Archive for May 2008
May 31, 2008
I'm working hard at making the Almost Georgetown code better in version 2.0, and I wanted to take a couple minutes to discuss the some of the coolest features that I'll be introducing.
Audiences
One of them is called the concept of "audiences." When I implemented Almost Georgetown I assumed that I would have a number of entries that I would want to post to certain groups of people only. The problem is that this isn't exactly how a blog works; also, it didn't give me enough control over who got an entry and who didn't.
I wanted to make your user account more relevant, and provide new tools. In the next revision, I will revolutionize the concept with a new feature called audiences. With audiences, I'll be able to group people and target specific blog entries based on their grouping. Also, you will be able to add or remove yourself from certain groups, meaning that you'll be able to decide what entries you want to read and what entries you'd rather leave for others.
The benefit is that entries will become more relevant to you, the reader, than they would have been before. You can block out certain entries, for example the PHP entries (if you're not a coder), or read everything. It's up to you. Also, it will let me get a little bit more personal in my entries, since I can target them to specific readers, rather than worrying about the whole world seeing them.
User Profiles
Lots of modern blogs let users customize a little profile for themselves. In the next version, I will allow you to do the same thing. You'll be able to display (or opt not to display) your location, a small icon (usually called an avatar), and some other information. You'll also be able to use this personal profile as a way to follow and be followed by other commenters - much like the Twitter model. So, if you like what my mom says or what Cale says, you'll be able to track all those user's comments on your personal page!
Anonymous Comments
This isn't directed at my known readers, but at my unknown readers. A lot more people read than just those who comment, and I want to give the anonymous readers a chance to express their thoughts too. With just an email address and a comment, people from around the world will be invited to post their comments (subject to approval to prevent spam) and express their ideas.
Why the e-mail address? Even if the comments are anonymous, I'd like to try and build some sort of relationship with my readers. It won't ever be published and I'll never use it for illicit purposes. Also, it's part of my effort to prevent spam comments (I can block certain e-mail addresses if they're consistently linked to spam posts).
Georgetown Planet
I have a lot of blogs that I read and enjoy. And I want to see that you have an opportunity to read them too. So, I'm working on a blog feed aggregator that will take parts of blogs from all over and let you have access to them. See Planet Chris (http://shiflett.org/planet) for an example.
I haven't finalized a release date yet, but I will be talking about it more as we get closer. I'm excited, and you should be, too!
4:31 pm | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Blog Administration, New Features
May 30, 2008
Metro likes to do maintenence work on weekends, since fewer people ride on the weekends than on weekdays (by some 400,000).
This weekend they're doing work, and they want you to know that they're doing work on the Red, Green, Yellow, Orange and Blue lines. Just those lines though. No other lines are affected.
Wait...
Isn't that ALL the lines?
Metro Press Release
11:41 am | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Metro
May 29, 2008
Having a heart attack? Better not be in DC.
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8:55 am | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Health, Washington, DC
May 28, 2008
I made two critical mistakes this morning:
- I forgot to charge my cell phone overnight.
- I forgot my USB cable to charge it via my computer.
Personally, I feel lost. My electronic security blanket has been robbed from me. Ok, it's probably not that bad, but still, the frequency with which I rely on it is startling. It provides me directions. It keeps me in contact with friends and associates. It prevents boredom on the Metro.
But today my precious baby is dead, and I will have to suffer until I can revive it with the Electrons of Life tonight.
*sniff*
9:13 am | Comment (2) | Print | Categories: Uncategorized
May 26, 2008
With the picnics and camping trips and sporting events of this weekend wrapping up, Americans will return to their lives and start their summers. But this holiday dedicated to those heroic persons who gave their final measure of devotion on the world's battlefields deserve to be remembered, and we should take time to do so.
With Americans deployed worldwide, it is also important that we show honor and respect to those who have made tremendous personal sacrifice. Though we may debate the politics of the war, we should never debase the heroism of our soldiers, and we owe them nothing less than our best wishes.
To those serving in uniform, thank you for your service. To those who have gone before and lost their lives in defense of America's freedom, they have not died in vain, but for the greater cause of liberty in a chaotic and dangerous world. America is better because they served, and America is worse off because of the lives we have lost.
