Requirements: A very important part of the software development life cycle.  Understanding them, defining them, making it unambiguous and managing them are very crucial for the success of any project.  In a collaborative development environment, getting a common understanding about requirements is very important.

IBM has just launched Rational Requirements Composer 2.0.  A very powerful tools on the Jazz platform, to define your requirements properly.

Why don’t you have a close look at it?

Managing heterogeneous application on both SAP and non-SAP world is a complex task.  On a distributed platform, things are still more difficult.  Collaboration is the only way to reduce the complexity.

In this regard, SAP and IBM has signed a cooperative agreement to extend integration between IBM Rational software delivery platform with SAP’s application life cycle management solution.  Now we can work on with IBM Rational’s requirement definition & management, quality and change management solutions with SAP and non-SAP environments.  This provides an excellent automation scenario.  Also results in an excellent traceability for SAP requirement process and assets. Effective automation boosts the productivity and brings down the cost to present a better ROI.

Read more:

Read our world wide first case study on SAP test automation using IBM Rational Functional Tester.

Comme ce projet avance par étapes, je me propose d’en relater les avancées ici. Eh oui, c’est finalement assez complexe, et ça mérite quelques éclaircissements. Il ya :

• Le hard
• le logiciel bas niveau
• les processus LAN
• du temps réel
• l’interface WEB
• de la compression
• des stockages et transmission de données

Actuellement (novembre 2009),  le hard est posé dans les grandes lignes; mais pas complètement arrêté. La clock RTC sera matérialisé par un DS1307, une pile, un quartz. La commande de triacs sera fortement inspirée d’une interface de Franic (merci Laurent!).

Les couches logicielles assez bien définies; toutefois, c’est la partie qui risque de subir les plus grand changements – même si le hard est terminé! Chacun pour

clock et datas

ra peaufinner son interface WEB. Pour cela, il faudra une bibliothèque bien établie de tags, et de modules en Javascript. Et de modules en C, bien sûr.

Le tout est téléchargeable ici: http://yves.masur.microclub.ch/articles/

Ce n’est pas vraiment un article, mais il y a: le code source, les pages WEB, et deux documents au format pdf. “MXBOARD_decouverte” présente les différentes facette de cette plateforme, alors que “barette” est le cahier des charges – qui se transforme en cahier de réalisation petit à petit.

Yves Masur

The speed at which software is getting developed has increased, the same way the problems too.  One side “Speed”, on the other hand “Quality”.  To find an optimum balance, it is very tough.

Today is the day of “agile” development.  When you really embrace the agile methodology, you have to do a no of small releases.  Things are getting much more complex when it happens in a distributed development environment.  Enforcing coding standards and conducting a peer reviews before code submission for build generation, are the options to make sure the code quality.  Static analysis methods and automation tools are available for this.  Many a times you have to follow the tool, rather the tool follows your process or there is a facility to customize the process.

The new IBM Jazz platform enables collaborative development for distributed teams.  Along with this if you can use a tool like IBM Rational Software Analyzer, which will take care of the code quality.  A combination of Rational Team Concert and Rational Asset Analyzer can improve the quality of the product developed, without increasing your budgets.  Automated code scans ensure the right quality of the code, before it gets submitted for build process.

With the help of more than 1000 built in rules, Rational Software Analyzer can help you to achieve most of the compliance requirements of the industry without worrying about any rework.

It will be a good idea to have a look at the following link to get more details about IBM Rational Software Analyzer

One of many colorful balloons at the Reston Holiday Parade in 2008.

Reston Town Center presents the 19th annual Reston Holiday Parade on Friday, November 27 at 11:00 AM, launching the festive season with Macy’s-style balloons, musical groups, dancers, antique cars, and more, in a one-of-a-kind, one-hour parade along Market Street, welcoming the arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus in a horse-drawn carriage. The parade is on rain or shine. (See full schedule below.)

At least seventy groups, with one to fifty in each group, are anticipated for the 2009 parade. Popular favorites from past years that are returning this year include The Hogettes, The Jokesters, GottaSwing dancers, Reston Conservatory Ballet, Bull Run Street Rods,

South Lakes High School Marching Band, Langston Hughes Middle School Panther Cheerleaders, Northern Virginia Firefighters’ Emerald Society Pipe Band, Regimental Drums & Fifes of Northern Virginia, Children of the Light dancers, Paul Mitchell School, ArtInsights, F.I.S.H., a team of horses from the Misty Brae Farm Pony Club in Aldie, antique and classic cars from the National Capital Jaguar Club and Mustang Club, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, fire trucks, VIPs, including Reston founder Robert E. Simon, Jr., and much more. For event information, visit www.restontowncenter.com, or call 703-689-4699.

