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Archive for March, 2007

SpinnWebe login system

I had one before for A1 editors, but there were problems with the code that I couldn’t work out, and I let myself get intimidated out of figuring out what the problem was. But it’s a crucial part of getting A1 working, and I couldn’t bring myself to put more code on top of other code I didn’t trust. Therefore: a year of procrastination.

I think I got it working now, though, with some internal improvements that are making me happier with it. I’d appreciate it if interested persons would test the process for me:

http://www.spinnwebe.com/user/

Make an account, login, change prefs, logout, I dunno, just click around and see if the thing works the way you’d expect it to work. There’s supposed to be a “logged in as X” tag in the header at upper right when you login, but if your browser doesn’t reload the css, you might have to do that manually for it to come up in the right place (go here, click reload).

Known issues and other comments:

  1. The pages with forms aren’t organized very well, they’re leftover from the previous site and I haven’t updated their css yet.
  2. At least one person got the verification email like hours later, but since he’s the only one so far, I think it’s probably on his end.
  3. Unfortunately this is going to mean the blog will require a separate login than the site. I considered hitching my own code on to WP’s login code, but that makes me nervous, because doing that means I have to check that my code still works with each WP upgrade, and my track record for that kind of thing is lousy.
  4. Huh, speaking of the blog, the tag doesn’t show at all in the header here. Odd. It’s there if you click to non-blog SW pages, though. Found that.

Also, about pictures: apparently my spam filter is being overly aggressive, and I almost missed some. If you send any, please make the subject “A1 pictures” so I can find them easier if they keep getting caught.

I approve this message

<SeanQ> cooked apples without cinnamon is like sex without an orgasm
<SeanQ> nice enough, but in the end, deeply unsatisfying

Ugh, pundits

No, wait, “ugh, pundits” doesn’t properly capture it. It’s not someone having a high rate of bad opinions that bugs me, it’s when they’re considered experts on the subject on which they’re frequently wrong.

Found this Tom the Dancing Bug comic that sums that up:

yeah like that

Three watershed moments

One: Sen. Hagel says “impeachment”, out loud, on national TV

He couches it in careful language, of course: he’s not recommending it, he’s not advocating it, but: “any president who says… I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don’t care what the Congress does… there are ways to deal with that. This is not a monarchy.”

Mixed feelings on Hagel. His voting record is pretty strongly conservative, but he’s pretty angry about this power-grabbing president. Is he setting up a presidential run and gambling this one key issue would get him enough moderate votes?

Two: Robert Novak says congressional Republicans are starting to call the Bush administration incompetent

The existence of this article is interesting according to TeddySanFran at Firedoglake: “The role Novak plays among the GOP elite — when they are afraid to broach a subject to one another, they all broach it to him. When it reaches critical mass and he realizes they need to speak with one another about the problem, he publishes.”

Three: ah holy christ preparations for attack on Iran in two weeks?

I’m not sure how trustworthy this is, but it does have links to two articles (here and here, translated from French via Google) in Novosti, a Russian news agency (which, come to think of it, I’m not sure how trustworthy that is either).

edit: oh hell make that four: Astonishingly, amazingly, the way to end the terrorism was to solve the conflict that started it.

Damn it’s been a big news week already, and it’s only Tuesday.

argleargleargle addiction

I think I’ve said this before about my coffee habit: occasionally I’ll just stay away from coffee for a week because my addiction irritates me. I’m doing this for WoW, I dunno about this week, but at least for today, hopefully tomorrow, and I’m going through the same feelings. Man oh man do I want to load the game up. I could just go in and check some of my trades on the auction house, but I know someone will probably msg me and ask if I want to run an instance, and of course I’d go, so I’m just not loading it at all.

But man it’s surprisingly tough. It’s not urgent, driving, drug dependence kinda addiction, but it’s still addiction. But I have plans to do something in game on Thursday, so hopefully I can just wait it out til then.

A1-AAA Pictures

Okay, I’m about getting sick of my WoW addiciton, and need to get some coding done soon. I could use some new pictures for A1-AAA…I might have some, but I have no idea now. In any case I could probably use more. If you have any pictures that need some captions, please email ‘em to me (“spinn” at this domain).

It’s been a while, so here’s what I’m looking for: not pictures that are wacky or goofy in themselves, not pictures that are posed or have people looking at the camera. I prefer candid pics where people don’t know/care they’re being photographed, with a couple different areas that can be the focus of attention. Send them the full resolution you have (up to a meg or so), becuase I’m not sure what the final format will be, yet.

The Other 85 U.S. Attorneys

 Crap, here’s a question I didn’t even think of.

Robert Reich’s Blog: The Other 85 U.S. Attorneys

Boxer Tells Inhofe “An Inconvenient Truth”

Sen. Inhofe used to run the Committee on Environment and Public Works, but now Sen. Boxer is in charge. Gore was there answering questions, and Inhofe kept cutting him off. Finally Boxer got tired of him:

Crooks and Liars » Boxer Tells Inhofe “An Inconvenient Truth”

Heh heh heh. Two things, though:

  1. Liked the “…Wow.” by the report at the end.
  2. When Boxer says “freeze the time”, Inhofe gets all with the attitude for a second: “Take your time. We’re freezing the time.” He doesn’t realize there that Boxer wants to talk to him. He is so ready to believe that Boxer’s going to suspend the rules just because she doesn’t agree with him and agrees with Gore. I wish I had seen the rest of the hearing…I’d like to know if her actions during it would give him that impression, or if he’s just being another fucking pigheaded partisan politician who thinks every fact or rule has to be about one political side or the other.

