Fire at Cafe Zoma

Cafe Zoma is an icon of sorts on the near-eastside of Madison. On Wednesday evening a fire broke out in the bathroom causing lots of damage. This business is a little starcrossed: the previous owner lost the business. The City of Madison has a little press release on this sad story. Hope they are back in business soon.

The Madison Library

There's lots of talk in Madison about the development process and how it appears -- at least from some perspectives -- to be broken. Yesterday, Madison's new Public Library project ended when the city and the developer failed to agree on a budget and the developer backed out. Is it just another example of how the process is broken? Not at all.

The Madison City Council set parameters for the negotiation of a budget between the City and the developers. The developers, apparently in good faith, were unable to come up with a budget that fit within those parameters. When negotiations came to an impasse, the developers backed away from the project. Broken? No! This is how it is supposed to work.

Unlike the Edgewater project which is being shoved down the city's throat, the Madison Library was a case where the public and private partners agreed to an approach and attempted to make the design and financing work. The developers, in this case, get credit for not trying to railroad an overbudget project through negotiations. To their credit they worked through the City and not through the press. That it didn't work shows that the parameters set by the elected officials of Madison did the job they were intended to do: set basics limit for public taxpayer participation in the project.

Those limits are good -- and part of what makes development in Madison well managed. As a friend of mine is fond of saying: "public participation in Madison is a full contact sport." As long as you accept that there are many interests that must be balanced in Madison, there's nothing broken about the development approval and consultation process. Despite what a developer is likely to tell you.

Some resources:

• Kristin Czubkowski's blog on the Madison Library Project (from the Cap Times)
• State Journal article by Dean Mosiman
• The mayor's take on this development
• Board of Estimates negotiations update

Dead End for the Hava?

While waxing poetic about my new Pogoplug, I notice that the device that sits right next to it on the bookshelf -- a Monsoon Multimedia Hava box -- hasn't had a software update for almost a year. My Hava works great over the network: I use it with both my laptop and my iPhone when I'm on the road or in a place with reasonable broadband access.

But now I notice that there haven't been any software or firmware updates for a year. What gives?

A quick look at the website seems to indicate that something is up, and that something is a product that attempts to converge new, online video sources with the iPad. Other devices are supported as well, but it looks like the iPad is the target.

I imagine the idea is "TV in your lap." Anywhere you can get a wireless connection, you should be able to playback the video you have recorded as well as stream video from a variety of sources. Devices other than the iPad are mentioned, but the main idea is to profit from the hype of the coming iPad.

In the meantime, the older Hava seems to get a little attention -- very little. Are the benefits worthy of an upgrade. Doesn't seem like it. And, still no justification to acquire an iPad.

Pogoplugged In!

As someone who has tried MobileMe, Windows Home Server and run an FTP server as means to share files over the network, I couldn't be more stoked about my little Pogoplug. Created by a set of developers in San Francisco, the Pogoplug is simply a tiny Linux box set up to optimize file sharing over the network. It's able to reside in a local network while serving up files and media to the outside world and supports all manner of USB-based hard drives. Best of all, it's open sourced. The developers have opened up the kernel so that you can add functionality to the little box.

I've attached three terrabytes of storage to this little fella and am in the process of moving media, DVD images and some of my document folders to the device. The software allows me to pick certain folders on my laptop and have them "actively mirrored" onto the Pogoplug. I can also choose specific files and share them with other people without having to have the "guests" register.

This officially ends my relationship with Apple's MobileMe: I'll be bringing the image library onto my new Pogoplug and doing synchronization of my Outlook calendar and contacts via iTunes rather than over-the-air. Not sure what I will end up doing with my Windows Home Server -- it might have been an experiment that has come to an end (even though WHS is much more powerful and customizable).

There's a Pogoplug community website called Pogoplugged. There are also iPhone and Android clients. All in all, pretty wonderful stuff: I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to set up shared storage over the public Internet (goodbye Dropbox!).

JetPens - Japanese Pens and Stationery

Here’s just what I needed before the holidays: a website that is devoted to Japanese pens and office supplies.  I’m particularly devoted to the first generation Zebra stick pens that made it to the United States.  Now discontinued, I’m not as fond of the newer generation of Zebra gel pens.  Still, this site has much to delight – no doubt I’ll be “forced” to check out here later.

JetPens - Japanese Pens and Stationery

The Last Tournament

This weekend is Keavy's last club soccer tournament. We're doing a road trip from Madison to St. Louis for two days and then driving up to the Twin Cities to visit Maccalester. The last tournament is a little bittersweet because, after many, many years, Keavy will not be playing competitive soccer. Her career has included a stint in the Olympic Development Program, two major surgeries on each leg, and a state championship. Last week she scored the game-winning goal in her last Regional League game.

This tournament was originally supposed to be a college showcase, but by now the girls know whether or not they want to play in college. Keavy's team has three girls going away to play in Division 1 soccer – a relatively small number for a team in this division. Keavy is definitely not one of them. She intends to have fun at college and not go through the rigors of being a college athlete.

Can't say that I blame her in any way. As much as I might have wanted to see her play at the college level, I also understand the desire to have a well-rounded life in college. Being a college athlete isn't an avenue that leads toward that.

So, it's off to St. Louis for The Last Tournament.

Ribbit SMS Widget

Blogs on Windows Home Server

Host Your Own Blog on Windows Home Server We Got Served is a useful post on We Got Served that shows how to set up a WordPress Blog on a Windows Home Server machine. It involves PHP, MySQL and WordPress and looks like it might be fun to do if I would ever move away from the very free Blogger!

Twitterholic

Twitterholic now reports that I am the 1,055,653rd most popular person on Twitter. That means that "millions are more popular than you." That seems like hyperbole come true.

Waterstone's in Amsterdam

Sunday afternoon in Spui means a visit to the Amsterdam version of Waterstone's -- the premier English-language bookstore in Amsterdam. It was crowded and so was the street outside. That didn't stop me from getting a present for Keavy there.