the.Inevitable.Org/anism

I wish! With the closure of CompUSA retail stores(as lame and expensive as they were) I am really beginning to worry about where I can go and pick up electronic and tech items here in Utah. I’m actually shocked that with the large tech community here we don’t have any better store for picking up tech gadgets and components.

When Incredible Universe went under years ago, I had really hoped that Fry’s Electronics, the owners/operators of Outpost.com, would take over the location as they did in several other states. I know there have to be hundreds, if not thousands, of Utahns who have been to a Fry’s Electronics store someplace … in California, Las Vegas, Arizona, Oregon … they are an amazing electronics outlet with everything from appliances to books, to TVs, to software, to computer components … and much more. On top of that, the prices are very competitive.

I’m not sure if it would do us any good … but I want to start a mail campaign to send them e-mails requesting that they consider opening a Fry’s Electronics here in Utah! I mean … we even have Ikea moving here … why not Fry’s?

If you want to participate, I am proposing that we send them *lots* of e-mails asking them to consider a store in Utah! I’ve built a specific link below that is a mailto link to automatically generate the e-mail for you … and allow you to customize it before sending. I want to keep the subject line consistent, so that they see the same thing each time a new mail comes in. Here is the message:

To: feedback@frys.com; service@outpost.com; press@outpost.com
Subject: Open a Fry’s Electronics in Utah …
Body: I am writing to you to request that you consider opening a Fry’s Electronic store here in Utah. I am part of a large and growing community of people who can appreciate the value that your store could bring to our state. With the closure of CompUSA, we are now left with no real source for electronic and technology products. The Utah population is continuing to grow, and many large retailers - like Ikea - are moving into the state. Please consider our state as a great location for the next Fry’s Electronics store that you open, and feel free to contact me if there is anything I can do to support your efforts to open here.

When you click the link below, your e-mail client ought to open up a new message containing this text … feel free to customize it and then send it on its way. Forward this post to all of your friends … send it to neighbors … get the word out and lets see if we can get them to do something.

Click here for the Fry’s Electronics in Utah e-mail message!

As a tech worker in the state of Utah, I would love to have a Fry’s Electronics in Utah!

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UPDATE: I actually received the following response from Fry’s/Outpost.com … so the e-mails are getting through!

Dear Scott,

Thank you for taking the time to let us know how you feel. That’s quite an endorsement! We work very hard to please our customers and it’s great to receive such a compliment. Your email has been forwarded to management.

Thank you for contacting Frys.com.

Frys.com
1-877-688-7678 - Toll Free
1-800-856-9800
1-408-487-4700 FAX
www.frys.com

Technorati Tags: compusa, frys electronics, orem, provo, retail stores, salt lake city, utah

Well … that really was pretty cool. Now you see it, now you don’t. At ~6:40am the Key Bank Building went down. With the news helicopters circling overhead, the crowd atop the American Towers building woke up as a line of charges began to fire up the left side of the building. There was almost a strange pause, and then the charges continued to fire … now seeming to go in inside the building. By that time, the left side of the building had already began to drop and as charges continued the entire building slowly collapsed sideways, with the left side leading the way.

Immediately, a large dust cloud began to rise, and as the crowd let out a cheer the entire area became enveloped in a huge ball of dust. It was amazing to see the dust cloud rise and completely obscure the Marriott Hotel, and then move over the Salt Palace and continue to blow west, and north west. It took a good 10+ minutes for the dust to clear, and what was left was a pile of rubble. Within 30 minutes, the rooftop was pretty much cleared and everyone was on their way.

It was interesting to see the large amounts of dust that were left spread across the buildings and streets in the area.  In front of the Salt Palace on the street you could see a line that almost looked like snow … near white/tan dust and then the black asphalt another block down.  I’m sure the clean-up will take a while.

There was a pretty good group of us up there, Dave Biesinger of DNA Films joined us and filmed the implosion in high-speed/slow motion, Phil Burns and his wife joined us, and several other friends. So we have a variety of pictures and video to sort through and post. I’ll do one last follow-up post when I get my videos up on YouTube.

And so the re-construction of downtown Salt Lake City continues …

Technorati Tags: demolition, implosion, key bank, salt lake city, utah

As an update to my previous post, the Key Bank Building at 50 South Main in Salt Lake City will be coming down tomorrow morning.  The announced time of implosion will be 6:30am, and the city is closing off a 9 square block area around the building when it occurs.

I’m committed to being there to see it, and have arranged for some rooftop access to witness the implosion.  This first picture is the view that I’ll have.  You can see the Key Bank Building is the large white building in the center of the photo.  As a side note, I’m floored that folks are booked in rooms in the Marriott Hotel … that thing is so close to the implosion … that would be a wild view!

We have a small group that we’ll be able to get in, and of course we’re having a small breakfast party.  I’m not able to have anyone else join us … we’ve got a full group.  I’m contacting the last few people to verify they are coming … if you want to be on a waiting list, feel free to post a comment.  I already know that there are going to be some decent crowds downtown.

