Show notes for March 31st, 2007 on BlogTalkRadio.com, my interview with April Laragy of the Atomic Swindlers.
Consider this an open thread for the show. Talk amongst yourselves or ask a question!
Atomic Swindlers Official Home Page
Their MySpace.com Space:
Atomic Swindlers Rock / Psychedelic / Alternative
april laragy . com ~ biography
One of upstate New York’s favorite artists, April Laragy presents her latest artistic achievements that awaken the imagination. Influenced by Chagall, her watercolors are compelling and rich with fantasy. The broad theme of her work embodies the earthly dimension of time and space, and makes a connection to a second dimension through the use of the canvas. April’s artistic talents are not limited to the visual arts. Her electric musical talents can be enjoyed at upstate NY venues. Her band, the Atomic Swindlers give the audience a surreal way to experience their music by collaborating with regional artists for a visual and musical performance
Technorati Tags: Atomic Swindlers, April Laragy, Progressive Rock
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. . . On whatever the hell it had a grip on. I’m not sure what that was, other than approval ratings. . .
I just got done posting an article about how the Middle East has begun to solve it’s own problems (however feebly) without the White House, now it seems that the Congress has gotten into the act of moving beyond the idiot president and into negotiations with Damascus directly:
White House criticizes Pelosi’s planned Syria visit – CNN.com
“We do not encourage and, in fact, we discourage members of Congress to make such visits to Syria,” said White House deputy spokeswoman Dana Perino. “This is a country that is a state sponsor of terror, one that is trying to disrupt the (Prime Minister Fouad) Siniora government in Lebanon and one that is allowing foreign fighters to flow through its borders to Iraq.
Just wait for the “Hanoi Nancy” comments from The Right. Trust me, they’re coming. But this isn’t a celebrity negotiating surrender with the enemy. This is serious politicians dealing directly with serious issues that the White House simply cannot. The whole world is doing an end-run around the president. Sad. Very sad.
“I don’t know what she is trying to accomplish, and I don’t know if anyone in the administration has spoken to her about it,” Perino said. “In general, we do discourage such trips.”
Yes. We know, that’s why we’ve all stopped listening.
Technorati Tags: Pelosi, Bush, Syria
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Always a great report from the TomDispatch. This one analyzes the diplomatic goings on in the Middle East and the fact that Condi, despite her spin, has had nothing really much to do with any of it:
TomDispatch – Tomgram: Karon, Why Condi’s Diplomacy Should Start with Bush
Mainstream U.S. media outlets were alone in their willingness to swallow the preposterous narratives offered by Rice’s State Department spinners on the significance of her latest diplomatic efforts. For months, we have been reading a fantasy version of American diplomacy in which Rice was at the center of a realignment of forces in the Middle East, building a united front of Arab moderates to stand alongside the U.S. and Israel against Iran and other “extremist” elements. Last week, we were asked to believe that Rice was now about to head back to the region to choreograph a complex and dramatic diplomatic dance that would include such “challenges” as “trying to get the Saudis to talk to the Israelis.” Perhaps none of her aides bothered to let her in on the open secret that the Saudis have been doing that for months — and not under the tutelage of, or at the prompting of, the Secretary of State either.
The lengthy article goes on to describe the political forces unleashed by the Bush Administration that are forcing players in the Middle East as disparate as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Hammas and Isreal to begin discussing the problems of their region without the proven-worthless assistance of the Americans. Now, bear in mind: Conservatives will argue that this was in fact the glorious legacy of the Bush Administration; it’s transformative policy in the region that cooled the passions of a dangerous world.
Bullshit.
And now I know why, seemingly as if to demonstrate my recent post on Bush Administration language abuse, the newest Security Council resolution on the recent seizure of British sailors by Iran includes the language “grave concern.” This did not get through the Security Council without Bush Administration approval; it’s obvious the Bush State Department is powerless and clueless to stop what is going on and afraid to fan the flames any more than they’ve already done.
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OK, so now I really need to get a book on Linux and start learning for real. Ever since it became apparent that Microsoft would, in fact, be releasing their abomination of an Operating System known as Vista (my pre-release analysis of which you can find here.), I’ve been worried about buying a new system. I don’t want to pay for Microsoft crap I don’t want and I don’t want to deal with bootleg OSs anymore. Certainly not if I have an OS that I bought already!
So what to do? Well, it looks at least in the short term as though Dell is going to start boxing systems with the Linux OS installed from the factory:
Dell: we’re going Linux, and it’s all because of you – Engadget
Linux will soon be pre-installed on consumer desktops and laptops outside their server and Precision desktop lineup — hoorah! What we’re most curious about: when going to configure your system, how much money will one save by ducking out of the “Microsoft tax”? No word on when we’ll get to find out what the magic number is, but we imagine the Linux rollover won’t be immediate since Dell still has some serious work to do not only with the driver and software end of things to make future machines fully open-source, but also prepping and training its end-user support staff to get Linux-compatible, as it were.
