MarWalk Updates

MarWalk updates, news, and features.

Last Updated: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:51:59 -0500

FredPod Podcast Now Online

I think I've struck my stride with the FredPod podcast.

Have 2 "episodes" posted already at the pod feed main page:
http://marwalk.podomatic.com/

The FredPod RSS feed is at:
http://marwalk.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

Also will note new FredPod postings on my marwalk RSS feed (this feed) at:
http://www.marwalk.com/rss/marwalk.xml

and also on the FredLUG Google group.

Already podOmatic is showing several downloads, and that's with
practically no promotion.

FredPod format goes something like this:
--> Recent file postings to SourceForge
--> Selections from the latest "yum info recent" results
--> Updates on FredLUG, such as meetings and group postings
--> Feature item, either an interview or me highlighting an open
source tool (I have an interview arranged next weekend with a talented
musician I know)
--> A music production licensed under Creative Commons, non-commercial
with attribution works fine; downloaded from sites such as Jamendo or
Magnatune. (If you have a Creative Commons licensed production you would like me to include, please send me the info on it.)

If/when I get some listener mail, will include that too.

It's actually theraputic for me to do this.

Enjoy.

mcw



11/17/2008 07:51 PM

Ready to Pour Concrete Floor at Courthouse Village Project - 081116

Getting ready this week to pour the concrete floor for the third structure.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081116SYW
    ...

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081116RACSB
    ...

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081116SLDR
    ...

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081116BRE3
    The third structure area has the largest footprint yet in the project; getting ready this week to pour the concrete floor.

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081116BRE1
    ...

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    ...

mcw

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The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




11/17/2008 05:56 PM

Gazebo Structure Roof and Steps at Courthouse Village Project - 081109

Brown metal roof going on the gazebo structure; steps too.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081109SYW
    ...

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081109RACSB
    ...

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081109SLDR
    ...

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081109BRE3
    The third structure area has the largest footprint yet in the project.

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081109BRE1
    ...

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    ...

mcw

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


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Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




11/09/2008 03:22 PM

Sidewalks Started at Courthouse Village Project - 081102

Sidewalks on Old Battlefield Boulevard, and expanded steel framing for third structure.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081102SYW
    ...

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081102RACSB
    ...

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081102SLDR
    Look past the stop sign to notice the brick sidewalk going in.

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081102BRE3
    The third structure area has the largest footprint yet in the project.

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081102BRE1
    ...

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    ...

mcw

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


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Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




11/02/2008 02:48 PM

Third Structure at Courthouse Village Project - 081026

Third structure steel frame has been started, behind the brick building; it's visible from the several angles. Oh, and MegaMix is back. Check it all out in the pictures below.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081026SYW
    ...

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081026RACSB
    ...

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081026SLDR
    ...

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081026BRE3
    ...

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081026BRE1
    ...

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    ...

mcw

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


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Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




10/27/2008 05:36 PM

Roof Progress at Courthouse Village Project - 081018

Visible progress on the roofs, both the building and the smaller structure toward the center of the village area.

Also added, a view of the sign placed at each end of Old Battlefield Boulevard, that provides an artist's concept of what the completed village should look like (scroll down if necessary).







Sign showing concept of how the completed village should appear:

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081018SYW
    Roof is now on, more that just rafters.

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081018RACSB
    This perspective allows the best view of the small structure's roof, in relief against the trees; especially as the white roofing material is difficult to see against the clouds from other angles. Look closely at the small structure, and you should see some brick work around the bottom.

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081018SLDR
    Until the brick work on the larger building rose above the flat roof part, a protruding part of the HVAC system was visible that was not there before.

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081018BRE3
    Many of the same supplies stacked around as from two weeks ago.

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081018BRE1
    ...

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    This perspective allows the another view of the small structure's roof, in relief against the other building; especially as the white roofing material is difficult to see against the clouds from other angles.

mcw

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Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




10/18/2008 04:27 PM

Beautiful Weather at Courthouse Village Project - 081005

Beautiful weather this weekend and the days that preceded it.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081005SYW
    ...

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081005RACSB
    ...

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081005SLDR
    ...

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081005BRE3
    ...

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    081005BRE1
    The mud is mostly gone; for now.