I’m going to take my camera, and video camera with me.  I’ll make sure to crank out a quick YouTube video to post after the event.  I’m curious exactly what it will look like.  With my 3x zoom on my camera, the building will look something like this photo.  I’ve got a few friends joining us with other HD video cameras, and even one high-speed digital camera to record it for slow motion!

One warning to people coming down … although they anticipate the dust cloud to be low to the ground and localized to the implosion, you have to imagine that there will be considerable nasty stuff in the dust cloud!  Today when I looked at the building I noticed that ALL of the windows are still in there, and I heard that there is still remaining insulation.  I’m thinking that breathing pulverized glass and insulation is not going to be good for anyone!

I’m thinking that one way or another it’ll be a fun experience … something new to watch!  I’ll be snapping pictures and maybe blog using my broadband card!

Technorati Tags: demolition, implosion, key bank building, salt lake city

I’m always into new experiences.  Participating or witnessing something new.  On August 18th, 2007 - here in Salt Lake City - we are going to have quite an event.  The old Key Bank Building in downtown is going to be imploded.  Now I have seen all sorts of videos of various buildings being dropped, but I have never seen one in person.  This time I will!

The schedule is for early Saturday morning …  ~6:00am-6:30am … to avoid the people and crowds.  From what I understand, they are going to close off 9 square blocks of the city - from North Temple to 200 South, and from 200 West to State Street.  They will clear everyone from the area, and not allow anyone to get any closer than those limits.  I’ve been thinking about the best place to watch the drop … I’ve got friends with access to numerous buildings in the surrounding area.  I’ve been thinking about exactly which windows or rooftops would give the best view of the event.  I’m wanting to get as close as possible, and will probably video tape the event.  It’s not like you get to see a building imploded every day … this ought to be a fun event to attend.

If anyone is going to plan a Implosion Party, comment here … I’d love to find out where people will be hanging out!

Technorati Tags: demolition, implosion, key bank, salt lake city, utah

I’m finally there. I wasn’t sure exactly when I would take the leap … but I did a few weeks ago. It wasn’t without problems … but I’m glad that I made the move. I finally bought a Broadband card for my laptop, and service from Cingular/AT&T.

I have long been a user of wireless. I bought my first Xircom gear in ~1995, just prior to the Xircom management buyout that formed NetWave Wireless. I think that I spent ~$2000 for an access point and two cards! In 1997 as a Novell employee I began working with the folks at NetWave on potential applications of wireless networking … and this was all pre-802.11 standards! All of this culminated with the demonstration of my research at the 1998 Novell Brainshare where we covered the Salt Lake City Convention Center - the Salt Palace - and surrounding area (~5 city blocks) - with wireless Internet access. I’ve never gone back. I love Wifi … and it is great to see it everywhere. Well … almost everywhere.

This is the issue that I found. Wifi isn’t everywhere … or sometimes when you find it the cost is just too great. A month or so ago I found myself at the airport … for about two hours … and the Wifi access was $10 for the day. I thought about it, and chose to find out exactly how much the service costs these days. I had seen Phil Windley using broadband from Verizon, and he really seemed to like it. As a Cingular/AT&T customer, I figured that I would check out what they had to offer.

I visited the local Salt Lake City Cingular store, and the deal was a Sierra Wireless 2G/3G PCMCIA card for $50 (after the $100 rebate), and the service - with unlimited bandwidth - was $60/month. I was in. I bought the card and the service, and headed off to install and get things working. I will say that I didn’t expect what happened next.

When I went to install the card in my laptop I didn’t even think to check on new versions of drivers. I popped the CD into my drive and installed what they gave me with the card … v5.4.1 drivers. When I rebooted … and inserted the card … BLUESCREEN. Ugh … the drivers were crashing my laptop. I was able to boot into “Safe Mode”, but I then spent two days debugging and interacting with technical support to find out that the latest drivers were v6.2.10, and that there was a conflict with the McAfee firewall that I was using. That mess started on Friday, and by Monday I was recovered and up and running. And now? I’ll never look back!

I have done some speed tests, and fairly consistently get ~1.5mbps down, and ~300kbps up. Several times now I have been getting speeds even faster! It is amazing to me that for $60/month I am now able to get megabit speeds almost any where that I go.  Over the last week, I have found myself in several places where I had no Wifi access … and plugged in my card, and jumped on the net.  The unlimited bandwidth enables me to not even think about how often I use the card, and what I do when on-line.  The speed is good enough for me to run all of my standard business applications.

I’m sure that I’ll do more testing, and might have more feedback, however so far I am happy and impressed with what is possible.  Broadband is now bringing the Internet to you - at an affordable price - in even more locations than ever before.  I now have multiple levels of fall-back to stay connected and in communications.  I’ll have to see when I do my first blog post from a moving vehicle (not while I’m driving!), and also see how many different strange places I can blog from now.  It also gets me thinking about getting out my wearable computers again … I had some fun ideas for mobile games … hmmm …

Technorati Tags: 802.11, at&t, brainshare, broadband, cingular, netwave, novell, salt lake city, sierra wireless, wifi, xircom