From the statistics with my host it appears people are viewing these pages. I have yet to receive any requests for addition of IP ranges to the BB/Community. So either those who can register don’t care to, or there is something wrong and nobody has mentioned it to me via the contact page. I was hoping people might want to use something of this bulletin-board nature more. Though I suppose perhaps people would like to see more articles on the blog, or more photos. Either way, I’ll see if I can’t pump out more regular articles and see where we can go from there, though the idea of this site was that people from the community other than me might want to contribute with some regularity.

Thanks for those of you who have come for coming, I hope to provide better community content as time progresses.

–Alex

Administrator, creator, citizen.

Get off the couch, get out, and have a good time.

This weekend there is a second Carnival at the Expo Center at 21st and Topeka Blvd. It runs from 6-11 on weeknights, and 1pm to 11pm on weekends, It is here through June 6th.

 

Also, and perhaps more importantly, this weekend is a State wide FREE fishing weekends for all Kansas State Public waters. What this means is you don’t need a fishing license for this Saturday and Sunday 06/04/11 – 06/05/11. For more information follow the link to Kansas Parks and Rec, direct link follows:

http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/State-Parks/Locations/Clinton/Clinton-Calendar/FREE-FISHING-WEEKEND/

Update: They finally redirected the new domain to the existing (lame) website, and changed the banner to match the new logo.  June 19, 2011

 

Soooo, here is a thought. One might have wanted to have the site planned, built, tested, and ready for implementation phase of life-cycle BEFORE getting the word out of the domain. Just a minor point for the importance of order-of-operations. Don’t get me wrong, a new site could be great, but normally you complete it before spreading the word. As of posting this the site is vapor. All that comes up is this Go Daddy placeholder for http://www.topekametro.org.

 

Considering I know people who can build, test, and publish a basic dynamic site within 48 hours that easily trumps the value of the existing Topeka Transit site at http://topekatransit.com. A site, which is to some extent a joke of a mess aesthetically and functionally. As far as graphic design goes they didn’t hire any designer, and on the development side, the site really lacks any of the most valuable tools one can use in a Content Management System like WordPress, which is what they are using. I don’t know what they are planning, but it better be awesome to be spending all this time, and a domain change on it.

 

Beyond that, it may as well still be a WordPress or Joomla CMS because it won’t be any better to the viewer. Seems to be a waste of time unless it includes a better user interface (UI), and features like Google Maps public transit routes. Heretofore they do not have their routes integrated with Google Maps. Therefore attempting to use a mobile device to decrypt the convenience of a Topeka bus is impossible. Especially given that, the site domain on the bus has nothing at it. Therefore, as hundreds of people around Topeka point their mobile device to the site right now, there is NO information for them. In addition, a mobile interface would be a boon, or some level of Smartphone compatibility or ease of use. Web App or Native App.

Sure, the charts for print at the website have the info. However, it would be more functional to have a dynamic query interface which allows the user of an electronic device to enter where they are, and where and when they want to be someplace else, and have the answer to which buses to board, and where and when to board them. The other problem is that the print info doesn’t appear anywhere useful in Topeka.

 

Is the Topeka Metro aware that motels like Motel 6 seek to keep that information on hand for guests? Do they consider that; every public school and other public facility should have that info at the door? That every grocery store ought to have the info by their exits. Each chart highlighting the nearest time/street nexus of bus availability? Finally, that having more functional availability of information online would provide a portal to EVERY home in the Topeka area; not to mention the nearly free element of marketing provided by implementation of Google Maps for public transit. Visitors to Topeka might not know, or think to look up the site for the local bus. Google Maps is a tool many probably used just to get here, so it would be natural to use it again, to navigate the city’s public transit system.

 

Overall I hope Topeka Transit, or Topeka Metro, or whatever they are gets on-the-ball, and makes the system useable again!

Come down to the carnival at West Ridge May 19 – May 29. It is brought to us by NAME, the midway at the Kansas State Fair 2011 will be provided by the same North American Midway Entertainment. This carnivals hours are , 11a to 11p Saturday, from 10a Sunday, and after 5p weekdays. More info to come.