Holidays are Here! November 27 is a full day of events full of holiday cheer and charity at Reston Town Center:

• 8 AM: Reston Town Center retailers opening early
• 8 AM: Run with Alan Webb: 9^th annual races for tots to teens to benefit Neediest Kids. Donation of $5 for participation encouraged. Participants can register at www.neediestkids.org.
• 11:00 AM: 19^th Annual Reston Holiday Parade
• 12:30 – 4:30 PM: Visits and Photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Located on Market Street, next to Talbots. Donations will benefit local charities.
• 6:00 PM: Tree Lighting and Sing Along. Santa and Mrs. Claus will arrive in a horse-drawn carriage to magically light up the Christmas tree, followed by traditional holiday songs led by Reston Chorale and brass quintet.
• 6:30 – 10:00 PM: Horse Drawn Carriage Rides. Proceeds benefit Volunteer Fairfax. Pick-up location is in front of Talbots on Market Street. $5 per person, children 5 and under ride free with adult.
• All day: Ice Skating Pavilion. Open every day for public skating until March.

Santa’s Studio: Santa Claus will be at Reston Town Center in his portrait studio throughout the season. Dates and times vary, November 28 until December 24. His schedule is posted at his location on Market Street next to Talbots, and at www.restontowncenter.com.

Holidays are Here! All through December, Reston Town Center will host performances of music and dance by community groups at Fountain Square, and strolling on Market Street. Horse drawn carriage rides are scheduled for Saturday afternoons, December 5, 12, and 19, from 12 PM until 4 PM. All proceeds benefit local charities. $5 per person, children 5 and under ride free with adult. The Ice Skating Pavilion is open every day until March. See the schedules and more details at www.restontowncenter.com.

# # #

Established in 1990, beautiful Reston Town Center is an acclaimed outdoor venue offering more than 50 retail shops, 30 restaurants and a 13-screen cinema. At the center’s hub, the Pavilion hosts special events, concerts, festivals throughout the year and ice-skating in winter.  For more information on shopping, dining and events at Reston Town Center, visit www.restontowncenter.com, find it on Facebook, follow on Twitter (RestonTownCntr), read the blog “WhereOutsideIsIn.com”, or call 703-689-4699. Reston Town Center, 11900 Market Street, Reston, VA 20190

Directions: From I-495, take I-66 west to the Dulles Toll Road (Exit 67, Route 267 West) to Reston Parkway (Exit 12). Turn right on Reston Parkway then left on New Dominion Parkway (4^th light).

[Taufeeq] sent in his “Circle of Light” bulbdial clock. You may remember when we showed you Evil Mad Scientist’s version a while back, and [Taufeeq] did use it as a base but he’s added some of his own little touches. Some of the changes include using a PIC with an RTC chip instead of AVR, which allowed him to shrink the board down small enough to fit behind the clock face, rather than on front. He’s even zipped everything up conveniently to help you build your own.

Por Javier Orozco Gómez, publicado en Milenio

Los consejeros del IFE cuentan con una nueva tarea: monitorear la radio y la televisión en materia electoral, pero esta función no se debe mezclar con la que realizan Cofepris, RTC, SEP y Cofetel.

Desde hace unas semanas los consejeros del IFE se encuentran muy activos con los legisladores (diputados y senadores). Han sostenido encuentros para mostrar la implementación y balance general sobre su nueva función: monitorear la radio y la televisión.

En teoría la presentación que hace el IFE nos muestra el marco legal, los pasos que llevan a cabo para realizar la función de administrar los tiempos oficiales y el esquema implementado en el pasado proceso electoral.

De entrada, como lo manifesté en el IFE, los cinco pasos de su nueva tarea son los apropiados; pero que no había que mezclar el monitoreo en materia electoral con los que realizan RTC, de Gobernación; Cofepris, de la Secretaría de Salud; la Unidad de Televisión Educativa, de la SEP y el que hace la Cofetel.

