Don't Back Down

There are so many times where I try and enter my ZIP+4 - not just the ZIP code, but those extra little digits to be helpful. And at times, I am stymied by a field that only accepts a strange number of characters - like 7. I think it could be better, and just not allow me to enter more than 5 if I've selected the US and they aren't going to support the ZIP+4 format, but it's better than nothing.

Others don't even go that far. They appear to have a field with no data entry limit at all - I could go on and on with that data, so I'm perfectly able to enter all 10 digits of the ZIP+4 - including the dash separating the parts. But then we I submit it, I get an error like Invalid ZIP Code, or Unknown ZIP Code or something.

Then there are the folks who store the ZIP+4 in the account - so if you go looking, that's what you'll see in the field. Then when you save it, it doesn't work. That's just ridiculous.

So come on, people - it's not that hard. A little Javascript is all it takes to restrict the field to a particular length for a particular country. And if you can't accept that data, don't store it in your user records!

Now that's just wrong. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, in their infinite wisdom, keeps "evidence" - in other words, fighting dogs - at animal control. Now I'm the first to say that those dogs deserve as much a chance at life as the next one, so before you get going, let me finish.

These dogs must be kept until the end of the trial. The city gets the bill. And perfectly adoptable animals get put to death because these can't be euthanized because they are evidence. What's even worse is that, at the end of the trial, these fighting dogs are typically euthanized because they are considered unfit for adoption.

Read "Killing Two Dogs with One Stone" »

Yesterday after church, we found ourselves looking for a place to eat. And for whatever reason, I was in the mood for Sunday brunch. Now I don't mean a Shoney's brunch. I mean a real brunch, with cook-to-order omelettes, sliced roast beef, the whole shebang - not just a series of warming trays.

After driving around for about an hour and trying to find something, when we didn't even know if it existed in Charlotte, Denise stumbled on an ad in Creative Loafing for the Waldhorn Restaurant.

As you might be able to divine from the name, this is a German restaurant. Even better, they have Sunday brunch. With breakfast foods (the omelettes, cheese grits and home fries were excellent) and German specialities. My personal favorites were the Spaetzle (noodles like Grandma used to make) and the beef and pork goulash. Especially with the latter over the top of the former. And the heath-bar cookies were awesome, with just the right consistency.

I highly recommend the place for Sunday brunch. I'm sure the food is good at other times, but you probably won't get quite the sampling as you do at brunch.

Especially with the file actually changing names, I cannot recommend strongly enough that when you update Movable Type, you also update your configuration file. Almost every release introduces new configuration directives. If you don't update your file, you're going to be missing something - and you may actually run into problems.

Read "Update Your Config File" »

It's really pathetic that our world has come to this. Some teenagers are roughhousing - like that's unusual - and in the process, one breaks the other's glasses. The breakee demands payment, but the breaker only has half the money, so friends of the "victim" beat up the kid who broke the glasses.

Bad enough, you say? Wait - it goes on! So the Rogers family is driving around later that night, and the mom stops to talk to the two who assaulted her son, even offering to pay for the glasses. The mom's sister suggests calling the police. The guy with the gun says I'm a give you a reason to call the police and shoots several times, one of the bullets lodging in the mom's spine, rendering her legs useless for at least the time being. Doctors say she has a 50-50 chance of walking again.

While I know it's stereotypical, I doubt the shooter would be reading at all, much less here. But come on people - shooting someone over a pair of sunglasses, that have already been halfway paid for, and someone offered to fully purchase? That's just insane!

So it would appear that Lynn Wheeler is once again ready to run for City Council. Has she learned her lesson? I don't know. The message she posted would indicate that she has done so, but there's only one way to find out.

I'm not sure I'm ready to take that route. While Lynn promises to fix the problems of crime, taxes and potholes (that's an odd combination for her focus), I just don't know if she can do the job or not. Her prior loss and two years off might help, but is it really in the city's best interest to bring her back?

Those of you who have used Firefox for a while have undoubtedly encountered a problem with certain types of popups getting past the generally outstanding popup blocker in the software. It is puported that these may be caused by Flash - and this tip alleges to fix the problem through the use of privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins. I went back to PopupTest, and it seems that I'm still vulnerable to the Drop Down Popup, so it looks like the search continues.

So a few weeks ago, Carowinds announced that they'd be giving away tickets to their new Winterfest production. Cool, I thought. I even marked the date that it was supposed to start - August 5th - on the calendar.

Read "Ever Hear of a Calendar?" »

Okay, we didn't actually eat Vietnamese people. We wanted to have a Vietnamese dinner. So we checked out Thien Phu, in the "International District" along Central Avenue. The verdict? Good. I'm not much for veggies - but I had a bowl full of 'em. Of course, it also had some meat in there, and a pepper oil sauce that you poured over it. But it was tasty. Denise had a stir fry dish that came on a hot skillet (think fajitas), along with some rice. Also tasty - especially the leftovers after a day in the fridge.

As I'm driving to the doctor this morning, I spy a dump truck with one of those stickers on it that reads "Not Responsible for Broken Windshields". Now I understand the desire of the company to not get a bill from everyone and their brother, claiming that the trucks broke a windshield. But shouldn't the company exercise at least a modicum of good faith? Looking down, the tires on said truck, where you would nomrally see a low-hanging piece of rubber, perhaps with some silver naked ladies, barely made it to the top of the tires. I think they ought to be responsible for it at that point.

Moreover, I think I'm going to get a tattoo on my forehead that says "Not Responsible for Anything". I wonder if that will work?

So it seems that an unamed shipping giant has a problem with the FedEx Furniture web site (also see the related Furniture Blog). The thing I don't understand is why they have a problem. I guess there could be an issue with everyone wanting to rush out and pick up some free shipping boxes to build furniture for their home or something - but let's be real.

While it's a fun idea, how many people are actually going to build furniture for their home out of shipping boxes? I suspect that the number is remarkably low, and that any loss that can be attributed to runs on packaging material could easily be offset by the amount of advertising gained from being feature so prominently, well, everywhere.

So it seems that speed cameras in Charlotte have nabbed 30,000 violators. Not a shabby number, but apparently a huge number - 20,000 - extra citations could have been issued. Why were they missed? Because either the speeders were only speeding slightly or the license plates were blurred.

First, this is an estimate, so the actual number may be 200. It could also be 50,000. Second, there is no breakdown - so perhaps 99% of those were one case, and 1% the other. Maybe a 50-50 split. It doesn't really matter all that much.

Read "Are Speed Cameras Worthwhile?" »