December 2004 Archives
31 December 2004
Fan Emails
I'm taking a brief break from New Year's Eve alcohol consumption at local bars (next stop: the West Alabama Icehouse), and stopped in to check the ol' email.
I have blogHOUSTON set up so that folks can send me anonymous comments, and I got this charmer earlier:
YOY ARE A DICK, KEVIN...
The moron included his email address for some strange reason, so the immediate response was:
better than being a vagina, I guess
happy new year!
I may have to make that my motto for 2005: Better than being a vagina.
Yes, these are the sorts of posts that result from little breaks in the New Year's festivities in Montrose.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/31/04 22:47 | Other | Technorati | Comments (5)
No, Stupefy Me
The following snippet made me laugh out loud:
After an extended Christmas vacation in New Jersey (where it did not snow until Sunday night despite snow in Houston!), I will bring everyone up to speed on the status of my confusion and misunderstanding.
Here at PubliusTX.net, I strive to keep everyone fully up to speed on the status of my own confusion and misunderstanding.
No teasers. Just confusion and misunderstanding in regular doses.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/31/04 00:19 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
30 December 2004
Oh My!
Michael Duff points to this rocking little post on Steven Den Beste's prolonged period of angst regarding his blog and its readers.
I won't spoil the Den Beste specific stuff with excerpts (it should be read in its entirety), but this observation is kind of fun:
Amidst all their excesses, weblogs have had a salutary effect on the national debate, one part of which has been to focus a very critical eye on the largely useless professional pundit class. As Daily Howler is fond of pointing out, these are people who are too frightened, too lazy, or too complacent to dig beyond the surface of many issues; all they have time for is chummy gabbing back and forth or catty witticisms. Many of them carry on like regular movie stars with massive egos and salaries to match.
In addition to criticizing the worst failings of this bunch, weblogs have shown that you don't really need these people for what they do best – there are any number of weblogs that give you the same or better quality of writing and all the chummy back-and-forth you can stand. No one pays these weblog writers for the very good reason that their services aren't worth that much, and neither are those of the professional pundit class.
Sweet.
This is pretty sweet too.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/04 23:04 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)
Bipolar Bohls
Longtime Austin American Statesman sports columnist Kirk Bohls must be bipolar.
Sometimes, he's the biggest homer you could imagine, and it's like Mack Brown is his dad or something.
Other times, it seems like Mack and crew took a dump on his pet rock.
Today, we get a column that has a little of both:
Mack was already the third-highest paid college football coach in the country behind Louisiana State's Nick Saban and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. And now that Saban's gone fishing with the Dolphins of the NFL, Mack's No. 2.
But, ahem, that's a position he's used to. [Ouch!]
Wednesday's announcement does raise the question: how big a raise will Mack get if he actually wins something? [ouch!]
In fairness, he's won a lot. Beaten Nebraska four times and Kansas State twice. He owns Texas A&M. He's even won half his bowl games although we won't bring up the other half. He has won a number of big games, just not the biggest ones while failing to win a conference title in 17 seasons at Texas and North Carolina.
Then there's the positive:
Brown is still the consummate recruiter, wins steadily, goes to bowl games and generally brings in Boy Scouts.
Boy scouts? Err, yeah. I hear they just started offering a merit badge in Criminal Trespass.
But see, that's Bipolar Bohls -- blasting Brown one minute, and then overselling him the next. It's strange.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/04 21:32 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (1)
A Shocker
This shocker from Kevin Drum appeared in the LA Times:
I've stopped being a Social Security doom-monger.
He even gives some reasons.
But he neglected what I would guess is the most salient reason.
Ah well.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/04 21:03 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)
Danger Train: Collision #72
Further to the last post, there was indeed a Danger Train collision earlier, as reported by KTRK-13.
That's Collision #72, and comes just as the LAST collision update rolled off the front page of the weblog.
Thanks to Anne for finding the first local story!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/04 17:57 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)
A Collision?
The traffic report on ESPN 790 about 15 minutes ago (4:05 or so) indicated there was a collision at Main and Pierce involving light rail.
Can anybody confirm a Danger Train collision?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/04 16:22 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (2)
Berlusconi Leaves Soccer Organization
The Lone Star Times laments the resignation of Sylvio Berlusconi...
As President of Milan's soccer team?
Who knew the LST folks were such "football" fans? It just seems too Euro for 'em. :)
But it's a lovely eulogy. And one supposes Milan soccer WILL be hard pressed to find another terror fighter to head up its organization.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/30/04 08:11 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (4)
29 December 2004
Ubuntu Linux
I decided to play around with a new linux flavor tonight, Ubuntu (a distro based on Debian), on a really old, nearly useless machine of mine.
Some time ago, I tried to install Red Hat on the thing, and that was a disaster.
I got FreeBSD going, but never really did much with it.
Ubuntu installed very nicely, and everything seems to be working. The Ubuntu people promise a simple, functional OS, and they seem to have delivered. I could even see my windows network after the installation, no intervention on my part required. That was a nice contrast to my FreeBSD experience.
The main reason I'm fooling with it again is I figured at some point, I ought to consider an OS for this Athlon 64 laptop that can actually take advantage of the processor (no thanks, WinXP64 trial).
Anyway, Ubuntu seems very user friendly if you're a Windows user who's a little scared by the harder core Linux flavors. I'm looking forward to playing around with it further, goofy name and all.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/04 21:41 | Other | Technorati | Comments (5)
Testaverde Will Start Final Game
Bill Parcells announced today that Vinny Testaverde will start the final game of the season:
Cowboys coach Bill Parcells will stick with Vinny Testaverde as starting quarterback in Sunday's season finale against the Giants.