Cada dependencia o entidad tiene facultades muy precisas y pensar en un Sistema Nacional de Monitoreo que concentre todo habría que analizarlo; no es lo mismo monitorear spots que contenidos, anuncios, locutores o potencia de estaciones.

El hecho es que ahora nos encontramos que durante la revisión del cumplimiento de las 118 obligaciones contractuales de los encargados del monitoreo, el Grupo de TECNO fue penalizado por el IFE debido a los retrasos ocurridos durante la construcción de la solución informática y la capacitación del personal. Las sanciones aplicadas ascienden a casi un millón de dólares (12 millones 828 mil 680 pesos); es decir, 4 por ciento de los 25 millones de dólares que costó todo el sistema.

Lo más curioso es que, tanto senadores como diputados que hemos acudido, nunca ha alcanzado el tiempo para visitar el Centro Nacional de Monitoreo (Cenacom) y la exhibición de las funcionalidades de verificación. Donde las “grabaciones históricas (hasta un mes) del sistema” no se han mostrado.

Por lo tanto, más allá de la auditoría sobre el proceso de licitación del multicitado sistema de monitoreo, habría que entrar a las “tripas” y ver si, en efecto, en la praxis las cosas son como se asientan en papel. Si la memoria no nos falla, el tema del monitoreo en el IFE ha sido motivo de escándalos en 2003 y 2006 por las licitaciones.

Y para que no predomine la desinformación, en el año 2006, de acuerdo con información del IFE, el gasto en radio y televisión fue de 13 millones de dólares; según lo reportado por los partidos y auditado por el propio organismo, que se desconoce cuánto gastaría, ya que la Segob a través de RTC le otorgó tiempos gratuitos.

El tiempo nos dirá qué ocurrirá en 2009.

*Especialista en Telecomunicaciones y Radiodifusión. Senador.

ver nota original

[Audin] got a hold of a pressure gauge and decided to turn it into a clock. We were under the impression that these types of gauges were filled with oil but he didn’t detail cleaning it up for his purposes. Once he gained access to the guts he replaced them with a stepper motor. The motor connects to an Arduino with the help of a Darlington array for handling the large load. [Audin's] plans include using a real time clock (on order) and moving to an AVR ATmega8 microprocessor once the prototyping is finished. In the mean time, he has posted the code used in his current prototype.

Stay with us past the page break for some video of this in action. He’s got the needle dialed in for very precise movement and has coded a “jitter” effect as well. We’re not sure this would be the most convenient clock, but we’d love to affix it to our kitchen stove for a gnarly looking timer. [Audin] acquired the gauge at his local Habitat for Humanity ReStore, a place we’ve used many times to source reclaimed and unused items of all kinds for our projects.

"Santa Paws" at Home 4 the Holidays in Reston Town Center

Saturday, November 7, 2009 | 11AM – 4PM Reston Town Center, Reston, VA

GoodDogz.org sponsors the sixth annual Home 4 the Holidays pet adoption event on Saturday, November 7th at the Reston Town Center from 11AM – 4PM. More than 30 all breed and purebred dog rescue organizations will be onsite with adoptable dogs awaiting their holiday gift – a family to love! Bring the whole family out to the Reston Town Center to enjoy the fun and potentially meet a new four-legged friend! Visit pet retailers and pick up a few holiday goodies for your favorite pooch. And stop by and say hi to “Santa Paws!”

The national “Home 4 the Holidays” campaign is sponsored by The Iams Company and the Helen Woodward Animal Center. The goal of “Home 4 the Holidays” is to increase adoptions from animal shelters and pet rescue groups during the holiday season when more families add pets to their homes than any other time of year.

Participating exhibitors include: GRREAT-Golden Retriever Rescue, Northern Virginia Sheltie Rescue, CATS RULE! Feline Rescue, Collie Rescue, Inc., Greyhound Welfare, Inc., Westie Rescue, Inc., Rikki’s Refuge, Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League, K-9 Lifesavers, Partnership for Animal Welfare, Blue Ridge Bull Terrier Club, Greyt Expectations Greyhound Rescue, Mid-Atlantic English Springer Spaniel Rescue, Rescue Angels, Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, Lab Rescue of LRCP, Pets Limited Rescue of Virginia, Friends of Homeless Animals (FOHA), Akita Rescue Mid-Atlantic Coast, Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation, HART, PetConnect Rescue and Wellness, Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescue, East Coast German Wirehaired Pointer Rescue, Virginia German Shepherd Rescue, Anne Lord Photography, Wag’N Enterprises, LLC, Happy Woof, Fundamentally Dog, DogBonesDirect, KRockStar LLC, Dog Day Afternoon, 4 Paws Pet Care ‘N Taxi, Becky’s Pet Care Inc., My Squeaky Ball, Inc., Bow Wow Designs, The Pet Elf Inc., Dogtopia, DogOn Fitness, Bark ‘N Bubbles Dog Wash, Simply pAwsome Specialty Dog Treats.

