I like it

This new redesign for the World Trade Center replacement is much better. Now... I guess the only thing I would like to see is that they build two of them, side by side like the older two. Memorials are nice and I understand why people want them. For me the best memorial would be to rebuild both buildings thus sending the message that 'You may knock us down but we will get right back up and be stronger than before'. The new structure is to be stronger than before. It is of comparable size. They should complete the picture and build two.

iPod for my car?

I don’t own an iPod yet. Yes I am little behind the times and they sure are neat devices. I’ve kinda out grown the whole listen to your music walkman-like thing. But if I could hook it up to my car, well that would be a great. 10,000 songs at my fingertips for my driving pleasure have tremendous appeal. The four disc changer is just too limiting and keeping a stack of discs in the car….. So I have been scouring the Internet in search of something to enable my car to use an iPod. I don’t have a tape deck, so that eliminates one option real quick. So far my search has not been successful. I did find hope. Apple has recently announced that a number of automakers will be enabling their auto lines to make use of the iPod. I am hoping that they will be some sort of kit that can be retrofitted onto an older model. This is good news but it may already be obsolete.

In my search I stumbled across this interesting website: MP3Car. The auto modders are putting entire PCs into their cars turning them into mobile multimedia centers. Cell phones are enough of a distraction. Now all sorts of distractions are in the making. Imagine your car being connected online, all the time, anywhere. Instant chat, gaming, DVDs, shopping, GPS, e-mail, blogging, whatever. When you get home just link up with your home wireless LAN and sync up. Some of the creative efforts shown off in the forums are quite impressive. Peoria has some pretty skilled auto modders. You see some of their cars on the road. Some are fascinating while others just make you laugh. I wonder if any of them have made a multi-media boom car yet? I would be tempted to have such work done to mine if the guy had skills!

Would Peoria's youth vote for better schools?

I was listening to NPR last night and they did a piece on a move in New York to allow 16 year olds to vote in local elections. Interesting idea.... would Peoria's high schoolers vote for a better District 150 School Board? Could the city government make that change or would have to come from the state? Could be a good civics lesson for students.

So what would need to be done? Some thoughts...

a) Teachers must be required to inform the students that they have the right to vote. Vote suppression by leaving kids ignorant should not be in the classroom.
b) Perhaps automatically register every 16 year old in attendance. Make it part of the education process. How to register to vote... and do it in the process.
c) That registration should be good until they graduate, then its up to them to keep the registration current.
d) Set up polling booths in each high school. I thought about just having classes cancelled for the day but figured the lure to go off and party would be too much.

Hmm....

Are Peoria's Cable negotiations being threatened?

CNet has a nice little article concerning a looming struggle as to whether cities should be in the business of selling or giving away for free, ISP services. Several cities have explored this and in a few cases implemented 'hotspots' in direct competition with private communications companies. The triggering event for this dispute was when Philadelphia announced plans to build a Wi-Fi network covering most of the city, 135 square miles, for a mere $10 million. The service would be available for a minimal fee or even free. The local baby bell cried foul and the fight was on.

This leads to a bill (HR 2726) pending in Congress, which could have an effect on Peoria. The bill, introduced by Pete Sessions of Texas, would prevent cities from getting into the telecomminications business. The wording of the bill is as follows:

`(1) PROHIBITION- Effective 60 days after the date of enactment of the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005, neither any State or local government, nor any entity affiliated with such a government, shall provide any telecommunications, telecommunications service, information service, or cable service in any geographic area within the jurisdiction of such government in which a corporation or other private entity that is not affiliated with any State or local government is offering a substantially similar service.

`(2) GRANDFATHER PROVISION- Paragraph (1) shall not prohibit a State or local government or affiliated entity thereof from providing in any geographic area within the jurisdiction of such government any service that such government or entity was providing on the date of enactment of the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005.'.

It would seem this goes way beyond just ISP services.... like cable TV?

As reported by Peoria Pundit and CJ Summers, Peoria will soon be in renegotiations with Insight, over local cable services. Many feel the rates are a bit high and there are other service issues. One of the leveraging points in this renegotiation is that the city has the option of starting its own cable company. The city of Peoria currently does not offer cable services and it would be very expensive to start one up. However, it would seem that this bill, should it pass, would prevent the city from ever starting such a service, thus forfeiting an important leveraging point to keep rates down.

On another note... when I first heard about Philedelphia's plans to build a wi-fi network across the entire city, I mentioned it to some tech savvy friends. We all thought it would be an excellent idea and a perfect fit for the Med-Tech district. Peoria is 44 square miles? About a third of the area Philly is planning to cover. So a third of the cost? Two, three, four million? So for the cost of a parking garage, or less, we could cover all of Peoria. Which would benefit the citizens of Peoria more? Wi-Fi for all or a parking garage for a few doctors? With WiMax just around the corner, I can only imagine the start up costs going down. One WiMax tower has a theoretical range of 30 miles versus the 4-6 miles of a typical boosted cell.

Welcome

Maybe now I won't spam other websites so much... I can just post here...