Rookie Drew Henson, last week's No. 3 QB, will be the backup and could play for the first time since he started the Thanksgiving Day game against Chicago.
"If the opportunity comes about, I'll play him," Parcells said Wednesday.
The Fat Man seems to be under the impression that somebody in Dallas still cares.
Still, it's worth noting he said much the same thing about Romo last week -- that he'd try to get him in the game -- and that didn't happen.
Testaverde must have some really incriminating photos of The Fat Man or something. That's all I can figure.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/29/04 17:28 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (2)
28 December 2004
Four Cowboys?
I never commented on the Pro Bowl selections that were released about a week ago.
But the lack of commentary was hardly tacit approval of the fact that FOUR Dallas Cowboys made that list.
Of that four, Jason Witten certainly earned a spot.
And Roy Williams most certainly did not.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/04 22:15 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 December 2004
I Shouldn't Laugh
Will you readers think less of me if I admit that I tend to chuckle at Banjo's emissions reports?
Or will you think it's in character, just Kev being Kev?
The toxic dumping isn't funny, of course, but the way he writes the dang things... well, they ARE funny.
Hyperlocal blogging with a KICK. The Pegasus guys ought to be reading the Brazosport News. They'd surely have something all new-media-ish to say about it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/27/04 23:23 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (0)
Doing Something Right
Jack Sparks seems to have struck a nerve among some of the folks responsible for what passes as country music on commercial radio these days (otherwise known as Tampon Radio).
There are a few naughty words over there, but surely Nashville Tampon Radio has earned 'em.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/27/04 23:16 | Music | Technorati | Comments (0)
Mack Brown To Get Raise
UT officials will reportedly boost the salary of head coach Mack Brown.
Imagine how much money they'll offer him if he ever beats Bob Stoops again!
I'm not quite sure what this move is all about, unless perhaps UT officials are getting a little worried that UT's recruiting, which slipped a bit last year, seems to be slipping even further so far this year.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/27/04 22:42 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (0)
26 December 2004
Roadtrip Complete
Today's roadtrip back from Oklahoma was pretty uneventful.
I figured there'd be plenty of holiday travelers, but it wasn't really all that busy.
And very few drivers hogged the left PASSING lane for a change.
It was a good holiday. I ate way too much (back to the gym tomorrow), drank just about the right amount of wine (mmm), and came back with way too much stuff (I prefer to GIVE, not GET, these days, which must officially make me old). And the Cowboys even pulled out a crazy win against the DannySkins.
So, back to the grind this week, at least until New Year's, which looks to be pretty laid back this year.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/26/04 21:54 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
25 December 2004
Furling Away
A number of friends and bloggers I read regularly have started using the Furl service that I praised here a while back.
I thought I'd list a few of them for folks who might want to subscribe to them:
Alex Whitlock (of RAW360)
Michael Morgan (of Bayou City Perspective)
Anne Linehan (of blogHOUSTON)
Rob Booth (of Slightly Rough and Lone Star Times)
Tom Hanna (of Tom's Rants)
Please feel free to share your furl link in the comments section below if you're so inclined. And if you're not using the service yet -- what are you waiting for? :)
For those who missed my earlier post on the topic, my own Furl archive is here, but the most recent entries are also posted down the right sidebar of this blog (beneath the blogHOUSTON feed under the heading READING).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/25/04 10:14 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
The Decline Of Blogs, As Told By The DMN
The good folks over at The Daily Peg have a great reaction to this front-page Dallas Morning News article on blogging.
There's not much to add to that. Given that a fair number of real, paid, professional journalists in Dallas are active bloggers (including the DMN editorial board, which is not mentioned in the story), one would have hoped for something a bit better and something a bit more local.
And this underlying tone that many blogs are dying now that the election is over is eerily reminiscent of the hopeful tone we once heard in some quarters about Rush Limbaugh after Bill Clinton was elected. Conventional (media) wisdom had it that Mr. Limbaugh's influence would wane and his show would gradually wither. Instead, he keeps on adding stations, and oh by the way, created a whole talk-radio industry where none had existed.
Yes, some political blogs are surely suffering traffic declines following the election and during the Holidays. But with mainstream media continuing its decline, one can't help but note the hopeful tone in some of those quarters that the growing and vibrant blogosphere isn't part of something a little bigger and perhaps threatening to the dinosaurs. Stay tuned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/25/04 09:30 | Media Matters | Technorati | Comments (1)
24 December 2004
Clear In Pawhuska, Snow In Houston
In recent years, we've roadtripped to Oklahoma only to be snowed in.
This year is different.
It's cold as hell in Pawhuska, but also clear as hell.
And all reports indicate that Houston is getting snow. SNOW.
How ridiculous is that?
I'm a little sad that I'm missing it. I've only seen snow in Houston once since I moved there in 1995, and even though it didn't stick, it caused everyone to freak out and my seminar with Don Lutz to be canceled that afternoon.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/24/04 18:47 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)
A New Dallas-Area Drive-In
Kimberly Reeves notes the opening of a new drive-in in the Dallas area.
I drove by the thing yesterday passing through Dallas. It looked really chilly out there.
Maybe December isn't the best time to open a drive-in, even in Texas.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/24/04 17:09 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (0)
Ten More Reasons
Christmas Eve seems like a good time to link to Ten More Reasons to Hate Rumsfeld.
Because the true Rumsfeld haters aren't likely to take off on a holiday, they must be countered with a bit of humor.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/24/04 16:29 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 December 2004
Kwanzaa Trek
In just a few minutes, I'll be starting the traditional Kwanzaa trek to Oklahoma.
What, you say? There's nothing in Kwanzaa about trekking to Oklahoma?
Bah, say I!
