A friend has convinced me to build an E-Commerce site with him (he is a good sales person, which was part of the deal!).  Technically this is really not that hard seeing how I have done this before, however the cool thing is that I get to design the system from the ground up.  Which means I get to ‘do it right’ from the get go by making the site secure, scalable and easy to administer.  Two new tools I am using for this project are Puppet and Ruby on Rails.  Combined with KVM for the many servers, I am really enjoying this.  Especially when the person I am working with understands that I will do this as inexpensive as possible and when I mention the need for a VM server, instead of pushing back… conferences calls some one who can help get resources.  Still, it is really fun to be able to get some pretty redundant systems for very little money.  I mean, how beefy does a firewall have to be… all I ask for is a 1U case with hot swap disks, dual power supplies and a LOM

The VM server is a bit more difficult as you have to really look at the processors to ensure KVM is supported.  AMD is pretty straight forward. I wish Intel was the same.  Though with how inexpensive 1TB SATA drives and Linux having software RAID 6, my goal is to keep this server under a grand.  Like I said, I am having fun with this.

On the political side, Portland’s local government is going off the deep end with Hayden Island.  On one side of the island they want to take away land with the CRC.  Then Adams’ ‘Hand Picked Yes People’ spent 17 months and $500,000 doing… well no one knows?  Then it is becoming politically to popular to speak up for sexually exploited teens, which Dan Saltzman started making noise about during his re-election.  My question is where was he and the rest… oh, a year ago?

Speaking about asleep a the wheel.  Portland city council did what we know they would do with lawsuits against the city that they know they can not win… settle.  One would thing that the former and current police commissioners would make it to the council session to vote and give guidance about why it took 4 years and $1.6 million.

One good thing, all of this tech that I am doing is gearing up for some really cool stuff for the local elections in 2012!

Categories: Linux, Portland politics, Puppet, Ruby, city council, geek
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Now that others have stepped in to address the mayor issue Portland has…

I am now volunteering for Mary Volm to be a publicly financed candidate for Portland city council.  She is the only woman who is running for office this term and is simply brilliant.  I like the fact that she is an artist and understands what it is like to sacrifice for your work.  She also knows the city inside and out by working 20 years for the city.

If you could please visit Mary’s website and support her.

One thing for sure… 2010 is going to be interesting!

Categories: Portland politics
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I have been up late these nights writing code and fixing virus infected computers.  It is kinda of a nice relief from this summer.

The past 10 days here in Portland have not been all that great.  The water bureau drops the ball on E-coli and no leadership is found to solve the Police issue we are having.  I find more an more the city that the city I looked for so long to call  home is coming apart at the seams.

We have a city council race where Nick Fish and Dan Saltzman are up for re-election… yet from the looks of it no viable candidate is going to run against them.  If only to ask them about their voting record and support of the collective insanity known as Sam and Randy.  Really, someone has to keep them in check.  I look around and talk to many Portanders who see the city falling into decay, yet are overwhelmed with trying to keep their homes and jobs that prevent them for the unthinkable of  running for office.  We can do so much better… if only people would step up.

Hence, this is how we get the government that we have… which is not a very good one.

For example… the mayor is trying to slip by eminate domain ( aka. condemnation ) of property this week, of course it is on the concent agenda.

I was about to finish this blog when I found this gem:

Adams want to have all Portlanders cellphone numbers… and will fine you for not giving him it

“But this weekend’s E. coli scare prompted Mayor Sam Adams to propose a new idea that’s sure to be controversial: creating a mandatory database of all Portlanders’ cell phone numbers, so that the city could contact all citizens immediately in an emergency.”

the Mayor said the city must create a secure database of citizen cell phone numbers so everyone in Portland could be contacted quickly. “This changeover has to happen. This event and last year’s inclement weather event shows for the need for us all to do that.” Noting that many Portlanders would go out of their way to sign up for a voluntary database, Adams suggested fines of other penalties for people who don’t let the city put their numbers on file.

[Adams] added that the idea also stems from cut backs in media that make city reliance on TV and print reporters widespread publicity of city announcements less feasible.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the council reacts to this?  That is if they react to this?

Categories: privacy
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I have been a solid Linux user for more than a decade now… and have never had a virus.  Granted I am a Unix\Linux systems admin and the last (and only) time my system was hacked was by a co-worker who found a bug in the backup software we were using.

Anyhow, Mary has to use Windows (which I understand, though can not wait to get her a Mac).  I really feel bad for Windows users with all the malicious code out there.  For the longest time I have believed that local governments and schools cold save a lot of money in time and licensing by using something like Ubuntu (my Linux flavor of choice, hey- it is a Debian variant).  Why are we giving money to Redmons, WA… when we have OSDL just down the street from us?  No too mention that that money could go to local consultants and stay in our local economy.

But back to Mary’s system.  Wow, this bug on it was straight up nasty.  I had to use my fallback  Linux rescue boot disk, mount her disk and remove files that way.  Now that Spybot Search and Destroy is running, all should be good.

Categories: Linux, Portland politics
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Sunday I had the pleasure of having a great dinner with Karin Hansen and her husband Tom Potter.  The made special veggy food for me that was so good.  We talked about our love for eastern Oregon and concerns for Portland.  I learned so much from that meal.  Not to mention that I got to talk about how cool District 9 was when I saw it at the Avalon last week.

