Would this work at Seven Corners?

Techdirt: Getting Rid Of Traffic Lights And Traffic Signs To Make Everyone Safer

When you remove all of the guidance, it makes people (and that includes the bikers and pedestrians as well) much more cautious and careful — so they tend to make fewer dangerous moves. On top of that, it actually makes the traffic flow much more smoothly, allowing people to get where they’re going much faster, even if they drive slower.

I suspect that this works better in cities, and Seven Corners might be too complicated to remove the signs, but this is an interesting concept.  Basically, if you remove traffic signs and lights, everything moves more slowly and smoothly and people drive more safely.  I suspect that this would only be temporary, though.  People would drive more safely at first, but if you go through an intersection twice a day on your commute to and from work, many people will get used to the little quirks of the road (For example, at a particular intersection, the left lane always backs up trying to turn, so you get to the right before you get there) and take advantage.

Still, it is nice to see people examining things like this, which people take for granted, and wondering if there is really a better way, even if it sounds quite drastic.

Brickskeller now has Bells!

The Brickskeller & RFD Washington DC

Local (to me, at least) beer heaven The Brickskeller now has Bell’s Beer in a bottle. For those not familiar with Bell’s, don’t even finish reading this post. Get to The Brickskeller and have an Oberon. They have a KEG OF OBERON. Why are you still reading? Go, now! They might run out.

Thanks to guest-blogger Gayle for the head’s up.

What did I do before?

I just finished painting the second bedroom.  If someone even mentions something related to paint, I’m going to snap.  Now, at a very, very conservative estimate, my wife did 70% of the painting.  I did all the sanding, which was an awful, awful job.  But she did the vast majority of the painting.  And it’s times like these that I wonder what the heck I did before I met her.  She has a nearly unfathomable ability to just work on something until it’s finished, no matter how much it sucks, or how tired she is.  I can not imagine how long it would take me to get my condo ready to sell if she weren’t doing the bulk of the work, and gently nudging me to do the rest.

For example, last night, after moving stuff out of here to my grandmother’s so the place looks bigger, cooking dinner for some friends (Who were my friends first, by the way) who are moving to the West coast, and packing for her four day work retreat, she painted all the edges in the second bedroom so that I could just do the big wall sections today.  I fell asleep while she was still working.

And now I need to reheat the lasagna she made for dinner last night so I can get back to my novel, which I haven’t touched since Friday.  And wouldn’t be touching again at all if my wife hadn’t done so much work on the condo.

So, for all of you single people out there who have the means to obtain a significant other even half as great as mine, I highly recommend that you do so.  You won’t regret it.

Im special

I just got a letter from the Virginia Department of Transportation.  It seems that Senator Saslaw and Congressman Moran passed my letter along, and now I’m going to be notified by a member of the Traffic Engineering Section concerning the results of their effort to provide “innovative guide signage and pavement markings”.

And people said I was crazy to write to my representatives.  But you see here that it makes things happen.  I mean, who among you has received a letter from VDOT?  I’m holding one in my hand right now.  Maybe I’ll frame it, and put it above the mantle next to the flag football trophy.

This is fun

Boing Boing: Michael Crook sends bogus DMCA takedown notice to BoingBoing

Crook is a deranged, serial troll, and his behavior is consistent with that of someone who craves attention, no matter how negative. But what does matter is the fact that the DMCA is so poorly conceived and written that even the nuttiest, most deranged of trolls can abuse it into silencing constitutionally-protected online speech.

I love BoingBoing posts that have a half dozen or more updates to them. This one is particularly fun. This crazy guy is abusing the misguided Digital Millennium Copyright Act to make a nuisance of himself.

You know you’ve arrived in the blogosphere when you get DMCA’ed.  I don’t mean that BoingBoing has just “arrived”, they “arrived” some time ago.  I’m just saying that getting DMCA’ed sounds like fun.  Except for the legal liability part.

I think the proper response to this – he claims that he holds the copyright to his face, so by extension has a say in photos of himself – is to draw a picture of him using MS Paint (Make sure to ask the least artistically talented person you know to draw it) and use that instead of the photo.  Make sure to caption it “Mr. Poopy Pants” or something equally witty.

Nanowrimo!

3343 words on Day 1.  That’s my new record.  It helps that I did over 500 just after midnight, then the rest after work.  And it also helps that my wife is so great.  She not only finished painting the living room, but she also cooked dinner, AND cleaned up the dishes.  At this rate, it’s going to take me until next November to make up for this month.

What’s nice is that 3343 puts me about a day ahead.  I already know that I won’t write much Friday (Going away party for some friends after work) or Saturday (Flag football and a wedding).  So being ahead is very important.  Also, three out of four of my mentees, plus one of my real-life friends, have posted wordcounts that are ahead of the pace, as well.  The Nano site has been really slow as they try to deal with all the traffic, so some people may not have been able to get in to update wordcount.  So I won’t assume that my last mentee is behind.

Halloween is going to kill me

A coworker brought in two giant bags of candy. Apparently he didn’t get as many trick-or-treaters as expected.

What makes it worse is that it’s good candy – Heath bars, Butterfingers, M&Ms;, Nerds . . . I’m going to need to jog home for the next week, I think.

So, both a complaint, and an anti-complaint.  Because candy is awesome, but thousands of extra calories from fat are not.

Because everyone should read this webcomic

xkcd – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language – By Randall Munroe

New comic every M-W-F.  Always weird, often roll-on-the-floor funny.  And seriously, how many people do you know who could get a reference to Ubuntu Linux AND Pokemon into a one panel comic?

And if you’re into webcomics, don’t miss Goats and Unshelved, either.

Less than one hour to go

For those of you on the East coast of the US (or perhaps those not reading this right after I post it), there is less than one hour until Nanowrimo starts.  I’m excited.  I’m going to stay up until midnight and get started.

I’m pretty excited about this year.  I have four mentees (first-timers needing veteran advice), and a couple of friends are going to do it (Maybe) as well.  I’m even thinking about heading to a writing meetup or something with my fellow local Nanoers.

Maybe you all can help me.  If you were creating a company intending to compete with Google, what would the name be?  Would it change if you were a slightly eccentric old man with a personal grudge against Google?  Post suggestions in the comments.  If I choose your suggestion, you can have a guest post here (Your ticket to fame and fortune, let me tell you) and an acknowledgment in the novel dedication.