The beauty of the manufactured holiday of Kwanzaa is that it has the flexibility to be all things to all people.
The Kwanzaa of my reality is that it involves a traditional sojourn to Oklahoma. Who can argue with that?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/23/04 11:35 | Other | Technorati | Comments (5)
22 December 2004
Engaging Readers
Further to that DMN editorial on Khomeini Fest (and the editorial that ran opposite it), editorial page editor Keven Ann Willey posted this to the editorial board blog today:
We all certainly know the thoughts of a few blog-proficient edit board members re the Khomeini conference. What I'm most interested in at this point are thoughts those board members who have been less blog intensive lately and - most important - from readers out in readerville about:
The message of the editorial
The tone of the editorial
The packaging of the editorial with the column on the opposite page
The message/tone of the column on the opposite page
Lively discussion has ensued (but that "blog" really needs permalinks).
This is just the sort of thing more newspapers should be doing.
Sadly, I'm not expecting it anytime soon from the crew at 801 Texas Avenue.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/04 23:44 | Media Matters | Technorati | Comments (0)
That's The Spirit!
It's kind of fun to watch secular types getting all wound up over Christian types who feel like Christmas is under assault from the religion of secularism.
Matt Welch, who just can't be bothered to get worked up over the whole thing (that wouldn't be a secular chic thing to do!), nonetheless gets worked up enough to point us to Virginia Postrel, who sort of wishes those pesky Christians wouldn't get so riled up. Nonetheless, she concedes this much:
I can't blame Christians, who are the vast majority of Americans and the ones whose religion is celebrated in all those carols at the mall, for wanting their holiday acknowledged in public. I don't get offended when Dallasites assume everyone, of course, celebrates Christmas. (Everyone they know does, after all.)
I'm not sure who filled Ken Layne's Saturnalia stockings with coal, but there's a grumpy twofer from him, starting with this, and moving on to this.
The latter post includes a link (with praise) to this fine piece by Reason's Julian Sanchez, who complains:
[Read More]It's a Christmas tradition as venerable as mistletoe and caroling: As the days grow shorter, conservative activists claiming to speak for American Christendom raise their voices, not for a rousing round of "Good King Wenceslaus," but to complain that the roughly 75 to 80 percent of Americans who profess allegiance to some denomination or another of Christianity constitute a cruelly oppressed minority.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/04 23:25 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)
21 December 2004
DMN Editorial On Khomeini Fest
Tomorrow's Dallas Morning News will feature an editorial on the recent Khomeini Fest that took place in Dallas.
It's been interesting to watch this story develop.
The story found its way onto talk radio and around blogs, and eventually onto Dallas television news.
It's good to see what is still the best newspaper in the state (despite its woes) willing to take on the matter on its editorial pages.
It's surely more important and relevant to Texans than, say, the practices of Swaziland's King Mswati III.
But the insular dinosaurs who make up the Chron editorial board wouldn't know. They're not responsive to readers, and they're not particularly plugged in to the news blogosphere (this doesn't count). As a result, they're less relevant. They're going to need to adapt to the new reality of the news marketplace and move from this elitist notion of filtering and pushing news to people to something more akin to open-source journalism (much as the DMN has done with this story). If not, they'll continue to lose relevance, no matter how many Spanish-language publications they buy.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/21/04 23:33 | Media Matters | Technorati | Comments (0)
New Lows For Dinosaur Media
Cyberjournalist notes the results of a new Gallup Poll on daily news
The bottom line is that the internet has seen huge increases in news consumers, whereas dinosaur media just keeps losing them:
The only news source showing an increase in daily use since Gallup's 2002 poll on media usage is the Internet. In the latest Gallup Poll, every other source decreased, and local TV news, local newspapers and network newsmagazine shows reached new lows.
No doubt, such depressing news is part of what has prompted the Washington Post to purchase Slate.
Interestingly, media guy Howard Kurtz's column in the Post on the purchase features commentary from web guy Jeff Jarvis. Kurtz gets it. And to some extent, the Post company gets it.
The new media marches on.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/21/04 23:10 | Media Matters | Technorati | Comments (1)
Penders' Coogs
Regular readers here know I'm not a bigtime hoops fan.
I'll watch a little here and there, but mainly it's just filler to get me from football season to college baseball.
Those guys haven't disappointed, and played some very good ball tonight, thumping on LSU 81-72. At one point late in the game, the Coogs led by 17, but Penders pulled back and ran clock, making the final score a bit closer than the game really was. The move was probably smart, though, considering a very tough road game coming up on Christmas Eve at Washington, and then a road game to Texas A&M after Christmas. No need to expend needless energy for a 20 point rout when a 9 point win will do.
This team has some guards that are fun to watch, and they flat out hustle on defense. They seem to be turning me into a college hoops fan -- something that no team at Hofheinz has been able to do since I moved here (sadly). Here's hoping they keep it up, as things get tougher with C-USA games approaching.
(12-22-2004 Update) W.H. Stickney reports that Elvin Hayes was in the house.
Richard Justice adds this:
Hayes never played a game at Hofheinz Pavilion. All he did was get the place built.
"What has happened to this program hurts," he said. "It's like watching a child you raised go bad. It hurts to the heart. I love this program. I just don't understand how we could go from where we were to a point where we get almost no respect."
Penders is going to change that. He's UH's ticket back onto the national map.
[snip]
"Tom knows how to do it, too," UH athletic director Dave Maggard said. "You're not going to recognize this program in three years."
If you'd been around for the empty seats and dismal losses the last few years, you wouldn't recognize the program now.
Penders brought in five junior college transfers, installed his up-tempo style and let the Top 25 programs know the Cougars were again open for business.
He's got a small, quick team whose rushing style had Tuesday's crowd of 5,302 on its feet.
