Archive for March, 2004

2004.03.11

Hrrrmmm

Well I apologize for not posting very much worthwhile recently. The reason is that so much of my writing the past couple days has focused on this post by Mookee. You can read the very long comments that go back and forth at the bottom of the page. I’m hoping at this point he will close the comments with a final one of his own, and then post a new article to refocus the debate (or stop the commenting himself and post a new article).

I’ve also been working with Jon E. to get his website up and running. Previously the vision was so grand that it was overwhelming. A couple days ago we talked about that and decided to implement items bit by bit until the grand vision is eventually accomplished. So far it’s working, and once the first stage is completed I’m sure I’ll be announcing it here.

Meanwhile I’m hoping to get another new post up today on something I’ve been thinking about recently.

2004.03.09

Disney to Hack Narnia

I read on Jason Silver’s site that Disney is going to make CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia into a movie. Given their track record of mangling stories to suit thier needs I am worried for the future of Narnia. Does anyone else think this is a mistake?

2004.03.08

Blosxom Flavour Files

Blosxom is brilliant in the various ways you can create webpages that look so different, from this site, to OOKEE.com to Fletcher Penney’s site (and it’s many variations) to Jason Clark’s site and many many more. These differences are accounted for through flavour files which allow you to create almost anything. Most other blog systems allow for this sort of customization, but it is very difficult. This is why so many blogs look (almost) exactly the same.

Blosxom does have a default template built into the CGI, but the fun comes from building your own look and feel. There are a variety of ways of going about it. I will usually build a page from scratch, designing how it should look without regard to Blosxom and its needs. When I’m done I section the file into the various necessary flavour files.

In my first attempts I actually “borrowed” HTML from other people’s sites and customized their code to what I wanted and needed. These days I will build the page using either Macromedia Dreamweaver or more commonly Bare Bones BBEdit.

Read the rest of this entry…

2004.03.07

Setting up Polls in Blosxom

I had been looking for a perl script I could use to have polls on OOKEE.com. The few I found looked complicated and far more difficult than necessary to install and set up. Imagine my suprise when cruising the Blosxom plugin registry and seeing a new plugin there; poll! It was easy to set up, and I did some customization to get it to work better with the site.

Read the rest of this entry…

2004.03.07

On the Subject of Divorce

Cruising for links to post to OOKEE.com I came across this link which brings up a corollary not often talked about, either before San Francisco started marrying homosexuals or after. Titled Same-Sex Marriage: Be Careful What You Ask For, it talks about a few of the realities of divorce.

… Today, 50 percent of all first time marriages and 60 percent of all second marriages will end in divorce, 80 percent of them initiated against the wishes and the will of one of the parties. …

Nor has the institution of the Church been any great help. …Today the divorce rate among those professing to be Christians and who claim to attend church on a regular basis is higher than it is for the general population overall. …

Before the gay community becomes euphoric about gaining the equal right to marry, it might be wise for it to consider, as well, the implications of being denied the right to certain equal protections under the law following divorce.

This issue is a hot bed and there are some groups attempting to address this problem. Not long ago NPR ran a show about Wisconsin’s initiative to create a pre-marriage counseling program to try and prevent the high divorce rate. So far no data is available on how effective this would be, but the idea alone is worth looking into.

Attempting to dig through Congress so far reveals nothing being attempted to address this.

I haven’t set my mind to this subject yet, and since I’m not even married I’m not sure what insight I would give except to say that the few friends of mine who are divorced might have benefitted from such a program, but it’s hard to say. Maybe they will weigh in with comments.

Completely aside, while doing research for writing this I found this which describes 10 ways to save straight marriages. Very funny and unfortunately true!

2004.03.04

Audacity

If you’re looking for a free application to edit audio files, look no further than Audacity, which comes in versions compatible with MacOS X/9, Windows and Linux. You’ll have to install an extra plugin to work with MP3 files, but for the price it seems well worth it. Combine this with the AppleLoops SDK and you can create your own loops from existing music!

2004.03.03

Why I’m Conservative

Or, perhaps, why I’m romantic and old fashioned.

Dave came over tonight for rehearsal and brought a bottle of wine. Instead of a cork this thing had a screw top.

This is the coming trend as wineries try to prevent a problem with corks and to increase their profits. Apparently sometimes cork will carry a bacteria which will sour the wine (I’ll have to look the name of the condition). Though it only affects something like 3% of the bottles, it’s enough that wine makers are looking to alternatives to cork as that’s money lost from their point of view. What’s next? Putting wine in cheap boxes to save on the cost of glass? Oh, damn, too late. Freaking white trash box wines…

So, call me old fashioned, but I think once wine comes with only screw tops I’ll be done drinking wine.

The second reason I think I’m old fashioned is this whole electronic voting crud. I think it’s stupid. Not only is it insecure and begging for fraud, but what’s wrong with paper? In fact I would love to see hand written voter forms that are hand counted and not automated.

Voting is an important institution in a democracy. We in America have few enough traditions as it is; why do we need to change the way we vote? Electronic voting is not really saving anyone time or money. In fact unless they can convince the public it is secure it will only increase in cost.

I feel some things don’t have to change. There’s nothing wrong with some things in life never innovating!

Tradition is important and creates ties between and among generations. It provides a segment of culture that, because it doesn’t change, everyone can be familar with. No one, young or old, feels alienated opening a bottle of wine because the cork has always been there.

I’m not against change. I grew up with nothing but change! Computers, Mars rovers, nanotechnology, terrorist attacks on America, genetic research, digital cameras… We live in a society that is changing so fast my own sister, who is only nine years younger than me, is practically a different generation!

I moved every three or so years growing up. I’ve lived in more places that most people will ever see. I work in the field of technology. I accept change as a part of life. Even so, there is just no reason to change some things. The more important the thing is to the culture, the less it really needs to change. Like voting. Or wine.

And speaking of wine, I’m off to finish this bottle, which still tastes pretty good despite the stupid screw top.

2004.03.03

Plugin Conflict

I discovered an interesting conflict between two plugins I use. As this came about during unusual circumstances I don’t think most people will run into it, but here’s the story.

Read the rest of this entry…

2004.03.02

1000 Common Words

Here’s a list of the one thousand most common English words compiled to help people learn English as a second language. Also handy for creating basic constructed languages… Now if they’d only put that into a single file for easier access.

2004.03.01

Justin Hall

I don’t know how I’ve managed to not run into Justin Hall or his voluminous website before. He’s been hosting and posting for 10 years! Happy (slightly belated) web-b-day!