NONO. NO. NO. NONONONONO.

I’M NOT SURE WHAT’S UPSETTING ME ABOUT THIS SO COMPLETELY BUT THERE CANNOT BE A MICHELLE MALKIN POST ABOUT SCHUMIN. THERE SIMPLY CANNOT BE.

Michelle Malkin: Meet Ben

IT’S…NO. THERE IS WRONGNESS AND A CLIFF AND WHATSIT. HELL.

I CAN’T PUT TOGETHER A SENTENCE PROPERLY AND I CAN’T GET OUT OF CAPS EITHER. NO. NONONONO.

Sleep travel

blackvipersrelm: someday I’ll learn how to stop and start time.. well.. stop and start my movement in time… that will be the day.. uh.. instant.. uh.. point in time.. uh.. whatever… I’ll get sooo much sleep at that point
spinn: heh, yeah. but that’s a little dangerous
spinn: (I have actually thought about the implications of that)
blackvipersrelm: what implications? I would simply become disconnected from reality as most know it
spinn: if you could stop time to sleep, and got into the habit of doing it, you’d subjectively age 1/3rd faster than everyone else
blackvipersrelm: hm… interesting.. so I would have to not only learn how to stop it, but also how to move within it, so I could go forward and get injected with nano-tech to keep repairing my body, so I may be older, but be in better shape than those younger
spinn: well if you’re just gonna invent things
blackvipersrelm: nah, someone else will
spinn: but if you just wanna talk time travel, sure.
blackvipersrelm: or that’s the hope
spinn: then sleep isn’t the variable, if you just inject yourself with Deus ex Machina(TM) brand nanobots
blackvipersrelm: so if I went forward, would I be able to ..
blackvipersrelm: huh
blackvipersrelm: that’s a good idea
spinn: well, you make your days 32 hours long, then you age faster from everyone else’s point of view
spinn: or you stop time to sleep, and then skip forward in time to catch up
spinn: in which case you might as well stop bending the laws of the universe and just get some sleep
blackvipersrelm: yeah, but they’d all be wrong, they’d all be aging at the wrong rate from my view
spinn: if nothing else, a mattress is much cheaper than your own pocket universe
blackvipersrelm: but who has the time?
blackvipersrelm: the pocket universe might buy you that
spinn: heheh
spinn: I think each pocket universe comes free with a mattress, actually
blackvipersrelm: nice
spinn: they understand the needs of today’s go-getting time traveller
blackvipersrelm: so I should try and get that created before the end of the day.. before I get on my flight.. perhaps I should also get a char-dog. Those things are good
spinn: snkkkt
spinn: SHOPPING LIST: [ ] Pocket universe [ ] Time-travel device [ ] Char-dog
blackvipersrelm: heh
blackvipersrelm: wonder what store carries those
blackvipersrelm: maybe something in the duty free

Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)

Oh sometimes there’s just something that gets your inner geek all happy.

I get about 3/5ths of it, but eh, I dig harmonics.

also: yes I know it’s old christ you kids today.

John McCain: “patronizing, infantilizing, and insulting”

At least according to Michelle Malkin, noted right-wing blogger.

Heh, this is fun, actually. Got this off C&L, and if Malkin’s site allowed comments, I’d join what would likely be a host of other commenters there. But, her site allows trackbacks, so let’s see if this functionally does the same thing.

First, there’s “Obama: Soldier deaths = “Wasted” lives” (Feb. 12) in which Malkin has a quote from Barack Obama saying that soldiers’ lives were wasted. Then she “introduces” Obama to a number of fallen soldiers, by way of personal stories about them and how they were willing to lay down their lives for their country. Obviously this misses the point, because their willingness to sacrifice their lives for their country has deep, profound meaning for them, but doesn’t mean that the people in charge of putting them in combat used their dedication in a meaningful way. And Obama apologized for the comment the next day, which is a shame. Even Republicans are saying that dollars, time, and effort are wasted over there, but since everybody’s using the “support our troops” club, it’s not safe to say that about soldiers’ lives, I suppose.

She ends with:

I could go on, but it would be a waste of breath trying to get Sen. Obama to acknowledge the existence of countless soldiers and their families who reject his patronizing, infantilizing, and insulting view of all American troops as dupes/victims who have squandered their lives.

And then, Feb 28, McCain says on Letterman: “Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be…we’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.” Oops! Somehow her Feb 28 post neglected to call McCain patronizing, infantilizing, and insulting, but I’ve done you the service of connecting those dots. Actually, I don’t know what her opinion of McCain is, but she calls him “The Maaaverick”, which sounds dismissive enough that I expect she’ll be able to say he’s not a “real” conservative before long.

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