Don't Back Down

The other day, Denise was talking to a neighbor. This neighbor barely answered the door, and when she did, it was only to tell Denise that she doesn't usually open the door out of fear for what might be lurking outside. You see, we don't live in the safest of neighborhoods. In the last year or so, a neighbor's son was shot and killed, another person was killed in an apartment complex next to our neighborhood and a drug dealer was killed about a mile away.

Don't get me wrong - it's not like a scene from Back to the Future Part 2 or anything. But it's in one of those areas that may have a questionable side to it. I don't happen to agree that the answer is to hide behind closed doors, as after all, in such a neighborhood, that might be a prelude to a robbery more than anything, so it doesn't really make much sense.

Read "Vicious Circles" »

I think I've finally squashed all the issues with the Bloglines Toolkit. If the toolkit appears to be installed when you view it in the extension manager, but you aren't able to activate the context menu and the logo doesn't appear in the lower right-hand corner of your browser, try disabling the extension. Just right-click on it in the extension manager to show this option. You'll need to restart. When that completes, go back and re-enable it. You'll need to restart again.

Read "Bloglines Toolkit 1.3.0" »

It seems that there is a new video making the news in the last week or so. Jenna Lewis of Survivor (Borneo and All Star) fame apparently filmed her wedding night with some model. While I, and many people, probably appreciate the fact that she wanted us to see a bit more of her than we did on Survivor, I have some problems with this scenario.

For starters, even though Jenna is not a virgin - she's the mother of twins - she was wearing black lingerie in the video. While the marriage was apparently the result of her romp to Las Vegas with this model, you'd think she'd make some effort to get at least close to white for her wedding night. Then again, she's already got the kids - don't recall if she was married previously or not. Perhaps she just doesn't care.

So why isn't she wearing a wedding band? It appears from the video that she's got a ring on which may be an engagement ring, but there's no wedding band in sight. Again, perhaps she's just not a traditionalist. Who knows? Her language in the video certainly shows that she isn't particularly a goody two shoes when it comes to her vocabulary, maybe that somehow extends to the rest of her life.

Not enough? The domain that is offering the tape (sorry, not going to publicize it here) was registered two days after her wedding supposedly happened. Mighty coincidental, isn't it? The registration is not only new, it's a private registration for a company that, according to Google anyway, doesn't seem to exist anywhere else on the net - at least under that name.

Now add to it the fact that the model she was with, and supposedly has married, spent a whole bunch of time with the camera. New toy? Perhaps. They wouldn't be the first newlyweds to videotape their wedding night. But there is a difference between setting the camera and letting it film away and actively taking a role in the production. Let's just say that he appears to be interested in directing.

What is the point? The point is that the video may be a setup. There are some who may argue that it doesn't matter, and that she's still naked and active - and she is. No argument there. But have our values really fallen so badly that it's considered a good career move to leak your own sex tape to the world?

Update: I'm not going to send you the video or even a link to it. If you'd like a copy for your very own, visit the web site or find a copy elsewhere. Usenet would probably be a good place to find it if you have a problem with paying for things.

I hadn't seen it posted elsewhere yet (though I might not have been looking hard enough), but Cerulean studios released a patch for Trillian to address the Yahoo! IM connection problem. Looks like Zawodny was right - it's not going to take much time for the third-party developers to produce a fix, so it makes you wonder why they bother in the first place?

I have a problem with people who don't conduct themselves honestly. I just don't like them, because I don't know that I can trust them. I have an even larger problem with companies who seem to have the same problem.

Last week, I complained about Six Apart and their handling of the Movable Type developer's contest. I'm still feeling miffed, and would have felt much better about it had they announced the change in deadline a whole lot earlier than they did.

Read "Contest Trickery" »

I just received a call from USAirways, telling me that the flight was delayed for 70 minutes, so I decided to poke around with Firefox 0.9, now that it's been released. Turns out most (all?) of the extensions that previously worked work no longer. I miss many.

Read "Bloglines Toolkit 1.2.0" »

I exchanged some email with Ben yesterday, and while the handling of the developer contest bugs me, I do appreciate the effort that he made. Along with the new license announcements, perhaps it is a sign that Six Apart is moving in the right direction, communication-wise.

Read "Odds and Ends" »

I've already mentioned that I had planned on sticking with Movable Type, at least for the immediate future. This decision was really made for a variety of reasons - notably because of the time investment I've already made, but also because of a significant discount on licenses for developers and the announcement of a contest for plugin developers, a contest in which I felt that I could do fairly well. But perhaps most of all, I felt that I had made a sort of commitment and it wasn't right of me to break it so easily.

Read "Six Apart Does It Again" »

We don't watch much television around here, but we will catch a Good Eats episode every once in a while.

A day or two ago, we watched Potato, My Sweet, about (wait for it) sweet potatoes. They served up some interesting dishes in this episode, and one especially, Sweet Potato Waffles, we decided to try. Just finished eating, in fact. Man, they were good.

Read "Sweet Potato Waffles" »

I'm not sure that I'd exactly be considered a supporter of Ralph Nader for, well, much of anything. But I've got to hand it to him for at least pointing out the inanity of our current taxation system. His example? You go to the store and buy furniture, you pay taxes. You buy stock, you don't. Now of course he didn't mention that you will pay taxes when you sell the stock, which doesn't happen when you sell the sofa - but the point is probably a good one.

Why is it that necessities are taxed? While it may certainly put a crimp in the government's plans if they had to forego the taxes from necessities, it would certainly make life more affordable for those who like to eat.

Specific to North Carolina (though I don't suspect it's unique), we see the state raising college tuition - in essence increasing the taxes on education. Meanwhile, the state (and perhaps this is unique) won't raise the tax on cigarettes. Naturally this is because North Carolina is most certainly a tobacco-producing state. But it doesn't really make a lot of sense, does it?

In case you ever wondered why certain sections of the world are so slow on the move to new technology, look no further. The Charlotte Mecklenburg tax department has shown me the light, and all my questions are answered.

Read "Internet Convenience" »