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    ...

mcw

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




10/05/2008 04:40 PM

Second Building Takes Shape at Courthouse Village Project

Rained a lot late last week, especially Saturday. The "new" building seems to be shaping up as a giant gazebo or something; appears to be midway along Old Battlefield Boulevard.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080928SYW
    See the progress on the second building just to the left of the tree. It's smaller but if you look closely you can see it.

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080928RACSB
    Further progress on the front of the first building noticeable from this angle.

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080928SLDR
    The "new" building takes shape in the background.

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080928BRE3
    View of second building progress between first and the traffic light at OBB and the Bypass.

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080928BRE1
    The mud is back after the rain. The road bed continues to just beyond the picture.

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    Second building framing dwarfed in front of the first building, but this provides added perspective.

mcw

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


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Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




09/28/2008 04:30 PM

A Second Building and New Road Bed at Courthouse Village Project

Three things different this week; at least that are readily noticeable:

  • Work on the "front" of the building at Old Battlefield Blvd. and Brock Rd.
  • Smoothed out road bed at BRE1 entrance at the far end of the field.
  • Construction on a second building started.
  • Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
    See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

    • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
      080921SYW
      See the start of the steel framing for the second building just to the left of the tree. It's smaller but if you look closely you can see it.

    • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
      080921RACSB
      Progress on the front of the first building noticeable from this angle.

    • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
      080921SLDR
      Some window framing with the masonry; nice touch.

    • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
      080921BRE3
      View of second building between first and the traffic light at OBB and the Bypass.

    • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
      080921BRE1
      No more mud hole. The road bed continues to just beyond the picture.

    • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
      OBB
      Second building framing dwarfed in front of the first building, but this provides added perspective.

    mcw

    Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


    MarWalk.com website cross promotion

    Penelope & Friends

    The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




    09/21/2008 05:48 PM

All This Tweeting About Twitter

People can't be taking this thing seriously! Can you say "Twitter" with a straight face? Reminds me of Thumper the rabbit in Bambi who became Twitterpated, which basically implied active hormones.

But after seeing CSPAN use Twitter as a serious tool in covering the US political conventions, and professional IT journals discuss Twitter as a serious tool for the enterprise, one must conclude that if broadcast and IT professionals are taking Twitter seriously, then it is by virtue of that acceptance a serious tool indeed.

I first wondered what makes it different from RSS. Three things about it stand out:

1. Twitter limits each tweet to 140 characters; talk about forced conciseness.
2. Twitter can be extended to various mobile devices, including integration with web and SMS text messaging (with associated carrier costs).
3. Twitter's blog-like feature allows anyone to follow and reply to tweets from "Twitter-ers" of their choice; sort of like Instant Messaging expanded and compressed at the same time.

So what would one use Twitter for? Here's one use: Often I discover a software tool that I would like to add to my Linux or Mac pages but just don't have the time even to write an RSS item for it. Well now I can tweet about it, and not take up much of your time or mine. An example would be tweeting out a web link with solutions to a vexing problem. There even are burgeoning web search capabilities for Twitter tweets; try Googling them.

I'm very busy as I'm sure you are too with various projects, not to mention life's daily demands; so I've added Twitter to my repertoire of communications tools. You can follow my tweets in any of the following ways:

* My website www.marwalk.com, in a box at the bottom of the home page
* My Twitter page http://twitter.com/marwalk
* My Twitter RSS feed; copy this link into your RSS reader

Happy tweeting. Seriously.

mcw

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09/20/2008 05:48 PM

Courthouse Village Brickwork Continues

Significant brickwork progress on two sides of the first building this week, even though we had some heavy rains during the week. Then a beautiful Labor Day weekend.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080901SYW
    ...

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080901RACSB
    ...

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080901SLDR
    Front brickwork.

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080901BRE3
    Side brickwork.

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080901BRE1
    ...

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    ...

mcw

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The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




09/01/2008 12:53 PM

Brickwork Underway at Courthouse Village

The bricks that had been stacked up now are laid around the building; more brickwork yet to go, as indicated by the scaffolding still in place.

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080824SYW
    Good view of the building progress, as well as the paving layout for the streets. The roof is seen taking shape.

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080824RACSB
    Better perspective on the building from this view.

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080824SLDR
    Much of the brickwork is visible on the addition on the building to the rear.

