“Blogging is to literacy as Face Book is to fucking.”
Jul 302008
Jul 302008
In addition to an email to Houston Mayor Bill Write, I had written a letter to the Houston Chief of Police Harold Hurtt. A copy of the letter is appended to this post. Well, that letter went out in the mail on Monday, and I just received a call at about 10:50 today (Wednesday) from Officer Roderman in Chief Hurtt’s office (713-658-1737).
Officer Roderman was very concerned and even went so far as to express amazement that the Houston police officer in question was not aware that it was illegal for me to ride on the sidewalk. He said if I was ever stopped again that I was free to tell the office that I had spoke with him.
A hearty kudos to the Chief’s office!
Here is a copy of the letter that I mailed to Chief Hurtt:
July 27, 2008
Harold L. Hurtt Chief of Police Houston Police Department 1200 Travis Street Houston, TX 77002
Dear Chief Hurtt,
On Sunday, July 27, 2008 at about 3:00 PM I was pedaling north on Homestead Road, just south of Tidwell. A Houston police officer came along side me and used the loudspeaker in his squad car to order me to move off the road and onto the sidewalk. When I stopped pedaling and looked in his direction he repeated the order and then sped off before I could see his car number.
I moved onto the sidewalk as ordered but was unable to stay there for long. There was too much dangerous debris, like broken glass and metal bits, and in any event the sidewalk soon disappeared completely and I was obliged to continue on the road as before. I had at that point resigned myself to be ticketed or arrested if the officer came by again. Fortunately, he did not.
I know that the police officer was wrong. You know he was wrong. The law is quite clear. One can even go onto the City of Houston web site and print out the Bike Smart booklet that says:
Bicycles are NOT allowed on sidewalks with businesses on both sides or with riders 10 years of age or older UNLESS there are hazardous conditions on the road.
So not only are bicyclists allowed to ride on the road, they are compelled by law to ride on the road in most situations.
Chief Hurtt I have the greatest respect for law enforcement and I have no desire to get anyone in trouble. That is why I’m asking that you issue a communication to the troops reminding them of the law with respect to bicyclists. Also, may I ask your advice as to how I should proceed if I am confronted like this again in the future?
Should I carry a printout of the various parts of the law and present a copy to the officer? I don’t wish to appear disrespectful in any way, but at age 50 I most definitely do not want to be pushed around by someone who is clearly misinformed with regard to the very same law that they have sworn to uphold.
Sincerely yours,
Gordon Tillman
Jul 272008
I just sent this email to Mayor Bill White:
Dear Mayor White,
On Sunday, July 27, 2008 at about 3:00 PM I was pedaling north on Homestead Road, just south of Tidwell. A Houston police officer came along side me and used the loudspeaker in his squad car to order me to move off the road and onto the sidewalk. He sped away before I could get his car number.
I moved onto the sidewalk as ordered but was unable to stay there for long. There was too much dangerous debris, like broken glass and metal bits, and in any event the sidewalk soon disappeared completely and I was obliged to continue on the road as before. I had at that point resigned myself to be ticketed or arrested if the officer came by again. Fortunately, he did not.
I know that the police officer was wrong. You know he was wrong. I’m asking you to please issue a communication to the various police stations requesting that they educate their officers as to the law in Texas and in Houston.
Also, should this happen to me again, personally, what do you recommend that I do? Should I confront the officer? Should I carry little Zerox copies of the relevant parts of the law with me and ask that the officer take a copy? I don’t want to be belligerent in any way — I have the greatest respect for law enforcement — but on the other hand I don’t want to be put in this position again.
Respectfully,
Gordon Tillman
Jul 232008
Jul 142008
Here is an interesting video by Guido van Rossum on best practices with Google App Engine and the Django Web Framework.
Jul 012008
My wife surprised me yesterday with a brand new Amazon Kindle. Check out the link to get an overview. This is a great device that does a lot more than I initially realized.
There is a tremendous amount of content available for the Kindle. Unlimited really. As of the time of this post there are 135,583 books, 20 newspapers, 16 magazines, and a slew of blogs available from Amazon’s web site. All of these are delivered to your Kindle via Whispernet, which is Amazon’s name for the EVDO wireless network supplied by Sprint.
You can also access the Internet (for free). The built-in web browser is not as full-featured as Safari or Firefox, but is adequate. I’ve pulled up things on Google Maps. I’ve sent and received email via Gmail. I’ve read dozens of articles on Wikipedia. You get the point.
You can convert your own reading material and put it on your Kindle. You can do this yourself or you can email it to Amazon and they will convert it for you. It’s extraordinarily easy to use.
You can also play music and view pictures on the Kindle, but that is really not it’s strong point and I recommend you use your iPod for those tasks. In fact, I think of the Kindle as the iPod for books.
The gray-scale electronic ink display is beautiful. It is not a lighted display — you need ambient light. But it’s sharp and clear and looks great, even in very bright sunlight. If you encounter any unknown word while you are reading you can scroll the cursor to that line and press a button. The Kindle will display definitions for every work on that line.
You can flip around from one book or another and the Kindle remembers exactly where you left off in each book. You can highlight arbitrary line ranges and the Kindle will remember them. You can tag lines with your own notes.
If you get the impression that I’m impressed with the Amazon Kindle, you are correct.