Category: Burningbird

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Just Shelley

This week in Missouri

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

For this week’s recap of Missouri news, I’m going to focus on one event that is both trivial and profound: the closure of 16 Starbucks in the St. Louis area.

First, some context. Bob Sutor provides a link to a PDF listing all of the closures, nationally. Bill Greer at Off the Map has taken this data and mapped the location, as well as providing analysis of most impacted areas. As you can see from his list, though we didn’t have the most closures, we’re probably one of the most impacted per capita.

One of the Starbucks being closed in this area is also the closest to where I live. However, I go to another store anyway, because it’s closer to where I walk. Of course, I stopped going to Starbucks, and therein lies the profound nature of this event.

It’s not surprising that the Starbucks stores haven’t been doing as well in St. Louis. We don’t have the highest unemployment rate, but we do have unemployment beyond the national average: we’re now at over 6% unemployed and rising, aided and abetted by the closure of these stores.

However, high unemployment doesn’t necessarily mean that a luxury food store like Starbucks is going to be impacted. After all, when a people have little money for new TVs or cars, they can still escape the circumstances of their lives with the illusion of wealth by buying a tiny box of chocolates at Godiva, or a Starbuck’s White Mocha.

This year, though, even the few dollars that might go for these small luxuries are being eaten up by food prices that shock every time we go to the store, as well as gas prices that leave all quiet and subdued at the pumps.

Instead of Starbucks, we’re going to McDonald’s for a hot cup of coffee, or bringing our own home brewed, as we head to the Zoo, Art Museum, Arch, or other free, and most importantly, local spot; to spend time with family or friends, or our own thoughts. To find comfort in things that don’t require credit cards.

It’s difficult to hear of yet more closures in St. Louis. Will the last person leaving St. Louis, please remember to pull the plug on the Mississippi. However, there is a sanity to the lifestyle changes we’re having to make. Someday, when this is all behind us, forgive me if I hope these closed Starbucks stores never return.

Categories
Burningbird

More simplifications and Atom feed issues

The recent small Drupal upgrade convinced me to simplifying my site structure. It only took me about ten minutes, all total, but having to do the same thing with five sites becomes a bit of a bore. I’m creating shell scripts that will manage updates for Drupal minor releases and Drupal modules, but you still have to run updates. So, one more site bites the dust: Painting the Web.

I originally split Painting the Web off because I wanted to use the site to hopefully market the book. I also wanted to separate the site from my more opinionated writings, so I don’t lose sales. However, book sites rarely help sales, and if people aren’t going to buy a book because of my opinions, they probably wouldn’t like the book, anyway.

This won’t impact on any of you because I don’t think anyone has subscribed to the site directly. However, I may be moving some of the writings over to this weblog, so forgive the duplications in your feeds.

Speaking of feeds, since the Drupal upgrade, my Atom feed seems to be marking old posts as newly updated, and it looks like my feeds are being refreshed so they show up as active in readers again. When I have the time after the first of August, I’ll look through the code and see if I can figure out what’s happening. In the meantime, I’ll try to minimize the feed pinging as much as possible.

Categories
Copyright Writing

Painting the Web now DRM free and on the Kindle

I had no idea that my book Painting the Web was going to be one of O’Reilly’s first batch of DRM-free eBooks. I was stunned to see it as one of the first 12 Kindle books O’Reilly has released.

Painting the Web does make a nice ebook. I think the graphics are better in a digital format rather than in print. I’m not quite sure, though, how the graphics will translate to a Kindle. I’ll probably buy a copy for my own Kindle, just to see what the book looks like on the device.

There was a group of us authors who had a discussion in the Kindle forums several months back, about books with figures. My suggestion at the time was that companies who publish books with lots of figures to the Kindle, should also provide a PDF or some other online copy of the book, or at least the figures, so that people have both—the Kindle for the text, and the other format to better see the figures. It sounds like O’Reilly is using this approach with the company’s ebook bundles: pay one price, and get the book in PDF, EPUB, and Kindle-compatible Mobipocket. So now, you can now read Painting the Web in Kindle, Sony’s ebook reader, on your computer, and yes, even on paper.