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080824BRE3
    ...

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080824BRE1
    ...

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    ...

mcw

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




08/24/2008 06:06 PM

EVGA 8800GT NVIDIA on Fedora 9

Oh my! What an experience! I thought I'd never get it working. But it's beautiful. My EVGA 8800GT graphics card takes two PCIe expansion slots; actually only plugs into one but is two slots wide for the cooling fan.

As a little background, I recently built a computer with an Intel® Core™2 Duo processor on a DG35EC motherboard. I wanted to run x86_64 Fedora Linux; 64 bit processing was my goal. The onboard graphics output was wavy and looked awful.

So I got the EVGA graphics card, selecting that model after the evaluation posts mentioned how cool it ran. That was important as I had placed already an additional cooling fan on my cabinet where I had three hard drives along with the other heat generating components inside.

Everything installed beautifully, but the xserver was not happy at all. My new computer dropped back to runlevel 3 after flickering the screen in an abortive attempt to start x.

Many many hours of poring over blog posts and how-to descriptions. It seemed like I'd never get the driver and kernel versions to match. The NVIDIA install script was never happy with the version of kernel source I had; to add further insult it said I had an NVIDIA driver already installed. Yum could never find kmod-nvidia on its own, so I went in search of RPMs only to find myself in a do-loop of missing dependencies. It was Catch-22 by orders of magnitude. No joy.

Just to try something I never expected to work, as I had done it before, I ran yum upgrade again after all those abortive driver installation attempts. At the end of the yum process it said it was installing the NVIDIA driver. I watched the dots go across the screen fully expecting the process to crash. Not so! It started the xserver! WooHoo!

I wish I could provide a "this is how you can be sure to make it work" description, but I confess it was more good fortune than victory. That's okay; I'll take it!

However, I would like to share the sites I traversed that I think were the most helpful. If you are having difficulties with NVIDIA cards on Fedora, I hope this will help you get your system running sooner.

Here are the resources:

  • http://fedorasolved.org/video-solutions/nvidia-yum-livna
  • http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
  • http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki/FAQ
  • http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/173.14.05/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.05-pkg1.run (execute with the "sh" command as root#; use wget to download if stuck at runlevel 3)

May you see clearly very soon.

mcw

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




08/17/2008 08:21 AM

First Building in Village Now Has Windows

Not much noticeable change since July until now, but the first building has windows and an addition.

There also is more construction acitivity now compared to recent weeks

Here are the latest pictures, going clockwise starting at the schoolyard:
See Spotsylvania Courthouse Village—Chronology in Pictures to see the abbreviations spelled out.

  • SYW (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080816SYW
    Good view of the building progress, as well as the paving layout for the streets.

  • RACSB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080816RACSB
    A new RACSB sign is now in (foreground). Better perspective on the building from this view.

  • SLDR (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080816SLDR
    Windows now framed in part of the building. Also, the intersection median on Old Battlefield Boulevard has taken shape. Notice the addition on the building to the rear.

  • BRE3 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080816BRE3
    There has been more activity in this area recently. Additional materials have been stacked.

  • BRE1 (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    080816BRE1
    Some pre-construction activity has been done in this area, but still only sparsely.

  • OBB (click thumbnail for larger picture in your web browser)
    OBB
    The blue building in the distance is RACSB. The brick building to the far left is Robert. E. Lee Elementary School. All of the building construction is at the opposite end so far.

mcw

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The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




08/16/2008 04:25 PM

New MarWalk RSS Feed - Mark's Bible Notebook

It is brand new, but now online. Mark's Bible Notebook is what would be my markups in the margins of a well worn Bible. Usually I will follow Lectionary readings for a particular Sunday or weekday; but if I encounter something especially inspiring in a particular context, I could share that with you as well.

Regardless of your religious or spiritual background, it's there for you to peruse at your leisure. If you find yourself blessed through it in some way, then all the better.

Enjoy.

mcw

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The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




08/11/2008 07:17 PM

First Paved Streets at Courthouse Village

Since the last set of pictures taken on June 29, 2008, today's pictures show pavement and further curbing construction.

The blue tarp provides a reference point for several angles.

