Day: November 6, 2004

Categories
Political

All is relative

Note from 2023 when this was recovered: No, I was wrong. Brooks is the pawn of the devil, and he’s not worth listening to.

Loren Webster talks about too many bridges being burnt, and I can identify with this. I am at that point now where I am thinking of burning some bridges, an impulse brought on by reading others’ implications that those of us who don’t share the sound and fury about the ‘reds’ winning, are somehow compromising our beliefs.

Per the Tracy Chapman song Loren quoted:

All the bridges that you burn
Come back one day to haunt you
One day you’ll find you’re walking
Lonely

Scott Hanson pointed to a NY Times editorial by David Brooks very worth reading. I know, I know — Brooks is the pawn of the devil. But he’s also one of the ‘reds’ we should be listening to:

But the same insularity that caused many liberals to lose touch with the rest of the country now causes them to simplify, misunderstand and condescend to the people who voted for Bush. If you want to understand why Democrats keep losing elections, just listen to some coastal and university town liberals talk about how conformist and intolerant people in Red America are. It makes you wonder: why is it that people who are completely closed-minded talk endlessly about how open-minded they are?

(Here’s another interesting NY Time’s article on this issue, but I don’t necessarily agree with all the opinions expressed.)

Looking at the vote counts in the states that passed anti-gay marriage initiatives, to get the numbers they’re getting, they’ve had Democrats vote for this in addition to Republicans. Remember my post, An Actual Conversation? Both of the people featured in this voted for Kerry. Nothing is ever as black and white as it first appears.

I wrote in comments in another weblog that I hope every fear I have about what could happen under Bush doesn’t materialize. I have no greater desire now, than to be proven wrong about all of it, and will do everything in my power to ensure this.

Last post on politics for a while. I think we all need to take a deep breath and give this subject some space. I for one happen to like most of the people on the other side of the bridges I’ve been thinking of putting to the flame; too much so to follow the impulses of the moment. They’ll have to make their own decisions as regards their own fires.

Categories
Places

Disconnected a wee bit sooner

I guess I’m offline much sooner than expected, as my cable internet connection failed last night. Since I’m not ready yet for this, haven’t installed all I needed, and since I’m paid up until the 20th, a repairman is coming on Monday.

Now I’m at Panera, having a lovely Danish and latte, on a beautiful Saturday morning, using the free wireless.

I earned today’s Danish by walking around the zoo for over three hours yesterday. The place was surprisingly empty of folk, which is nice if you’re not necessarily comfortable with hordes of screaming kids, whining for their Moms and Dads to ‘carry me’ or ‘buy me something’ (from overheard conversations from the families that were there).

It was my first time seeing the new Penguin and Puffin exhibit and this alone makes the trip worthwhile. The zoo created an enclosed, ideal environment for the birds (cold), and then built the tanks so that you’re right next to them. In fact, it would seem that a favorite hobby of some of the birds is to splash the people. Flash photography is welcome and I tried to take some photos of one fine fellow, but every time I would move in close to the tank, he’d flip his wing and splash me. The attendant said he was playing with me, as I recoiled in horror, throwing my body between my new camera and the water.

At the cougar exhibit, a young girl, probably about 10 or 11 jumped up and down yelling at the cougar to, “Look at me! Look at me you stupid cat!”

My, but this Danish is good. So is the coffee. This disconnected thing could work out; after everything is installed, of course. But no worries, still plenty of posting. So don’t forget to look at me. Look at me.

Categories
Critters

Cat Friday blogging

It hit me yesterday about noon that what we all really needed was a dose of cat blogging. However, rather than disturb the little princess, otherwise known as Zoe, to take more photos of her, I thought I would go to the zoo and take photos of the big cats.

First up was the exhibit with this fine looking sun bear.

“Where are the cats”, I hollered.

I’m a cat.

“No, you’re a bear.”

I’m a cat. See? I have claws.

“Do you like catnip?”

No

“Do you like to play with mice before you kill and eat them?”

Eat a mouse? Ewwww! Gross! Okay I’m not a cat. But can I ask you something before you go?

“Sure.”

Does this fur make me look fat? Can you see the line of my bikini underwear?

A bit further on, I came across this fine fellow, waiting to have his nose scratched.

“What’s your name, cutie”, I asked, as I stretched out to pat his nose.

Elvis.

“Where are the cats, Elvis?

I’m a cat.

“No, you’re a camel.”

No, I’m a cat. I’m covered with fur, and I have an adorable face.

“But what are those two huge lumps on your back.”

Fur balls. I have lots and lots and lots of fur balls.

