Midnight Cheese

Driving from Knoxville on Saturday evening I found myself in the middle of the approximately 10 mile stretch of I-40/75 that has been eternally under construction for at least the past 10 years. The traffic signs informed drivers that all lanes of the interstate were blocked at Lovell Road. That caused everyone to get off at Papermill Drive in hopes of cutting over to Kingston to avoid the interstate. Unfortunately, it would not be that easy.

I-40/75 has been in the process of being widened between Papermill and Gallaher for the past 4 years. A 3.6 mile stretch of interstate under construction for 4 years. If the project ended today, that’s progress at a rate of roughly 13 feet per day.

So sitting through the mess at Papermill and the bumper to bumper traffic all along Kingston Pike until crossing back over to 40/75 at Campbell Station Road took just over 2 hours. 10 miles in 2 hours.

What else is there to say after dealing with this same mess for so long? It’s just sad.

After running Fedora Core 3 on my home server for the last 2 years, I think I’m going to finally put it down and try out Core 6. The built-in AIGLX/compiz work looks promising. Running it on an integrated Intel graphics chip(82845G/GL) will be a good test. (Not that fancy desktop effects are really needed on this machine.)

I’m more interested in Fedora’s wireless compatibility. I’ve got a cheap TEW-423PI working fine on an unsecured AP with Core 3, but I need WPA, and wpa_supplicant is giving me fits. I think it’s more likely the TEW-423PI(or maybe just the Windows driver running under ndiswrapper) is a POS, and not a Fedora issue at all. But maybe I’ll get lucky with Core 6.

Over six years since the release of IE6, Microsoft has officially released Windows Internet Explorer 7 into the wild. While the 6 year gap is unquestionably disgraceful and sad, this new release will finally provide computer novices with a good standards-compliant browser. The GUI is still far from simple(see graphic below), and security issues are still largely to be determined, but at the very least, this release should alleviate hours and hours of pain and suffering for standards-aware web developers everywhere. An Office Space scene dragging IE6 out into a field and beating the holy hell out of it would be most appropriate.

Today is a good day to review the Browser Dream(2003), as well.

This UI is far from clean, sleek or streamlined.

Veer has published the photo submissions for this year’s “Where did you take your Summer Activity Book?” Ours is number 55.

Update: A special thanks goes to Ernie, the location manager for this photo as well as many other great projects accomplished in the past.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs played at War Memorial Auditorium last night and put on a very good show. Karen O can really scream. Collectively the entire band was very loud even to the point of drowning out any lyrics Karen might have been singing. Her screams were really the only thing to compete with the roaring guitar. The only real oddity of the set was the encore. At one point Karen went into the crowd to help her remember the lyrics, then they ended with Modern Romance, which was a little awkward finishing with such a slow song. But otherwise a good show all around.

Imaad Wasif opened and later assisted through the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ set. Deer Hunter played second. Unfortunately, this was very much like sitting through a high school talent show. They definitely begged the question of what is music and what is white noise, but in a very bad way. The lead singer looked like he could fall over and die from hunger at any point during the set. These guys were definitely the peas and carrots before the main course of the evening.

Bands whose names are in some way related to recording media.

• Tapes ‘n Tapes
• The Format
• VHS or Beta
• Editors
• Forget Cassettes

And probably many more.

Last week LaVergne held their election for mayor. Roughly 10% of registered voters came out to vote. That equals about 5% of the total population of LaVergne. The race was close with the top two candidates finishing within 101 votes of one another.

Hopefully our new mayor, Ronnie Erwin, will address some basic issues facing our city. Here are just a few simple, easy fixes that are long overdue:

• Repainting the lines on Waldron Rd. (They are currently invisible on this 4 lane road. Most notably at night and in the rain.)
• Putting in turn lanes on Murfreesboro Rd., especially at Dick Buchanan St.
• Clean up the water dept. and their recent EPA violations.
• Repeal the no parking on city roadways law. Residents on Tom Hailey Blvd are forced to park on their lawns creating a mud field. Cars parked on this roadway would help slow down traffic and keep the neighborhood kids from getting hit by cars.
• Take the time to fix potholes rather than putting up signs that say “Bump Ahead.” (Fergus Rd.)
• Clean up the police department. Too many officers have been on TV and in the paper for misconduct.
• Look at what Smyrna has done to the south. Why is LaVergne not attracting any new non-industrial business?

I could be off on these next few statements, but with LaVergne being one of the fastest growing areas in the state, it seems we should see our tax money go to work. Yet nothing appears to change in this city. Roads aren’t widened, city beautification is non-existent. (Can we get some curbs and sidewalks?) Industrial business is booming but I wonder if they pay any taxes to the city at all. Let’s see some real change during this next term.