I'm very impressed with both Google's and Archive's implementation of privacy considerations.  Upon marking a site private, I am immediately presented with this:

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Snipets are still available in Google search results, but requests of the cache are denied.  Bravo.  I'm sure records are still kept forever, but they at least require a court order.

Google MyTracks

I tried out the Google GPS tracking software, MyTracks, and it worked flawlessly right out of the box.

Here is the first track.

I did the Smelly Cat Circuit, since it turned out to be an OK day today.  I stopped off at the Common Market on the way back, which is the waypoint marker.  Google's My Maps even shows the statistics, if you click on the "end" marker link.  If you check out the altitude, you can see why they call it "Uptown".  I guess before cars, people had to haul stuff up-to-town.

The best new feature that Google brings, I feel, is the ability to automatically save it to Google Docs, where it throws your stats into a spreadsheet so you can compare them.


Update:  Here's a picture from North East of the city (looking South West).  That's one of my favourite parts of this ride -- actually riding up to the city, rolling underneath the skyscrapers, and then seeing it fade into the distance.  Here is the spreadsheet.

Charlotte Radio is Awful

As I read Nsenga Burton's column about Charlotte's lack of a black music scene, I'm reminded that this city seriously lacks quality radio.

Radio is a dieing media, and in Charlotte it's practically dead.  TV is more exciting, and the internet, cellular included, is the wave of future.  But it's a shame because radio as a technology is cool.  It's fairly easy to broadcast it to a large number of people.  It's actually "analog", at a time when even TV is digital.  And don't even get me started on the HD-radio-oh-I-have-the-letters-"H"-"D"-in-my-name-so-I-must-be-better trash.  Radio IS local.  It IS part of YOUR community.

What do we have?  Commercial Corporate Crap and Christian Channels.

WFAE looks great compared to everything else on our dial, but compare them to a WBAI or a WMNF.

A couple remote college stations come in when the atmospheric conditions are right...

Can anyone tell me the frequency of ONE pirate radio station in Charlotte?

Radios are cheap.  Your car has one.  You can probably figure out how to build one yourself if you never have.  (Try to build a device that can receive and decode a cellular internet stream from scratch.)  I'm reminded of the imbeciles in Idiocracy that watered their crops with Gatorade.   Technology is great, but only if it solves problems -- not creates them.

We have this excellent technology - radio - that's being unused.  Why?  Is it because Charlotteans love to listen to the same stale music that Nsenga was referring to?  And then go out and buy junk from the advertisers so they can stay in business?