Established in 1990, beautiful Reston Town Center is an acclaimed outdoor venue offering more than 50 retail shops, 30 restaurants and a 13-screen cinema, plus more to come.  At the Center’s hub, the Pavilion hosts special events, concerts, festivals throughout the year and ice-skating in winter. For more information on shopping, dining and events at Reston Town Center, visit www.restontowncenter.com, and find it on Facebook and follow on Twitter. Address: 11900 Market Street, Reston, VA 20190 Directions: From I-495, take I-66 west to the Dulles Toll Road (Exit 12, Route 267 West) to Reston Parkway (Exit 12). Turn right on Reston Parkway then left on New Dominion Parkway (4^thlight).

#   #   #

Bike Lanes were the first item on the agenda last night at the Regional Transportation Commission meeting, and Engineering firm Manhard Consulting, LTD was there to make their redesign presentation. The room was once again packed last night, but they weren’t familiar faces. Three of us from Muscle Powered attended, eager to hear the verdict.

As the speakers unveiled their redesign plan, it began to be apparent that things were looking good. Here’s a summary of the bike lane plan:

Summary of Changes to Include Bike Lanes

• Four lanes throughout project varying in width from 10′ to 11.25′ (10′ wide only at Long Street intersection)
• 5′ wide bike lane from Washington Street to Adams Street (Lane is measured from the stripe to the face of the curb, so subtract the width of the gutter)
• 4′ shoulder from Adams Street to Beverly Drive (again, subtract the width of the gutter)
• Left turn pockets at Washington, Highway 50/William, Corbett, and Long

The most interesting change to me was the left turn pockets. Last month the proposal was to fully delete the center turn lane. This new plan adds the turn pockets only where really needed, adding additional room for bike lanes, and reducing the amount of right-of-way property acquisition. More of the road can be utilized more of the time, and no space is wasted where you don’t need it.

Like I mentioned last month, the section from Adams Street to Beverly Drive is too narrow to include an official 5′ wide bike lane, so they are calling it a 4′ shoulder. I think this should still be wide enough for most cyclists, and there was talk that share the road signs should be installed along this section to enhance safety.

The commissioners asked a few questions after the presentation, but overall, the mood was great and they once again agreed that the additional costs to the project were minuscule compared to the overall project. The turn pockets are a good compromise between bicycle and auto facilities. The project is really shaping up and looks to be an improvement for all road users.

The next meeting will be in December, and will include a presentation and vote on the amount and usage of the funds available. Keep your fingers crossed! As for the rest of the crowd in the room, nobody got up and commented about bike lanes, so I’m not sure what they were there for. I left after the bike lane discussion, but the Clear Creek closure was going to be talked about near the end of the meeting. I’ll see what I can find out about this topic.

Clock in ubuntu need to have access with the hardware clock, If your ubuntu doesn’t have access to it so your clock will always show error time.

Have you ever seen this kind of error message?
‘/dev/rtc not found’
If your answer is YES then you have Clock Problem in your PC.

I’ve just experienced it, so I searched a bit and come with a solution, here is the TODO steps.

1. Find if you have any clock driver installed.

lsmod | grep rtc

If it give one or more outputs than it’s okay, but if that code give no output than, you have to load your clock module.

2. Load Clock Module

You can load clock module with

sudo modprobe rtc-cmos

If that code work, then finee, your clock has just been fixed.


su


hwclock


echo rtc-cmos >> /etc/modules


Okaay, it’s done. BUT if that code result is FATAL ERROR then you need to do the 3rd step.

3. Find your proper RTC Driver

go to your Output kernel directory


cd /usr/src/$(uname-r)/drivers/rtc


dir | grep ko


That code will result list of clock modules that available, you will want to try to load those modules one by one.


sudo modprobe xxxx

with xxxx is one of the modules listed(But without extension like .ko)

Until you can run

sudo hwclock


without any errors.

