The Cowtown Chronicles

Fort Worth State Representative Mark Veasey filed a bill this session that would require Texas State Agencies to create all of their documents in an open, freely-available file format standard.

Fortunately for Microsoft, they’ve already succeeded at creating FUD about the bill, even though it’s only been in committee for a little while.

Here’s the skinny on what the bill does, and more importantly does NOT, require:

The bill requires that all documents created by a State agency (court, legislature, department, office, etc.) to be made available in an XML-based OPEN file format based on a recognized industry standard, and available without any intellectual property restrictions on the underlying file format.

What does that mean? Does it mean we’ll all have to switch to OpenOffice if we want to read government documents on our computers? Does it mean that the lady down at the DPS will have to learn Linux and OpenOffice? No.

To really understand the thrust of the bill, you have to understand a bit about how “standards” in the computing world work. Bear with me for a minute, I’m about to get technical…

Essentially there are two kinds of standards: widely recognized and adopted standards created by standards bodies like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) or Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), referred to in our world as “industry standards,” and de-facto standards which are created because “everyone” uses a particular application or file format, like Microsoft Word. The two are related, but they are most definitely NOT the same.

Industry standards are the foundation upon which Information Technologies are built. Ultimately all de-facto standards are based at some point on an industry standard. A good example of this is Wi-Fi. The correct name for Wi-Fi is IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, depending on what kind of device is in your computer. Obviously the general public doesn’t want to have to know anything about the IEEE standards that Wi-Fi is based on, so the group charged with promoting its use came up with the nonsensical name “Wi-Fi,” which doesn’t have anything to do with the technology except that it is wireless. The ethernet cable you have plugged in to your desktop computer works because of IEEE 802.3 (which is older than me, by the way), and your bluetooth headset works thanks to IEEE 802.15. The CSS that generates the page you’re reading right now is thanks to IETF RFC 2318. (Yes, I COULD go on all day.) While there are competing technologies for wireless data transfer among computers, Wi-Fi is both the Industry Standard AND the de-facto standard by which we all interconnect.

The point: It doesn’t matter what company manufactures what you have, so long as they adhere to the defined and open industry standard. Usually these standards are free for anyone to use, or at the very least available for a minimal fee with no restrictions on how they can be used, and no royalty or licensing fees.

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The League of Women Voters of Tarrant County are having their candidates forum tonight. Come out and ask your questions. Make sure you get answers.

You may have heard that the City Council approved Chesapeake Energy’s plans to drill on their site along the Trinity River Trail.

There are a lot of comments on the story’s web page, and I’m bothered by the tone of some of the comments. It seems that a few people have decided (probably because of the one-sided coverage by the S-T), that this argument was always all about the trees.

People who look at it from that perspective are really missing the point. While the trees became the rallying point, the real issue was the fact that this site was just not right for the city as a whole. If our goal is to encourage people to use our public parks and trails, slapping a gas well so close to the jewel in the crown of our trail system is not the way to do it.

Several people argue in the comments that gas drilling is an economic benefit for the city. Any economic benefit from gas drilling is more than offset by companies and residents that move out or don’t come because there’s a gas well (or rig) too close to their house or place of work. As for benefits, only ONE group will benefit from this particular well; Chesapeake Energy (which last time I checked was HQ’d in Oklahoma City, not Fort Worth).

How about this: Instead of digging holes all over the planet to find more dino juice, how about employing all those people in that industry to find sustainable solutions to our energy problems? NO ONE talks about alternatives when this stuff is covered in the media. Why? Instead of attracting more companies that won’t or can’t change from a totally unsustainable business model (namely sucking a finite resource out of the ground), why aren’t we focusing on attracting companies that are working on getting past that? North Texas (and Texas as a whole) has been a world leader in energy technologies for nearly a hundred years. If we can’t see past oil and natural gas, that position of leadership is soon going to be just as extinct as the dinosaurs that gave us this bounty.

The Fort Worth Animal Shelter has won approval from voters to build a new clinic, but the amount of money approved, $600,000, isn’t enough to build what they need. Currently shelter personnel do medical procedures in a hallway, and use part of one hall as the adoption center. It’s easy to say that the dogs and cats don’t know the difference, but they deserve better.

