Surfing The Web So You Don't Have To
I actually knew and posted over two months ago, so please quit sending me this link or this link or any variation of the story.
And also of note: For those that aren’t familiar with Oregon’s geography, no I’m not close enough to get a signal (Hermiston is over 200 miles from here and the current record for unamplified Wi-Fi is 125 miles).
I had somebody e-mail me, wondering if I knew anybody who was a .NET Programmer. Personally, I don’t hang out with too many Microsoft fans, let alone folks who can program in their languages, so I figured I’d post it here. If you have MS .NET Programming skills, and live in Central Oregon (preferably), e-mail joshua strudel paladin-data punt com (huh?) and you might get some work out of it.
Note that I’ve never dealt with this company before, nor can I vouch for anything beyond what is stated above. E-mail the address above if you want more information. But looking at what the company does, it appears to be Point of Sale (POS) type of stuff. If anybody gets a stupidly high paying job out of this, let me know so I can bill you for a finders fee.
That’s how many blogs I now have over at Bend Blogs after coming across a pile of LiveJournal folks in this public directory (thanks to this ORTalk post). I’m still working on a way to better index all that content so it doesn’t bulldoze my server (as aggregating all that content is a bit of a processor hog with off-the-shelf solutions, and I’m not cool enough to be able to home-brew my own software like Paul did at ORblogs). I know I need an RSS feed for it as well, and that’s on my never-ending to-do list. At some point, I’d like to integrate a rolling Bend Blogs file that I can include into the “Bend Blogs” links on the right side of this page (which hasn’t been updated in a long time) that will show that latest 15 or so blogs that have been updated.
As always, pop me a note if there are any sites that I’m missing (or if you want to suggest a fairly simple but robust aggregating solution that I can actually tweak fairly easily).
For some reasons that a few people reading this site know, I’m going to just remain a neutral bystander on this, but it looks like The Bulletin is previewing their new design and registration scheme. Thoughts, comments? Feel free to comment here.
I’m at the office right now, and it’s a bit smokey in the air right now. Apparently there’s a 150-acre fire south of here in LaPine. Several of my co-workers here live close to the fire, so they’re a bit on edge right now. Jack can see it from his house, so hopefully he’ll be posting some more updates as he sees them. I don’t know how close the fire is to Simone, but she probably doesn’t care (or even know about it) as she’s probably on her way to Burning Man.
For more fire updates, head over to the NWCC site.
Update on 8/29: Looks like everybody’s going home and they were able to save the homes in the area.
I can see there being money around here using the homeless as an advertising medium. The hot spots, I’ve found, for bums homeless folks appear to be at Wal-Mart (and all the intersections around Wal-Mart), 3rd Street and Revere, the Mountain View Mall Cascade Village area, the back exit of parking lot by the North Liquor store, and pretty much every other main intersection along 3rd street (I’m sure I’m missing some big ones — feel free to fill in below in the comments). I’m sure these guys would happily hold a sign that might make them a few bucks and/or get them some food.
Sunray Vacation Rentals is hiring for several positions such as Front Desk Manager, Reservationist, Maintenance, and Housekeeping. Check out our jobs page for the details or e-mail me directly if you have any questions about the company, as you’ll be a co-worker of mine (which could be considered a benefit or a detriment — your call).
Of course, their press release (the full text of which is below, since it’s not on their site yet) doesn’t mention anything about prices, rollout schedule, etc…, and I’m sure it’s not going to be free like it is in Hermiston. Considering that I’m able to get free Wi-Fi around most of Bend via open Wireless Access Points, I don’t know if I’ll be paying the price (unless they need a freebie beta tester, of course). They apparently had Wi-Fi at the fair this year as part of their first roll out. While I can’t see too many fair-goers using the Wi-Fi, it was probably handy for some of the exhibitors.
If I remember correctly, OregonTrail was the first company to offer Wi-Fi service in the area, but I don’t know if they still do (especially since they were bought up) or had too many takers considering the price.
Full press release from BendBroadband is below.
I wish this was happening in our neck of the woods, but a few hours Northeast of here there’s a gigantic Wi-Fi hot spot, some say the largest in the world
This is cowboy country, where the rodeo is coming to town, the high school’s “kiss the pig” contest involves a genuine hog, and life seems about as high-tech as the local calf-dressing competition, when teams race to wrestle protesting calves into T-shirts.
But Hermiston is actually a global leader of our Internet future. Today, this chunk of arid farm country appears to be the largest Wi-Fi hot spot in the world, with wireless high-speed Internet access available free for some 600 square miles. Most of that is in eastern Oregon, with some just across the border in southern Washington.
Obviously, the money to fund this came because of the fact they have a large chunk of hazardous government property up there that they want to keep safe, but it’s still nice to know that I could (if I was so inclined) fly down Interstate 84 and browse the ‘net.
Thanks Blake for the link.
Had quite the shock when I was driving home today. I exit the parkway daily at Revere and Division. As I coming around the corner, about to cross the railroad tracks, there was a man and his bike laying on the road in front of me. The guy wasn’t moving. I stopped my car, immediately threw on my hazard lights, and went down to see what was wrong. He was a man in about his forties, and his head was cut up pretty bad in the front and in the back. I called 911, told dispatch where we were at, and a couple of other folks driving by helped divert traffic a bit at the busy intersection (it was about 7:30 at the time — I can only imagine if this were at 5:00).
I went down closer to the man to make sure the cuts weren’t life threatening, and made sure that nobody made the attempt to move him. I had no idea how he got there and I’ve taken enough first-aid classes to know better than to move him. Heck, it could’ve been a hit-and-run for all I knew. But as I got closer, it looked like the bleeding wasn’t anything major (nothing that needed me to try to put a stop to it), so somebody in another car just got the guy a pillow for his neck (against my better wishes) and we waited, talking to him to make sure he was all right.
As I got closer to the guy, asked him a few questions, I realized what had happened: the guy was drunk. Other cars said they didn’t see anybody hit the guy, they just saw him fall off the curb. Regardless, 911 was called, ambulance and police showed up, they did take him to SCMC as he was banged up pretty dang good and I’m sure they want to test his blood-alcohol level. I’m sure he’s fine, but he did smell of something fowl.
But there you guy, ladies and gentlemen: A textbook BUI, or “Biking Under The Influence.”