9 - 2004 | ***Dave Does the Blog

Big Debate Wrap-up!

Quick review of the blogroll: Kerry supporters/Bush opponents think Kerry kicked ass and took names. They think Bush sounded like a blithering idiot. Bush supporters/Kerry opponents thought Bush did okay-to-excellent,…

Quick review of the blogroll:

Kerry supporters/Bush opponents think Kerry kicked ass and took names. They think Bush sounded like a blithering idiot.

Bush supporters/Kerry opponents thought Bush did okay-to-excellent, and Kerry didn’t do as badly as they’d thought (though still droningly arrogant), net thinking it was a Bush win.

Quel surprise. It will be interesting to see if there’s any poll movement in the aftermath, or if it was all preaching to the choirs.

Me? I was hanging out, doing some computer backups, and, eventually, watching Alias s.2 with Margie and the Testerfolk. I think that was the right decision.

If they had a million dollars (per episode)

Yeah, I think I’d watch this: They already have their million dollars. Now, the Barenaked Ladies may get their own TV show too. The goofball Canuck rockers are working on…

Yeah, I think I’d watch this:

They already have their million dollars. Now, the Barenaked Ladies may get their own TV show too. The goofball Canuck rockers are working on a variety series pilot for Fox, a rep for the band confirmed Tuesday.

While the publicist wouldn’t go into details on the show, the Hollywood trades report The Barenaked Ladies Variety Show will attempt to bring the band’s trademark mix of lighthearted stage banter and catchy upbeat music to tube viewers. The quintet will not only perform their own tunes, but will also play exaggerated versions of themselves in improvised sketches featuring guest actors. The bits will be woven into a story line that will run through each episode.

(via Rey)

3 Photos – the Voyeurism Meme

From Les. This could be fun. Or awful. Or met with complete apathy by my Loyal Readership. Think of 3 pictures you?d like to see. Leave whatever you’d like to…

From Les. This could be fun. Or awful. Or met with complete apathy by my Loyal Readership.

Think of 3 pictures you?d like to see. Leave whatever you’d like to see in the comments. Things around my house, or whatever … something I can take a picture of easily. Once I have enough requests, I?ll start posting them. If I can?t, or won?t, take a picture of something you’ve requested, I?ll let you know.

Go for it.

The past through the future

Occasionally newspapers will prematurely run obituaries. Embarrassing, even though everyone knows they’re largely written ahead of time. Then you get stories like this, from the AP, posted on ABC’s news…

Occasionally newspapers will prematurely run obituaries. Embarrassing, even though everyone knows they’re largely written ahead of time.

Then you get stories like this, from the AP, posted on ABC’s news site:

After a deluge of campaign speeches and hostile television ads, President Bush and challenger John Kerry got their chance to face each other directly Thursday night before an audience of tens of millions of voters in a high-stakes debate about terrorism, the Iraq war and the bloody aftermath.
The 90-minute encounter was particularly crucial for Kerry, trailing slightly in the polls and struggling for momentum less than five weeks before the election. The Democratic candidate faced the challenge of presenting himself as a credible commander in chief after a torrent of Republican criticism that he was prone to changing his positions.

Yes, if you think that reads a little oddly, it’s because the debate hasn’t happened yet. Even though the story is all written in the past tense.

Now, obviously what’s happened is that someone at AP prepped the background framework for the story beforehand, and instead of the story that goes with the headline (“Bush, Kerry Prepare for Debate in Fla.”), they published the draft, which would ordinarily, when the debate happens, be published with the actual details of the confrontation included. Then someone at ABC got the story and just posted it blindly (heck, it may be automated).

And it’s not like the AP story is particularly prescient. Analysts and campaign spokesfolk have been pretty clear on the tack both candidates are liable to take.

Not a scandal, nor an indication of media bias (in any direction), just someone (or two) sloppily picking the wrong file to post. (Assuming ABC fixes the page, I do have a nice PDF of it saved. 🙂 ) Still, I hope a few heads will, if not roll, at least get clouted soundly.