"I loved the atmosphere," Penders said. "Our guys played with so much heart. I think they got every loose ball."
Last night, Hofheinz was rocking, but it's still been pretty empty for most of the games. I hope we can keep it rocking. That atmosphere was fun, and the team fed off of it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/21/04 22:55 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (5)
20 December 2004
Danger Train: Collision #71
The Danger Train suffered collision #71 last week:
MetroRail was ready to set a new safety record Wednesday. But before morning rush could come to a close, another car ran into a train.
Last week's crash marked the second time in a row the Metropolitan Transit Authority tallied 26 days without a train being struck by a vehicle or pedestrian.
The latest incident occurred about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday when a car driven by a 19-year-old Houston man hit a southbound train at Main and Jefferson downtown while attempting to make a left turn.
[snip]
This was the 62nd train collision reported by Metro this year involving an injury or at least $1,000 in property damage.
The Comical goes to absurd lengths to avoid reporting the documented number of times the Danger Train has collided with a person, wheelchair, or vehicle, which is actually 71 at this point.
It's unclear why the newspaper waited nearly a week to report the latest collision.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/20/04 20:09 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (2)
19 December 2004
Blogroll Updates
I've just spent some time tonight -- quite a bit of time actually -- updating my blogroll.
Blogroll maintenance is one of those things I tend to do infrequently, because it's a pain.
But it's also informative, in an introspective way. And who knows, maybe it's interesting to someone else (hence this post).
Folks will note that the Just Added section is pretty large. Obviously, I didn't just start reading all those blogs today, but they are all additions to the blogroll here (which, again, says something about the frequency of my blog maintenance).
I do think they say something about my interests right now. Most of the new additions are either written by a professional journalist, or about the profession of journalism, or about blogging/the web/journalism. The ones that aren't directly about those things have a local focus and a unique voice. Only one (Powerline) or two (maybe Dawn Eden?) are about politics, and I wouldn't say they're partisan in that shrill manner that I have grown to find distasteful. All are very well written, thoughtful, and provocative.
That should get me by for another six months or so. Or at least until I get around to reworking bigger things (I'm bored with the current design).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/04 22:06 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
Time Mag
I'm mildly surprised that Time selected President Bush as its Person of the Year.
I'm not so surprised that they chose Power Line as Blog of the Year.
The Power Line guys achieved fame for their Dan Rather/Sixty Minutes blogging, but theirs is a thoughtful, well written blog that's been an interesting voice on politics for some time.
Good for them.
I think that's only a sign of things to come. Obviously, Dan Rather's forged documents were BIG, but I think we're increasingly going to see blogger/citizen-journalist types also take up smaller issues, bringing expertise (or in some cases, dogged determination) to bear. It won't be a replacement for mainstream media, but such citizen journalism is going to fill in some gaps, and provide plenty of criticism and niche competition. That should only benefit consumers of news.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/04 17:59 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (4)
City Blogs Worth Reading
I've been cleaning out the old email box (a good Sunday task), which of course brings up all the stuff that I've meant to link.
One of those things is Quirky Burque, an independent Albuquerque city blog that's crisply written and, well... quirky. I like.
Nothing against anyone who posts for the Gothamist and Metblog cityblog empires, but too often those vehicles to sell ads for their owners suffer notably from the absence of focus (in overall content, not to mention the writing contained in indvidual posts).
Blogs like Quirky Burque and LA Observed do something a little different -- they bring a focus and a fairly unique voice to their hyperlocal subject matter. One (this one, at least) rather hopes to see more such blogs.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/04 15:39 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
Toronto In The Southwest? Not Just Yet
Jim Schutze pens an article for the Dallas Observer on Dallas' ongoing experiment with light rail:
I came out here last week and rode every single mile of light rail in the Dallas Area Rapid Transit System, looking for what they promised us when DART began operations 20 years ago. Toronto in the Southwest. That was the promise.
The whole dream was that DART would change the way we live by sucking people in from scattered huts on the prairie to live instead in glittering towers. Step off that evening train into a cool little gas-lit cobblestone village of shops, pick up dinner at the deli, say hi to your doorman, zoom-zoom up 14 stories on the elevator to your crib and gaze out over the endless prairie where the munchkins live. That was the dream.
I don't see it. Not here. What I see out these train windows is bleak, man. I am gazing at backs of U-Store-It warehouses. I see vast parking lots full of automobiles that belong to munchkins. Where am I, Dorothy?
Wait, wait, it's coming to me. Aha. I think I know where I am after all. I'm on the bus.
That's it. This vast rail system in which we have invested billions of tax dollars is just a big sprawling version of the bus. It has changed squat.
Unlike the Danger Train, the choo choo in Dallas is mostly on its own right-of-way, so it can exceed the 10-15 mph that hampers the Danger Train because the geniuses in Houston built the thing right down the middle of a busy street. And still, Schutze notes (correctly) that it's a big version of the bus (but with less flexibility, I would add). So what does that make the Houston version? A defective, really expensive bus?
You won't see anything like that written by anyone in town, of course. The Chron remains one of those urban utopia cheerleaders for rail, and the Press is just too tired to do alt-journalism these days.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/04 14:15 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
Dynamic Is Better? Who Knew?
Comment spam is becoming a problem for blogs, and the Movable Type people have been hit harder than most due to the widespread use of that particular CMS.
The spam problem has become so acute for MT blogs that it's exposed a bug in MT:
In fact, we have found that there is a fairly major bug (in terms of effect, but not code size) which causes page rebuilding even in the case of a comment submission which would be moderated and hence should have no effect on the live page. This means that even if you are using comment moderation in Movable Type and even force moderation in MT-Blacklist, your server load is impacted just as if a comment had been posted to the live site. This bug has been fixed in development.
