Jeff's blog

Birmingham Mayoral Elections = #Fail

On Tuesday of this week the city of Birmingham will be electing a new mayor to replace (convicted felon and) former Mayor Larry Langford. Unfortunately the three leading candidates (Patrick Cooper, Carol Smitherman, and William Bell) are all exactly what is NOT needed for Birmingham to move forward.

All three candidates are people who have been the inherent problem with the city of Birmingham or in the case of Patrick Cooper, the protege of the problem with Birmingham.

Unfortunately the remaining 11 candidates that will be on the ballot on Tuesday (including recently deceased candidate Ernie Dunn) bring no new vision, leadership, or lack of ego to help Birmingham move forward. To be quite honest some just embarrass the city (and state) even more.

I have always thought if I am going to complain about an issue then I need to provide a solution. Unfortunately it is not that simple, but instead i would recommend you do not vote for any of the 14 candidates on the ballot but instead write in your own name. Will it make a difference, probably not. But it will send a strong message that you are disgusted with your choice of candidates and with the overall lack of leadership to move the City of Birmingham forward.

As a sidenote, if you are looking for more information on the election check out WadeOnBirmingham.Com's Vote09 section.

Chrome OS on Dell Mini 9

Like any good geek I took the time to play with Chrome OS once it came out by using GDGT's virtual machine. After playing with it I was impressed but could not get a full impression as it was in a Virtual environment.

Over the last week many USB keys have been created and a "Diet Chrome OS USB Key" was created. Below are the instructions I used (H/T Taranfx)

- Torrent Link to Download -

Windows

Unzip using WinRar, Download Image Writer and launch it, select the image (chromiumos.img) and your USB drive letter from the drop down box. Click “Write”. The install image will then be copied to the drive. Once it’s done, close the program and you can then boot from the USB drive.

Mac

Firstly, unmount the drive you want to install Chromium OS to. Place the downloaded file onto your desktop. Open System Profiler, click USB on the list at the side and then select the entry that represents your USB disk. Now look for the BSD Name column (http://bit.ly/5mG4WK). Remember what is written here. In my case, it is disk1, but in yours it may be different. Take care here as if you get it wrong, it could seriously mess things up. Once you have this, open up Terminal and
type the following commands.

cd Desktop
tar -zxvf chromiumos.tar.gz
cd chromiumos

For the next command, replace X with the name of the disk you found earlier, ie disk1.

sudo dd if=chromiumos.img of=/dev/X bs=4m

This command will ask you to enter your password (the same one you enter when installing software for example), type it in and press enter. This command will take a while to run, about 20 minutes for me, and then will give you your shell prompt back once it has finished. Once it has, you can remove your USB drive and boot from it (but not on your Mac because I’ll tell you now that won’t work, yes I tried it)

Troubleshooting:

If It says “Resource Busy“!, You forgot to dismount the drive. Do this, then retype the command and you should be fine.

Linux

Extract chromiumos.img and run the following command in the same directory as the file, where X is the device name of your USB drive.

sudo dd if=chromiumos.img of=/dev/X bs=4M

Once the command finishes, you can then boot from the USB drive.

Proof to image of it running for me is here.

Tornado Chasing is Not For Me

I just finished watching the Season Finale of Stormchasers on the Discovery channel and I have re-affirmed my position that I will never be a Tornado Chaser.

Reed Timmer, extreme meteorologist and self admitted idiot, took his re-enforced automobile termed 'The Dominator' directly into an EF-3 tornado (so we would not have too).

Thanks Reed for helping me on this decision to never become a Tornado Chaser.

You Know You Will Watch It: CSI Alabama

Many will laugh but even more will watch (what could be) a new series that is already playing out in Alabama, that's right: CSI Alabama.

Troy University (my alma matar) has been for the last two years partnering with the ABI and Attorney General's office to help "deciphering electronic evidence."

In the university’s Forensics Institute, staff of the IT Department are able to assist the ABI, attorney general and other law enforcement agencies in deciphering electronic evidence, said Chief Technology Officer Greg Price.

In the lab, Price said the staff is able to recover deleted information from cell phones, computers and digital and video forensics.

Price said he doesn’t track how many cases that have been solved or closed, but the department has processed more than 300 pieces of evidence just this year.

Much of the work the university does is assisting in fighting cyber crimes against children.

It is great to see this type of work being done here in Alabama but more importantly I cannot wait for the new TV show to come on!

How do we fix Highway 280 in Birmingham?

Yesterday Govenor Bob Riley announced his intentions to ask Alabama Legislatures to consider a $710 Million deal that would create a toll road from Elton B. Stephens Expressway to Eagle Point Parkway on Highway 280.

Gov. Bob Riley called on the Birmingham business community to help him push through plans for a toll road stretching from the Elton B. Stephens Expressway to Eagle Point in Shelby County.

The plan is the latest one that addresses the growing traffic problems on U.S. 280. Changes from past plans calls for up to $300 million to create grade-level toll lanes from Elton B. Stephens Expressway to Interstate 459 and $410 million to build an elevated toll road from I-459 to Eagle Point Parkway.

I currently work off of 280 and will agree (as does everyone else) that there has to be something done. I am just not sure that I feel like a $700 million toll road is the right idea. Granted the project is stating it will be completed in 3 years (which means 6) and will help to relief the pressure of driving but will Alabamians actually pay a toll? In the NE toll roads are quote common and most everyone excepts them as part of traveling. In Alabama that is not the case.

For me, I think it would be interesting to see a comparison study (and some polling) of the use of this money for the toll road vs public transportation (something people in the south also do not use, IMHO).

So what do you think, Is a toll road the right way or is a Public Transportation system the best way to fix Highway 280?

Why no Subpoena Power for Ethics Commission?

Over the last couple of days there have been multiple news sources (1,2,3,4) talking about the need for