I just installed this WPBlacklist plugin to kill comment spam in wordpress using jay allen's blacklist.txt. It wasn't quite updated for WP 1.5 so I had to hack it a little to get it working. So, if you see have any problems posting comments, let me know.
I just donated $30 to Wikipedia, for their fundraiser. There's a lot of disagreement around about whether or not Wikipedia will ever be considered a universal success or a canonical reference, but I'd hope we could all agree it's at least an experiment we'd want to end on a more interesting note than "we ran out of money".
Okay, I was finally fed up enough with Movable Type that I've made the transition for now to Wordpress. Let me know if anything is screwed up.
My reasons for moving are:
Hm, another reason to avoid Outback, other than their terrible food, cheap meat and irritating commercials.
Holy crap, did David Brooks hit his head last night? What else would explain this epiphany:
In the past months we have learned that the prescription drug benefit passed last year is not going to cost $400 billion over 10 years. The projections now, over a slightly different period, are that it's going to cost over $700 billion. And these cost estimates are coming before the program is even operating. They are only going to go up.... Over the next few months we will be watching a government that may be millions-wise, but trillions-foolish. We will be watching a government that sometimes seems to have lost all perspective - like a lunatic who tries to dry himself with a hand towel while standing in a torrential downpour....
In Congress, some are taking a look at these new cost projections and figuring that maybe it's time to readjust the program.... But the White House is threatening to veto anything they do! President Bush, who hasn't vetoed a single thing during his presidency, now threatens to veto something - and it's something that might actually restrain the growth of government. He threatens to use his first veto against an idea he himself originally proposed!
Have we entered another world, where up is down and rationality is irrational?
Yes, David -- around 4 years ago. Welcome to the party.
In my experience working with clients, I've collected a set of utilities that have proved to be absolutely essential for a variety of tasks, for workstation/PC repair in the wonderful world of Windows.
Below are the utilities I've put on a CD for frequent use and their descriptions:
The update on the broken computer is that there is no update. I'm too depressed to look at it.
I've been running my PC on knoppix the past week, mounting my USB key as /home/knoppix. You know, I miss having actual hard drives surprisingly little. Of course, I have a fileserver for the big stuff.
So I'm increasingly annoyed with optical media for backups. It's slow, it's cumbersome, and it's just a PITA. Enough so that I find myself being really bad about doing backups.
I'm also increasingly atracted to hard-drive based backups. I could just buy a giant USB drive and regularly copy stuff to it, but that doesn't help me in a catastrophic failure (i.e. a fire). I'd like to at least be able to rotate something to my firesafe.
I learned recently that SATA is hotswappable (I think?). I then stumbled across this device:
I bought a copy of Square Foot Gardening last summer, after it was far too late to do any actual gardening. I'm reading it now -- it seems to be a great method and even if not, it's a great general gardening reference.
The problem this year, no matter how early I start, is that I don't own any land. I'm a filthy renter. I've thought about building a 4x4' box with some PVC/string for vines, but even that would be tough to locate. Since, you know, they have to mow the lawn and stuff.
Any suggestions?
Cool Things