(via Stan)

What I hope for November 8th

I hope for an election that was not so close that we spend the next four years with half the country grumbling, “We was robbed.” I hope for an election…

I hope for an election that was not so close that we spend the next four years with half the country grumbling, “We was robbed.”

I hope for an election that’s not so much a blow-out that the winner feels (in more than the usual rhetorical way) they have a mandate to ignore the losing side’s concerns.

Something around 55-45, or 53-47 would be about right.

Yeah, I know that some folks on the winning side will do little in-your-face victory dances and chest-thumping and so forth, no matter how close it is.

And, yeah, I know that some folks on the losing side will argue about a deep, dark, fascistic electoral conspiracy, whether they end up as close as Gore or as far as McGovern (and regardless of party).

A pox on both their houses.

There are things to do. I think folks agree on that, even if they may disagree on what those things are. I’d rather we were doing them than arguing about them, though.

I still am not decided on my vote. I remain leaning toward Bush — though if the polls open up enough in Colorado, I may vote for Kerry, just to keep the numbers that much closer.

I wouldn’t mind (as I’d hoped in 2000) to see a split in the House / Senate / White House monopoly of the GOP. In some ways, that’s probably more important than who has which. That may belie the desire to see action rather than churn, but it could also (yeah, I’m a foolish dreamer) provide an opportunity for actual political engagement and compromise. For a year or three, until the next presidential cycle.

As I said, I’m leaning toward Bush — though every time I realize I’m treating that as an assumption, it wakes me up with a start. What, are you crazy? Bush? Then I remember who’s running against him. Not that Kerry is all that abominable — I think both men are a lot closer to the center than the rhetoric of their supporters (rhetoric, to be sure, drummed up by both campaigns) makes it. The Republic will survive either of them, for all their flaws. I maintain, as before, that it’s the 2008 election that’s going to probably be even more critical. But if Kerry wins (and there remains a chance I’ll vote for him), I won’t be in sack cloth and ashes for the next four years. In some ways, it will almost be a relief, an ending of the reign of the Most Hated Dubya and a chance to prove I can be just as apologetic for (and critical of) the president regardless of party.

Like I said, almost a relief. Because I am so weary of the same fights and arguments over Bush / Cheney / Rummy / Iraq / Ashcroft / Terror that I am almost willing to vote for Kerry just to let the other guys get a crack at bat and take the heat for what happens. I can say that, because while I think Kerry’s take on some issues won’t be as good as Bush’s, I don’t consider either the epitome of (in)competence, and it may well be that I’m wrong and will be surprised by how good a job the challenger will do. I don’t think he’ll do much worse. I don’t think he’ll do much better. And both of those are in aggregate, so there will doubtless be areas where Kerry does better than Bush, and others where he does worse.

Or not. I’m rambling again, as I tend to do in these electoral posts. Which is probably as much a sign of how conflicted I am on the subject as anything else.

Anyway, back to what I hope for — I hope for an election that folks can recognize for what it is — a guarded confirmation of the candidate’s position, an indication that public opinion is not as extreme as it’s painted, and something that lets us move on to something more important than the posturing of the last year.

Just call me a cock-eyed optimist.

Not even my little princess gets this …

An annoying article from New York about teens and expensive cosmetic procedures. It’s not just the occasional (and ghastly) boob job any more … Dr. Sobel isn’t the only doctor…

An annoying article from New York about teens and expensive cosmetic procedures. It’s not just the occasional (and ghastly) boob job any more …

Dr. Sobel isn’t the only doctor getting requests for forehead freezing by teenage girls. Dr. Adam Bodian, a dermatologist in Great Neck, Long Island, Botoxed a 15-year old girl. “She knew that fine lines come from a lifetime of making facial expressions,” Dr. Bodian explained, “and she wanted to prevent future wrinkles.”

