Category Archives: Asheville Live

Track Asheville's Status on Google Fiber

Published in Asheville Live on March 22, 2010
A segment of a social network
Image via Wikipedia

BlogAsheville has a terrific rundown of how you can track Asheville’s (and other cities) bid on the Google Fiber initiative. It includes lists of cities bidding, searches of various social networks, YouTube, Twitter hashes, and all sorts of ways to surf the Googleverse to find out who is bidding, what they’re doing, and what is being said about them. End result: Who’s winning? No clue, nobody knows except Google.

Check it out here: http://blogasheville.blogspot.com/2010/03/track-news-about-your-towns-google.html

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Fences Come Down in Pack Square Park

Published in Asheville Live on March 18, 2010

Pack Square Park Construction Nears an EndThere’s been a whole lot of construction work on display on our East View for quite a while now. Not only was it unsightly, marring the fantastic view of City-County Plaza and Pack Square, but it was a NIGHTMARE to have to drive or walk through, and it was often very, very loud. But good news is upon us! The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that work is wrapping up and the fences have come down.

The construction fence around Reuter Terrace came down Wednesday. It was the last area where major work on Pack Square Park had been under way.

The completion of some drainage work could herald the approach of the first day since September 2006 that some part of the 6.5 acres of downtown park space has not been blocked off by fences, barrels or some other barrier.

Soon, we will be able to enjoy Pack Square Park as the designers intended. Watching it all develop over the past couple of years has been pretty interesting. It’s not completely done yet, though, there’s still a bit of work to do:

Part of the park will probably be closed off again later this year while workers install a kiosk with an information desk and restrooms on part of a large grassy area in Reuter Terrace. The conservancy may eventually put a more elaborate pavilion on that spot. Work to improve drainage near the future Pack Tavern on Spruce Street was still going on Wednesday.

Contractors have some minor items to complete before the park is truly finished, said Gary Giniat, executive director of Pack Square Conservancy, the nonprofit in charge of the park project.

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The Veganomicon

Published in Asheville Live on March 15, 2010

VeganomiconVegans rejoice! The Cool Tools blog has posted a nice little review of a couple of vegan cookbooks, and one of them has the awe-inspiring name of “Veganomicon”. The other cookbook is called “Simply Vegan” and looks just as good. They even post a couple of sample recipes and tips from each book. Those chickpea cutlets look delish!

From the article:

Veganomicon is the best vegan cookbook out there. It’s reputation is based on the quantity and variety of its recipes, and the complexity and deliciousness of the resulting dishes. There are more than 250 recipes, presented with wit and lighthearted punk-rock irreverence, as well unpretentious and helpful instructions. These vegan dishes don’t only try to mimic meat-based meals; they are just good food. Our household doesn’t adhere to a vegan diet, yet we’ve found some of these recipes great eye-openers as to how tasty and accessible homemade vegan food can be.

Via Cool Tools: Veganomicon * Simply Vegan

EDIT: Ha! Just realized I posted this right after extolling the virtues of corned beef and potatoes. Awkward…

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Google Fiber Town Hall Meeting

Published in Asheville Live on March 15, 2010
Downtown Asheville is a major attraction for t...
Image via Wikipedia

The Google Fiber initiative sweeping through Asheville heats up as the deadline approaches. Organizers will be holding a Town Hall meeting at the Asheville Civic Center Ballroom. Be there this Thursday, March 18, 2010 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM to learn what you can do and to listen to discussion and ideas from the leaders of this movement.

Have ideas of your own? Come on down and let everyone hear it! Asheville would benefit greatly from such an ultra-high-speed bandwidth program. The already innovative technology sector in Asheville would potentially expand exponentially! And that means jobs and revenue.

Ok, it’s the final push. We only have until March 26!! Come and learn how you can help or come and share an idea that will help put Asheville on the map for Google. This is a grassroots effort and everyone is a leader so don’t be shy. Let’s hear your ideas!