That’s good news for a lot of people, but especially those of us who would like to pay for a faster-performing machine that. . . well, performs faster. Spending top-dollar on a new system only to have it grind to a halt because Microsoft wanted to add in a few more features doesn’t sound like money well spent to me.
Now for the potential down-side: customer support. For those of you who don’t own Dells, let me tell you that their support all comes from India, and no offense to those hard-working kids in India, the support sucks ass. It’s not their fault alone: Dell has a rigid system of checks which no Indian recent college graduate would dare contradict for fear of losing their job. That is a failing of the company, in my opinion, because if you cannot trust your help you need to get new help.
But whatever. The point is: they’re going to need to turn this whole ship around in order to accommodate Linux. That’s no small task and there will be a lot of hurt, pissed-off customers in the process. Even those who know Linux will have problems because techs on the phone who do not and are stuck with a rigid process that doesn’t allow them to deviate will not be able to support the machine without correct processes.
But, it bears mentioning that Dell is probably already having this same problem with Vista.
Technorati Tags: Dell, Linux, Vista
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So, OK, bloggers. Our entire blogging world is based on X/HTML standards compliance, even if most of us don’t really know it. Believe it or not, the more standards-compliant a given web page is, the easier for the Google and other bots to read your stuff and the more likely to get accurate statistics. That means stack rank, y’all!
So, whatever. The point is, there’s a new sheriff in town: X/HTML5, which replaces both XHTML1.0 and HTML4.0, or will once it becomes standardized. In the below-linked discussion, some really hard-core web geeks discuss the issue of standardization. For many a coder, HTML represents a frustratingly open-ended concept because browsers were written to bypass errors in the code and continue rendering with “best guess” practices. That means that a surprising number of web pages do not even come close to fitting the standards as they sit even now, to say nothing of future implementations:
Conversation With X/HTML 5 Team
Vlad Why not put an end to “tag soup” by requiring user-agents to only accept markup written to specification?
Ian There are literally dozens if not hundreds of billions of documents already on the Web. A study of a sample of several billion of those documents with a test implementation of the HTML 5 Parser specification that I did at Google put a very conservative estimate of the fraction of those pages with markup errors at more than 78%. When I tweaked it a bit to look at a few more errors, the number was 93%. And those are only core syntax errors — it didn’t count misuse of HTML, like putting a p element inside an ol element.
If we required browsers to refuse those documents, then you couldn’t browse over 90% of the Web.
But consider — if one browser showed error messages on half the Web, and another browser showed no errors and instead showed the Web roughly as the author intended. Which browser would the average person use?
If we want to make HTML 5 successful, we have to make sure the browser vendors pay attention to it. Any requirements that make their market share go down relative to browsers who aren’t following the spec will immediately be ignored.
Fascinating, no? It’s the classic HTML quandary: allowing non-compliant code to render makes it easy for even the most novice of coders to write for the web, which makes the web so highly popular; allowing non-compliant code to render also makes moving the standard forward to encompass more richly-coded and interactive web pages damned-near impossible.
And in fact, there’s another ripple that web designers know all to well: because browsers have to put “best guess” practices to use to render non-compliant code, that means their guesses can be outrageously different from one another. That means that even if you write compliant code, it may be rendered differently from browser to browser! That, my friends, is why coders get so pissy about compliance: you can’t write consistent code for the web without writing lots and lots of code, sometimes intentionally breaking the rules to accommodate different browsers.
This is a great read.
Technorati Tags: X/HTML, Standards, Web2.0
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There’s nothing wrong with voicing Conservative op-eds in the one and only newspaper in Rochester, so long as a Liberal op-ed or even essay can be printed in the same paper. I know most of us on the Left are well aware of the Conservative slant of the D&C, but I thought I’d make sure that it was good and clear to those outside our little loop.
To whit, the fight over the Rochester Central Library’s Internet policy. In the essays section, entitled “Speaking Out,” they posted the opinion of one relatively conservative woman. Then they posted the supposedly countervailing opinion that was horribly misinformed.
Now they give an op-ed to the “Teen Council,” (which I’ll betcha doesn’t have any teens in it) who writes this lovely bit of garbage:
Democrat & Chronicle: Teen Council
Pornography falls in the same category as drug addiction. It presents many of the same conflicts and consequences, and is detrimental to the family unit that is an integral part of society. Like drugs, pornography ruins marital relationships and exploits innocent children and teenagers. Although society has been led to believe that pornography is a freedom to which each individual is entitled, society’s definition of freedom has become synonymous with licentiousness. The general idea that everyone should mind their own business and that pornography isn’t wrong as long as no one is hurt does not apply to this issue. Pornography always involves a victim, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
Keep reading. If you liked that, you’ll love the bit where they start blaming the favourite whipping-bitch of The Right, the ACLU. Never minding, of course, that Chief Justice Rehnquist(pdf) was in fact far more responsible for the current policy than the ACLU ever was.
