Drupal for Smart People: Drupal Gardens

Technology How-To

Drupal is one of the most popular and free content management platforms used to build sophisticated web sites. A new service, Drupal Gardens, provices a hosted and simplified version of Drupal so you can start without the installation and configuration tech tasks that put this out of reach of most users. Drupal Gardens is not [...]

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Hybrid Electric Bikes for Fun, Green Commutes

Active Transportation

Electric bikes have been around for years but recent advances in battery technology and Bedford, Massachussets company Pietzo, may have finally made them practical for commuters seeking an environmentally-responsible alternative to gridlock. I test rode several today, and I encourage others to hop on one of these bikes and learn how it could change your [...]

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The Accidental Vegetarian

Creative Life

Meat is overrated. After several weeks since I ate meat as part of my diet, I’m not really missing it. So I guess I am coming out as a vegetarian. It’s no big deal. But it wasn’t something I decided, planned, or forced myself to do. It just happened.
My family started thinking more critically about [...]

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Access TV: Playing Out of the Box

Building Community

Westwood Community Access Television is using a simple, but powerful combination of old and new media technology to jumpstart their efforts to bring public access TV to Westwood, Massachusetts. While the administrative and technical details for taking control of local origination programming are still underway, we are using Ustream to livecast from our minimalist control [...]

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How to Copy Music from your iPod to your Mac

Technology How-To

Life was good when you had your iPod all synced up with your old computer. Then, you lost that computer somehow. You didn’t care because you had 8 GB of songs safely stored on the iPod, right? Then, you bought a MacBook and thought, “I’ll just plug the iPod in and sync it back to [...]

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Expensive Crosswalks Built to Last

Active Transportation

You might think painting a crosswalk is only slightly more complicated than putting a yellow line down the middle of the road. Take a look around at the faded and nearly invisible crosswalks in your community and you can begin to appreciate that it’s not that simple. I had the opportunity to watch a demonstration [...]

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Flashing Crosswalk Beacons Promote Safety

Active Transportation

For about $10,000, a community can install an eco-friendly system to make crosswalks safer for pedestrians and much more visible to drivers. A new type of lighting system, the Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacon is proving even more effective because the flashing lights–more like police and emergency vehicle lighting–get the attention of motorists.
As my town’s Pedestrian [...]

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Using Google Maps to Advocate for Pedestrian Improvements

Active Transportation

Google maps have helped our town’s Pedestrian and Bicycle advisory committee by allowing us to project a satellite or streetview image on the wall for discussion. Using screencast software, I recently incorporated this into a presentation for a grant application to fund enhancements at two crosswalks:

I was looking for a simple way to share these [...]

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And the Oscar Goes to…Apple

Creative Life

The iPhone 4 is out and while mobile and tech gadget gurus will analyze its features, this 2-minute video describing the “Facetime” feature deserves the Oscar. The video pulls all the right heartstrings and makes the case for why you just have to buy your grandparents one of these NOW. From the Apple website:
People have [...]

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DaveWrites: A New Look

Creative Life

This blog started in 2006 as the writing anchor to many of my endeavors. I am simplifying, consolidating and focusing my online presence to more clearly define the DaveWrites “brand” around what I do best:

notice opportunities to use technology to make our lives better,
research how it works, and
write about it in a way that everyday [...]

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