DISQUS

Well, small world... Congrats, Adriene!

After excluding Parallels from Time Machine you could back up your VM to an external drive as you suggest.

Or alternatively, you could make a separate folder which still *is* covered by Time Machine and periodically save a Parallels snapshot there. That way Time Machine wouldn't get bogged down with hourly backups of your VM but would still get your daily/weekly/whatever snapshots and you wouldn't need the hassle of a separate drive just for Parallels.

Right?

And, surprise, it doesn't support Mac.

"Usable products don't make smart users."

- Engineering proverb

Here's one more Austinite who's very familiar with our local political wacko Alex Jones. He is indeed a libertarian who makes common cause with right- and left-wingers as it suits him.

I say he's a wacko not because he's a libertarian (although that certainly helps) but because of his conspiracy theories, from the 9/11-was-an-inside-job delusion to his belief that all past and sitting presidents joined a cult at Bohemian Grove.

People in Austin have an amused affection for Alex, which is why he pops up in such places as Richard Linklater's "Waking Life." But most of his political bedfellows, from his associates at hard-right pirate radio to lefty antiwar demonstrators, would be appalled if they actually listened to him.

I find this a little confusing. The goals of quality, accessibility and usability are laudable and almost always worth keeping in mind, even if one's goal is entertainment rather than information.

However, the best bloggers can, when they choose, meet all of your criteria for a "professionally published" article. Depending on personal preference, good bloggers frequently blow away the typical professional article on one or more of your criteria (I'm thinking of some bloggers' use of original photography or bloggers who put a lot of effort into deep and wide-ranging commentary on references).

Furthermore, not all blogs are focused on breaking news: the most original bloggers are the ones who have unique insight on topics which are not the buzz of the day. In fact, I would argue that the primary value of blogs is not to shorten the news cycle (which is already too short if you ask me) but rather out there in the long tail of specialized topics and perspectives which would never have found their audience in old media.

If the Brazilians show up, then @teamVerdeAmarelo will kick all our asses.

You left out @sepiateam ("All other colors will fade!") and also @meatteam, @teamcoffee, and an anatomically pink team that I won't name.

Sounds like the panelists were doing the audience a disservice and deserved what they got, but I hope there emerge better protocols for audience feedback than earpieces or mass confrontations.

Most of the panelists at SXSW are experts (or simply enthusiasts) on their topics and not professional newscasters or TV emcees. This is as it should be. It's cognitively a great deal to ask of amateur speakers that they pay attention to their planned talk, their co-panelists, the people who formally ask questions at the microphone, and (if we're lucky) the visible and audible reactions of the audience. To add an earpiece to the mix or ask speakers to monitor a chat channel as they talk would make most speakers do worse, not better.

A traditional way to handle audience response is to have audience members write questions on cards and have a moderator select among them. Usually this is used to stifle the audience (i.e., so they won't ask tough questions) but in digital form it can be used to manage volume rather than content. I've heard of this method being adapted in both hybrid Second-Life/real-life conferences and in radio talk shows so there's a panel participant designated to report questions and comments that emerge from audience chatter.

Maybe it would be worth some formal experiments in this vein at next year's SXSW?

I hope you're joking about the "most excellent graphical snapshots" bit. Talk about chartjunk! Decorative elements that add nothing and bars with misleading areas (i.e., widths that vary without connection to the data). These people seriously need to read some Tufte!

I, too, am wondering what happens to the tags in the Blog Post form. Is this a stub for functionality to come?

I'd seen a couple of other people criticize this scheme as too Technorati-centric and bought it until I read the part of the spec about "tag spaces":

"Since the only part of a tag space URL of which any structure is required is the last segment, a tag space URL can be hosted at any domain."

http://microformats.org/wiki/reltag#Tag_Spaces

Maybe a URL-free version of this idea would have been better, but it's not true that Technorati has excluded other players on this point.

A question: what tag spaces are people actually linking to out there? I'm guessing it's mostly Technorati and a smattering of Wikipedia and del.icio.us; any other significant targets?

Looking back, I don't think I put enough irony markers in that mosquito item. If I don't trust Monsanto to genetically engineer my food, I sure won't trust Terminix to genetically engineer my blood. Side effects would be a major concern, as well as the likelihood that mosquitoes (with a zillion times the reproductive cycle of us humans) would just mutate to get around the poison.

You ask me, the world could use a few more no-fly zones. And some no-SUV zones while they're at it.

Or as somebody restated it 150 years or so later: "I'll be mellow when I'm dead."

And what a nice boy, to call his momma "gorgeous"!

Typical response -- hear about a security hole, shoot the messenger.

Amory Lovins and others have been talking about the security vulnerabilities of our energy system for decades. But who listens to them?

Very entertaining, but presented in this format without a lot of analysis behind it, it reminds me of Nostradamus.

As for the powerful Indian American lobby, I'll believe it when I see it. Indians are far more fragmented than the Jews to whom Sheth compares them. Not only in terms of language, religion, etc. but more to the point, in terms of what such a lobby might work toward. About the only issue I can imagine most Indian Americans agreeing on is immigration policy.

The best idea about genetic engineering and mosquitoes that I've heard comes from one of Bruce Sterling's recent books: genetically engineer people to have blood that's poisonous to the mosquitoes. Yeah! That could wipe out malaria, dengue and a bunch of other tropical diseases in one swell foop. (Not to mention making Texas a hell of a lot more pleasant in the summertime.)

That's the kind of dream journaling we should encourage. Dreams in 25 words or less. Dream haiku!

Actually, Slow Wave does a pretty good job of what I'm talking about.

My best friend in kindergarten was a girl, I guess before the whole "When Harry Met Sally" rule against cross-gender best friendships kicked in. We lost touch in the first grade when she was in a different classroom. About 20 years or so later my sister claimed to have learned that my former best friend was working as a stripper and offered to put me in touch. I didn't know what that was supposed to accomplish beyond embarassing me and amusing my sister, so I declined.

Seriously, I heard recently about some psychiatric research which indicates that sleep disturbance always plays a role in depression. That is, according to the theory something causes a particular kind of sleep disturbance which in turn triggers the biological mechanisms of depression. It could be a crock, but it's an interesting idea.

Obviously he listens to so much Abba because there was a sale on at Sound Warehouse.

It was good to meet you, too. Hey, I was in a fairly dark mood myself (which may or may not have been why I felt like Fray Cafe wasn't as good this time around). Too bad we weren't wearing little black cloud lapel pins or something so we grumped out folks could recognize each other.

"Four distinct sounds" is not "language ability". I'm sure one could train a cat or dog to make "four distinct sounds" to get four distinct treats. Language requires grammar, syntax, and the creation of novel utterances. Even Koko and other signing apes barely start to get into the bottom end of this realm, and never develop the vocabulary or grammatical sophistication even matching those of a small child.

Sigh. When will the press start to get this stuff right?