As one commenter points out in the comments, this doesn’t account for the folks out there playing video games or blogging or any number of other things for more than 11 hours a week. But more over, their sources seem like they might be a bit skewed. I mean, it would be hard for the National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity to get funding if they didn’t find that pornography was addictive, would they? Everything they say might be true, but I’d be a lot more impressed with an objective study by a psychological association.
As for the The National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, well, you’ll be astonished when you read their “About Us” section:
About Us: Vision & Goals
Cultural Apologetics
Cultural Apologetics has grown into a multi-faceted initiative of the National Coalition. Through Cultural Apologetics, the National Coalition addresses relevant social and moral issues for the purpose of equipping Christians with an intelligent defense of biblical truth in the matters of moral and ethical conflict in today’s culture.
You can read more about them as an agency here.
Now, understand, I would have no problem with any of this – at all – if they were willing to give us any kind of genuinely intelligent counter-argument, but they do not. In fact, I tried to submit an essay to the “Speaking Out” section and they didn’t even bother to tell me it wasn’t good enough. They said, “well, it’s too long for a letter to the editor.” I didn’t want to send a letter to the editor, and my subject line read “Speaking Out Submission.” I explained as much, politely, and they never wrote back.
I’ll post it in another article. You can decide for yourself if you think it’s really unbecoming of publication in a newspaper.
Technorati Tags: Rochester Central Library, Pornography, First Amendment
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I’ve been on the mailing list for the WordPress development group for a while, now. It’s just nice watching things come together and seeing the kinks get worked out, even if I’m not really in a position to help out like I’d like to.
Anyway, I thought I’d let folks know, especially in the Rochester/New York Lefty Blogs community, that if you’re using WordPress you can expect an upgrade to show up soon. Collectively, it includes a bunch of bug fixes from the previous versions plus support for newer versions of PHP. Call it a straightening-up of code, but it’s important stuff for those of us interested in maintaining our site’s security.
I believe that they’re heading in the direction of including automatic detection and upgrade of plugin updates from the Dashboard. Those of you using FireFox know what a convenience this can be, and occasionally what a nuisance. This will likely remain true in WordPress, I suspect, especially since so many plugin writers are amatures. At the same time, it’s nice to know when stable plugins get updated so you’re sure you’ve got the latest and greatest.
So, while I usually council caution with upgrading software, I would say where WordPress is concerned it’s best to grab the upgrades as they happen. The community is pretty diligent about case-hardening the latest release such that it should be at least secure most of the time. At least, most of the time, but there are always exceptional circumstances.
So, as always, back up your database, your files and shut off your plugins. Get updated, because the scuttlebutt is that there won’t really be much in the way of support for 2.1.x once 2.2 is in effect.
Somewhere over the course of the night, Mariah laid her second egg of the season. Some of you may have noticed by now: I get kind of obsessed over the falcons each year. But the way I see things, it’s just nice to know that somethings don’t ever change, even as they change every day.
To whit, the birth of falcons. Mariah is on track for her usual four eggs this year, it looks like. We got a bit concerned the other day because she came and sat on the nest twice, looking like she was going to lay another egg, and then left. But that’s what happens when you stare at the falcon cam too long: you obsess like it’s your falcon.
High above Rochester, a watchful father keeps danger at bay.
Kaver is doing his falcon best to keep the first egg of the season well-guarded. Earlier today, Mariah was sitting on the egg, and I almost wondered if she wasn’t laying a new one, but alas, no new eggs today. At least not so far. According to Imprints (the Falcon Cam authority and a treasure trove of falcon information), peregrines tend to space out egg laying by about two days or so. That means that if there are any newbies in our future, they should be coming in today.
Let me also say a “thank you” to the Genesee Valley Audubon Society and the authors of Imprints for this fantastic source of information. So many of us stare at the page when we should be working, little understanding the intricacies of peregrine falcon lives. No longer. Now, we’re getting great information all the time, and folks have a chance to comment and be part of a community. There are, of course, falcon and bird-cam forums and such, but those require registrations most of us won’t bother with and most forum software is devoid of the all-important RSS feeds that make modern blogging possible.
Thank you, guys!
Call me shallow and insensitive. Go ahead, I can take it. But more than anything else about the Bush Administration, as a lover of language and literature, I despise the horrid use and abuse of English. “Cut and run,” avoids debate; “grave concerns,” is a euphemism for “we don’t give a shit;” “ally” suddenly has an entirely new emphasis on the wrong fucking syllable because Dubya screwed it up once and Condi wants to toot his pink piccolo.
And there there’s this old chestnut: “swift and decisive action,” which is a euphemism for “why don’t you go shit in one hand and put your demands in the other and see which one fills up first”:
Gonzales TV Appearance Sheds No Light on Firings – washingtonpost.com
He said he was certain that “nothing improper happened” — but vowed “swift and decisive action” if any wrongdoing is found.
The operative word, of course, being “if.”
Technorati Tags: Gonzo, Alberto Gonzales
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