Tonight Mary and I were in the glass studio working things out.  She was doing art and has a piece in the kiln right now.  I got to zone out and cut glass while listening to a Screeching Weasel CD I slipped on her Ipod.

In the realm of Hulu (as we do not have cable)… I was really stoked to see the new Legend of the Seeker.  I was really impressed and entertained with last season, not to mention that I kinda relate.

Not to mention that WWeek just posted RandyLand part II!

Categories: Music, Portland politics, SciFi
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A really quick post before I am off to watch the season finally of Mad Men…

Today I was at a political event that had all sorts of mover and shakers in the region.  The first was a wonderful lunch with Avel Gordly… she really gets it in a way that resonates with me.  Mary and I attended a sermon that she gave at church on Ainsworth and 29th.  This was such a wonderful multicultural collection of people.  We were really welcome.  It was very nice to meet a TV camerawoman (who interviewed me last month) and her partener who were sitting behind us.  We then had lunch with Avel and had great conversations about Portland, education and Oregon.

Then we were off to an event where Lew Fredericks was spinning up his run for state rep.  This was not so much of a friendly place for me as there were many people there who knew me as the person who tried to recall Sam Adams.  One state Rep. expressed his disappointment.. to the point I had to call him out and remind him that I ran a positive volunteer grassroots campaign.

As I sit here tonight and reflect how some politicos treated me the song titled Pariah under Glass comes into mind by the band Boy Sets Fire.  Though as soon as I mentioned ‘Winning’ Mark… it became apparent who the true pariah is.

Being on the side of good only feels lonely at times… but you are never truly alone.

Categories: Portland politics
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What a busy weekend cleaning up the house with Mary.  Slowly I am getting my life back in order after moving for the 3rd time this year.

It feels good to listen to a some Sisters of Mercy, relay with a glass of wine and see what city council has in-store for us next week…

And there it is:

*1562 Authorize Grant Agreement with VOZ: Workers’ Rights Education for $50,000 to operate and maintain their day labor hire site in Portland as approved by Council  (Ordinance)

Good ‘Ol Randy slipping something by in the consent agenda that is politically unpopular.  Now I am not saying that there should not be a Day Labor center… just that the citizens have a right to have a say on this issue.

But enough with city stuff right now.  I have some PERL code to write for Forward Support to do credit card processing with A.net that will collect all the SOS requirements for political contributions.  I kinda look forward to this as it has been some time since I have used some of my code-fu.

Though for those that are really looking for a good time… check out ORESTAR for the new candidate filings… oh how I love transparent government.  Which remnds me of yet another PERL script I need to write for FS.

Categories: PERL, Portland politics, geek
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One thing I learned on Amand’s campaign that was when looking at the Portland City Council agenda.

Emergency ordinances only get one reading and become effective immediately.  When an item is on the consent agenda it is grouped in with all the items and voted as a block.  I have learned that commissioners rarely look at the consent agenda… unless they want to slip something through.

Take for example this emergency ordinance that will cost the city $35,000

Show me more… »

Categories: Bicycling, Portland politics
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I created a blog to write about all that I do. Alas, I have been working so hard on other sites that this one gets neglected.

Right now I am busy volunteering to get NoColumbiaRiverCrossing.org up and running. I am very happy with how it is progressing and look forward to the site opening on Aug. 3, 2008.

The reason for volunteering with this site is to get citizens more involved in a project that will impact them and their children. I feel that ODOT and WDOT are not playing fair with the public process for the new bridge.

Now back to work!

Categories: Portland politics
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As I wait to give testimonies about the Columbia River Crossing, I ponder why people don’t people go to City Council meetings.

Could it be that as the commissioners take their seat one gets the feeling that they have already made up their minds to what they are going to vote. I have a feeling of despair not that my voice does not matter… but more so those that are not being heard because they can not get the time off of work to come Downtown on a weekday and wait hours to give a 2 minuet speech.

It is nice to see citizens speaking, though at the same time the lobbyist are out in full force with their well honed messages.

My time comes and I am nervous and I hear my voice quiver. Though I still look the commissioners in the eye and try as hard as I can to stick to what I want to relay:

Fish:

As a new commissioner I ask that you define yourself by voting to take more time to listen to the residents of Portland and hear their needs for affordable housing in this city, as this is one, if not the, main contributers to the congestion across the I-5 bridge. A larger bridge to affordable housing in another state is not my idea of solving this issue.

Leonard:

Please, more time for Portlanders to be well informed on this issue and preserve what makes our city special.

Saltzman:

Thank you for raising vital questions to this project and protecting our ability to express our concerns.

Mayor Potter:

Please give the the citizens more time for us to get current data so that we can discuss the implications of a project of this magnitude with our friends and neighbors.

More so, represent Portland as an Oregonian, who understands that at these uncertain times a new bridge is not the solution. Instead build a bridge with the rest of Oregon by allowing transportation funds to go to the rest of the state.

By voting “No to this Resolution” you will be able to do something very few Portland mayors have done… send a message to the rest of Oregon that we know they exist and we want to do what is best for the state as a whole.

All:

By creating something new… you destroy something old. Before you vote for a new bridge please take time to have an in depth dialog with residents the “old” Portland we have worked so hard to build is worth the cost of this bridge.

Though I do think Amy Ruiz of the Portland Mercury did a wonderful job summing up all those that testified and captured me pretty well

Categories: Portland politics
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