West of 495

Too many Benedict Arnolds

adamg — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:35:11 +0000

J.L. Bell reports that while the widow of Benedict Arnold died in Uxbridge, she was not the widow of that Benedict Arnold. Seems Benedict was a popular name back then.

Black ice didn't do Tim Murray in

adamg — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:51:06 +0000

The Globe reports twas falling asleep at the wheel while doing 75 m.p.h. - and then accelerating past 100 m.p.h. - that led to the wreck of the state-owned Murraymobile.

Bolton sunset

adamg — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:55:46 +0000

Richard Beaubien went outside at sunset in Bolton tonight.

Copyright Richard Beaubien. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Aging trains react poorly to the cold

adamg — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:36:06 +0000

A Worcester Line train died this morning in Natick; commuters on that train and the one behind it, which wound up pushing it into town, were, of course, seriously late.

Some trains into North Station were delayed by the ever popular switch problems. At least one Greenbush train was also late because, well, who knows?

Software company demands $30 million from former worker it claims stole its software, customer records

adamg — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:33:09 +0000

Envisn, a company that makes software for managing Cognos "business intelligence" systems, yesterday sued its former support manager, charging she spent a couple of hours downloading all of the company's software and customer records and then quit.

In its suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, the Harvard-based company seeks an injunction against Kathleen Davis doing anything with the data she has and $30 million in damages. Envisn charges that with her knowledge of the software, she could easily decompile the code, help a competitor come out with a cheaper version and destroy the company.

The suit alleges that on Nov. 28, starting around 6:04 a.m., Davis downloaded copies of Envisn's products - including a beta that had been given to just two customers - as well as customer records from salesforce.com. At 8:15 a.m., the suit alleges, she e-mailed company President Charles Ryan that she was resigning, effective immediately.

Worcester firefighter dies when triple decker collapses

adamg — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:10:03 +0000

Channel 7 reports a firefighter pulled from the wreckage of a collapsed triple decker has died. Two other firefighters were also injured. Channel 5 has video of the fire.

The fire comes just a few days after the anniversary of the 1999 Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire that claimed the lives of six firefighters.

Turkey doesn't make it to Thanksgiving

adamg — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:00:21 +0000

Channel 4 reports a turkey flew into a Bellingham man's living-room window. It died, but he buried it instead of saving it for Thanksgiving.

1,111 boxes of Cheerios on 11/11/11

adamg — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:20:11 +0000

Franklin Matters reports the Franklin Federated Church was trying to collect all those boxes for a program at Boston Medical Center for little kids who need extra nutritional help.

Court to former state rep: Nice try, but no, you're not going to get a pension increase because you had a state parking space

adamg — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:01:46 +0000

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals today rejected former state Rep. Marie Parente's bid to have her pension increased based on the estimated value of her state-provided parking space on Beacon Hill and her per-diem payments for traveling to and from her home in Milford.

Delays pre-announced for some commuter-rail lines tomorrow

adamg — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:05:20 +0000

The MBTA reports that commuters on the Worcester, Fitchburg and Haverhill lines should expect delays tomorrow morning due to storm damage.

First snow

adamg — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:28:40 +0000

Richard Beaubien captured the beginnings of the storm in Bolton this afternoon.

Copyright Richard Beaubien. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

It's going to be a long winter

adamg — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:05:45 +0000

Channel 5 reporter Cheryl Fiandaca just made the first on-air snowball of the season, out in Ashburnham - after, of course, kneeling to pick up some snow. OK, it looked more like an iceball than a snowball, which is probably why she didn't throw it at the cameraman.

Commuters should study 4G coverage maps before signing up for Verizon 4G

adamg — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:43:45 +0000

Steve Berry reports his Verizon 4G wireless works as advertised when he's in a 4G coverage area, but that the problem is that his commute takes him into 3G territory and that's a problem:

When the 4G signal is low and a 3G is available, the device switches modes. This drops the existing connection and 3G takes 20-30 seconds to activate. If you happen to come back into a 4G area (signal level above the 3G value), it switches modes again taking another 30 seconds to establish an active link. In the 1 hour Worcester to Boston route, I used to lose 3G connectivity twice and lose about 2 minutes while the SSLVPN and MiFi resynchronized. Since moving to the 4G, I lose 30 minutes of the 1 hour commute due to continuous mode changes.

There is no ability to force the unit into 3G or 4G only mode. There is no standard for setting up a new connection before dropping an existing connection.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle, stage adaptation of classic Boston crime novel, opens Dec. 8 at Oberon

Eddie Coyle — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:25:39 +0000

Cambridge, Mass. — Tickets are on sale now for George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Stickball Productions’ world premiere stage adaptation of the quintessential Boston crime novel. The production runs Dec. 8–Jan. 15 at Oberon in Harvard Square, for tickets, visit www.thefriendsofeddiecoyle.com

It is the winter of ‘69 in Boston and Eddie Coyle is a bottom of the barrel hood attempting to stay alive and out of jail among his “friends” – cops, bartenders, radical hippies, bank robbers, hit men and informants. Weeks away from a prison sentence for trucking stolen booze, Eddie’s making a few bucks supplying the guns for a rash of brazen bank heists, while looking to tip someone in for a kind word to the judge.

George V. Higgins’ classic novel has been called the “best crime novel ever written” by Elmore Leonard, and literary scholars have compared his unforgiving and realistic depiction of Boston’s underworld with the works of Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Balzac. Through dialogue quintessentially Bostonian, and the most poignant homage to Bobby Orr and the ’69-’70 Boston Bruins in literature, The Friends of Eddie Coyle has set the bar for Boston crime stories for nearly 40 years.

Mercy: Worcester-area mom can't bring her kids to the park for fear they might see the gays

adamg — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:24:19 +0000

She's just not ready to answer her kids' inevitable questions about sodomy:

I can't even go to normal places without having to sit silently and tolerate immorality. We all know what would happen if I asked two men or two women to stop displaying, right in front of me and my children, that they live in sodomy.

Via Towleroad and Wicked Gay Blog.