If you miss the RACSB sign from the road construction days, it was taken out be an accident several weeks ago. What remains of it is shown in today's RACSB picture.

mcw

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The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




07/20/2008 02:48 PM

First Building in Village goes Multi-Story

More rain this past week, but construction on the first building in the Village continued on Saturday and Sunday, Jun 14 and 15. See SLDR below; if you look closely you might notice some construction workers on the top level. This is the first time I've noticed work here on a weekend; there seems to be serious interest in getting this building finished. No indication yet as to what will be the purpose of that building.

Another notable advance in progress is the paving preparations for Old Battlefield Blvd. The traffic light at its junction with the Bypass has been flashing red/yellow, waiting for the street to be opened.

Here are this week's pictures:

  • BRE1
    080615B208
    -

  • OBB
    080615OBB
    -

  • SLDR
    080615SLDR
    -

  • SYW
    080615SYW
    -

mcw

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The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




06/15/2008 05:08 PM

Mid-Week Storms Slow Village Construction

Heavy thunderstorms all around central and northern Virginia this past week; certainly slowed down construction. On Wednesday, June 4, 2008, trees were uprooted and tossed across roads, and it rained heavy enough to make 35 mph treacherously fast; plenty of areas without electric power as well.
There even was hail the size of a US Nickel coin:

Here are this week's pictures:

  • BRE1
    080608B208
    -

  • OBB
    080608OBB
    -

  • SLDR
    080608SLDR
    -

  • SYW
    080608SYW
    -

It's only June, but the "dog days" of summer are here already.

mcw

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


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The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




06/08/2008 06:58 PM

Village Construction Work Slowly "Ramping Up"

The foliage seems to have reached its full development for the season. The weather continues to be cooler than expected in this region for this time of year.

Here are this week's pictures:

  • BRE1
    080525B208
    Not much change visible from this end so far. The taller wall at the SLDR end stands out against the elementary school in the distance. The identifier "BRE" indicates a street entrance to the village from Brock Road. The number following the "BRE" counts the streets from the BRAV/BRTV location, which is just behind the camera.

  • OBB
    080525OBB
    If you look closely in the distance over toward Brock Road, you will notice another stack of cinder blocks off to the side by the parked trucks. Although it appears that there is only one MegaMix machine, two of them are visible from the other pictures.

  • SLDR
    080525SLDR
    It would take a very large machine to break through the Jersey barriers and the road grader parked in front of the entrance to Old Battlefield Blvd.

  • SYW
    080525SYW
    How much greener can it get? There still has been enough rain to keep things fairly muddy, in an area that used to be grassy field.

Things are sure to dry out more soon; the "dog days" of summer are not far behind.

mcw

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




05/25/2008 05:08 PM

Heavy Rains Do Not Dampen Much Courthouse Village Construction

There is a view from a new perspective this week. See BRE1*, which indicates the the first entry to the village from the intersection of Brock Road and the Bypass (BRAV/BRTV). Not much at this end so far, but it does give a sense of the heavy rains, with tornado warnings and watches, that poured down last Thursday.

The street bed for Old Battlefield Blvd. is viewable in both OBB and SLDR.

And the grass and foliage is much greener than a week ago; from the rains and the progression of Spring. Still much cooler than expected in this region for this time of year.

Here are this week's pictures:

  • BRE1
    080510B208
    This is the added perspective hinted in earlier posts. The identifier "BRE" indicates a street entrance to the village from Brock Road. The number following the "BRE" counts the streets from the BRAV/BRTV location, which is just behind the camera.

  • OBB
    080510OBB
    Noticeable is the grading that was done since last week for the street bed for Old Battlefield Blvd. The ground is very wet still from the rain last Thursday.

  • SLDR
    080510SLDR
    The framing for another story is up for the first building of the village. It now is clear to see that it will be a straight drive across Brock Road to the Bypass from Spotslee Drive.

  • SYW
    080510SYW
    The grass in the school yard is much greener, but the construction area is commensurately muddier.

*Local anchor links bring you to the marwalk.com home page from the RSS feed, but take you to the intended thumbnail on the html version.

mcw

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Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




05/10/2008 07:18 PM

Courthouse Village Progress and a Cut-Through View

I'm going to try something different this time. I'll provide a short narrative as needed, but with it a description of the pictures together with a thumbnail instead of just a link. Please let me know if you like this presentation style better.