And apparently, forehead wrinkles — previously an obsession of the thirty-, forty- and fiftysomething sets — are a new and pressing concern among teenagers. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that 5,606 teens 18 and under were Botoxed in 2003, as opposed to the 534 that shot up in 2002.

Dr. Frederic Brandt, known as the Baron of Botox, is based primarily in Miami but spends one week each month at his practice on East 34th Street. While his No. 1 request from teens is collagen injection, some have offered up their armpits for Botox, in order to stop perspiration. (This procedure is popular with starlets who don?t want to stain their expensive gowns during nerve-wracking award ceremonies like the Oscars.) “Being an excessive sweater can be quite embarrassing for a high-school student,” Dr. Brandt said.

I will pay to get Katherine’s teeth straightened, if they need it (which they likely will). I will willingly pay for basic treatment of any teen problems she has with her complexion (which, given my ongoing track record, seems even more likely). I will pay for haircuts, occasional manicures, and a reasonable number and variety and quality of clothing.

But if Kitten decides she “needs” Botox, or collagen, or tooth veneers, or “permanent” hair removal, or surgical procedures of any sort, purely for cosmetic purposes — she can go out after college and get a high-paying job and handle them (like her other financial affairs) herself. I consider those “needs” akin to her “needing” every toy she sees on TV today, and she’s just as likely to get them. Not only don’t I think I should be paying for such things, I don’t think she should be getting them that young.

I’m sure this will make me a Horrid Ogre, Ruining Her Life. I think I can live with that (esp. since it’s probably an inevitable judgment anyway).

“God, I remember being that age, and I looked like a giraffe! Gawky!” said the socialite. “It’s amazing what’s going on: No one?s going through that weird, ugly stage of being odd-looking, scrawny and knob-kneed.”

I’m not particularly fond of the prospect of Katherine going through that “stage” — but it’s hardly fatal, and I’m not sure the alternative is worth the cost (nor the loss of the lessons that stem from it).

At the high-end salon Paul Labrecque, for example, roughly 20 high-school girls have weekly standing appointments for blow-dries, which go from $55 to $125. This summer, over 50 teens (including 12-year-olds) came in for Japanese thermal reconditioning, a technique that permanently straightens naturally curly hair and starts at $750 a head.

Mr. Labrecque applauds the parents that bring their children to him. “We want to give our kids a little bit more than we had, and if they have a frizzball, they’re going to get made fun of.” Right now, he said, teens are coveting the flowing locks of Lindsay Lohan. “We?re doing three or four extensions a week — which is a lot, considering the price tag is $2,500 to $3,500. It takes five hours.”

Yeesh.

“The parents are recognizing that children can?t get away with hair on the face,” said owner Cindy Barshop. Recently, Ms. Barshop had to turn down someone requesting permanent hair removal for their 7-year-old. “Ridiculous!” she scoffed. “And just too traumatic for the child.”

Glad to see she has some standards. This week.

The list just goes on and on. And one can only hope that it’s just a wildly overindulged tiny subset of kids in NYC with too much (of Mommy and Daddy’s) money in their pockets, and not some sort of larger trend.

Harrumph.

(via Doyce)

And you think the Episcopalians have problems …

Our own internal strife pales (in both violence and triviality) to this. Fistfights broke out yesterday between Christians gathered on the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ….

Our own internal strife pales (in both violence and triviality) to this.

Fistfights broke out yesterday between Christians gathered on the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. “There was lots of hitting going on. Police were hit, monks were hit … there were people with bloodied faces,” said a witness in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, reputed to be Golgotha where Christ was crucified, and the site of the tomb where he was buried.

The punch-up erupted during a procession to mark the discovery in 327 by Helena, mother of Constantine, of the True Cross. A Greek Orthodox cleric said Franciscans had left open their chapel door in what was taken as disrespect. Priests and worshippers hit one another at the doorway dividing Orthodox and Franciscans, said a police spokesman.