In addition, we have found another less severe instance of unnecessary database connections which would normally be associated with dynamic pages, even if dynamic templates are not in use. This would adversely affect any customer not using static pages by adding the overhead of dynamic files on top of the normal load caused by rebuilding of static files. This has also been fixed in development.
These two bugs are, in high probability, the causes of the extreme server loads that our customers have been experiencing under the load of a severe spam attack.
The first, bolded bug, is most significant, since everyone knows that grinding that goes on when MT deals with comments and rebuilding and such. Most sites never have the level of commenting that a nasty commentspam script can drop in a short time, so of course that's going to drive loads higher if unmoderated (or if buggily moderated), and hosts are probably going to notice.
One would think the MT commenting core could be rewritten in fairly short order to deal with this bug, but there's a part of me that LOVES one proposed interim solution:
In the meantime, one way you can help protect your system and mitigate the effects of both problems is by enabling dynamic templates. Under normal conditions, there are many factors to consider in choosing dynamic templates vs. static templates. In general, the higher your site's traffic is, the more beneficial static templates are to you. However, since spam attacks are rapid requests that would cause rebuilding in the case of static pages, the sweet spot is moved far towards dynamic templates, even for high traffic sites.
When I ditched MT some time ago, one of the reasons (in addition to MT's confused licensing policies) was that I wanted to move to a dynamic platform. And I vividly remember Anil Dash emailing me all sorts of nonsense about his notion of the relative strength of static versus dynamic blogs.
Glad to see those guys coming around to my view, even if it's a little late! Just for the record, Nucleus caused me no server load issues BEFORE I implemented the various comment spam protective measures, nor has it caused any problems since.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/04 12:26 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
In The "Hardly Shocking" News Department
Rob Booth alerts us that Chris Bell is considering a statewide run (for Governor).
Elsewhere, George Strong, Greg Wythe, and Charles Kuffner note this development.
Just as predictably, he'll decide against running for Governor because he has no chance. However, that news alert is a few months down the road yet.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/04 12:03 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (1)
Stoops Is So In Their Heads (cont'd)
You can't help but think an article in the Austin American Statesman with the following title is going to have some potential:
The Macker? That's funny.
This is also funny:
Junior defensive tackle Rod Wright described the Rose Bowl as a playoff game.
"It's bigger than OU," he said.
The Rose Bowl is bigger than a game in October? Yeah, I would think so. I wouldn't even think it would need to be said.
Except that Bob Stoops and the Sooners remain in the heads of the shorthorns, always on their minds, even when they shouldn't be.
It's too bad that the shorthorns are building the Rose Bowl into a playoff game, even "bigger than OU." Given The Macker's record in really big games, you would think he'd try and downplay this as a reward for a fine season.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/04 08:52 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (0)
17 December 2004
Nebraska Takes Another Step Backwards
The Big 12 North was an embarrassment this year, and one major reason was Nebraska, which went 5-6 under new coach Bill Callahan.
When AD Steve Pederson fired Frank Solich (whose squad's 10-3 record last year looks better and better), he promised that Nebraska would be in contention for national championships.
Instead, it appears that declining program is afraid of losing to a weakling from Conference-USA, and has backed out of a verbal agreement to play an early game with UH on ESPN next season:
Today, [UH AD Dave] Maggard, the Cougars and ESPN are scrambling to find a another opponent for UH after the Cornhuskers backed out at the last minute, instead scheduling Division I-AA Maine for their season opener.
Maggard learned about the sudden change two days ago on a phone call from Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson. And to say Maggard wasn't happy about the turn of events would be a colossal understatement."This is the most unprofessional thing I've dealt with in my 30 years in this business," Maggard said. "I'm very, very surprised by all this. This is something that doesn't belong in Division I athletics.
"I'm very, very angry about this."
Sources close to the Nebraska program said the team's staff, after last season's 5-6 finish and the defections of several players, did not want to take the chance of getting spanked by the Cougars on national TV. So they instead will open the season at home against the Black Bears on Sept. 3.
I don't entirely blame Nebraska for preferring to schedule a home game instead of travelling to Houston, but this tendency of Big 12 North programs schedule so many Division I-AA opponents is embarrassing, and is something I've criticized frequently in the Big 12 wraps.
This may well be a blessing for Houston. I know Maggard and the CoogFans crew drunk on the Bill Yeoman Kool Aid think that UH needs to schedule marquee opponents (it's questionable whether Nebraska counts as one any more, but their fans do travel well), but that proved a disastrous approach this year for a young team with too many holes. Losing the television exposure isn't good, but getting spanked on national television and pounded physically by prominent programs early in the season also isn't good (in my minority view).
(12-18-2004 Update) Upon further reflection on this affair, it seems to me that Dave Maggard has very much overreacted in shooting off his mouth and engaging in name calling. There was never a deal inked with Nebraska, and Dave Maggard of all people should know not to count his chickens until they're hatched. There may have been a verbal agreement, but nothing was finalized, and until a deal's inked in college football, it's not a deal. Maggard's petulant little outburst -- much like his ill-advised comments about crosstown rival Rice -- will not win him any goodwill in the Big 12, which he's seemingly been trying to impress in the last year or so -- or among other ADs. It will surely win praise on CoogFans, but UH needs to think a little bigger than that. Most unfortunate.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/17/04 23:01 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (0)
16 December 2004
Baroque
Baroque is gawd.
And in my ongoing quest to discover good internet streaming audio, I have discovered Otto's Baroque Musick.
It's amazing, if Baroque is your thing. And the guy provides a number of streams ranging in quality, so you can blast the music from your Squeezebox and suck all sorts of bandwidth, or you can barely pull a little trickle if you're sitting at work and someone is likely to complain.