There was a lot of needed rain this past week, so not as much construction work was done. Some more rows of cinder blocks on the building next to SLDR, and the Mega Mix containers were moved (they're farther apart this week; see SYW).

I included another "one time" picture, one that I'd been intending to include for several months. That is the view from what is now the "new" Business 208 ("B208" for reference here), which is really the old main 208 that went through the Courthouse and County Government complex. For some time now, there has been a direct view to the Bypass that was obscured by trees before they were cleared. At first it appeared that another spur connecting the Bypass with Business 208 was planned, but nothing has been constructed; not that anyone would want that necessarily.

So here are this week's pictures:

  • B208
    080503B208
    This is the view from B208. You can see the break in the trees done near the beginning of the Bypass construction in 2007 allowing a clear view of the traffic signal at OBB.

  • OBB
    080503OBB
    Not much difference from this perspective, except for the wetter ground from last week's rains.

  • SLDR
    080503SLDR
    The rains kept construction work to just a couple of days, but a few more cinder blocks were laid in the first building of the Village to be started.

  • SYW
    080503SYW
    Visible from this perspective are the additional walls of the building and the Mega Mix containers a little farther apart from each other.

At this point the project looks like it could be just another strip mall going in, but at least the signs around the edges indicate the "Village" concept. Let us hope.

mcw

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


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Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




05/10/2008 03:35 PM

Construction Has Begun on the Courthouse Village

Up until now, the work has been concentrated on the Bypass. For the past few weeks, preparations were being made for the Village between the Bypass, Brock Road, and Robert E. Lee Elementary School. The open area that has been a "field in waiting" is waiting no longer; the first building walls went up this past week.Just as notable, and welcome to drivers at the BFEX end of the Bypass, was the completion of the pavement at that end and the opening of all four lanes between the new Business SR 208 traffic light (see the final pre-opening picture at 080106BFEXSR.jpg) and the Battlefield exit. Compare the picture 070429BFEX.jpg with 080426BFEX-1.jpg, which is a year later. The bit of bare earth in the 2007 picture is where the road curves to the right behind the signs at the Battlefield exit in the 2008 picture. All traffic used to go straight at the new curve, and now drivers must go through the curve and turn left at the Business SR 208 traffic light to go directly to the Courthouse and county administration buildings; the straight route is not only blocked, the former pavement has been covered with earth with curbing around it.

Here is a guide to the new pictures chronicling the Village construction:

  • The SLDR and SYW pictures are the same as before, only now they will show the building construction.
  • The BFEX picture was a one-time addition to highlight the before/after comparison described above.
  • Next time, the BFEX picture will be replaced with a new set of BRTV pictures. These will be just to the Courthouse side of the traffic light installation that was visible in the BR608, BRAV, and BRTV pictures of the road construction.

The large Mega-Mix dispensers were visible from SLDR up until Friday evening, April 25, 2008. The cinder blocks in the building had gone up that day, and blocked the view of them. The RACSB building is visible in 080426OBB-1.jpg straight above the post lying on the ground in the picture; the Spotsylvania Post Office is the brick building on the left side of the picture. Observe that Old Battlefield Blvd. will curve to the left just before its intersection with the Bypass so as to meet it square on.

Not shown, but the OBB intersection and the 7-Eleven on Business SR 208 can be seen from each of those two locations. The view of the 7-eleven is at about 60 degrees to the left of the view in OBB.

The whole area seems smaller now that these areas can be viewed from locations where they were obscured before. On a smaller scale, it is similar to what happened to the distance between the Interstate 95 interchange at Route 3 and Fall Hill Avenue when Fredericksburg's Central Park went in; or what is happening now with construction at the Spotsylvania Towne Centre in the area behind what used to be know as Spotsylvania Mall.

Traffic is sparse along Business SR 208 during non-business hours since the Bypass opened. However, the 7-Eleven and the twice a week farmers market are still operating; and complaints of no more Courthouse traffic jams have not surfaced so far.

mcw

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.


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Penelope & Friends

The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




04/27/2008 05:12 PM

Take a Tour of the New Road

No more detour for SR 608; the new road is open.

The Fredericksburg.com site has done a great job of providing videotours. Here's their general story about the road.