1. Características de las líneas terrestres.

1.1. ¿Cuáles son?

Este tipo de líneas son redes de telefonía conmutada guiadas por un medio físico normalmente un cable  de par trenzado. (RTC, RDSI)

1.2. RTC

1.2.1. Usos

Inicios: Llamadas telefónicas. La voz se encuentra entre los [300 y 3400] Hz

En la actualidad el servicio se ha ampliado a los PC que utilizan señales digitales. Por lo cual se necesita un dispositivo llamado MODEM para hacer las conversiones analogico-digital. (fax, conexión a Internet, etc)

1.2.2. Servicios (a los abonados)

Telefonía básica

Terminales

Red Privada Virtual

Voz sobre IP

Multiconferencia voz

Acceso a Internet

Fax

…

1.2.3. Ventajas vs Inconvenientes

Ventajas

- Fácil instalación

- Fácil configuración

- Bajo coste de mantenimiento (cuota)

- Bajo coste de utilización

- Acceso a “gratuito” a Internet (A través del MODEM se conecta… Se llama a un 908, que llama al ISP que nos proporciona Internet. Se cobra por cuanto navegues)

Inconvenientes

-Baja velocidad de acceso

-Requiere hardware y software específico

-Incompatibilidad de servicios (O voz o Internet)

-Sistema analógico.

1.2.4.     Velocidad de acceso a Internet ( ancho de banda, capacidad)

Se mide en bps.

Kbps

Mbps, etc

Bit rate (tasa binaria): Es la velocidad binaria por la que se transmiten los bits.

Clocks made from blinking LEDs always make for fun projects. [Earthshine] built a clock that displays time abstractly using an 8×8 RGB LED matrix. The video embedded after the break illustrates how to read the time but here’s the gist of it: One LED is illuminated in the outside box of LEDs and moved in a clockwise motion to approximate seconds. Inside of this, there are four quadrants; upper left indicates hour-tens digit, upper right hour-ones, lower left minute-tens, and lower right minute-ones. This certainly makes for an interesting conversation piece!

There is no schematic and no code available but it’s really the concept that we’re interested in. If you must know, [Earthshine] bases this build around an Arduino. A DS1307 real time clock keeps the time, while four 74HC595 shift registers are utilized to control the three LED colors and the multiplexing.

This week I started a brand new project. This time it’s the start of product development, rather than just an internal project to get something running. And it really is new, so everyone is new and we’re setting up everything from scratch.

So this is my list of things to go from nothing to a fully fledged software engineering project.

Step one, getting the right tools installed for everyone off the bat makes things easier later on. Standardise upfront rather than try to merge half a dozen separate ideas about whats best later.
For this team we will be testing a GUI so Rational Functional Tester (RFT) with Rational Team Concert (RTC) is the basic tool set.

This gives us all the project management tools in RTC, plus source control, and easy collaboration. Then when we get as far as something to test RFT will already be there.

RTC is the best tool I’ve used for starting projects, it lets you start capturing requirements and high level ’stories’ and start hanging individual tasks off of them. Code sharing is very easy, and delivering code changes under tasks makes the project tracking pretty seamless.

Step two, a build server. It’s easy to link into RTC to have a build engine that allows you to schedule builds as frequently as you like. It also allows people to kick off builds of the mainline code plus their ‘local’ changes. So you can build and unit test changes before delivering them to the main codebase. The outline of this can be set up quickly, the detail of full build and kicking off unit tests takes longer but is a top priority.

Step three is a Rational Quality Manager (RQM) server. This can be linked to the RTC server so that it gets notified when builds complete and also allows you to create defects in RTC if tests fail. RTC can then view defects which block test cases. RQM lets you define what environments you will test in, how you will split things into test plans. And makes it easy to start defining test cases and where they will run. Ultimately it can be used to report on test status, with built in dashboards and report generation.

The last step are some test servers which run adapters which connect to the RQM server. For our needs some of these will use a command line adapter, others will use RFT. This allows RQM to kick off tests against the systems and gather the results.

As a set of tools they are not light weight. Requiring at least 4 servers (RTC, RQM, build, test) but then they are a very powerful combination. I don’t expect to have any spreadsheets or hand-crafted chart generation being done by the team. All of the information we require comes straight from the tools, when we report project status we will use the tools not hand-made slides or spreadsheets. I also expect to be able to get tests automated and managed from the start. So no trying to retro-fit automation onto manual tests.

