Don't Back Down

As is fairly common, there has been a good amount of talk about how blogs manage to scale recently, and what has been interesting to see is the discussion around just what it is that is required to keep things running.

Let's assume that you've decided not to go with a hosted solution, so first you'll need a good host, and you should consider some other issues about setting up your domain too. After that, you'll need to choose your blog software.

There are what seem to be thousands of choices, but ultimately it boils down to two: Movable Type and Wordpress. Tim, among others, likes to post pictures of Wordpress failing, but what isn't often mentioned is that Movable Type can fail in the wrong situations too. Let's see why.

Read "Dynamic Movable Type or Static Wordpress?" »

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but I just never could seem to find the time. Both Carolinas Healthcare and Presbyterian Healthcare have applied to the state of North Carolina for a Certificate of Need. What is that, you ask? I'm glad you did. The Certificate of Need - or CON for short (how's that for an appropriate acronym?) - comes from a state law that prohibits health-care providers from acquiring, replacing or adding to facilities and equipment without state approval.

At least, that's what I hear. Put in other terms, it means that hospitals can't be built unless the state says it's okay. It's like a giant game of Simon Says. Now I'm all for the protection of the innocent and everything, but come on now. According to that article I just referenced, it's going to take three years just to build a hospital. It's no small undertaking. Surely they aren't going to slap one up on every corner just because they can. Are they?

Read "When Hospital Juggernauts Collide" »

So the other day I downloaded Sizer, a cool little utility that adds a menu item to your windows and allows you to easily snap the window to certain pre-defined sizes. This is most useful, of course, for seeing what your web site looks like at other resolutions. Not long ago, I was accused of having an unsustainable web site, at least because of the width of my template, so this is of some interest to me.

Looking at some statistics, we see that just over 54% of users browse the web at 1024x768. This can certainly explain the reason why so many people have gone to wider layouts. But that's still only half of all users. While 14% use 1280x1024, there are still almost 25% that use 800x600. That's a significant percentage to leave out in the cold. What do all these sites look like at such a small resolution? Let's take a look.

Read "When Size Just Might Matter" »

Let's say that you've read all the hubbub about aXXo - one of the most popular seeders of movies, whether you like him or don't - and how he suddenly removed all of his torrents from The Pirate Bay. And you want to be sure that you're getting only true aXXo releases, because you know all sorts of junk gets put out with variations on "axxo" in the title, just so everyone will download it. Hey, it happens.

You could go to a number of other places that allow you to pull an RSS feed by user. But that would be the easy way out. So you decide to stick it out at The Pirate Bay and hope that aXXo comes back. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. Or maybe you just want to learn something. Then read on.

Read "Using Yahoo! Pipes to Extract Data You Want" »

Over the weekend, the Lynx Blue Line opened for business to a standing-room-only crowd. Well, opened for business isn't completely accurate, since the rides were free, but you get the idea: The trains started running. After nearly a decade since the transit tax was enacted with this end in mind, and some $462 million, Charlotte now has light rail service.

The 9.6 mile route roughly parallels South Boulevard from Seventh Street Station all the way to the I-485 Station at the end of the line. Dual tracks run the length of the line, and Park-and-Ride lots sit at the last seven stations (from Scaleybark through I-485), so that you can park your car and get on the train without having to deal with Uptown traffic. Whether you agreed with the plan or not, the train is here. Let's take a look to see what it was like.

Read "Lynx Blue Line Preview Smashes Expectations" »

Darius Thomas, the quarterback of the West Charlotte Lions, passed for a near-record 501 yards in leading his team to a 49-27 victory over Richmond Senior. The performance ranks third all-time in Mecklenburg history, behind Thomas' own 512-yard performance earlier this season and that of one Chris Leak, who threw for a 585-yard monster back in 2002.

Speaking of Chris Leak, it is his Independence Patriots - well not his, but his former - that will face the West Charlotte Lions after the Patriots demolished East Burke 48-28. It seems like the Big I machine is rolling once again, after the end to the long victory streak in Cincinnati earlier this year and a loss to Butler not long ago. Reports of their death may have been a bit premature.

