Happening In The Desert – Page 9

January 3, 2010

HGTV's New Mexico Dream Home Sweepstakes

I considered not writing about HGTV’s 2010 Dream Home giveaway because I don’t want it to get any attention. The home is located in San Pedro Overlook, New Mexico near Sandia Park. It’s on the other side of the Sandia Mountains from Albuquerque. I really want to win this house so I don’t want anyone knowing about it. I came to the realization that I’m unlikely to have any impact on it’s promotion.

The custom-designed 3,900-square-foot HGTV Dream Home 2010 will mix southwestern architecture with modern design. Created with the bold, innovative ideas, architecture, art and design that make HGTV Dream Homes so exciting and unique, it includes three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a home office, gourmet kitchen, home theater and a guest casita. The amazing home site is nestled in the gaze of the majestic San Pedro Mountains with breathtaking scenery and a plethora of outdoor activities. Nearby, the historic towns of Santa Fe and Albuquerque offer an international art scene, amazing cuisine and a rich, multicultural heritage.

I could totally dump nearly everything I own and move into the house as it is. I would be happy to commute to Albuquerque. The only thing I would need to do wire it for my home automation system. And figure out how to pay for the taxes.

Please do not enter the contest.

November 23, 2009

New Mexico Driver Licenses Not Valid At US Airports In 2010

I have a feeling there will be some last minute changes that will still allow all states driver license. If not the situation could get ugly.

The Bush administration passed the law, designed to stop terrorists from entering the country, after Sept. 11, 2001. All 50 states have to comply with its regulations by Jan. 1, 2010.
Sec. Rick Homans said the clock is ticking and New Mexico is nowhere near close.
“The way it is right now, come Jan. 1st, residents of New Mexico and residents of about 25 other states wouldn’t be allowed to board airplanes unless they had a valid passport.”

This is not looking good.

Sen. Udall: Yeah. Well, as you are probably aware, the situation that we’re in now — we have health care on the floor — where if tried to move to anything else I think it would make it much more difficult procedurally. So I think if — I don’t see us getting to Pass ID on the Senate floor between now and the end of the year. So I think it would be very helpful for you to issue a statement — you might use this as an opportunity to do it — to assure people that after December 31st they will be able to travel with something other than a passport. I don’t know if you want to do that at this point but if you decline that’s fine.

Sec. Napolitano: I think I will not accept that invitation at this point in time.

October 2, 2009

More On The iPhone Balloon Tracking Application

The local TV news station KOB has more on the iPhone balloon tracking application. The app is written by Anthony Cardinale and is a real time tracking application. It’s being tested by 5 ballon pilots and chase crews at this years Albuquerque Ballon Fiasco, I mean Balloon Fiesta.

“At some point, every pilot could be using this, and we are going to have a free version that allows people to come to the Balloon Fiesta and load it up to see where all the balloons are in real time,” Cardinale said.

Might make going to the Balloon Fiesta worthwhile.

September 28, 2009January 14, 2016

Ahwatukee Arizona's House Of The Future

When I was a kid growing up in Arizona one of the few memories I can recall is visiting the Ahwatukee Arizona “House of the Future” with my Cub Scout group. The house was built in 1979 at a cost $1,200,000 dollars. It was a demonstration for a planned community. It appears to have lost money every year it was sold.

Surprisingly there is no Wikipedia entry on the subject but I did find a June 23rd, 1980 article from InfoWorld on Google Book Search.

The house was designed by Charles R. Schiffner of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Built over 30 years ago it featured an advanced home automation system with five Motorola 6800 processors linked together. The system was designed by Motorola who was the major employer in Arizona at the time.

It’s important to note that the Ahwatukee home is not a computer controlled home, rather the home permits the tenant to to be in complete control of his environment, making the important decisions which will then be carried out by the microcomputer system.

That’s a quote from Charles E. Thompson, some marketing genius who seems to want to keep people from being scared of the computer controlled house. It’s also worth mentioning that 30 years later, I have been able to reproduce everything that house was capable of for a few thousand dollars and that such home automation capabilities have not yet caught on although the energy saving technologies have.

