courtesy of Rancho Cordova Post.com, the “Acting Mayor” and “Acting City Manager” Curt T. Haven released this news release (no mention of city communications director Nancy Pearl):

“On behalf of the City of Rancho Cordova, we are deeply saddened about this tragic accident. That it happened on Christmas Eve only worsens a horrific occurrence. Our hearts go out to the victims still suffering from both physical and psychological wounds. Our prayers for a full recovery go out to our two neighbors, Sunny and Kim Dickson—and their families–still hospitalized.

Our City Staff and Council Members have been very attentive to the immediate and long-term needs of the residents as a result of the explosion. We have met with as many people face-to-face as we could locate. We have attempted at every step to provide comfort and solace. We understand that those who witnessed the accident are injured emotionally as well and we are doing whatever we can to provide solace.

We plan to work closely with the agencies in charge of the investigation to ensure a seamless process and effective communications with the community.”

Explosion Neighbors Lash Out at City
Posted By: Mark Hedlund
KXTV News 10 Sacramento, CA

Pedro Hernandez, who helped organize the neighbor meeting, said the ceilings are falling in, walls are cracked and the houses have been moved from their foundation. But he said there’s no real effort from officials to go door to door asking residents what damage their homes may have.

When I first tuned into news coverage of the explosion, watching KCRA 3, they had just switched over to Dan Shively for the breaking news, and the first caller to speak with Dan Shively was Pedro Hernandez, starting his call with “Yes…….this is Pedro Hernandez…I’m a Rancho Cordova Community Leader…”.

Now I read in this KXTV News 10 story that Pedro has organized residents of the homes affected and potentially affected by the explosion. Pedro,……Makin’ Moves. Good For Him, at least he did something, and didn’t criticize residents for not being “more positive”. Im sure the Sheriff’s Dept will use footage of this explosion during the public meetings for RCPD contract renewal, and that somehow, city employees will get commendations for their selfless service to the neighborhood, which we will read about in the city employee newsletter called “City Views”. So much to be harvested from a tragedy, where to start….

ranchocordova

Californian Latest To File Potential Class-Action Set-Top Suit
Suit Challenges Comcast’s Equipment Rental Arrangement
By Linda Haugsted — Multichannel News, 12/24/2008
©2008 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

excerpt….

The suits note that premium video and the set-top descramblers are two distinct products, yet the cable providers require that the hardware be rented from cable companies, rather than permitting consumers to purchase the set-top hardware in the open market.

Owing to such tying arrangements, “In a matter of months, the rental fees that the class is supposed to pay for the cable boxes … greatly exceeds their worth,” according to the California suit. The charges add up quickly if a consumer has multiple sets in the home hooked up to premium services, the suit notes.

The lawsuit also duns Comcast for touting the rental of cable boxes over the use of the CableCARD, the latter of which is to take the place of set-top hardware. Even is a consumer decides to get a CableCARD to plug into a digital set, that hardware must be rented from Comcast, too, according to the suit.

Of course, Rancho has this covered. We simply don’t talk about all the busineses that have closed or relocated since cityhood, nor do we talk about all the world class, award winning projects that have yet to break ground, and probably never will.

The Dead Mall Problem

Experts say Atlanta, Las Vegas, and retail hubs in California and Florida are at real economic risk if thousands of more stores shutter in 2009.

A CNN.Money report…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As the recession leaves more retail casualties in its wake, rising store bankruptcies and mall closures could have devastating economic consequences.

As more stores exit malls, vacancies in regional malls could rise past 7% by year-end, a level not hit since the first quarter of 2001, according to real estate research firm Reis.

Major cities across America will be affected, said David Birnbrey, Chairman and co-CEO of Atlanta-based The Shopping Center Group, a retail real estate services firm. More on CNN.Money

Interactive Tour of the Buddhist Wheel of Life (flash movie)

Nmap Network Scanning—The Official Guide to the Nmap Security Scanner

The official publication date is January 1, 2009, though we hope
Amazon and other online retailers will make it available in time for
Christmas. Imagine your loved one’s surprise when she (or he) finds
nearly 500 pages of port scanning bliss in her stocking! To be notified
upon publication, join the
low-traffic nmap-hackers
announcement mailing list.

Key facts: The ISBN is 978-0-9799587-1-7 (ISBN-10 is
0-9799587-1-7) and suggested retail prices are $49.95 in the U.S.,
£34.95 in the U.K., and €39.95 in Europe. Like most books, it will probably
cost much less online. It is 468 pages long.

About half of the content is available in the free online edition.
Chapters exclusive to the print edition include “Detecting and
Subverting Firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems”, “Optimizing Nmap
Performance”, “Port Scanning Techniques and Algorithms”, “Host
Discovery (Ping Scanning)”, and more. The solution
selections which provide detailed instructions on the best way to solve
common networking tasks are also exclusive to the printed book. The
final table of contents is now available, as is the cover art.