A driving tour from BFEXTV through BFEXSR is here.

A driving tour from BFEXSR continuing through BFEXTV is here.

A driving tour from BFEXTV through a right turn at BRAV is here.

A driving tour from BFEXTV past the traffic light in SYE through a left turn at BRAV and past SLDR, RACSB, and SYW in quick succession, and finally ending up at the original Courthouse traffic light (where all the traffic used to be choked through) is here.

A driving tour from SR 648 (Blockhouse Road) almost near the Po River through to BR608 (looking from the opposite direction) is here. This tour shows (from the opposite direction) where BRAV will tie into SR 648. It takes you through the four-way stop signs at SR648 and SR 608 (Robert E. Lee Drive) and on past where SR 608 used to continue (about where the SUV from the opposite direction appears). The tour turns off to the right where SR 608 picks up again after being cut off by the Bypass; had they continued 1/4 mile further they would have been at BRTV. By turning right onto the near segment of SR 608, the tour ends where SR 608 joins Brock Road; and they then turn back onto the Bypass at BRTV.

Very nicely done tours. Compare the completed Bypass with the beginnings from April 2007.

The next phase in progress now is to complete the four lane expansion for BFEXAV/BFEXTV. Work on that is ongoing as of now, and those videos starting at BFEXTV provide a glimpse of that work toward the early part of the videos.

The Canada geese shown several months ago in BRTV have made themselves athome near the drain water pond just to the westbound side of the Bypass.

Plenty of traffic on the Bypass, and now hardly any on Brock Road— it's just a little eery if you remember how it used to be.


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Penelope & Friends
The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




02/24/2008 12:04 PM

Lines Laid, and Ready for Thursday Opening

Word is that the Spotsylvania Bypass is to open this Thursday, January 10, 2008. What a change that will make to traffic patterns around the courthouse!

But this Thursday will not be the end of Bypass construction. Look closely at 080106BFEXAV and 080106BFEXTV, and observe that the four lane Bypass squeezes down to two lanes at the eastern end.

So there's yet more to be done on the highway. And then the village itself is yet to be built.

The detour still is in effect for SR 608, with additional road signs so advising drivers.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends
The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




01/06/2008 05:25 PM

Bypass Close to Done on Christmas Eve (but not finished yet)

Noticeable change at the Brock Road intersection, especially with the new paving and curbing (compare 071209 pictures with those from Christmas Eve, 071224).

Completion now appears to be expected in early 2008.

The detour for SR 608 remains in effect, but things will be different when that road is open once again. The Bypass cuts through SR 608 between Brock Road and The Laurels subdivision, and SR 608 stops at a "T" into the Bypass; that instead of SR 608 continuing straight through to SR 648 as before.



12/30/2007 10:27 AM

Focus on Traffic Lights

As of this week, in addition to the traffic lights and the poles that support them, most of the accompanying signs and control boxes now are installed. To provide a better look at them, the following views are shown with optical zoom toward the traffic lights:

Side road at the Battlefield exit end

View from the school yard of the Brock Road interchange

View from the school yard of the (extension of) Spotslee Drive interchange

View from Brock Road of the (extension of) Spotslee Drive interchange

Notice also the sensor loops especially visible in 071209BRAV.

The detour still is in effect for SR 608, with additional road signs so advising drivers.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends
The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.





12/09/2007 07:49 PM

Lights and Trees for the Courthouse Bypass

They're going in; the lights for the traffic signals at the Brock Road and Bypass intersection are up but not on. What the intersection will look like is becoming apparent, in 071111BRAV and 071111BRTV, even though drivers must navigate the mix of old and new road in that construction zone. Look just to the left of the orange and white barrels near the center of 071111BR608 to see the median that will divide that part of Brock Road.

Poles for another traffic light are located where an extended Spotslee Drive would intersect the Bypass, which is located where the maroon arrows point in 071111SLDRtruck and 071111BRTVtruck.

That is in addition to the third traffic light at the Battelfield exit end of the project, as seen by the traffic light sign in 071111BFEXSR. Another traffic light sign for that intersection is just out of view to the right edge of 071111BFEXTV; but zoom in on that picture (the Opera browser is excellent for this) to see the the SR 208 West and Business signs along the westbound shoulder, both approaching and at the intersection with the side road.

