netcropolis.org

Don't anyone mail me to say "hey moron, your CAPTCHA's broke!"

Of course, that's likely because the only people who've tried to log in have been bots, but still. Damned inconsiderate bots.

I've changed the CAPTCHA, so if you ACTUALLY wanted an account, and are not spamming pharmacology, c'mon (back) in.

Alternate title: having a plan in the first place.

So I imagine it's pretty clear that my site has "just growed", in that after my first site, a decade or so ago, in which I actually designed it and then built it by hand, the subsequent sites have all been Content Management System (CMS) based.

This has been great from a "slapping crap onto the site" perspective, but a nightmarish POS from an esthetic/personalization standpoint.

So this time I'm going to do my whole site as a Flash-based design.

*silence*

Ok, enough bitching about something I dislike, and on to something I like;

I'd kind of been ignoring "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog", until attending the "Shadow cast" (Think Rocky Horror Picture Show floorshow, for you old-timers out there) at Arisia 2010. Until then, I'd only seen the first half of the first Act.

It's really excellent. It's a great mix of ridiculous humor/plotline, actual ly really good classical story and well. It's just great. If, on the off chance that you haven't seen this, go to YouTube or iTunes right away and grab it.

They did a GREAT job on this, especially considering it was virtually no budget...the ending..man.

My daughter was unsure what to make of it, but on viewing it straight, she's been humming some of the songs tonight.

I've read that there are rumbles of a "sequel", I kind of hope not. Some things are one-shot, they come together and anything following just detracts, the ending just says "Period. Done."

"Billy? You're driving the spork into your leg."

"Huhn? So I am...Hilarious!"

In other news - I'm finally reading Discworld, yes I'm just Mr. "cutting edge", huhn?

Tell you what all you people who are out there whining about how "Apple is just blocking Flash content to protect their Oh-So Precious Garden".

Give it a rest, huhn?

Let me be clear here. Sure, I've blocked Flash forever, but that was to block annoying ads, which are not Adobe's fault. But I enjoy a game of Diner Dash as much as the next fellow.

But I am very glad that Apple is keeping flash off the iPhone.

Why?

Let's start with an easy-peasy one, shall we?

Adobe: Fix your damned plugin on Mac OS X, and then you can stop acting all surprised that Apple (you know, the company that makes Mac OS X?) doesn't want your crash-prone plugin on something that runs on the same underlying OS that you can't seem to stop making your plug in stable under.

'Cos the fact is, your plugin is CPU intensive and crash-prone.

John Nack gets all teary about how hard "Poor little Adobe has tried, awnest, they has, even though that siwwy old Mac OS X thing is only 5% of the market place, really they dud their best!"

And now Apple has a hugely popular smartphone, and they left you morons at the dock, while they sailed away. Are y'all familiar with the terms "just desserts"? Now the "iPad" is rolling down the ramp, and again, standing at the dock is Adobe.

Sucks when you get what's coming to you, huhn? I mean, do you really think that Apple build Preview, a replacement for Adobe Acrobat Reader because they thought "Hey, we're kind of bored around here, let's make a free replacement for a free program and bake it into the OS."

Really? Or do you kinda think that it was because Adobe Acrobat on Mac OS X is a dog?

Are we starting to see a trend here? Starting to see some places that maybe Adobe could have changed the outcome? I sure do.

And you know what? I'm even willing to admit that the whiners could be correct. Apple is keeping Flash and Java off the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad to protect their sales of content.

But right now, Adobe is the company that could have fixed things with their apps, and they've been steadfastly ignoring their Mac users, aside from their cash cow, Adobe Creative Suite. (I'm being generous here, I do support for designers, hoo boy)

Fix Flash on Mac OS X, Adobe - then you at least can say that it's Apple's fault, 'cos right now.

It's all you.

Daring Fireball: "The print publishing industry should be so lucky to have iTunes do for them what it%u2019s done for music."(Via .)

Daring Fireball Linked List: McGraw-Hill CEO Says That Tablet Is iPhone OS Based: ""(Via Daring Fireball.)

Shuh, "McGraw-Hill content? No, I'm sorry, we don't have any McGraw-Hill content." - Steve Jobs

So, over at Wet Asphalt, Eric Rosenfield has written an article about some...concerns he had after attending Arisia 2010 and found it to be a bit more of a "Lifestyle Con" (It isn't, but that's the term he used).

After posting some thoughts on his concerns and telling a commenter there who turned out to be Eric's "partner/co-poster" on the site that he was full of shit" (oopsie :)), I found a track of thought that I'd been wondering about while I was at Arisia.

What do we want to get out of these panels?

Eric was talking about how at a West Coast con, a Dr. Who panel, for example, would have people from the show, whereas at Arisia (in this case) you basically had fans who ended up talking about their favorite episodes. Which is all cool, and I've been at panels like that, but...how does this differ from just getting a bull session going in a hallway? Is it better? Worse?

What about the one with the people from the show? A chance to ask questions about the show? Can't I just watch the DVD extras and get the same things? Read about the show on their website? How is that different?

How much of the "Is there a -name- in a panel?" interest comes from wanting to rub elbows with the celebs? Or do you get something more useful?

At the "Future of School" panel, one of the best comments an attendee made was "if you vote, this is something you can go out, right now and do that will actually have an effect." (He was talking about campaigning against standardized testing). That alone was worth having suggested that panel, so that there were other commenters, is just a bonus.

So, going forward, as I suggest MORE panels for Arisia next year, I'm going to be thinking "what do I want people to get out of this panel?"

So, it's almost time for MacWorld Expo 2010.

Over at Bynkii.com, John Welch has written why MW Expo should continue, and all of the benefits that Conferences like MacWorld offers.

This was initially in response to an article by Jim Dalrymple about how MW Expo 2010 is basically going down or gonna be a success.

It was pointed out to me that I didn't link to any options for blocking Google SideWiki.

From what I could find, there are two ways - If you know of a better one, let me know, I'd love to hear it.

So...what the fuck is up with Google lately? I mean, seriously, have they lost their minds?

Last night I was reading the website of one of my Favorite Sci-Fi writers, John Varley, and I noticed that he had updated a section of hi site regarding the use of Google Sidewiki. Now, you may or may not have heard of Google Sidewiki. Basically, it's a piece of Google Toolbar that lets you access a wiki "over" a website - a way to create a sort of "universal conversation" inline with an existing website. Here's what it can look like on your site (abusive example):

There's a a lot more out there about this - I'll sum it up and say "Remember Smart Tags? The system Microsoft tried to foist off a bunch of years ago? This is Google's version. Kill it."

Ok, so problem solved for ME anyways - If you are using Google Toolbar, you're blocked. Kind of unfortunate, but since Google offers no way to "opt-out" of SideWiki, go talk to Google. Google Toolbar users are being redirected to another page, whether I'll havethat be one here or somewhere else, dunno. I was thinking about routing them to Varley's post on SideWiki, but well, why send the people there?

Anyhow, that was last night. Now today I read this:

Google CEO On Privacy: 'If You Have Something You Don't Want Anyone To Know, Maybe You Shouldn't Be Doing It'

Supposedly that's a verbatim quote - I kid you not.

First Off: WTF Google!?!?!? WTF!?!?

Secondly: Good money says Eric Schmidt has some scandal under the hood. I've virtually NEVER heard any public figure utter those words without them being exposed in some scandal sometime within the near future. So get cracking all you Investigative Reporters - he's already told you that A) There's a story there and B) It's OK if you expose it.

I'm not sure what else I have to say about this, well, other than that I strongly recommend that other sites block SideWiki too, but that's just my opinion.