Andrew Payne on payne.org

Finance Committee Appointments

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Moderator’s Role

Under Lincoln’s bylaws, the Town Moderator appoints members of the Finance Committee. Terms are three years, expiring at the close of Town Meeting, with new appointments made within 30 days. With seven seats on the committee, one to three seats come up in any given year.

This responsibility is one of the reasons the Moderator is an elected position: residents choose the person they trust to make these appointments, and that accountability runs through the ballot box. In 2025, Town Meeting considered and rejected (80–345) a citizen’s petition to change this process. The current system reflects the town’s deliberate choice.

Site Notes

Sat, 29 Sep 2018 09:01:45 -0400

Web Site Notes

Intersting style elements

Side notes:

http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/command.html#directions-for-actors (great overall look and feel)

Older Notes

Simple structure: https://github.com/poole/poole

Another style: http://sphinx-doc.org/tutorial.html

Mozilla web site: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/CSS/Media_queries

http://thalestriangles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/be-careful-with-computers.html

http://squishythinking.com/2014/02/22/bisecting-floats/

Another look and feel: http://docs.raneto.com/

Code font style: http://d3js.org/

Code style: http://zulko.github.io/blog/2014/09/20/vector-animations-with-python/

Floating image style: http://steveridout.com/2014/03/22/readlang-my-bootstrapped-language-learning-web-app.html

Another example: SciPy reference: http://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/arrays.ndarray.html

2026 Town Moderator Candidacy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

From: Andrew Payne <andy+moderator@payne.org>

To: Lincoln-Talk mailing list

Date: January 1, 2026

Fellow residents,

I once told a friend I’d never run for any office. She said, “yea…..right.” Sometimes our friends know us better than we know ourselves.

I’m running for Town Moderator.

Some of my background & principles:

I was on the Finance Committee for several years, chairing it for five. I have experience with and appreciation for the Town Meeting process, working with residents & town staff, finding agreement, and respectfully disagreeing.

Calculating Voronoi Nodes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This note documents a general approach to calculating the location of Voronoi nodes for point, segment, and arc geometric entities. This is a part of my work for developing CAM software for my CNC Machine.

In a Voronoi diagram, nodes (or vertices) are points that are equidistant from three or more entities (points, lines, arcs, etc.). In most Voronoi literature, these entities are called “sites” or “generators”.

A bisector edge connecting two nodes separates two sites, and all points on that bisector are equidistant from the two sites.

Lincoln-Hanscom Census Reconcillation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lincoln Population Analysis: Census Reconciliation

Summary

This note presents a detailed reconciliation of the Town of Lincoln’s local census and the 2020 Federal (decennial) census, including an analysis of the portion residing on the base at Hanscom. This is an edited version of an email I shared with residents in 2022.

Lincoln’s situation is unusual because a portion of its population resides on federal property at Hanscom Air Force Base. These residents live in base housing and receive local services from the federal government. For some analyses using census data, we have to distinguish between the Hanscom and non-Hanscom populations.

Riddle

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have a screen that's wide and bright,
And buttons that control my light,
But in this cluttered space,
I'm hard to find in this race.

So if you're feeling bold,
Come and search for me, I'm told,
I'm waiting in this (nearby) mess
To be the one that you can watch,
And pass the time with ease,
As I bring you entertainment and peace.

School Building Impact

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

School Building Impact

This page analyzes the impact of Lincoln’s approach to its school building renovation, which played out roughly between 2010 and 2020, on the town’s debt and finances. My goal here is not to relitigate past town meetings, but to help residents understand a major contributing factor to our current debt.

School Renovation History

	2012 Proposal	2018 Proposal
State contribution (MSBA)	$20.9M	$0
Town contribution	$29M	$93.9M
Total budget	$49.9M	$93.9M

Town Meeting vote	54%	89%
Ballot vote	N/A	68%

The 2012 vote failed to achieve the required super majority (2/3rds). Resident objections fell into a few categories, including concerns about the cost, as well as the desire to have more local control over design without being constrained by MSBA requirements.

SMS for Hobbyists: Setting Up a Cellular Modem for Texts and Alerts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem: 10DLC Killed Easy SMS

Sending SMS through an API used to be simple. Twillio used to let you grab a number and start texting in minutes, great for alerts, home automation, or quick-and-dirty remote control of a project.

Then came 10DLC (10-Digit Long Code) registration, a campaign by carriers to crack down on spam. The intent is reasonable, but the result is an onerous approval process involving brand registration, campaign vetting, and ongoing compliance, all designed for businesses sending marketing messages at scale.

Startup Equity for Employees

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

2020 PREFACE: I originally wrote this back in the mid-2000s and have resurrected it by request.

Introduction

The re-heating of the venture funded tech market has pushed a heat up of the hiring market, and I’m getting more calls from friends asking for help understanding startup stock (equity) offers. More than one friend has suggested writing the advice down, so here it is.

Important disclaimer: I’ve got experience negotiating stock compensation packages from both sides of the table. However, I’m not a tax accountant or attorney; my notes here should not be a substitute for real tax or legal advice.