Read "Lions and Patriots Are On Next Week" »

My parents were in town for the holiday and we decided to go visit The Billy Graham Library. For anyone who doesn't know, the library isn't really a library in the classic sense - it's more like a presidential library, that acts as a memorial. For Ruth Graham (Billy's wife), it really is a memorial - her grave is actually on the grounds, in a prayer garden.

There is a bookstore at the end of the tour, which actually gives a vague unsettling feeling. It's almost like a tourist trap, where you end up in the gift shop once you're done. I understand and all - there isn't an admission fee, and it's really nicely done, but still - you're just dumped there, which just sort of stinks.

Read "The Billy Graham Library" »

Back in the day - let's call it 1974 - streaking was all the rage. Ray Stevens hit it big with his song about streaking. It's like everyone could just enjoy life a little bit more. No one was taking themselves very seriously. Well, maybe Richard Nixon was, but we won't count him. Everyone else just seemed to be having a good time. To be fair, I was 4, so I can't really say for sure. I imagine that I was having a nice time.

Then, for a while, it seemed like streaking was everywhere. I even went to summer camp - with the Boy Scouts, no less (insert your own joke, either about the Boy Scouts letting me in or about the Boy Scouts and their practices) - and while I was in the showers, there was allegedly a streaker who ran by outside. I only saw his feet, so I can't say if he was naked or not. Now I'm not sure, but streaking through a camp of boys just seems a little off. Safe, probably. Odd, definitely.

It certainly shows that males are more likely to streak, if nothing else presents itself to do - even among a camp full of other males, we found something to liven things up. But what has happened to all the streakers lately? Have they jut died down? Or has the pastime gone underground? That seems somehow to be against the very concept of streaking.

Read "Where Have All the Streakers Gone?" »

For a very long time I was a faithful Outlook user. Well, that's not true. I wasn't really loyal to Outlook specifically or Microsoft generally. I just used Outlook at work and so I used Outlook at home. It was what I knew and I was used to it. So I stuck with it. But then I decided that it was time to really make the switch to IMAP and Outlook really bites at IMAP.

You know it does. If you try and use IMAP with Outlook you'll get a message that says something like Your IMAP server has closed the connection. This may occur if you have left the connection idle for too long. Sure, you can change the timeout error, but it doesn't matter what you set the value to, you still get the error. So that was a no-go. It was time to look elsewhere.

Read "How to Totally Replace Outlook (in Windows)" »

According to the recycling guidelines published by the City of Charlotte, if you choose to recycle, if you recycle glass, you should rinse it out. If you recycle plastic spiral cans, you should rinse or wipe out remaining food. Strangely, there is no mention of cleaning plastic. I'm also no sure what a plastic spiral can is, but this page leads me to believe it's like one of those cans you get pre-made biscuits and cinnamon rolls and things in. I don't know, because we don't get many of those.

Anyway, what I'm wondering is this: You don't want to have a bunch of food in the recycle bin because it's just nasty - keeping the food there is just asking for bugs in the best case and rodents in the worst case, so I'm thinking that it's a good idea to clean them out. But with all the hubbub about the lack of rain, and how lakes are closing their access ramp and even wells are running dry, is it an issue that we are effectively wasting water to clean items to be recycled?

Read "How Clean Are Your Recyclables?" »

While I probably shouldn't admit it, I will say that every once in a while I'll find myself watching some show on just how some rich person has decided to spend their money lately. They are going through money like it's going out of style, or suddenly they have discovered that they simply must by another bauble for thousands of dollars (perhaps both). It is almost like watching a car crash - especially if the rich person is Britney.

But the really rich people don't just go visit the far away exotic locales, they actually buy them. That's when it becomes really bad. It's not as if I completely envy the people, I mean though I don't enjoy crowds of people, and I think I'd like to get away from it all, I'm not really sure that I would want to own my own island. After all, how would I get my email fix? It's not as if I could afford it anyway. So when I read the story about the guy who built his own island, I thought "hey - I could do that".

Read "Maybe I Should Build My Own Island" »