So take a moment to remember. Cherish the freedom and prosperity that the sacrifice of thousands has preserved. Forget not the lives lost, and be thankful for those willing to give it all.
6:23 pm | Comment (1) | Print | Categories: Contemplation, Gratitude, Holidays
May 25, 2008
Having a great time here in Fredericksburg. Been boating, played shuffleboard, and made new friends. We head home tomorrow and I have plenty of pictures...some of them might even be blog-appropriate! Talk to you all soon...
7:43 pm | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Mobile Post
May 23, 2008
7:29 pm | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Adventures, Wilderness
Memorial day is upon us, and so I wanted to warm the weekend up with a bit on transportation.
The headlines that affect you...
- Gas hits $3.83 a gallon. Go ahead. You can cry. Let it out. I'll wait. It's important to get it out now. Seriously. Now that we've got that out of the way...
- 37.87 million of you will take to the roads or skies, which surprisingly is fewer than last year. Apparently $3.83 a gallon hurts some, but 37.87 million still feel the need to travel.
- If you must travel, Metro is getting safer, as they are preparing evacuation plans for all their stations in case of emergency. One has to think, though...why don't they already have emergency evacuation plans?
- American Airlines wants $15 for you to check your first piece of luggage. Though most airlines are struggling, Southwest is still flying cheep fares, in part due to their huge capital resources and ability to buy fuel far in advance. While some of my friends think that airlines should still serve diamond-encrusted champagne on flights, the reality is that the Southwest business model may be the wave of the future. Goodbye, Skymiles, hello Rapid Rewards!
Have a safe Memorial Day.
9:55 am | Comment (3) | Print | Categories: Economics, Frustration, Metro, Travel, Washington, DC
Traffic is out of control.
First, you have your typical morons - the type that think they'll make it through the intersection and end up parking in the middle of it instead. The utter aggravation of this daily occurrence leads some drivers to blast their horns in angst, but that does little good to solve the problem.
Then, you have your boorish morons: the ones that park in the middle of crosswalks as a matter of course. Every crosswalk has these idiots, blocking the access to the crosswalk for pedestrians and forcing them to unsafely navigate through the street, around cars that might at any moment try and seize an empty space at the pedestrian's expense.
I propose the following: someone should make 50,000 bumper stickers that say "I'm a jerk. I park in crosswalks." They should hand them out at the intersections of Wisconsin and M and other busy streetcorners to pedestrians to apply to the front, rear, side and top portions of cars that park in crosswalks. If anything, it'd be funny - and maybe stop people from creating gridlock!
8:46 am | Comment (1) | Print | Categories: Frustration
May 22, 2008
Sometimes you just gotta ask yourself: what on earth were they thinking?
The day's headlines:
Congress forgot to send the third title of the Farm Bill to President Bush for his signature or veto, both confirming that neither Congress or the President actually read the legislation they vote on or sign, and also embarassing the Democrats who quickly voted to override a veto that never took place. I can see in some office somewhere: "Hey Bob, you know that scratch paper we used the other day? Well..." What were they thinking? [Politico]
DCist reports that plenty of cabs won't have meters by June 1. With thousands of cabs, only four stations that can certify meters, and cabbies who seemed to think the courts would miraculously side with them, one can only ask, what were they thinking? [DCist]
Someone thought it a good idea to sign me up for a subscription of Men's Vogue. What were they thinking?
The Park Service announced that arsenic levels at Fort Reno park were, in fact, within acceptable levels, weeks after closing the park based on satellite images (as if arsenic could be found by satellite). What were they thinking? [DCist]
28% of Americans still approve of President Bush's leadership. What on EARTH are they thinking?
9:37 am | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Bizarre, Funny, Washington, DC
May 21, 2008
Honesty is very important to law enforcement. Police officers routinely testify in court, and their word often outweighs that of a defendant, especially in cases where the officer is the only one to see the offense. So you would think that it would be easy to fire a police officer who lied to their superiors.
Nope.
Continue Reading...
4:11 pm | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Bizarre, Civil Rights, Crime, Politics, Washington, DC
May 19, 2008
That's the maximum number of simultaneously selected buttons can be activated in the elevators in my building.