There's nothing like kicking back during Kwanzaa season and streaming some of the best music Western civilization has ever produced.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/04 23:09 | Music | Technorati | Comments (2)
NCAA Opens The Door For Dvoracek
The NCAA has granted suspended Sooner defensive line standout Dusty Dvoracek a medical redshirt for this past season, giving him one more year of eligibility. It's an unusual decision, in that I'm not aware the NCAA has ever granted a medical hardship based on a claim of alcoholism.
By all accounts, Dvoracek (an academic All-American) has worked hard since his suspension to get help for his problems with alcohol and violence.
Reports indicate that Bob Stoops is considering allowing him to return to the team (no doubt under some strict rules).
I thought Stoops made the right call in suspending him early this season, but I do believe in second chances. If Dvoracek has really worked to clean up his act, then I have no problem with Stoops allowing him to return -- so long as he returns to a zero-tolerance environment.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/16/04 08:28 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (1)
14 December 2004
Which Of These Does Not Belong?
Today, President Bush bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on three men.
Tommy Franks.
Okay, that makes sense.
Paul Bremer.
Okay, that's fine.
And George Tenet.
Umm, WTF?!
As Charles Krauthammer suggested on Fox News earlier, you give the guy a watch, thank him for his service, and get on with the business of fixing CIA.
I don't get this one.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/04 21:30 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)
He's Back!
Way back, at the start of summer, I got all involved in a Dan Patrick web endeavor.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, a blog affiliated with a popular independent talk radio station that would offer an alternative point of view to the Chronicle.
But it never quite was what I had in mind (hence the need to do this).
And among things I didn't have in mind were "articles" like this one, which used the unfortunate phrase "wet run" (don't blame me for it -- I was gone by then).
Anyway, the author of the wet runs went away for a while, allegedly not to return, but you had to figure that one of KSEV's advertisers would eventually make his triumphant return to blogging.
I mean, it's hard to hold back the wet runs sometimes, ya know?
Anyway, one Mr. Andy Adams returns to Dan Patrick's Lone Star Times today. Thankfully, he does not share any tales of gastrointestinal distress (although he does get Peter Beinart's name wrong -- but that's minor compared to the wet runs, let me tell ya).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/04 21:13 | Other | Technorati | Comments (8)
Mack Brown Is Full Of Crap
Laurence Simon is coming up with fitting isfullofcrap.com subdomains.
For example, blogHOUSTON.com becomes HoustonChronicle.isfullofcrap.com
Brilliant!
Along those lines, PubliusTX becomes....
[Read More]Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/04 20:37 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)
13 December 2004
A Few Metro Observations
Danger Train boardings are down 10%.
The Danger Train "transit backbone" just suffered more down time due to a power line problem, this time stranding some Texans fans.
Tom Bazan has noted that October bus ridership was down 15% from one year ago (following route eliminations and Park and Ride closures).
Metro is running a massive budget deficit, for the first time.
Come on kids, I know you can all say it together with me:
[Read More]Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/04 22:14 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)
12 December 2004
CUB
Eric Siegmund's been fleshing out some thoughts on a proposed Coalition of Unpaid Bloggers.
Basically, the notion is that it might be useful for noncommercial bloggers to identify themselves as such, in some fairly standard fashion. Some loose rules would be established, the logo would be there for folks who want it, and some sort of personal statement would probably accompany the logo.
Sure, it's highly dependent on people being honest, but then so is life, right?
If this sort of thing interests you, be sure to leave Eric some feedback on this post, which already has a good discussion going.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/04 21:41 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
Cowboys + Texans + Rockets = Putrid
Tom Kirkendall has posted his weekly thoughts on both the putrid Cowboys and the putrid Texans.
Scott Chaffin is ready to bring Bob Stoops to Cowboys land (what, no return of Barry Switzer?!), and he's even got a logo.
This is a rough time for local sports fans.
At least Tom Penders is putting an interesting product on the floor at Hofheinz for the first time in years. He's a little short on talent yet, but at least those guys get after it. I'm hoping that will hold me over to college baseball season, which seems entirely too far away.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/04 21:22 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
Irish Turn To Weis
Notre Dame will apparently announce New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis as its new head coach tomorrow.
So, will the Irish be getting the next Pete Carroll, or the next Bill Callahan?
Hard for me to say.
It does seem to me that the university had hoped to have more of a "wow" factor in the their head coach -- much like Nebraska hoped last year before being turned down by way too many candidates.
The Irish have to hope the results will be better than Callahan's.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/12/04 20:49 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
11 December 2004
Only A Matter Of Time
For quite a while, those of us who using Nucleus have enjoyed the benefits of a robust, efficient open-source blog tool that, for whatever reason, hasn't caught the eye of comment spammers.
That's no longer the case.
I see they've gotten Alex and Chris, and they've messed with a couple of my sites.
Fortunately, the Nucleus plugin architecture makes it fairly easy to handle such matters, and the development community has already responded with a Blacklist plugin based on Marco van Hylckama Vlieg's Pivot-Blacklist.
I would still recommend using it in conjunction with the CommentControl plugin, which allows for moderation of comments older than X days. To use both of them, be sure that Blacklist sits above CommentControl in your plugin hierarchy.
Also, I made a slight hack to comments.php as described in this support thread. The hack slightly changes the order of events, so that any spam comment intercepted by the blacklist will NOT trigger the email "new comment" notification. If you're running Nucleus v3.15 and are uncomfortable modifying the core, download this file, unzip, and upload it to your /nucleus/libs directory. RENAME YOUR OLD comments.php first, in case something goes wrong. I've run and tested this hack in conjunction with CommentControl and Blacklist on this site and one other, and it all seems to work just fine, but I can't and don't make any claims whether it will work on your Nucleus site. Caveat Emptor. :)
(Update) Of course, I should have added testing never seems to catch everything, and that if comments or some other feature seems broken/screwy to you, please drop me a line. Thanks!