In addition to being able to read these books in about every environment known to humanity, the digital formats make it simple to add corrections to an existing book and have those corrections reflected immediately in the digital copy. This is the way of the future. I’m not saying paper books are going away, but I know I certainly don’t miss paper with my Kindle.

The DRM-free nature of the books is a gamble. Other publishers have started to put out DRM free books, too, such as some of the Sci-Fi houses like Tor and Baen. My being able to buy food and pay rent next year depends on how well this gamble pays off.

I’m pleased to see Painting the Web on both lists. This is a book I’m very fond of, and I like that it’s taking part in O’Reilly’s new venture. I was surprised, though, as I hadn’t been in any discussion with O’Reilly about the book being included.

Categories
Just Shelley

Apple speak

I received my Powerbook back from repair. Neither the Apple store guy nor I could decipher what was fixed on the machine. The parts list is as follows:


SUBASSY, AP EXT/BT, 11CHNL,Q85
FLX CKT ASSY, BT,WIRELESS,PB15"
RETURN: Within Specifications
PCBA,LIO/SOUND,PB15"
FLX CKT ASSY, SOUND,IO Q16C

The returned item was the battery, as there was a separate page saying that though the battery wasn’t optimum, it wouldn’t be covered. We also deduced that the Airport card was probably replaced. It looks like the sound card may have been replaced.

If you can decipher any of these items, drop a note in comments, and my thanks in advance.

Categories
Just Shelley

47 Million. And One.

The pain was sudden and intense, a band across my chest, taking away my breath. I had been bent over, lifting several books from a lower shelf, and the pain hit as soon as I straightened up. I dropped the books and fell back into my chair, clutching my hand to my chest, just like they do on TV. Heart attack. I was having a heart attack. I was home, alone, having a heart attack.

I grabbed my phone to dial 9-1-1 but then stopped. If this was a heart attack, I should go to the hospital. However, if this was not a heart attack, the paramedics would still want me to go to the hospital. The hospital would want to do tests, and tests cost money. In my mind, I started adding up charges…probably 250.00 for an ambulance, a couple of thousand just for entering through the emergency door, EKG, saline drip, that test with the paper and squiggly lines…

Let’s just stop for a moment, and re-evaluate the situation. Consider the circumstances. I had been bent over in an awkward position, and the books I was lifting were heavy. I imagine heavy lifting could cause a heart attack, but heavy lifting can cause other things, too, like a muscle strain. I felt the pain, trying to gauge its location. Yes, yes, the pain was focused in the right side, not the left. That’s good. I mean, that’s good.

The pain was still intense, though, making it hard to breathe. I grabbed the phone, but instead of calling 9-1-1, I called my roommate. I told him what happened, how I felt. Are you going to the hospital, he asked? I’m not sure, I replied.

Is the pain on your left or right? Right, I answered. Is it persistent? I thought about it, doing a mental check, and responded affirmatively. Are you having a hard time breathing? Y-e-e-s, I replied, though hesitantly, because by this time the band seemed looser, less urgent. Breath in. Hurt? Breath deeper. Hurt more?

Of course, I said to him, if I were having a heart attack, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. True, he said. What were you doing, anyway? I told him I was lifting books from a bottom shelf. Well, does it feel like you pulled a muscle? I don’t know. It just hurts, hard to breath. Try lifting something, he said.

I picked up Zoë, and felt a twinge, in my right shoulder and chest. I put Zoë down, and it seemed like the pain was less. I picked Zoë up again. Yes, the pain was more intense. Zoë was happy, though.

I think I’ll live this time, I told my roommate. That’s good, he said. That’s good you’ll live, this time.

Zoë just purred.