Carnival at West Ridge Video

Preface / qualifications to speak;

Ok friends of the nerdth kind. This is far from an empirical scientific study. Rather the educated observation of one who’s been trained in HVAC, Commercial electric, and worked in those fields.  When thinking about cooling a home in the summer I have always considered every appliance in the home as a source of heat. Think about this; the more things you have on during the day, the more things generating heat. This is especially true for incandescent lamps, and electronics. I’m also a computer nerd. I’ve been assembling and disassembling electronics since my first C-Battery powered children’s tape recorder.

(Note: electric and electronic describe different types of device/circuitry, they are not synonymous words. Sometimes a single device may have both electric and electronic components.)

The meat of it:

All electric and electronic devices make heat, which equals a temperature rise. A computer case, properly enclosed, with at least one 120mm fan can move anywhere from 40 to 100+ cubic feet of air per minute. My case has two intake fans and two output fans. Now using a simple tethered indoor/outdoor thermometer, I place the outdoor probe directly in the airflow of the exhaust fan on the back of the case. The end with the readout and integrated indoor probe sits on my desk. What I have observed over the winter is that.

1. A single computer left on, can produce a 10 degree centigrade rise in temperature.
2. This single computer, paired with other electronic devices can competently heat a properly sealed room to comfortable temperatures in the winter, with NO assistance from a central air unit, or space heater.

Why is this important, to start, I don’t know that calculations for home refrigeration necessarily happens as regular as it should, or even includes a sufficient number of home electronics to accurately figure the heat transfer requirement to effectively cool/heat a home with a central air unit. Also, it defiantly will not have included those needs if it was installed before the internet as we know it existed. As a result, there is sufficient cause to keep that thermostat a few degrees cooler in the winter, and summer depending on comfort expectations.

Now you may think, ‘eh, what’s 10 degrees?’ I’ll tell you; it is between a quarter to half of the thermal change power of your central air unit. Most home a/c units are expected to produce a 20-40 degree change in temperature, depending on the unit. In my case my computer is heating 26,400 cubic feet of air per-hour. In a 10x12x10 room that equals about 5-10 degree difference in room temperature provided by the computer alone. So why does this matter; it means you’re heating a room you’re cooling (in the summer). During the summer a room with more devices on will be harder to keep cool. Which translates to the setting at the thermostat may not sufficiently condition a room with a computer/game console, receiver, and TV in it. In the winter, it means it’s probably ok to leave some things on, because it may cost just as much running the heater.

Dessert

It’s something to consider when there are so many things other than a computer or open door that generate heat to consider as we go into summer.

Today’s Topeka St. Patrick’s Day parade was pretty good, my favorite in a while. I think part of being excited and having a good time, is knowing about the event in advance. With good reliable information, one is sure to have a good time. I would have liked to see some kiosks, or other fair like things on the sidewalks, maybe some vendors, the type that carry stuff around like at a ball park, snack foods, water, soda. Overall though I think all had a good time. Many people turned out, and the noon start time was great. It’s always nice to get my green on. I got down the street afterword and was disappointed to see so much trash and litter all over the downtown area. It’s every citizens job to ensure their trash is in a receptacle, only you can prevent city litter. Check out the pictures via the Photos tab, or directly on our Picasa page. Look forward to future Topeka, and downtown events, keep an eye on, or subscribe to the Topeka events calendar.

 

Keep an eye on Topeka, and make it known to more than just your friends. Help us all keep our eyes on Topeka.

 

The problem: There is a continuous conversation in Topeka, about downtown, about the community, about plans to fix some problems. Do you feel like a part of it, or that becoming a part of the solution is easy? I didn’t, I think allot of Topekans don’t. Facebook is handy, except for the largely limited voluntary friend-based nature of social network. It really limits the audience each Topeka citizen can reach. In essence making Facebook largely antisocial compared to a bulletin board. Individual blogs really don’t provide a very organized way of addressing any topic beyond what the blogger addresses. Moreover, building a blog for every topic would be ridiculous and disorganized. Sending letters to city representatives as with any letter or call to a representative leaves a person feeling unheard, especially when the response is a mail-merge letter that everyone gets. We talk to each other, and the few close to us, but it really doesn’t provide any valuable quantification of the number of people similarly frustrated about Topeka.