Lame...
10:22 pm | Comment (5) | Print | Categories: Bizarre
So it's Monday, and after a busy and fun weekend I thought I should share the festivities with those of you too far away to participate.
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12:47 pm | Comment (1) | Print | Categories: Adventures, Washington, DC
May 14, 2008
Andy Carvin is a typical DC resident. He works for NPR, and when trying out a new camera he wanted to go to one of DC's most spacious and beautiful public buildings: Union Station. Problem is, security guards at Union Station seem to have missed First Amendment day, and have a tendancy to harass photographers like Andy Carvin, as he wrote about in his blog.
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10:53 pm | Comment (2) | Print | Categories: Civil Rights, Washington, DC
There was talk from cabbies that the new systems would drive fares higher. Did that happen? Tonight, I got a cab ride from the Verizon Center home, a three-zone fare with a $1 gas surcharge, for a zone total of $12. However, my cab was metered, and the total fare door to door was $10.50, a full $1.50 less expensive than the zone system. This included a $1 gas surcharge for the driver, and a $3 drop rate (the starting point for the ride), as opposed to the $7.50 drop rate for one zone under the old system.
In a time of rising prices, I'm happy to see cab rides come down in price. Even as cabbies are pinched by higher fuel prices and more expensive goods at home, the fact that they're now being paid for the time and distance they travel is a good thing. I'm pleased with the Mayor's decision and I hope that he continues to win the court fight the cabbies are waging to stop the meters.
9:59 pm | Comment (4) | Print | Categories: Taxicabs, Washington, DC
May 12, 2008
Anyone who's seen Planes, Trains and Automobiles is familiar with the storyline of the worst trip ever home for Christmas. Thankfully, I've never had an experience quite like that, but today's trip home was certainly, shall we say, "special." From a late flight to a full one, to trains not showing up and crazy cabbies, it was quite an adventure.
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11:20 pm | Comment (4) | Print | Categories: Adventures, California, Taxicabs, Travel
I'm waiting to head out from Oakland, and I can't help but notice that more than half the personal computers here are Macs. While that's great for my stock price it also makes me wonder if America has finally realized Macs as alternatives to PC-based systems. Still, keep up the good work, California.
1:26 pm | Comment (0) | Print | Categories: Mobile Post
May 10, 2008
I'm home visiting for Mother's Day. I surprised my mom with a visit, along with the aid of her friends. Every time I come I remember why I miss California and also some of the reasons I left...
On Monday I head back to Baltimore, and then DC via train, and back to the grind on Tuesday. For those I have a chance to see while I'm here, I'm glad to visit with you, those I was unable to visit, I'm sorry we didn't connect, and those in DC I look forward to seeing you when I return.
8:47 pm | Comment (1) | Print | Categories: Adventures, California
May 6, 2008
Take another page from the Republican playbook for Hillary Clinton. In her premature victory speech to Indiana, she declared that she could "keep us safe" and "make this economy work." But wait...aren't those the same promises of John McCain?
The truth is that Hillary Clinton let slip her true colors tonight. Hillary Clinton doesn't represent the change America needs, because she's in the breast pockets of special interests. The words "keep" and "make work" indicate continuing along the same path, the Bush-McCain path, the failed strategy that has us mired in two wars with a foundering economy and flailing middle class.
Clinton's error will likely go unnoticed by the mainstream media as they talk about how close Indiana will turn out to be. Her speech paled in comparison to the heartfelt and presidential speech given by Obama earlier in the night, and I think it will start to show in later races. But it's increasingly clear that a vote for Clinton is just like a vote for McCain: more of the same, failed, flawed, foolish policies of the last eight years.
11:21 pm | Comments Disabled | Print | Categories: Election '08, Politics
May 4, 2008
If you want a formula for adventure, take 200 college-age individuals, give them blue armbands and a map, and add in 15 or so "chasers" to catch and convert them into more chasers, and send them all out into the city on a race. That was the basic premise of Journey to the End of the Night (www.survivedc.com), a fun, city-wide game of tag that I played last night.
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2:13 pm | Comment (4) | Print | Categories: Adventures, JOURNEYDC08RUN1
May 2, 2008