How much different would Barley’s experience have been if he had gotten vaccinated immediately upon coming to the shelter and neutered while still there? Would we have been able to prevent the distemper, or did he have it already when he got there? We’ll never know, but giving the shelter the money to help other dogs and cats in the future would go a long way to reducing the number of unwanted cats and dogs born and ultimately euthanized in Fort Worth.

Call or e-mail your city council member and let them know that getting this facility built is important to you and to our city.

Technorati Tags: animal shelter, city council, fort worth, barley

Slightly shorter show this week. Steve-o couldn’t be here, so it’s just me and Bernie. Good discussion of the latest city council meeting, our shared disdain for inappropriately sized infill housing, and a few other tidbits.

Yep, it’s official; what started as an effort to protect a grove of old-growth trees in our urban core from the business end of a bulldozer has turned into an all-out fight against urban gas drilling and a city policy that favors a private corporation’s profits over EVERY Fort Worth citizens’ right to have a safe and liveable city.

Just why exactly is the city government so eager to piss away our quality of life? What is the Star-Telegram’s angle in this debate? Do they really stand to profit from drilling, and is there really a proposal to drill in the heart of downtown? If it’s really about private property rights, why are private landowners being FORCED to allow the drillers to use their land, even though there are alternatives? Why are the driller’s property rights superior to the average citizen’s, ESPECIALLY in our urban core and public areas?

Mayor Moncrief and City Council: it’s time to put up or shut up. Do you REALLY want these things you claim in your “Strategic Goals,” or is that all just typical politician lipservice BS? I HATE it when government officials do things that jar me out of my idealism. I want to believe that people who go into public service are truly there to work for the people they represent and not just the people with the deepest pockets, but so far the only evidence I’ve seen of that here in Fort Worth is Wendy Davis, and she’s getting the hell out of Dodge. Please, if you have any shred of concern for maintaining or (heavens forbid) IMPROVING the quality of life in this city, get involved, vote for candidates who care about YOU and our city and not just lining their already well-lined pockets, and be aware of what’s going on around you and what you can do to make things better for everyone.

Technorati Tags: barnett shale, bernie scheffler, fort worth, gas drilling, star-telegram, trinity trees, wendy davis

This week on the Cowtown Chronicles podcast – Experiments in gonzo journalism in podcast form. Special guests Kevin Buchanan from Fort Worthology, and Bernie Scheffler, candidate for Fort Worth City Council for District 9.

Our main topic today is light rail and other transit options, with some fun sidetracks into my lack of focus and clarity after a late night of poker and drinking.

Hope you like it, and we’ll see you next week!

Because I have to spend so much time IN class. Steve-O has put together a great wrapup of the Trinity Trees meeting last night. I’m proud to say that Jenna was a big help, since Steve-O couldn’t be there for the beginning of the meeting, she got there early and took copious notes for him. She had to leave before Lon Burnham spoke, but she said the mood of the meeting was generally positive and she came away encouraged that even if we don’t get Chesapeake (which is sounding more and more like a petulant 8 year old in their public comments) to give up their plans to drill there, then at least we can find a third option that works for everyone.

I’m also proud and glad to currently be represented by Wendy Davis, who although she beat my candidate last time, has shown (at least to me) that she truly cares about what happens in her district and how it affects we the people and not just the businesses who stand to profit. I will happily support her for the District 10 Sate Senate seat she’s running for next year.

Our own Bernie Scheffler was there as well, and let me state this again for the record: Bernie is the ONLY candidate for City Council who totally opposes urban gas drilling. Keep that in mind when you weigh the candidates before the election on November 6th. Who has YOUR best interests at heart?

Technorati Tags: bernie scheffler, gas drilling, lon burnham, trinity trees, wendy davis

What? Governor “Hang ‘em High” Perry actually commuted a death sentence?

Maybe he’s finally realized that actual people who are ALREADY alive should be part of a “Pro Life” philosophy.

Nah, probably not.

Sniff… Sniff…

Do I smell a move to the center in advance of a future Presidential candidacy?

Technorati Tags: governor, death penalty, republicans, Rick Perry

Thanks, Steve-O, I was just starting to be lulled into rolling over and letting Chesapeake rub my belly, and you have to go and post this.

Jerk.