The Raleigh bloggers meetup has a new location; it’s Helios Cafe in downtown Raleigh. The meetup starts at 6:30 pm tomorrow(11/7/06). Helios Café ‘s website is: http://www.helioscoffee.com/ 

Google map directions; click here

Meetup update provided by Josh Staiger (http://www.joshstaiger.org)

The official Raleigh Bloggers wiki: http://joshstaiger.org/raleighbloggers/

I haven’t been to a meetup in a while but I’m going to try to check the new place out.

Posted by wayne sutton on a long way from 113

Official nintendo wii pre-order email announcement from GameStop and EBgames! It starts tommorrow.

Today while going to the mall for lunch, I decided to drop by eb games to see if they had any news on the Nintendo wii pro-order status. The first sales rep said no and then began to say but I can pre-order the Microsoft zune, the new ipod killer. I was like what?  No thanks; I stated and that I don’t believe people with ipods will switch to the zune just because of a bigger screen and wireless features. Then the other sale rep. who was all excited about the zune said that people are going to buy the zune because you can transfer songs real easy wirelessly, you can play your music from your Xbox on the zune and transfer videos from the Xbox to the zune. I said, that’s the only feature that the zune may have on the ipod and because of the Xbox success but I said I would wait until after MacWorld 07 before I would make any decision to clam the zune was an ipod killer. Oh yeah the rep also said that with EB games 60,000 stores compared to some low number of apple stores he sounded as if he had is marketing numbers memorized that the zune will reach more people and cause them to switch. I’m like almost everybody has an ipod dude; it’s not about the stores it’s about the product, the zune sucks.

After seeing that going nowhere, I was like I need some apple juice, so I left with still no Nintendo wii pre-order information and went to the apple store. I didn’t get anything, just went to browse and saying to myself, a zune never! 

By the way I’m in Raleigh, NC and if you know where I can pre-order a Nintendo wii let me know.

Posted by Wayne Sutton on a long way from 113

Raleigh leaders are hoping that four blocks of asphalt and a $9.33 million investment will spark a downtown revitalization. If Saturday was any indication, they just might get their wish. Thousands of people converged upon downtown Raleigh to celebrate the reopening of Fayetteville Street to vehicular traffic after 30 years as a pedestrian mall. I had an internship at the Raleigh City Museum while I was a student at Peace College. I remember walking to the museum everyday and seeing all of the hustle and bustle of city life around Fayetteville Street Mall. The mall was a melting pot of people from every walk of life. I remember seeing a homeless man with a bike sitting at CVS most mornings or afternoons. I remember seeing women in business suits wearing tennis shoes. Business men waited in the same sausage dog line as I did. The smell of those sausage dogs is one of the things that is synonomous with Fayetteville Street Mall to me. That cart, Chick-Fil-A and a Subway around the corner were my lunch time hangouts. Other things like the sound of the man playing the saxophone also remind me of the old days at the mall. But for all those nostalgic memories, there are the memories of the vacant buildings, and all the signs of a downtown area that had lost its charm. I was one of the estimated 20,000 people who welcomed the return of Fayetteville Street to its former glory. Not because I necessarily prefer it that way (I don’t really have a preference), but because it signals something new, something exciting. The News and Observer had an interesting series about the reopening of Fayetteville Street and the revitalization of downtown last week. The Independent Weekly also had a good story about the downtown projects back in March (http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A29165). Raleigh Wide Open was a success, but only time will tell if the efforts to resuscitate the heart of the Capital City is also a success. View morie flickr photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynesutton/tags/raleighwideopen/  to see pictures from the celebration.

Posted by LaToya M. Sutton on Writing is what I do.

http://barcamp.org/BarCampRDU

The good

1. I met a lot of cool people, Fred (http://claimid.com/), Tara Hunt (http://horsepigcow.com/) , Chris Messina (http://factorycity.net/) (http://citizenagency.com/blog/) and some other great lulu.com employees such as Jackson Fred.

2. I had the opportunity to help out and volunteer, which made me feel if as I had something to do with the event.

3. FREE STUFF – I left with a two free barcamp shirts (one for the wife), a hat and t-shirt from rpath, a and Ruby on Rrails book.

4. Networking – I exchanged business cards with a lot of people; hopefully a job or new business will come out of out.

The bad

The only bad thing I would say about the conference is that there were a lot of application developers there, so some sessions were over my head. Although I think all the sessions were great, even the Dancing with Girls. I wished there was more on computers, Web 2.0 and other technology. I learned something in each session I attended.
I even led a session titled “Online Bsiness Model” where the best advice was you still need a business plan no matter what business you are starting.

The wish I did

I wish I had taken a few pictures with some of the attendees there. I missed a great opportunity to take one with Chris, Tara and Fred.

Summary

I give the first BarcampRDU an A+.

Stay on the look out for – BarCamp Earth – http://barcamp.org/BarCampEarth

Posted by Wayne E. Sutton on a long way from 113

Today was the Apple Store Grand opening at Crabtree Valley Mall, here in Raleigh, NC.

View the line video.

See complete flickr photo set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynesutton/tags/applestore/

Posted by Wayne Sutton on http://www.helpmeget2macs.com

Today was the Apple Store Grand opening at Crabtree Valley Mall, here in Raleigh, NC.

 View the line and video to see how much of a mac following there is in Raleigh. I knew there was going to be a lot of people but I didn’t think this many. I didn’t wait in line to get a t-shirt or try winning the imac they were giving away, so I’ll go back later on today or tomorrow for an inside look at the new store.

Video vai youtube:

See complete flickr photo set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynesutton/tags/applestore/

See related post: New Apple Store in my backyard

Posted by Wayne Sutton on http://www.helpmeget2macs.com

We’ll not exactly in my backyard but Apple is opening up a new store here in Raleigh, at Crabtree valley mall on Saturday at 10:00am. From what I’ve heard it wont’ be a huge store like the one they have in neighboring Durham, but a smaller mini store regardless it’s still a good move for Apple.  Maybe I can work out a mac support deal to offer my computer repair services for people who warranties has expired. Yes I fixed macs too. See my services page here.

More  on the grand opening:

Link: http://www.apple.com/retail/crabtreevalleymall/week/20060625.html

To celebrate our Grand Opening, we’re featuring a week of exciting events. In our store, we’ll have a variety of unique and educational presentations, demonstrations and workshops — all free of charge.
T-shirt Giveaway
The first 1000 people to visit the Apple store receive a free Apple T-shirt.

Posted by Wayne Sutton on http://www.helpmeget2macs.com

Hello to all, the next great Raleigh blogger meetup will be on June 20th at 6:30pm at Cafe Cyclo

Josh has created a wiki for the meetup so you can find more information there: http://joshstaiger.org/raleighbloggers/

You can announcethat you’re coming  for the meetup using eventful, here or you can just show up.

It looks like we’re getting more orgainzed so maybe something great is coming. Time will tell.

Posted by: Wayne Sutton  on  http://raleighnc.wordpress.com

From Josh Staiger

The Raleigh bloggers are meeting tomorrow evening at Cafe Cyclo.

Tuesday, April 4, 2006 – Please join us!

What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever’s on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village

2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605
(919) 829-3773

Posted by Wayne Sutton on a long way from 113