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Asheville is Crazy for Google Fiber

Published in Asheville Live on March 14, 2010
This is one of the huge welcoming signs for Go...
Image via Wikipedia

From Facebook groups to blogs, full blown websites to Town Hall meetings, Asheville is going nuts for Google Fiber. Ever since Google announced it would be bringing its ultra-high-speed bandwidth connections to a select few towns across the country, the people of Asheville have been ga-ga for Google. Asheville isn’t alone, though. All across the country, cities and towns have raised their hands and collectively grunted, “Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me!”

I don’t know if Asheville will get it, but I certainly hope so. We’re certainly qualified, methinks. Don’t believe me? Take a look at http://googleavl.com/, a website devoted solely to the Google Fiber initiative. If you aren’t convinced already that Asheville deserves a shot at the project, a little browsing on that site should go a long way toward making up your mind.

The latest post is very interesting. It’s a video put out some time ago by AdvantageWest and Meet-the-Geeks showcasing some of the advanced technology innovation going on in our fair city. I’ve reposted the YouTube video below, but I encourage you to head over to Google Fiber Asheville to find out how you can help to bring this amazing opportunity to Asheville.

[swf]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5m3_M8RqOw,425,344[/swf]

The audio may be wonky, but it’s the message that matters!

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March Madness at the Grove Clubhouse!

Published in Asheville Live on March 14, 2010
Bastketball Vicksburg, MS
Image via Wikipedia

The Grove Clubhouse is hosting a March Madness viewing party in the movie room this Friday, March 19 starting at 6 PM.

Stop by the movie room and fill out your March Madness bracket! If you can beat the GM then you get a $50 gift card!

We will be watching all the March Madness coverage on the projection screen and there will be snacks and drinks provided. Stop by the “Make Your Own Sandwich” table to create the best sandwich of the night!

Let’s see your basketball spirit! Cheer on your favorite team with all your friends at the Grove!

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Upgrades Galore!

Published in Asheville Live on March 11, 2010

Finally, we have completed some major upgrades to the AshevilleLiveCam.com website. Pardon our dust as we move into our new digs. The new site design is just the beginning! Here are just a few of the upgrades we’ve made over the past few weeks:

  • Brand new site design (obviously)
    This is more than a cosmetic change, as we’ve switched from the bug-ridden system that we had before to an all-new and easy to use publishing platform. We’re still working on converting all the pages from the previous incarnation, but they will show up in time. We’ve also got lots of new features waiting for you. NO MORE YELLOW! I actually liked the shocking yellow colors that we had before, but enough people didn’t like it that we decided to change it to more neutral blue.
  • New streaming cam viewer
    We upgraded the viewer on the old site because we were in the process of upgrading this one and it looked so FINE, that we made a “yellow” version for the old site design. The design isn’t all, though, the new viewer is much larger than the old version, for added clarity. You’re welcome!
  • Brand New North Cam
    We previously had 2 of the cool programmable Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras, one facing East and one facing West. Well, North has joined the party and is panning, tilting and zooming away as we speak! Don’t feel sorry for South Cam, it won’t be left out for long….
  • Upgraded Infrastructure
    One of the things I liked least about the old setup we had was that while it worked just fine, the quality of the streams left something to be desired. That has been addressed with some major upgrades in our infrastructure allowing us to stream the 3 PTZ cameras at a higher resolution and bitrate. All this means that those bigger video streams are clearer as well! This is in addition to the new cloud-based streaming server that we mentioned before.

Needless to say we’re super excited about the new site and the upgraded streams, but we’re not resting on our laurels here. We expect to be adding new features to the site, not the least of which is the crowd-favorite SkyCam. It needed some repairs, but we expect you to see it perched on the roof again anytime now. Now that the conversion is done, you can expect more frequent updates to the blog as well. So keep an eye on this space, because the best is yet to come!

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