(Update 2) The hacked file included above can cause some odd behavior (nothing critical, just odd) with certain plugins. I would actually recommend not using it, and am discontinuing its use on my blogs.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/11/04 13:10 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (6)
09 December 2004
Bowl Fever In College Station
As occasional blogger of Big 12 football matters, I feel obligated to point readers to Chris Elam's accounts of those crazy Aggies trying to get Cotton Bowl tickets.
I'm surprised our local safety expert did not point out the importance of making backups of things like football ticket line lists. For safety's sake!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/09/04 22:45 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (3)
News Flash: Bloggers Are Not Necessarily Angels
Captain Ed has a post up related to the news that a couple of blogs that covered the Daschle/Thune campaign actually accepted payments without disclosure.
The main complaint of bloggers who are critical of this lack of disclosure isn't really that the information presented on the blogs was faulty, but that they were essentially duped by the bloggers in question.
I'm not so bothered by it. The big bad blogosphere that brought down Dan Rather and his forged documents surely is savvy enough to figure an anti-Daschle blogger might somehow attract the attention of the Thune campaign. And that it might even have some closer ties.
The term "blogger" does not denote (or connote) "angel" to me. So I'm not particularly shocked at this news.
But it probably does mean that it's going to take some time for newer bloggers to establish some credibility in the future. And it probably means anonymous blogs like Rick Perry vs. The World are going to have to work even harder to be taken seriously. Speaking of that blog, it has a link up to blogHOUSTON but not to this fine blog. What is up with THAT?! Maybe I'm the secret Perry operative. Hmm... no, I just took a quick peek in the ol' bank account online, and there are definitely no deposits from them.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/09/04 22:38 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
08 December 2004
Scott Miller
I'm off to catch Scott Miller at the Mucky Duck in a bit.
I haven't been doing much in the way of live music lately, but this is shaping up to be a good week for my favorites, with Miller tonight and Randy Rogers at the Firehouse on Saturday.
(Update) As always, Scott Miller put on a nice show. No band tonight, just Scott. I never remember to mention this after a show, but I did this time -- that dude really plays a nice guitar. And I don't think I know any other singer/songwriter type that I see regularly who plays a twelve string in a solo setting. Scott does a nice job with it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/04 19:51 | Music | Technorati | Comments (1)
Banjo Jones Is Back
Banjo Jones is back, and posting away at the Brazosport News.
I'm sorry it didn't work out for Banjo out of state, but it's awfully good to have the dude posting again.
And really, anyone who can make pollution emissions so damn entertaining... well, that's someone who belongs in Texas!
Welcome back, Banjo!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/08/04 00:04 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (1)
07 December 2004
Web Awards
It seems like everyone's engaged in some sort of blogging award endeavor these days, and some of the new kids can't wait to get in line for them.
Bah.
That was the extent of my reaction. Then I found Laurence Simon's post on the topic, which makes these nice points:
Blogs are all about poking holes in the false pride and arrogance of the MSM. To begin the trappings of the MSM's awards like Pulitzers and such only begins the long, slow crawl into hypocrisy.
and
Seeking external justification will only cause stratification and the planting of the seeds of the medium through which bloggers will be hunted and brought down Dan Rather-style.
and
Awards are not going to cement the foundations of this open-source endeavor we all engage in. They will only destabilize it and contribute to the fossilization of the entire structure, making it that much easier to shatter later on.
and
The Blogosphere is built on foundation of cooperation, self-correction, adaptation, and conflict. It is constantly rebuilding itself. Good and bad blogs are ultimately measured and determined by content, links, ease of use, and impact. Artificial attempts to influence or amplify that system with awards will only destabilize it and eventually bring it down.
Yeah, all of that, along with my Bah.
(12-08-2004 Update) More thoughts on the topic from Laurence.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/04 23:53 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (7)
How To Deal With Truly Obnoxious Customers
Julie Neidlinger has a story about a particularly obnoxious customer she's dealt with recently.
That story reminded me of one from Callie's brother, who runs a successful auto garage with extremely loyal customers here in town.
Apparently, one problematic customer just kept coming back with complaint after complaint after complaint, all of which the garage tried to resolve. At some point, there was just no resolving anything to this customer's satisfaction.
Callie's brother tells the great story of calmly listening to this customer complaining one last time, even smiling and nodding as he listened to that customer, right before handing the customer the refund check he had been writing while smiling and nodding, and then politely telling the customer, "Okay, sorry we couldn't get it to your satisfaction. Now you can go away."
I've always loved that story.
But I won't post his garage's name in case some of you have much different sensibilities than I do about these things.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/04 23:44 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
06 December 2004
Zook
Illinois wasted no time in hiring fired Florida coach Ron Zook for their coaching vacancy.
Why?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/06/04 21:48 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
BCS Follies
All those folks who were irate that Oklahoma sneaked into the BCS championship game last year sure fixed things by reducing the value of the computer rankings.
Well, unless you ask Cal's Jeff Tedford.
I wonder if he was bemoaning the computer versus human element in the system last year, when his Pac 10 USC brethren were the ones who got screwed?
Fun stuff, this BCS.
I do agree with Tedford, though. The votes of the coaches ought to be public. And the votes of the sports hacks ought to be public as well.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/06/04 21:46 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
05 December 2004
Introducing Furl
A while back, I started playing around a little with a blogging/browsing tool called delicious that my friend Andrew Breese turned me on to.
