open on this one.

We were hit by an unexpected winter storm today. It dusted the area with less than an inch of snow and paralyzed the city. Hundreds of kids are still stuck at school and many will spend the night there. We've got a couple of extra kids staying with us too. Folks are trapped in gridlock all over the area right now at 11PM, still not able to get home from work even though they left halfway through the afternoon. Folks are complaining about the school system's poor planning, the county's inadequate response, and the horrible gridlock. How do I know? They're snowblogging it on the WRAL site.

It's cold in Denver, but we're enjoying some local warming here in Raleigh. It's so warm, in fact, that the kids all wore shorts today to school. I'm working out on the porch today.

Sam Ruby: Welcome to Raleigh, North Carolina, where the official snow removal strategy is "pray for sunshine".

We have nearly an 8th of an inch of snow here, and here is Raleigh-NC, so school and work and everything else will be cancelled today and tomorrow. While my inner child loves the snow and my heart sinks whenever the snow rate slows, my outer adult will surely be driven insane by stir-crazy kids home from school and jacked-up on hot sugary coco.

SAS software revenue up 18.6%

Cary-based SAS hired several hundred new employees last year and retrained its sales staff to sell software packages aimed at specific business problems. Davis differentiates the new sales strategy by calling it "solutions sales" vs. "tools sales." [...] Currently, SAS is in the position to buy other software companies and is looking at several opportunities, Davis said. "There are a lot of good players that have been creamed by the market."

Wireless technology company Inphonics aquires Avesair of Cary.

InPhonic, which acquired Cary-based GadgetSpace in December 2001, has effectively swallowed four Triangle wireless start-ups. GadgetSpace merged with Ericsson spin-off BrightPod weeks before its acquisition by InPhonic. Avesair, for which InPhonic paid a so-far undisclosed amount of stock, merged with Morrisville wireless start-up WindWire last year. [...] "InPhonic is one of the few companies I know who is able to cobble [together] all these companies and not just buy empty desks," said Roger Entner, a wireless technology analyst for The Yankee Group research firm. "They actually use the intellectual property and keep the people."

Computer chip maker Infineon adds 400 new jobs.

North Carolina won the expansion after promising the company $9.5 million in economic incentives, making it the first beneficiary of a grant program enacted by the legislature last year. [...] Under terms of its deal with the state, the company has to meet a series of benchmarks to reap the rewards of the grant. For example, it must add 110 jobs by the end of this year and must sustain new positions for 11 years. [...] As part of the pact, Infineon also promised to invest at least $8 million during two years in the Cary office.

We have about 3 inches of snow here in Raleigh and the white stuff is still coming down. Schools are closed, kids are happy, and I'm not going on the roads today. The universities in the are open except for N.C. State where students are still sleeping off hangovers from the the "We beat Dook" parties last night.

We did get a half-inch here, but it was a half-inch of solid ice. Our holly tree snapped in half, one of our magnolia trees lost two limbs, and our cedar tree uprooted and fell over. It could be worse, I suppose. Now we are without power and the power company says 3-5 days before everbody will be back up. You might not hear to much from me until then.

We are expecting a half inch or so of wintery mix here in N.C. this evening, so the entire Triangle "metropolitan" area is shutting down, the supermarkets have been completely cleared of milk, eggs, and bread. The web usability experts over at Hesketh.com have put together an entertaining presentation to help relocated northerners in the area understand what is going on.