After one week we have RTC setup with the first wave of requirements stories and tasks, and a code base setup with components for our new product. We have an RQM connected and being told about builds. We have the skeleton of a build system. It’s not doing much other than defining the build types we will have, but the framework is in place.

Next week I’ll setup my first test server. Hopefully in a very short space of time we will have everything we need to develop and test a product. Complete with project tracking and reporting, all while most of the team are focussed on what we will produce, not tied up with figuring out infastructure.

Another week, another customer that is either adopting Jazz, or very seriously thinking about it.  I ran into an interesting situation in the past month, and I ran into it twice.  It made me think a little bit about Agile development, Waterfall development, and how Jazz and Rational Team Concert can help an organization begin to get the troops marching in the same direction.

While working with a customer this week, we got wrapped around the thorny fact that while the organization would like to have all of their teams begin using Agile development methods, many of their teams would resist, and some efforts were probably better off being left with their current methodology (Waterfall, Iterative, Spiral, and so on).  The reality of the situation is that in any medium to large sized organization, there will be a period of time where Agile teams and Waterfall teams will need to coexist.  There may be projects and areas of the architecture where Agile is not the methodology of choice.  So after agreeing to this point, my customer asked, “So how do you support this?”.  We also spent some time talking about the differences between Agile, Waterfall, and Iterative methodologies.  Luckily, it was late in the day, so I was able to leave without really answering the question.

Still, the whole concept kept rattling around in my head.  Then it came to me.  What is the BASIC difference between all of these methodologies?  Speed and scope.  (I know, that this is over simplifying things a bit, so all of you methodology zealots keep your flames to yourselves.  I still believe that the core concept holds true.)

Think about it.  In a Waterfall project, we scope the entire project, and then we do the whole requirements -> design -> code -> test thing.  Because the scope is so big, this single iteration ends up taking about 12 months (which just happens to be the budget cycle).  In an Iterative project (RUP or not), we lay out maybe 6 iterations of about 8 weeks in length, and break the work into smaller more manageable chunks, and then do the whole requirements -> design -> code -> test cycle on those smaller pieces.  In an Agile project, we have some sort of vision, and then we make up a bunch of stories that we attack in quick, 2 week bursts.  In each burst, we go through the same requirements -> design -> code -> test cycle, only on pieces that are really small, and we tailor the workload to the velocity of the team.

So what does this mean for a Jazz/Rational Team Concert deployment?  Maybe I don’t need to have a bunch of different processes and work items for each different methodology.  Maybe all that I need to do is provide a framework for a common iteration, and then let the project determine the length of time for each iteration.  This will mean that teams will determine their “agile-ness” in how they interact with their stakeholders, and in how quickly they schedule their iterations.  So now an organization can have a consistent process, consistent work product types (kind of), and collect consistent software development metrics.  Bonus points: A common process, with tailored iteration lengths, is a lot more simple and cost effective to design, implement, support and improve.

The implications of this could be profound for an organization.  Management will be able to look at teams, and determine the optimal iteration length for their teams/projects/applications.  By measuring performance over time, it should be easy to compare the productivity of a team, and the quality of it’s work, based on the length of the team’s iterations.  Do my mainframe projects do better with a 2 week, 1 month, or 6 month long iteration?  Do my web applications do better with 2 week, 3 week or 4 week iterations?  As an organization, are maintenance activities better done with longer iterations or shorter iterations?  Does my Killer Bee team do better with longer or shorter iterations?  How does risk factor into this?

It’s an interesting thought.  So I guess ALL software teams are Agile, they just have different iteration durations.  I would love to see someone try this out.  Is your organization struggling with this issue?  How do you look at the adoption of Agile practices in software development?  Let me know, I am interested in seeing what Jazz (and non-Jazz!) users are seeing out there in the trenches.

This guy reminds me of another guy…. I didn’t have coins big enough to donate.

On October 14th, Carson City cyclists attended the Carson City Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) meeting to show their support for bike lanes on the future Roop Street widening project. Cyclists were seated in every row, and I hear it’s one of the biggest crowds the RTC has seen for quite some time!