The church was officially set up under ownership of six denominations (including the Orthodox, the Franciscans, Copts, Ethiopians, etc.) in 1757 under the Ottomon Turks. Hilarity has, over the years, ensued.

Two years ago, Ethiopian and Copt monks threw stones at each other over rights to the church roof.

Yeah, ’cause they’re not satisfied over the Lord having been crucified there once …

(via Neil Gaiman)

The Presidential Debate Drinking Game

I’m not going to be watching, but if I were, I’d certainly want something like this to entertain/numb me: Every time Bush mangles a word that he, as President of…

I’m not going to be watching, but if I were, I’d certainly want something like this to entertain/numb me:

Every time Bush mangles a word that he, as President of the United States, should know. (“Nyuklear” excepted.) [1 shot]
Every time Kerry utters a sentence that, transcribed, would require more than ten commas, two semi-colons, and/or a paragraph break. [1 shot]
Every time Bush gets a folksy grin on his face. [1 shot]
Every time Kerry sounds like he’s trying to channel FDR or (the original) JFK. [1 shot]
Every time Kerry mentions Viet Nam. [1 shot]
Every time Bush mentions the National Guard. [2 shots]
Every time Kerry mentions “our allies.” [1 shot]
Every time Bush mentions “The War on Terror.” [1 shot]
Every time Kerry mentions the United Nations. [1 shot]
Every time Bush mentions “The Axis of Evil.” [1 shot]
Every time either of them mentions a letter they got from an American citizen. [1 shot]
Every time either of them mentions a previous president. [1 shot]
Every time either of them mentions a previous president of the other party. [2 shots]
Every time either of them mentions a previous president who would have crossed the street to avoid being associated with them. [3 shots]

Like I said, at the very least you’ll be laughing uproariously by the time it’s done. Or, alternately, looking for a bridge to jump from.

UPDATE: Well, here’s another set of rules.

Break time

Nothing shows up in Google (and I haven’t checked out the MT support boards), but it appears that the “Convert Line Breaks” text formatting in MT3 is a bit different…

Nothing shows up in Google (and I haven’t checked out the MT support boards), but it appears that the “Convert Line Breaks” text formatting in MT3 is a bit different from that in MT2.

“Convert Line Breaks” takes the text typed into a post and automatically wraps paragraphs (any block of text with a blank line above and below it) with  and . Any hard line break gets a inserted. It’s simple and it works pretty well.

Previously, when I did a block quote (which I have a special paragraph class to do, , I’d put that in front of the block quote, and, where paragraph breaks (a blank line) needed to occur, I made sure that there was a hard line break and a  I inserted myself. So I would get something like this:

This is the first paragraph

This is the second paragraph.

Under 3.11 (confirmed by looking at an category old archive, then resaving it), MT is not seeing that hard line break, or else it’s seeing it but assuming that the presence of a  means I don’t want an extra  inserted. Which I do, but it doesn’t, so my block paragraph subparagraphs get all smooshed together.

This is the first paragraph
This is the second paragraph.

(I don’t recall why I don’t use the <blockquote> tag — I think I read somewhere it had been deprecated, or else I was trying to do something fancy or something. But I digress.)

I need to track this down, because the change in behavior has a minor-but-pervasive effect not only on how I code posts from now on, but also on how all my old posts look. Eep!

(Coincident with this, I’ve been considering an alternative plaintext markup filter, like Textile or Markup — no decisions, by any means, but it might simplify things somewhat.)

Annoying.

Test
Test
Test

Forever Beta

So why is Google News still (seemingly perpetually) in “Beta” testing? Because they can never, ever, make any money from it. The concept, of course, is fiendishly simple: When Google…

So why is Google News still (seemingly perpetually) in “Beta” testing? Because they can never, ever, make any money from it.