The service basically serves as a simple blog tool that can file links under multiple categories, with brief commentary. One compelling aspect of the service is that it lets users browse the offerings of other people who have linked the same article, thereby potentially finding linkers who are interested in similar topics and articles.
While social/web networking tools interest me, that alone wasn't enough to get me using the service.
Then I discovered Furl, which works much the same as delicious, with one really important addition -- any article that one links using the service is automatically stored in a private, personal archive. Not the link, but the whole article! That's incredibly useful, especially given the number of sites that eventually retire their articles behind paid archives (the New York Times, for example), or don't archive some content at all (the Comical's editorial page).
I don't have much time to blog on politics and history and arts and letters and such, but I do frequently run across interesting articles, so my Furl page is perfect for those sorts of things. And since I know a fair number of readers actually do LIKE those sorts of links (judging by traffic at another blog that I no longer maintain), it only makes sense to use the service's RSS feed to reproduce those links over here (or, feed lovers can get the RSS themselves). So, if you scroll down the right sidebar, past the google ads and the blogHOUSTON links, you'll find my furl links, updated throughout the day, whenever I find articles of interest.
For you bloggers who frequently run across stuff you want to blog about later in the day (that's how I tend to operate, since the folks at work don't really pay me to blog at work), Furl is a very useful little bookmark service that plays nicely with Firefox. If you decide to give it a try, please let me know your url. I'm always curious what people are reading. :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/04 23:59 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (3)
Texas Gets Elusive BCS Bid
Mack Brown's whining seems to have paid off, as Texas gained enough ground in the human polls to leapfrog Cal for what was effectively the last at-large BCS bid up for grabs.
This is really great news, and not just for Texas.
Not only has the nightmare scenario panned out (an undefeated, major-conference team -- Auburn -- will not be playing for the National Championship), but the Rose Bowl is screwed again in its efforts to secure its traditional Pac 10/Big 10 matchup, getting Michigan-Texas instead of Michigan-Cal.
And Pittsburgh is sitting in a BCS bowl slot that would be much more ably filled by Cal, which falls all the way to Mack Brown's usual bowl haunt, the Holiday, to play Texas Tech.
So, those things alone should supply plenty of fuel to the debate over a college football playoff, as they should. I've reluctantly come around to the notion that a college football playoff has to beat this system disarray, and if a playoff takes a little power away from commissioners and university presidents affiliated with bigtime conferences, that's fine by me as well.
Of course as a Sooner and Big 12 fan, I'm pleased USC and OU will duke it out in the national championship game, which is what quite a few people thought might happen at the start of the season.
Here's the complete list of bowls, some of which are quite putrid.
Newer readers will have to forgive me. Regular readers already know I get rather sour around the end of college football season.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/04 17:01 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (8)
Where To Buy My Toothpaste?
Charles Kuffner has discovered another benefit of his patronage of Costco.
Michael Duff, on the other hand, has a different opinion.
I have no strong feelings one way or the other. If it gives you psychological satisfaction to think you're "making a difference" by getting your toothpaste at one mass merchant versus another, I'm all for psychological satisfaction! And if you're of the mind the big mean capitalistic world is slightly more complicated than red and blue, I'm somewhat sympathetic to that view as well.
Glad I could clear that up for all of you. :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/04 13:20 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)
04 December 2004
Sooner Radio
I love this line from longtime Sooner play by play man Bob Barry referring to Colorado in the middle of the fourth quarter:
"I hate to say this about any team, but they are downright pitiful."
That's the Big 12 North this year.
Hard to argue, at 42-3 with the Sooner backups in the game.
This one's more on the Sooners than Gary Barnett's squad, though. The Sooners finally put a complete football game together, for the first time this season really.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/04 21:58 | Big 12 Football | Technorati | Comments (1)
03 December 2004
End Of The Line For Slobberbone
My buddy Cindy Chaffin posts the sad news that Denton punk-alt country rockers (or whatever the hell you want to call them) Slobberbone have decided to call it quits.
At least they do it in true Slobberbone (weird) fashion:
There's only one thing, in my mind and heart, that could possibly mar this wonderful four-headed creature that we are about to lay to rest in formaldehyde slumber, and that would be if all of you, our dearest of friends, could'nt take part in helping us to put the lid on the jar. It's a really big jar and will take several people just to lift the giant Sharpie to label it. For this, there will be a small handful of occasions. The first of which is, of course, the NYE show at the Barley, by far our most hospitable and mothering home in Dallas.
After that, the plan is for maybe three or four shows at some of our other most friendliest of ports in the midwest, probably sometime towards or around the end of February, and then of course, a resolute, heartfelt, and final goodbye in the only locale appropriate for such a thing, the loins from which we spawned, Denton, TX.
That's just depressing.
I sure hope they do a Houston farewell show. It would be even more depressing to go to Denton to see 'em one more time.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/04 18:21 | Music | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 December 2004
Don't Mess With The Texans?
David Fleming says the Texans aren't going to make the playoffs, but they do have a chance to play spoiler down the stretch. Not bad for year three, I guess. Now if they could just do something about that grass. Grass should be green, not ashen. Blech.
Elsewhere, Bill Parcells seems still to be clinging to visions of the playoffs and will start Vinny Testaverde Monday night against Seattle (what a stinker for MNF, eh). Or maybe he just can't bear the thought of watching Drew Henson get his brains beat out by the blitz like he did for half of that Thanksgiving game. Crazy thing is, 8-8 could get an NFC team a wild card spot. But my guess is the Cowboys don't get to 8 wins.
And the Big 12 title game TRAP awaits for the Sooners, if Berry Tramel is to be believed. We'll see. I suspect they'll be focused on Saturday.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/01/04 21:59 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (5)
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