The house still exists today at 3713 Equestrian Trail, Phoenix, Az and can be seen on Google Maps. Although they gave tours back in the day for $3, I can’t seem to find any information on who the current owner is or even pictures of the interior on the internet.

Update 2016-01-14 More pictures of the house can be found at PrairieMod’s “More House Of The Future“.

Update 2012-12-27: I have found 10 photos from my trip from the early 1980’s.

September 17, 2009

More On Roundabouts

The City Of Rio Rancho publishes more information about the safety of roundabouts.

Improve Safety
Reduction in fatalities, reduction in injuries, reduction in all crash types, reduction in the severity of a crash if it does occur, slower speeds which allow drivers more time to react to a situation, and generally safer for pedestrians because they need only cross one direction of traffic at a time at each approach

August 23, 2009

The Cocoa Conspiracy: Albuquerque's iPhone Developers

KOB recently did an interesting article on a group of independent iPhone developers in Albuquerque who work at a coffee shop and call themselves the Cocoa Conspiracy. The group includes Andrew Stone of Stone Design who has a number of both Mac and iPhone applications.

Apparently Stone Design’s Twittelator Pro is doing well. The article also talks about a very cool sounding hot air balloon and chase crew app.

“It can actually overlay the chase group’s position and the balloon’s location and speed over a map live. That way people can plan their routes to get to the balloon and where it’s going to land,”

That’s an awesome idea, I wish I would have thought of it. Albuquerque has “Largest balloon convention in the world” according to Wikipedia so it’s fitting that a app like this should be developed in Albuquerque.

I want to hook up with these guys perhaps they can give me some help in developing my own apps. The article fails to mention what coffee shop the “The Cocoa Conspiracy” hang out at.

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Update: The group has a website at cocoaconspiracy.com and apparently meet at the RB Winnings Coffee Thursdays at 9:30 am.

July 31, 2009

The Dead Black Bear And The Underage Girlfriend

A story from Espanola New Mexico is just too good to miss.

According to court documents, it was while he was driving around town with the dead bear hanging out the back of his flatbed, that his 17-year-old girlfriend started texting Lopez.

Lopez allegedly told his girlfriend he was on official bear duty.

Unaware that the underage girl was following his pickup, he made a stop at another girlfriend’s house.

July 12, 2009

Albuquerque Craigslist: Red 1981 Delorean

One reason I’ve been regularly watching the Albuquerque Craigslist is that I’m determined to one day own a Delorean. About 10 years ago I came across one for $10,000 and I regret not buying it. Although Deloreans rarely show up recently a red one appeared.

1981 Delorean LOW MILES!!!!! – $12000 (Albuquerque)

1981 DeLorean 4.3l Chevy engine conversion 200hp (almost twice stock hp) approximately $9000, Corvette pistons, cam ext. Auto trans. Fresh Interior and 28000 miles. Couple of dings on passenger door. Good tires. New door, hood, trunk struts. Sorry pics taken at night if you want more pics of interior contact me.

The craigslist ad includes a link to ebay motors. I would much rather have a Delorean in it’s original configuration, no chevy motor and I would much rather have one not painted. It’s a stainless steel body, what’s the point of painting it?

July 4, 2009

The Death Of My Father

My father, James Richard Smith, died on 12 June 2009. He had a stroke a few years ago and his heath has been poor since. He died at home which is where he wanted to be as opposed to having to live his life out in a hospital.

For the last several weeks I have been dealing with the aftermath in Arizona. Originally I thought I would write more about it but for now I am going to leave it at that. Although I am far from done with Arizona, I’m going to try to get back to some normalcy and start blogging again.

June 9, 2009

Updated: Bear Found In Rio Rancho, Near My House

There was a 200lbs bear in Rio Rancho this morning. The bear was initially spotted right near my house then was chased into a tree a few blocks from my house. There was quite the circus around the neighborhood with all the police, fire and ever single news van in the state.

KRQE has a report and video from this morning. I don’t know what happened to the bear but I’m sure Game and Fish knocked it out and took it away.

Update: The link to KRQE seems to be doing something weird. You can watch the original breaking news on YouTube. KRQE has a follow-up about the incident with a video on YouTube. They don’t know where the bear came from but it will be going to the Zuni mountains.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/ma5RVZZ99SM&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1&border=1