Speakers from the public included myself (Muscle Powered), Dan Allison (Muscle Powered and Safe Routes to School Coordinator), Tim Rowe (Nevada Bicycle Advisory Board and Alta Alpina Cycling Club), and Luke Wold (Wold Fitness).

Roop Street – Looking South from Beverly Drive

Public Works came up with a preliminary redesign of the Roop Street widening plan to present to the commissioners at the meeting. It was suggested that 5′ bike lanes could be included from Washington Street to Adams Street. Due to what I believe are right-of-way issues, the section of Roop Street from Adams Street to Beverly Drive could not accommodate 5′ lanes. It was suggested that this section could be striped with a fog line, but could not be officially called a bike lane due to the narrower width. Public Works said that these revisions would add $50K-60K to the price of the project, but one of the commissioners said this additional cost was minuscule compared to the price of the overall project…especially if it better fit the needs of the public.

With the inclusion of the bike lanes, the center turn lane was removed from the new proposal, but the plan still allowed for 2 lanes of traffic going north and south. It was pointed out that this may back up traffic if people needed to make left turns during peak traffic, but some thought the impact would be minimal. The new Stewart Street extension will allow easy access to the neighborhood to the west of Roop Street, and should alleviate some of the left turn issues on Roop Street.

Roop Street – Looking North from Washington Street

I had a great follow up phone conversation with Patrick Pittenger, Carson City’s Transportation Manager. A revision of the plan discussed above will be presented to the RTC in November, but would not be up for approval until December; however, he cautioned that in these times of diminishing budgets, monies available for projects today may not be available a few months down the road. It could be several months before the actual project started, if at all.

Patrick had good news to report too though. He has secured federal funds for more bicycle projects around the city that include bike lanes on Goni Road north of Arrowhead Drive, bike lanes on 5th Street from the roundabout to Hells Bells Road, and bike lanes on Washington Street from Carson Street to Roop Street.

We also talked about the recent addition of bike lanes on Winnie Lane west of HWY 395 (see Dan Allison’s post on the Muscle Powered Blog for more details), and clarification of the Roop Street plan for bike lanes on Roop Street between East Winnie Lane and Northridge Drive. This section of Roop Street over Lone Mountain will have 8′ bike lanes in both directions, and a pedestrian path on the east side of the road. This is fantastic news for northern Carson City cyclists trying to get to the trails on the west side of town!

I would like to thank everyone who took the time out of their busy lives to come down and show your support for a more bicycle friendly Carson City. The mood of the RTC was visibly brighter than a month ago when we first began our discussions, and this is due to your collective enthusiasm. I’ve found that the city is usually very open to suggestions if you can demonstrate that the people are interested. That’s just what we did Wednesday night.

And finally, when I was out this morning getting pictures for this post, I decided to ride down Roop Street, since the traffic was fairly light. Along the way I imagined that I was riding on a path, and it was great! It was nice to ride a direct route to work instead of my typical labyrinth of side roads. I didn’t have to go through several rain gutters, up curbs, through parking lots, or dart across traffic. This can be fun sometimes, but sometimes you just want to relax.

Reston Town Center at Night, at Oktoberfest Reston 2009

The sights, sounds and smells of a German Oktoberfest celebration once again filled Reston Town Center from Friday, October 9 through Sunday, October 11. Attendees enjoyed German food, beer and wine along with live entertainment plus carnival rides, all presented by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce.

Participating restaurants included a number of Town Center favorites such as Clyde’s of Reston, The Counter, Il Fornaio, McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant, M&S Grill, Uno Chicago Grill as well as Cafe Montmartre, Dinner Zen, Paradise Ice Cream, Red Hot & Blue, Vie de France Bakery Café and Vinifera Wine Bar & Bistro.

Music and entertainment was presented all three days in the Reston Town Center Pavilion, featuring The Continentals, Sam Gunderson and Cactus Grove, Sexton’s German Band, the Kings Park German Band and many more. The Oktoberfest Reston Carnival offered amusement rides and entertainment for the young and young at heart. Attendees also enjoyed free horse-drawn hay rides and face painting on Saturday, adding even more family fun to Oktoberfest Reston.