 

A solution: What are the advantages to a community bulletin board? To start it’s public, It makes it easy to see new topics, which can be posted by any ‘registered user.’ Anyone may reply, encouraging community conversation. However, to encourage reliability we put groups in place, any city authority or representative who wishes to become a part of this citizen’s round-table may do so, and have recognition as an authority on the bulletin board. Of course, administration will have to meet anyone wishing to join this, or similar groups. Flexible structure makes a bulletin board desirable as well; we can add forums and categories at any time as needed, or archive old ones that see few visitors. It provides a single contiguous place to discuss any topic. This also provides some basic tools for city government, and organizations related to city projects to collect first hand raw information from a Topeka only community. Overall this also provides a way of focusing on what matters right here where we live, instead of everywhere in the world.

 

Existing Groups: If you are a group, club, association, etc; that already is involved in Topeka projects. Please, join our bulletin, and help contribute to communication that is more open. Let participation in Eyes on Topeka becomes a facet of your group.

 

Keep in mind: Now this doesn’t replace writing a letter, attending city council meetings, and getting directly involved in projects. It does however provide a potentially powerful supplement to what is truthfully a questionable chain of communication. If enough of the 120,000+ citizens of Topeka get involved it really could be a very helpful tool to both citizen and official alike. The community will be limited to a Topeka whitelist. We are adding to the IP whitelist, segments of Topeka at a time based on requests; if you have difficulty registering please do
contact us with your external IP address. One may find their IP at www.whatismyip.com. IP addresses are subject to verification before approval. This helps ensure that only locals address ranges are added. Any Topeka ISP willing to volunteer the address ranges they use for Topeka are encouraged to do so, we appreciate the help. NOTE: anyone on the internet can view the site as a guest, non-Topekans just aren’t allowed to register or post.

 

If you want to show Topeak that you have your eye on it, buy a bumper sticker, mug, or shirt. It helps support the site, and those who run it and you get to show of our great logo.

Eyes on Topeka the blog, is aimed at spreading news, information, and collecting feedback straight from the people of Topeka. Over the next few months we intend to make connections with local public relations persons for local organizations around Topeka in order to get some volunteer effort from the community to build this new Topeka localized online community. We hope to find at least 20 or so individuals who will be willing to write monthly articles on Topeka events before they happen. Not advertisements, but rather around 300 words or so of interesting information about the chosen event. Each volunteer author will meet with me personally; I will set up each authors account for the blog. Another aim is also to occasionally provide some unbiased reporting on some of the details of daily Topeka life.

 
 

Eyes on Topeka Community The bulletin is for every Topeka citizen. We are still testing the bulletin board. For now authentication of newly registered accounts at the bulletin board is limited. Registration is only possible via a growing white-list of local Internet Service Provider (ISP) IP address ranges for the Topeka area. The purpose is to limit this to Topeka, a sort of members-only forum for citizens of this somewhat dysfunctional and progress-free community.

 
 

Overall, for now the site is in beta, which means there is the risk of there being changes to the site, and/or downtime occasionally until we finalize it. So for those who begin to participate early, please be patient.

I attended a meeting at Washburn the other day, a meeting I should have expected to be held in White Concert Hall, and might have expected more people to want to hear. Sure, I was late, but I was prepared. The guest speaker was William Beteta of Heartland Visioning. I agreed on some points, and perhaps not so much on others. The subject was essentially on ideas, and thoughts about revitalizing Topeka’s downtown. A sort of town hall meeting, though one might have thought Topeka was only home to a couple thousand, based on the number of people who showed up. I’ll say this, Washburn needs to get its act together Read the rest of this entry »