The concept, of course, is fiendishly simple:

When Google launched its news site three years ago, it led to a certain amount of hand-wringing at Yahoo News, MSNBC and CNN. Unlike its competitors, which were forced to budget millions of dollars a year to license up-to-the-minute content and pay reporters and editors, Google had figured out a way to do it on the cheap.
By relying on algorithms, Google News completely automated the news-gathering process. High-speed computers sift through some 7,000 sources of information — 4,500 of them in English — and determine which are the most relevant articles. They then grab the headline and first paragraph to post on Google’s news page, with the headlines acting as external links.
[…] With a clean, no-nonsense interface and existing search engine traffic, Google News didn’t take long to attract a loyal following and elbow its way into the top-10 news sites, pulling in some 6 million unique visitors a month. Of course, executives at rival online news publishers couldn’t help but wonder why they shouldn’t just imitate Google’s model and pare their budgets to the bone.

So, what’s the problem? Well — if you make money off of someone else’s content, you’re really supposed to pay for it.

So while other online publishers like Yahoo News and MSNBC earn tens of millions of dollars in revenue each year and continue to grow, Google News remains in beta mode — three years after it launched — long after most of the bugs have been excised.
The reason: The minute Google News runs paid advertising of any sort it could face a torrent of cease-and-desist letters from the legal departments of newspapers, which would argue that “fair use” doesn’t cover lifting headlines and lead paragraphs verbatim from their articles. Other publishers might simply block users originating from Google News, effectively snuffing it out.

Which probably makes sense, leaving Google News as a (hopefully ongoing) free source of info, uncluttered by ads, that generates goodwill and click-overs for its aggregator and click-throughs for its subjects.

(via J-Walk)

Car logos

A small collection of car logos and their histories — some of them (mostly European), at least. Still, entertaining. (via GeekPress)…

A small collection of car logos and their histories — some of them (mostly European), at least. Still, entertaining.

(via GeekPress)

We’re not talking double-ruby level debates here …

As one analyst put it regarding the rules that both sides insisted upon in the upcoming presidential debates: “[The debates will be] speeches coordinated so that they take place at…

As one analyst put it regarding the rules that both sides insisted upon in the upcoming presidential debates:

“[The debates will be] speeches coordinated so that they take place at the same time, planned by handlers in such a way the candidates will be influenced as little as possible by the other one’s presence”

Including such things as what the camera can show, what the candidates can use as props, how they can be cut off by the moderators, where they can move, who they can address, etc. I’ve seen less planned church liturgies. In some ways, it would be more effective (or at least less a waste of time) for each candidate to simply submit from their campaign offices prepared answers and mug shots to questions selected and agreed upon by each side.

MT3 and Acronym

The Acronym plugin works fine with MT3 — in static mode. Not surprisingly (since it’s invoked very similarly to SmartyPants), it doesn’t work in dynamic mode. No idea if/when someone…

The Acronym plugin works fine with MT3 — in static mode. Not surprisingly (since it’s invoked very similarly to SmartyPants), it doesn’t work in dynamic mode. No idea if/when someone will have it converted to PHP. There is similar PHP code for doing an Acronym function in WordPress and EE, but nothing (so far) in MT.

Not critical functionality, but definitely a “nice-to.”

So why don’t I shut up about MT3 already?

I’m doing all this nattering on MT3.11 for two reasons: So that folks who run into the same questions/problems as I have will be able to, through the glory of…

I’m doing all this nattering on MT3.11 for two reasons:

So that folks who run into the same questions/problems as I have will be able to, through the glory of Google, find where I found the answers. I.e., it’s a service to the community.
Because my memory leaks like a sieve and if I don’t write this stuff down somewhere, I’ll never remember it myself. I.e., it’s self-serving.

‘Nuff said.

