Google Fiber in the Twin Ports – The Mayor’s Letter
Mar/100
Here’s the latest and greatest from the Duluth mayor Don Ness. Once again, WHY SHOULD DULUTH GET THIS STUPENDOUS PRIVILEGE!?!? Next thing you know he’ll be asking his constituents to support taxes and other whims without reason.
The transformation of our economy – a call to action
I need your help! By investing just a few moments of your time, you’ll be part of an incredible transformation of our regional economy.
We’re out to convince Google to build an ultra-high speed fiber network in the Twin Ports. This system will bring fiber-optic connections to every home and business at speeds of one gigabit per second, up to 1000 times faster than existing “high-speed” Internet connections.
This changes everything.
It changes our economy, it changes how we do business, it puts Duluth and Superior at the forefront of the next great economic revolution in America. And yes, you’ll be able to download an entire HD movie in 30 seconds.
Could it really happen? Absolutely. We fit Google’s criteria extremely well and we believe we have the most comprehensive campaign in the nation. Ultimately, our success depends on the participation of folks like you.
Our success depends on YOU taking three simple steps:
1) Go to www.googletwinports.com and join the team.2) There you can create a free Google account (if you don’t already have one):
www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
and submit a nomination directly to Google:
www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options3) Join our Facebook group, www.googletwinports.com/facebook , and post your confirmation code from step 2 to Facebook.
4) Business can place a GoogleTwinPorts supporter badge on their websites:
http://www.googletwinports.com/web-badges.phpFolks are fired up about this – Duluth is on the national map as a forerunner in this contest. Don’t let up! Let’s make this happen – we have just a few weeks until the deadline.
Thanks for your help!
Mayor Don Ness
Ok, I’m off my soapbox…
Google Fiber in the Twin Ports?
Mar/100
The very first thing I would like to say about this post is that I’m NOT AGAINST this project but am skeptical about it. I’m a huge advocate for high speed internet in every location of the country and world for that matter. I’m just rather confused about how Duluth, MN and Superior, WI are going about pitching this. I have yet to see a specific or solid reason as to why Google should pick the Twin Ports. Some of the questions that I would like answered are:
- How much will this cost the Twin Ports? – Duluth Mayor Don Ness stated that it wouldn’t cost anything.
- Will Google use local companies to install the fiber?
- Will this create new jobs?
- Will these be long term sustainable jobs?
- Besides the high speed internet, what incentives do companies have to relocate to the Twin Ports to setup shop?
- Tax incentives – lower taxes or no taxes.
- Will the Twin Ports support small business development?
- Will small business be able to get reasonable loans with reasonable rates?
- Are the local hospitals (i.e. St. Lukes, St. Mary’s, and etc) sending or receiving MRI files or anything of that nature that require a large bandwidth pipe? Are there other companies that needs a large bandwidth pipe?
- Is the current internet speed hindering companies in any way? Examples please!
This is pure speculation – Are the Twin Ports using this as an opportunity to use the community for pledges and community service? It might be belittling but I think that but there is a lot of push to show your support through volunteerism and pledging money. WAIT! – I thought that Google was doing this? So, why the push to donate time and money? – Oh… to show that the Twin Ports is worthy of the high speed fiber. Will the pledges and volunteerism continue if they win the fiber race?
Once again, please tell me WHY the Twin Ports is a prime location. The answer provided by here are not sufficient.
Additional Resources:
http://blog.google.twinports.coop/
http://www.googletwinports.com/
Restore an iPhone from a Backup (The Hard Way)
Feb/101
I wish that I had an easier time restoring Erin’s iPhone but there happened to be some misfortunes along the way. i.e. iPhone crashed (firmware chip?), not backing up the phone often enough, laptop crashing, and weird folder structures for Apple/iTunes.
This entire process started with obtaining a new iPhone, recovering the laptop hard drive, and locating all the important information. Below I will describe the steps necessary to recover an iPhone with the backup files iTunes creates when the user uses the “backup” button.
PC Instructions
- Locate the backup file you want to restore from. I would start looking in the default backup directory: C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup – SEE NOTES BELOW
- Load iTunes
- Plug in iPhone- wait for it to mount
- Navigate to the iPhone and select “Update” / “Restore” while holding the Shift key. (Hold Shift key + Click Update/Restore)
- This will prompt you to choose the backup directory. Refer to Step 1 and where you found your backup file.
- Restore!
- Restore and Good Luck!
Notes:
- Depending on what version of Windows you’re running the path might also be: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
- The folder name for the backups is rather strange. Here is an example of mine: 2869abaa23e687eb5bdb0dde76dcae8472a74f0d
Mac Instructions
- Locate the backup file you want to restore from. I would start looking in the default backup directory: User/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ – SEE NOTE BELOW
- Load iTunes
- Plug in iPhone- wait for it to mount
- Navigate to the iPhone and select “Update” / “Restore” while holding the Option key. (Hold Option key + Click Update/Restore)
- This will prompt you to choose the backup directory. Refer to Step 1 and where you found your backup file.
- Restore and Good Luck!
Notes:
- The folder name for the backups is rather strange. Here is an example of mine: 2869abaa23e687eb5bdb0dde76dcae8472a74f0d
MSP WordPress User Group #4
Feb/100
This past Thursday (2/4) I attended my first MSP WordPress (WP) user group meeting at The Nerdery. There were four panel sessions but I could only go to two. The four to choose from were:
- Intro to HTML
- Intro to CSS
- WP Widgets
- WP 3.0
WP Widgets
The WP Widgets coding demonstration was instructed by Ray Champagne (@raychampage) who did an awesome job “dumbing it down”, at least for me. Ray showed us some professional examples of how WP can be used in lieu of traditional print media but how to transform that print media into an online web presence. He broke the presentation down into smaller parts:
- What are widgets?
- What does the code look like?
- Coding a simple widget.
- Implementing your widget.
WP 3.0
The WP 3.0 presentation was very enlightening in that I didn’t even know there was a new version of WP coming out and that some of the features will be changing, hopefully for the better 
.
In short, this presentation was more about what changes are going to happen with WP 3.0 but also how anyone can help contribute to the development. Here are some useful links and insight that Mitchell Hislop (@mitchellhislop) provided:
- WordPress Foundation.org -”…founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.” – Also debuting the 2010 WP theme.
- Example of the P2 Theme – A theme for threaded discussion instead of using the standard WP blogging or email.
- The single user version WP and WPμ will be merged. Within the WP settings you will now see a “network” section. This will be the multi-user part of WP.
- WP Mailing lists – Use these mailing lists if you want to stay informed or help out with the various functions of WP.
- Mitchell’s Ultimate WP Starter Pack
In Conclusion…I’m super excited to go to the next one to meet even more people and to learn more about WP!
MPS User Group Info:
Google Doesn’t Love IE6 Anymore?
Feb/100
Dear Google Apps admin,
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.
In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely,
The Google Apps team
Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Apps product or account.
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
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IE Logo from: http://bit.ly/dxL2kT
Wordcamp MSP!
