Wednesday, January 7, 2004

New NC Mountain Made Website Yesterday, for the first time in a couple of months, I attended the monthly Heritage Tourism Roundtable meeting in Andrews, NC. This meeting is held the first Tuesday of each month from 10:00 am until approximately 2:00 pm at the St. Andrews Lutheran Church. I enjoyed seeing friends and catching up on what's happening in the four western-most counties of North Carolina and on the progress we're making for promoting heritage tourism in our area. One of the guests at the meeting was Ben Utley, a lifelong educator who is now residing in western North Carolina. He annouced the upcoming debut of NCMtnMade.com, "A Heritage Database of authentic music, authors, storytellers, and handmade arts/crafts of Western North Carolina." If you'd like to be informed of what's happening at this site, there is a preview page up and running and you can subscribe to their mailing list to be informed when it goes live. Ben has some great ideas about promoting our heritage of fine art, crafts, toys, music and food, and I'd like to send my best wishes for success with this project. 5:21:10 AM    comment []

12th Annual Culinary Showcase Received from David Trout: As the Chairperson of the Culinary Showcase Task Force, I would like to invite you to attend the Asheville Area Chamber's best event. Enjoy the finest in food and beverage from 30 of the area's best restaurants, resorts and wineries this Thursday, January 8 from 5:30 - 8:00 pm at the Grove Park Inn. And be sure to vote for the People's Choice BEST of SHOW. For tickets and more information, see the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce Chamber Events and Activities page. Hoping to see you there Dave Trout Mutual of Omaha 5:02:46 AM    comment []

Richard Stallman's GNU Project Turns 20 The Birth of GNU, 20 Years Ago Today. Richard Stallman resigned from MIT 20 years ago today to launch the GNU Project. That was the free software effort that ultimately spawned the operating system known as Linux, building on a tradition that gave the world a host of other software, some of which is at the heart of the Internet and other things we take for granted today. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] 4:41:33 AM    comment []

Google Search By Number Search By Number. Gary Price points out that in their quest to become the command line of the Internet, Google has added several new features: you can now enter UPS (1Z1234567891234567) and FedEx (fedex 999999999999), patent (patent 5123123), airplane (n199ua), and FCC equipment (fcc B4Z-34009-PIR) ID/tracking numbers. Fun stuff.... [Google Weblog] 4:25:01 AM    comment []

Google Preparing for IPO Bloomberg: "Google Inc hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to arrange its initial public offering, a sale that may raise as much as $4 billion, a banker involved in the transaction said." [Scripting News] 3:55:14 AM    comment []

Some Mac Founders Comments Mac Founders Push for New Ideas. The crew that put together the first Mac is celebrating its 20th birthday, but some are disappointed over the apparent lack of innovation in personal computers. By Daniel Terdiman. [Wired News] 3:40:35 AM    comment []

Bush Grabs New Power for FBI Bush Grabs New Power for FBI. As the nation sat transfixed by Saddam Hussein's capture last month, President Bush quietly passed legislation granting the government new and sweeping surveillance powers. By Kim Zetter. [Wired News] 3:37:15 AM    comment []

Macworld Expo San Francisco 2004 News.Com: "Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off Macworld Expo on Tuesday by announcing several new software packages, including an audio recording application called "GarageBand" and an updated version of Microsoft's Office software." [Scripting News] 3:20:07 AM    comment []