Virginia's Greatest Pumpkin

Also on Saturday, October 10 was the Anthem Great Pumpkin 5K Races. At the Finish Line Festival, participating runners, walkers, joggers and their families took part in the pumpkin decorating contest from and saw Virginia’s “Greatest Pumpkin” on display. The Children’s Pumpkin Dash offered free races for those 4 to 10 years of age – many who arrived in full Halloween regalia! The Anthem Great Pumpkin 5k was Presented by the Greater Washington Sports Alliance; Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield; and Potomac River Running to benefit the INOVA Heart and Vascular Institute.

Established in 1990, beautiful Reston Town Center is an acclaimed outdoor venue offering more than 50 retail shops, 30 restaurants and a 13-screen cinema, plus more to come.  At the Center’s hub, the Pavilion hosts special events, concerts, festivals throughout the year and ice-skating in winter. For more information on shopping, dining and events at Reston Town Center, visit www.restontowncenter.com, and find it on Facebook and follow on Twitter. Address: 11900 Market Street, Reston, VA 20190 Directions: From I-495, take I-66 west to the Dulles Toll Road (Exit 12, Route 267 West) to Reston Parkway (Exit 12). Turn right on Reston Parkway then left on New Dominion Parkway (4^th light).

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]]> http://fuzzybill.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/analyse-du-dossier-tramway-qubec/ Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:26:02 +0000 fuzzybill http://fuzzybill.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/analyse-du-dossier-tramway-qubec/

Est-ce une si bonne idée que celle du Tramway?  «Selon vous, l’implantation d’un réseau de tramway à Québec est-elle une très bonne idée, une bonne idée, une mauvaise idée ou une très mauvaise idée?», 36 % des personnes sondées ont répondu une «très bonne idée» et 31 % une «bonne idée». 

Était-ce la bonne question à poser?  Posons d’autres questions aux citoyens de Québec: 

«Selon vous, l’implantation d’une équipe de hockey professionnelle à Québec est-elle une très bonne idée, une bonne idée, une mauvaise idée ou une très mauvaise idée?»

«Selon vous, l’implantation de commerces de crème glacée gratuite à Québec durant l’été est-elle une très bonne idée, une bonne idée, une mauvaise idée ou une très mauvaise idée?»

«Selon vous, donner un chèque de 5000$ par citoyen à Québec est-elle une très bonne idée, une bonne idée, une mauvaise idée ou une très mauvaise idée?»

Vous voyez où je veux en venir?  Ces supposées bonnes idées seront toujours backées par la population parce qu’elles semblent  n’impliquer aucune de conséquence.  La beauté de la chose, c’est que des idées ça coûte rien.

Posons de VRAIES questions:

«Selon vous, l’implantation d’un réseau de tramway à Québec et l’augmentation de la dette de la Ville de l’ordre de 1 milliard$(1667$ de dette par personne),  est-elle une très bonne idée, une bonne idée, une mauvaise idée ou une très mauvaise idée?»

«Dans l’éventualité de l’implantation d’un Tramway à Québec, allez-vous modifier vos habitudes de vie afin d’utiliser le transport en commun à chaque jour?»

«Quelle est la meilleure solution pour améliorer l’efficacité des déplacements à Québec?  a) améliorer le réseau d’autobus  b) permettre le covoiturage dans les voies réservées c) implanter un tramway d)ajouter/élargir les routes actuelles»

Un milliard$ c’est beaucoup d’argent pour un projet de tramway qui couvrira 4 stations: Sainte-Foy, Québec, Trait-Carré (Charlesbourg) et d’Estimauville ( la majorité de la population de la Vieille Capitale n’y aura pas accès et pourtant, va payer pour!).  On dit un milliard$, mais on sait très bien qu’au Québec il faut multiplier tous ces coûts par x2 et x3!

Le tramway ne concurrencera pas l’automobile.  Ceux qui utilisent leur auto continueront de le faire, et ce n’est pas le douchebag président du RTC qui fera exception.  Vous voyez, l’automobile, c’est la liberté de pouvoir choisir où je vais aller et quand je veux.   L’automobile c’est le moyen de transport qui convient pour aller porter/chercher les enfants à la garderie et à l’école.  C’est tellement beau que de se retrouver en compagnie de tout plein de pas-propres, de bizarres et de gens malades qui prennent le transport en commun.  Ceux qui ont goûté au plaisir de posséder une voiture reviennent rarement en arrière.  Il ne faut pas oublier que le Tramway ne couvrira que certains grands axes, les autobus seront encore nécessaires pour couvrir la banlieue. 

Un tramway? NO WAY!