MT3, dynamic publishing, and SmartyPants

SmartyPants is a text modifier that can be used to turn straight quotes to “curly quotes”, dashes to em-dashes — as they say — dots to ellipses … etc. I’ve…

SmartyPants is a text modifier that can be used to turn straight quotes to “curly quotes”, dashes to em-dashes — as they say — dots to ellipses … etc. I’ve used it for quite some time on my regular MT install, and it lends an air of polish and ~~pretentiousness~~ professionalism to the output.

It works just fine under MT 3.11 with static publishing. However, as expected, it doesn’t work with dynamic publishing (since all the non-standard tags need to be handled as separate PHP modules). It doesn’t cause an error, it just doesn’t do anything.

Thereby hangs a tale …

Continue reading “MT3, dynamic publishing, and SmartyPants”

Walls and doors

The drywall guy finished, on-time, for less than the estimate. The texturing made a minor mess, but we can deal. So, next steps there are: Tile work. Paint. Baseboards. All…

The drywall guy finished, on-time, for less than the estimate. The texturing made a minor mess, but we can deal.

So, next steps there are:

Tile work.
Paint.
Baseboards.

All of which will be scheduled for the impending K visitation. 🙂

Meanwhile, we (finally) ordered our replacement French doors, which should also be delivered by the time the Ks are here, making for the other HI project of their visitation. Double doors, outswinging, integrated deadbolts on the primary door, stainable wood clad in Aluminum, removable 3×5 light frames. And, unlike our current doors, double-paned and unwarped (and unlikely to blow inward when the wind picks up). I look forward to it, even if it cost the better part of $2k.

Dynamic publishing in MT3

One of my major reasons for taking the MT 3.11 plunge is the prospect of dynamic publishing — that a blog page gets rendered on the fly when you go…

One of my major reasons for taking the MT 3.11 plunge is the prospect of dynamic publishing — that a blog page gets rendered on the fly when you go to it, rather than being stored as a static file. Not only is this keen aesthetically, but it has the potential of resolving some rebuild time issues (not to mention space issues). If I set up my blog pages as dynamic, except for the main indices (like the front page), comments and pings and posts should be lickety-split fast.

In theory.

Of course, I’m not going to screw around with my main blog for this. Instead, I’m going to try it out on one of my smaller blogs, and with the category archives as well. This is my progress.

Continue reading “Dynamic publishing in MT3”

SharpMT test for MT 3.11

No particular reason why it shouldn’t — but, then, no particular reason why it should. So I’m testing SharpMT with 3.11, just to see if it works. UPDATE: Evidently so….

No particular reason why it shouldn’t — but, then, no particular reason why it should. So I’m testing SharpMT with 3.11, just to see if it works.

UPDATE: Evidently so.

MT 3.11 – Installation summary

My number one problem with my installation was that my FTP client (SmartFTP) didn’t fully FTP things over. As you can imagine, this led to a certain amount of hair-pulling…

My number one problem with my installation was that my FTP client (SmartFTP) didn’t fully FTP things over. As you can imagine, this led to a certain amount of hair-pulling hilarity, which will be followed shortly by my booting said FTP client into the stratosphere.

Aside from that, it was all relatively painless. I listened to Seki and made sure I uninstalled the old MT-Blacklist first. I backed up the blog entries from the various blogs, as well as the old blacklist. I read the notes I’d accumulated the last few weeks. I downloaded and installed and ran, and it all worked great, if you leave off the problems that not fully installing the program (see program, FTP, crappy, above).

Now comes the interesting bits.

Reinstalling various plugins I use (here and elsewhere)
Install a couple that I’ve been meaning to anyway.
Play with dynamic pages (tentatively for everything except the main indices).
Consider the whole TypeKey registration thing.

But … not tonight. For tonight, it’s all working, more or less.

MT 3.11, kindasorta

More to follow, but the basic MT 3.11 install is complete … with a few interface oddities behind (hopefully only) the scenes….

More to follow, but the basic MT 3.11 install is complete … with a few interface oddities behind (hopefully only) the scenes.