Categories
Weblogging

Orange is the new blog

Recovered from the Wayback Machine, orange color and all.

I like my new weblog color. Orange. Burnt orange to be exact. Bitter-sweet.

The color suits because I’ve found weblogging to be both bitter as well as sweet, luckily more of the latter than the former. But you can’t taste the sweet without the bitter, and sometimes a little of the downside creeps in to keep things in balance. Yin and Yang. Bitter and Sweet.

In my comments this morning I found a note from someone who says I lack credibility because in the last week I’ve pulled three postings regarding Dave Winer. The person has a point. We’ve tweaked Dave on this, and here I am doing the same thing.

I don’t particularly care that the person making the comment, “D” as he styles himself, doesn’t return. My readers must, at a minimum have a sense of humor. However, for those lonely few that remain, you are owed an explanation.

I pulled one posting to put into my technology experimental weblog because it had to do purely with technology, and I’m using this Alter Ego weblog for pure technology from this point. You can still see it there. It’s very civil, no burn, no rants and raves. I should have left a forwarding blurb — and the concept of that sounds both interesting and twisted.

I pulled a posting earlier in the week because it made reference to a posting Dave had also pulled, which was the result of an earlier posting I made which Dave took exception to. Did you follow that? You have to be able to follow some twisted threads within weblogging. It’s a requirement.

I pulled this posting for two reasons:

One reason is because it was flamebait and I’ve just not been in a mood to deal with flames this week. Yes, I can burn and bite with the best of them; but not all the time, and not this week.

The second reason was irony. I soundlessly pull a posting whose content was about Dave soundlessly pulling a posting. Try putting that on your scales and see if you don’t get jello. Call it weblogging’s first performance art and title it “Silence of the Postings”.

Finally, I pulled yesterday’s posting about the whole ugly Winerlog/Dave Winer thing. I was concerned that Winerlog was killed summarily, only to find out it was a web server performance thing. (And folks, if you haven’t noticed by now, all the editthispage.com web sites have lousy preformance — the server is maxed out.)

However, I didn’t pull the posting because I later found out Winerlog wasn’t killed out of hand (though this evetually happened last night). I pulled the posting because the whole thing seems so tawdry. And unnecessary. As Rogi pointed out so well in the comments — let Winerlog go to a new home and Userland reclaim their server space. End of story. I pulled the posting because I just didn’t want to waste more space on this issue.

But I am wasting blogspace today because D was right, I am lacking credibility for pulling the postings without note or notice, at least for two of them. And though we kiss the elusive D good-bye, I do care that those of you that remain are given an explanation. Whether you want it or not.

One last related note — Dave, no matter how ugly Winerlog gets, at least give him one week on your server to allow him to re-direct to his new weblog. And Winerlog, can’t you shut up one moment, long enough to get moved?

(Rogi, I hope you don’t mind me showing your comments out of context; I have the old comments, but not the old posting.)

Categories
Technology

Full Peer Again

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Dave is referencing his Full Peer again.

I like the concept of peers being able to link and serve as each other’s cloud. To me this is true distributed computing. However, a “peer” that’s guaranteed to be up 24 hours a day isn’t a true peer — it becomes a server.

For a P2P cloud, you’re going to have to a mechanism that can distribute services among a group of peers so that a request on the service can match to whatever is the closest peer that’s accessible. If you push the services out to one statically defined machine, you have client/server — even if you want to call the server a “full peer”.

Dynamic redirection of service requests. Dynamic installation of small, lightweight services on a group of peers. A store and forward functionality that allows a peer to signal it’s going offline, or coming online. That’s P2P. That’s true P2P. And that’s exciting stuff.

Categories
Writing

Tax Filings

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I finally found the kernel of the writer’s block I’ve had, as well as much of my restlessness in the last month — it was the end of year tax filings.

Really, you would have laughed if you had seen me. I literally couldn’t approach the table with all my records and paperwork and forms. Once I finally forced myself into the chair, the slightest thing would distract me.

I must finish this form — oh, look there’s the guardsman. Wave at the nice man with the big gun.

Stop it! I must finish this fo — oh, look at the pretty ship. I wonder where it’s from?

I MUST FINISH THI – Is that a ripple in the bay there? I bet it is.

I even grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of the paperwork at one point. Please agree with me that this is not normal behavior.


In previous years my ex-husband did all the filings and paperwork. In the last year I’ve ignored the fact that I had a company to run, and this neglect hit me square in the face yesterday and today. I knew my paperwork was a mess. I knew I had missed critical filings. Yup and yup.

But I’m done. Facing some fines, but I’m done. And in the process, I found that I’ve been ignoring other aspects of my life in addition to the necessary work to keep my company going. Who would have thought that tax work would force a person to look at how they’re living their life — in effect, kicking one in the butt when one needs it.

I consider myself kicked.

 

Categories
Places

Oregon Weather

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Jonathon likes the weather he experienced in Portland Oregon. I lived in Portland for four years, and in Seattle for nine years — after a time the drizzle and overcast can get a bit wearying, especially if you live in the city.

Out of the city, though. That’s where the mist comes into its own.

Cannon Beach, Oregon — one of my favorite places. Grab a slicker and walk the beach during a rain. You’ll have the waterfront to yourself, and the mist combined with the surf is oddly peaceful, tranquil.

Or the San Juan Islands — the mists there are almost a veil, tossed carelessly across the waters and islands. In the winter you can find stretches of area where you’re alone on the water, you, your boat, and maybe, if you’re lucky, a Killer Whale or two.

We don’t have that much drizzle in the San Francisco area, but overcast and rain is pretty common in the Winter. The best, though, is the Summer fogs. Driving along the peninsula you can see the fogs roll in from the ocean, soft, thick, beautiful. I would deliberately wait for days when fog is in to walk along the beach by the Golden Gate Bridge.

The fog cuts off the city and obscures the bridge, and its you, the beach, and pelicans and sea lions hunting fish close to the shore. Out of the mists you can hear the Bridge fog horms, and you can almost feel the large container ships passing along the waterfront beside you.

Nice memories. Thanks for triggering them.

Categories
Weblogging

ISSN Number

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

For those of you who take your weblogging seriously, you might want to take a closer look at Allan Moult’s weblog. Underneath the name of the weblog is an actual genuine ISSN number — the same type of number used for all other periodicals including magazines such as the New Yorker, Wired, and Time.

Allan found the how-tos on getting an ISSN for your weblog from Fawny.org.

An ISSN lists your weblog within an international database of publications, accessible by request from your local librarian. It also puts your weblog right smack into the middle with all the big boys. Just think: The National Geographic. Time. New Yorker. Burningbird.

In most cases, filing is free.