Get ready for trees along the Bypass. Look closely along the shoulders of the Bypass in 071111BRTV to see the new trees planted this past week. (When trees were planted along the Spotsylvania Parkway, between US 1 and Smith Staion Road, the trees affected the speed limit on the Parkway.)

The detour still is in effect for SR 608, with additional road signs so advising drivers.



11/11/2007 04:47 PM

More Traffic Lights for the Courthouse Bypass

So far it's only the poles and a sign or two, but more traffic lights are under construction; both annoying and necessary. There was further progress on the side road intersection at the Battlefield exit end of the project, 071104BFEXSR. And another set of traffic lights is being installed where the Bypass crosses Brock Road, 071104BRTV, 071104BRAV, and 071104BR608.

This is the first day of standard time, starting a week later than the previous long-standing schedule. The late afternoon sunlight is beginning to take on its winterish glow. After all, it's only a little over a month before the winter solstice.

The detour still is in effect for SR 608, with additional road signs so advising drivers.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends
The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




11/04/2007 06:32 PM

Usage Tip for "rss2email" Utility

If you use rss2email, you might have encountered difficulty when copying and pasting a feed link from your browser to the r2e utility when the link in the browser address field starts with "feed://" and then the link.

I've observed that r2e does not recognize the "feed://" part of the address; it wants "http://" instead.

So I block copy the address in the browser from the right all the way up to and including the "://" part. Then in r2e, I type in "http" and then paste the rest, to produce:

~/.rss2email$ ./r2e add http[pasted link from browser]

Works fine. Prove it with:

~/.rss2email$ ./r2e list

Enjoy your reading.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends
The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




11/01/2007 06:42 PM

Beautiful Day in the Fall for the Courthouse By-Pass Project

The first day of beautiful Fall weather after several days of much needed rain was a delight that drew many people outside. It followed a week of paving progress, with some of the work done in the rain.

Some things of note are:

  • Paving was extended at both ends of the project, with the eastbound pavement finally growing again after several weeks of stopping just past the side road. Look closely in 071027BFEXTV and you might notice the line of demarcation where the paving had halted and then started again. The end of the current eastbound paving progress is visible in 071027BFEXAV.
  • It appears there will be a traffic light at the intersection of the By-Pass and the side road. Try expanding 071027BFEXTV to the point of pixelization, and observe the two brown traffic light poles in the background just to the left of the paving equipment on the right. Another view of the near traffic light pole is in the background in 071027BFEXSR just to the right of the left-most orange and white barrel. Blocked from view by the barrel in 071027BFEXSR are the indentions in the pavement for traffic sensors at that intersection; the second brown traffic pole is obscured from view by the yellow paving equipment.
  • Finally the paving has progressed for the first time across Brock Road, as you can see in 071027BRAV. With the additional paving equipment visible in 071027BR608, it is clear that that small but busy intersection will never be the same again.

The detour still is in effect for SR 608, with additional road signs so advising drivers.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends
The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




10/27/2007 06:09 PM

Paving Progresses Again at Battlefield Exit End of Courthouse By-Pass

After several weeks of other preparatory work, the pavemet appears to be extending farther eastbound at the Battlefield exit end, as seen in 071020BFEXAV and 071020BFEXTV.

To get a better perspective, observe the same piece of paving equipment in 071020BFEXTV and 071020BFEXSR.

The detour still is in effect for SR 608, with additional road signs so advising drivers.


MarWalk.com website cross promotion

Penelope & Friends
The world of humans and other hominids as seen through the eyes of perceptive animals. Three of these animals are "characters" from the Earth Alien Trilogy, and they sometimes might even talk about the people in the Earth Alien novels. Feed available also via html.




10/20/2007 07:45 PM

Linux Install Boot from USB: Here's How

Just a quick note on my experience with trying to boot the Fedora network install utility from a thumb drive. Some of the blogs and other documentation said to just dd the boot.iso image onto a USB flash drive. I did that and no joy, at least for me.

What did work was an image file named bootdisk.img. It's located on the Fedora mirror sites with a path such as:

[mirror ftp or http url]/pub/fedora/linux/releases/7/Fedora/i386/os/imag