Category Archives: Local

Nosey parkers.

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What do you think about this? Nextdoor is a private social network for your neighborhood. If something’s going on in your area you can let everyone else on your street know about it…and vice-versa. Sure I’d like to quickly get notified about a break-in, find a trustworthy babysitter, or ask for help in finding a lost dog just like they say on their website but this just seems like it’s asking for trouble. Do you really want everything you do broadcast to the whole neighborhood? I’m not talking criminal acts here, but just look at the kind of stuff that’s considered newsworthy on twitter, facebook or your kid’s smartphone.

Let me give you a “for instance.” Someone (who shall remain nameless) gets up early one morning and decides to get some fresh air (ok, so he goes out on the back porch for a cigarette, stop judging) and is wearing little else but his skivvies. All of a sudden he hears tires screeching followed by a loud bang. Alarmed, he decides to investigate. He grabs the handiest clothes and bounds off the porch ready to give assistance. Thankfully when he gets to the scene of the accident he can see that it’s not as bad as it sounded but wonders why everyone is gawking at him. You see (well, thank goodness you can’t), the poor old unshaven, wild-haired gent is standing in the street with no shirt on, wearing pink pajama pants (which go to only about mid-calf) and a pair of fuzzy slippers. Sure it looked bad then but just think what it would’ve looked like if he hadn’t taken the time to dress (well, don’t think about it too much and stop laughing). Stuff like that, I’m sure, would make it ’round the neighborhood at lightning speed when it seems to me that it should just die right there and be left as a charming, fleeting memory to those neighbors who did see it. I shudder to think how one goes about living that down and thankfully I don’t have to but some poor unsuspecting soul who lives anywhere near a Nextdoor neighbor network might just find out the hard way that this type of local connectivity is just not what he bargained for.

So what do you think? Yeah or nay?  The potential for too much info, or do you believe there is no such thing as too much info? Is it curtains for the old neighborhood?

Bang, Bang, You’re Dead, NH Legislative Thread

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I read an article recently about NH State Legislators and the bills they are sponsoring in the coming legislative session. There was one entitled HB-0078 “prohibiting the use of motor vehicle records in any federal identification database.” Hmm, interesting. I started looking around for more info but I couldn’t find anything else about that particular bill. I did, however, find these tidbits of recent NH law-making:

1. HB-1693. “This bill changes the annual motor vehicle inspection requirement to…every second year.” It also “raises the fee for inspection stickers from $3.25 to $6.50.” There’s really no need to say anything else about this one because it was pretty much submitted and rejected within a month (Jan/Feb, 2012). House Status: “Inexpedient to Legislate.” In other words: Dead on Arrival.

2. HB-1440. “This bill permits a person who has attained the age of 15 1/2 years to fulfill the driver education requirement by enrolling in an approved online driver education course…with behind-the-wheel instruction provided by the parent or guardian.” This one has to do with the fact that many teens are waiting until they’re 18 to get their licenses because you practically have to take out a loan to afford the cost of driver’s ed around here. There needs to be an alternative to the high cost, but I don’t know whether this is the answer or not. I guess it’s a moot point at this juncture as this bill did pass in the House but the Senate said that it needs an “Interim Study.” In other words: Dead in the Water.

3. HB-1549.  “Motor vehicle records may be made available pursuant to a court order or in response to a request from a state, a political subdivision of a state, the federal government, or a law enforcement agency for use in official business. The request shall be on a case-by-case basis. Any records received pursuant to this paragraph shall not be further transferred or otherwise made available to any other person or listed entity not authorized under this paragraph. No records made available under this section shall be used, directly or indirectly, for any federal identification database.” It was vetoed by the Governor, the House overrode the veto and the Senate sustained the veto. In other words: More Dead Than Alive. (To me, this bill seems to be the original bill that I was looking for which is now being reintroduced as HB-0078 for the coming session but I’m not very knowledgeable about how the government works so I wouldn’t quote me on that. It seems pretty logical, but that ain’t always the way things turn out when you’re talking government.)

To sum it up, the first bill has me scratching my head, the second one seems to only apply to a very small percentage of the state’s populace and the third one needs more investigation to see why there was such a wishy-washy response. You know, this started out as a five minute search but turned into a mind-numbing government-speak exercise in madness on my part thinking that I could figure this stuff out without a road map. In other words: the last hour has been a dead loss. Go figure.

NHDOT Highway Cameras Open to the Public

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traffic cam imageCheck it out, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) has teamed up with TrafficLand to provide public access to highway cameras around the state. Click “See Live Traffic,” then pick which state and which city you’re interested in. Your choices in NH are: Claremont, Concord, Franconia, Keene, Laconia, Lebanon, Manchester, Portsmouth, Rochester and Salem. If you choose Rochester you will see a Google map on the top right hand side of the page with different colored lines which tell you how fast the traffic is flowing (green=normal, yellow=slow, red=slow or stopped). On the left hand side is the actual camera which will show you the different locations you choose. You can either click on the large circles marked on the Google map or click on individual camera thumbnails underneath. For Rochester on the date I looked the top choices were between cameras on NH-4@Cedar Point Rd, NH-16@Hilton Dr (Dover Exit 5), NH-16@Indian Brook Rd (NH-108), NH-16 n/o Rochester Tolls, NH-16@Roberta Dr. (Dover), NH-16 s/o Indian Brook Rd (Exit 9), NH-16@Tebbetts Rd (Roch), NH-16@US-4 (Dover Exit 6) and NH-16@Blackwater Rd (Roch). (Which cameras are included in the thumbnail area are the ones that are currently being viewed the most in that region.)

The Google map shows a larger region and you can click cameras up and down a corridor and see real-time snapshots of more than just the city you chose if you’re going on a longer trip. Great resource for when you’re heading out on the highway.