mid-October

things are kind of busy as usual, have the following projects going on recently:

on the technical side:

Learning about ASP.NET 2.0 Http pipeline, and how to insert modules into it. Pretty slick, and a lot easier than writing ISAPI filters in C. I've been working on an authentication layer for a legacy application using this stuff, and there's a minimum of hacks required.

Trying to learn enough DreamWeaver to maintain an existing school web site, and enough CSS to apply it to a revamped design.
So far so good, thanks in part to DW providing basic CSS templates I can hit the ground running.
Its all pretty static content, all client-side, but there are monthly meeting updates that need to get posted, so it changes enough I want to make it easier. Already I've gotten rid of the tables, and all the little pixel-GIF hacks (and replaced them with CSS pixel hacks I guess!)

Have to read another chapter of the Erlang book this week - Mnesia database is next.

on the local side:

a good walkthrough on Grand Forest East yesterday. Trying to get a feel for future maintenance work and possible reroutes.
Nothing firm yet - current goal though is to "overlay" a new trail network on the old one, providing something easier to maintain and more suitable for all users. None of it is easy, but over the years both volunteers and staff have put a lot of time into maintaining the old trail network, that started out as logging roads of course. Now if we could just get some of the many equestrians who use those trails to help out...

attended the North Madison open house. sheesh, you'd think it would not be a big deal to widen a shoulder on the uphill side, and install a pedestrian path on the other. There seem to be a couple of arguments against it,including "preserving the rural ambience" and 'keeping it safer by keeping it narrow". My thought is that there are enough walkers, joggers, and cyclists that keeping this arterial as a no-shoulder road is foolish, not safer. Its only preserving the "rural ambience" for people driving, those of us to walk or cycle along it just put up with it. Frankly, I think much of the energy is being driven by people who, over the years, have incorporated part of the existing right-of-way into an extension of their own property, and now don't want to give it back. Everyone seems afraid to say it, but given the folks who attended this meeting and were the most loudly opposed, it seems pretty obvious. In any case, its time to realize that if we want to build a safe route for someone other than auto drivers, roads have to change to accomodate multiple users safely.

enough for now.

local political & blog scene heating up!

I guess its just the coming election - but we're suddenly seeing a lot of blog activity locally. I count at least 4 actively covering Bainbridge Island and its diverse politics. Attack ads in the local newspaper, stealth telephone campaigns, mailers and well-funded but "cheap-looking" hand-painted signs seem to be the tools of the local property-rights/anti-environmental/anti-govt camp (seems to be a vendetta - they don't propose their own candidate); while so far doorbelling and support letters are used by the candidates themselves. Gee, which do you think will be most effective in a campaign? I hope not the attack ads, although it certainly worked in national elections.

I hope that after the election some of these people remain actively involved. There is (and probably always has been) a lot of crap that goes on, some of it intentional, some of it simply naive. There are real issues to sort out, implications understood, decisions made.

Here's an example that bugs me at the moment: a planned boardwalk & trail linking a neighborhood to Winslow and the Ferry just disappeared off the table.
provides a picture and info.
What happened to this? I've worked with members of the NMTP and the TAC for a couple of years now, helping to site and scope this potential link. Its been discussed at several TAC meetings. The City has known about it, and supposedly budgeted for it. City wetlands experts were brought in. Permit issues were discussed and resolved. The whole project was a no-brainer: just a simple matter of finding the money for the boardwalk. Not cheap of course.

In a recent TAC meeting, when asked about this project, Park District staff claimed to have never heard of it, and questioned the need for it anyway. Case closed. Nothing to see here. WTF? First off, the City was supposed to be funding it as it was a non-motorized link. And its been discussed several times in open public meetings. So, what's happening here? At this point I don't think people really forgot, althought its certainly possible. Perhaps their workload just exceeded their capacity/funding and so they decided to reprioritize projects themselves? Unfortunately with an active volunteer community and neighborhood groups, that's neither fair nor just. But I guess what it comes down to is that we don't really know. One month this project was one the list of work to be done, awhile later its gone. Who made that decision and why?