“Ewwww! You just grossed me out, Elvis.”

Hee hee hee. See, told you I’m a cat.

From Elvis, I went to the new Penguin and Puffin Exhibit. There I met up with this handsome fellow, diving in and out of the water.

“Hi, I don’t suppose you know where the cats are, do you?”

I’m a cat *splash*

“Wow man, you almost got my camera. And no, you’re not a cat. You’re a penguin.”

Am not. I’m a cat. *splash*

“Geez, you’re going to ruin my camera with your playing. And you’re not a cat.”

Tell me something. Don’t cats like to play?

“Well, yes.”

And don’t they like to destroy things.

“Yes, that’s true. Cats do tend to destroy things.

Isn’t that camera of yours a ‘thing’?

“You got me there. But you’re in water. Cats don’t usually like water.”

I’m special. *splash*

Walking further, I arrived at the Seal display, and spotted this lovely on the rocks.

“Hey, where’s the cats.”

Strike a pose.

“No, that’s not what I asked. I asked where are the cats.”

Strike a pose.

“Oh, never mind.”

Strike a pose.

Eventually, I found the cats, but by this time, most had crawled off to wherever they go for their afternoon naps. Except for the cougar, napping in the sun on a rock near the roof of it’s enclosure.

“Finally, a cat.”

Damn straight, I’m a cat. And I want you to….

Saaaaay. What’s that jumping up and down screeching out ‘Look at me’ next to you? It looks tasty. Like a young pig I had once.

“Well, urh, it’s a child my cougar friend.”

A child, eh? Well, why don’t you take it out of the packaging and slip it into my cage.

I looked at the child, screaming, jumping up and down and yelling out its demands. And for a brief moment…

“Sorry, no can do. I mean, someone somewhere loves this kid.”

Most things are loved by someone, somewhere, lady. But a guy still has to eat.

“That sounds very philosophical.”

Hey, I’m a cat.

And there you have it, my Friday cat blogging post; posted on Saturday, true, but which is about cats, but also somewhat about the world with a little Elvis thrown in.

Categories
Technology

Back to biz

My internet connection burst back into life after we replaced the cable wire, so I was able to return to work on getting my Mac ready for Open Source development.

Installing and configuring MySQL and WordPress was quite simple, and matched the instructions at MacZealots; except that I am using an older PHP/MySQL client, with it’s older password authentication, and got this error:

Client does not support authentication protocol requested
by server; consider upgrading MySQL client.

Instead of opting to update my PHP install at the moment, I just updated the passwords using the MySQL command line and SET PASSWORD:

SET PASSWORD FOR ‘username’@’localhost’ = OLD_PASSWORD(’password’);

Now I am working at installing OsCommerce and possibly Drupal, and all the software I need. This has been an amazingly uncomplicated process. Much simpler than setting up the same environment in Linux.

If you want to see the weblog, just access http://localhost/wordpress/.

(Hee hee hee. I am an evil woman.)

Categories
RDF Technology

Wiki and Weblogs

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Tim Bray wrote a short note on weblogs and wikis, basically saying that contrary to assertions at Sun and elsewhere that the two are convergent, they’re both very different:

A wiki is a collaborative construction engine, with refactoring and edit-in-place being the dominant forms of activity, and many equal voices singing in a chorus. A blog is more like a content faucet, a source with one voice, always growing at one end; while updates to existing content are OK, the dominant activity is pouring new text and pictures and whatever in.

I can agree that out of the box, the two are very different; not only in implementation, but also in purpose and audience. However, that’s out of the box. It doesn’t take much to morph the one into the other, which I assume is where some of the discussion of convergence enters. (Not to mention that both are considered forms of personal empowerment.)

For instance, a wiki can easily be setup to only allow one editor, and limit one’s work to adding material rather than editing. And as can seen in the Kitchen, it’s not difficult to open a weblog up to the world, and the only thing stopping people from editing their work is habit and etiquette.

This latter is where the difference arises: the technology isn’t limiting how each tool is used, as much as our assumptions on how each is supposed to be used. The most significant assumption is that each writing on a weblog is relatively static and usually is identified by the author. In a wiki, the writing is usually not static and identifying your writing with your name is discouraged to prevent ownership of the material.

Further on, when Tim says that weblogging isn’t anything new, it’s because personal webpages controlled by one individual have been around since the web’s been invented. However, a wiki, with it’s lack of voice other than the corporate whole, and based on an almost universal trust, is very new.

Think of the difference politically: weblogs are Libertarian, while wikis are Green.

(Via Danny)