Last year I was generally lost in the crowd and didn’t have any good idea of what was going on at Bele Chere. On Wednesday of this week, I decided to write up a small mobile app for the Bele Chere festival. I wanted something basic to show my current location and the events going on around me.

What I came up with was belechere.mobi.  It’s basically a google map with all the Bele Chere events and points of interest plugged in.  I geared the app for the iPhone so I could use the built in GPS with Safari to center the map automatically.  Also, I incorporated Twitter results with the #belechere tag, that way I could easily see what people thought was intresting or a must see at the festival.  I also included list of music acts for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  It’s only a three page app, but I am sure it will be useful compared to what I had last year.

The app took me an evening and a morning to build, but I did have a legup with some Twitter feed code from my Twaper experiment.  After some field testing  yesterday downtown Asheville, I found that the GPS seems accurate to about 50 feet of your location and the point of interest icons are generally in the right spot.  Sometimes though, the app forgets you allowed for GPS services and a website refresh is needed to get it back.  There also seems to be a dead zone on College street between Lexington and Haywood.

Our wonderful neighbors put on a community potluck which was attended by a wide range of people in our building. One of the reasons I love Asheville is it always seems like people are thinking about their community and plan cool events. Beverages and food was enjoyed by all who attended, but like any good mix of drinking and socializing I often find I’ve taken random pics that make no sense the next day. This time I only had one.

Cat

Thanks Sara, Pam and Heather for putting on a great evening.

Got out of the house today for a quick bite to eat at the Early Girl Eatery.  It’s a well documented fact that Andie MacDowell eats there from time to time. Anyway, it was nice to get out of the house, even if I didn’t run into any of Hollywoods elite.

Wall Street, Asheville NC

A local girl recently changed her legal name to a CutOutDissection.Com. This is the kind of dedication I’ve come to expect from most of the folks here in Asheville.  My only complaint, the site redirects and defaults to a classic asp page ( .asp ) which is so old school server technology.

After walking for about 2 miles in a snake like pattern that covered most of the Asheville High School campus, I was given preferential seating since I have a broken ankle.  

Stage

Overall his speach was pretty directed at the medical policies that he planned for his administration.  It was well presented but I felt like he was pandering a bit.

Obama to Stage

Obama Speech