DISQUS

Unrelated question for you two: Do you know how to change the preview videos at the end of a YouTube? I have a judge who doesn't want viewers of his commercial directed to "The Dark Side of Scientology" and the like.

The new Microsoft ads have that defensive feel of failing political candidates whining about how big mean Obama is trying to make hay out of Sarah Palin's complete lack of any desirable quality. But at least they're getting people talking. About how sucky PCs are.

Could you guys put an "Older Entries" link at the bottom of the page and linktify the tropophilia logo at the top?

Dominate!

I tried to use Facebook Chat once. The result was the following post on my wall: "i think you just said that facebook chat hates me but i can't tell because in fact it does and i can see you are trying to chat but i can't read all of what it says all i can see is "chat hates you too." well, i agree."

Facebook doesn't really lend itself well to real-time interaction. It's more about furtive pokes and voyeurism for me.

Big Sur. Fires.

Funny you should post that Gantt chart recipe today: my boss just asked me to prepare a couple of those things for some upcoming fund-raisers.

I wish I had the expertise to add some useful information to this topic (especially since density is the big hot-button issue in Austin's local elections), but here's how not to deal with sprawl on a very local level: Austin has all these charming neighborhoods--Hyde Park, North Loop, South Congress, etc.--and they all have their own completely un-charming fascist neighborhood groups. A new development on a tract of land previously owned by the state ran into opposition from the Hyde Park neighborhood group, who feared the increased density adjacent to Hyde Park would bring increased congestion to the neighborhood. They wanted a park instead. The completely stupid compromise reached by the neighborhood and the developer was to close off the 50th St access to the new development from not just cars but bikes and foot-traffic as well. (Of course, the FD needs access, so there'll be a road where now the street dead-ends, but it will have a locked gate.) Here's the whole story from a blog I think you'll find pretty interesting.

I'm totally for this for two reasons:
1) This puts more pressure on CNN to not be so easily parodied.
2) I want a t-shirt that says, "Live Developing Story: Pelican Stuck in a Tree in Florida".

One of them thar ethanol-from-algae thingies?

#1: Blogging maybe? I don't have any Internets at my apartment so my only access is at work and in the library or occasional coffee shop. I would feel really weird blogging from work, so the quantity of my blogging has fallen off (though the quality is truly inspiring).

#2: I haven't kayaked in over 2 years. Owning a whitewater boat in flat, dry Austin is the kind of luxury I can't afford right now. And I'm thinking of swapping my car for a scooter, which would make transporting a boat and gear comically impractical.

#3: I would like to get paid for loafing around Austin drunk with my friends, but we already have a mayor so that's out. For now... (Kidding! I love Will Wynn!)

Wah wah wah, John Edwards never txts me anymore. Maybe this is just my knee-jerk reaction to any authenticity complaints against my boy John Edwards, but Stowe Boyd's post really bugged me. I mean, "The Exploitation of Web Culture"? That's a bit much, I think. What about the exploitation of trial lawyers, who also put a lot of resources into the Edwards campaign only to see it fizzle. What about the exploitation of push-cards, thrown in the wastebasket after nobly and succinctly introducing candidates to voters.

Boyd's self-laudatory whining glosses over one pretty important fact: despite having the most plugged-in campaign with (I suspect) the most support in progressive "web culture", John Edwards' campaign never gained any traction. His Campaign 2.0 strategy, for all its success at wooing bloggers, failed at the vote-getting part of the election. Combine that with the proliferation of horrible nonsense on the web (Strongbad, Hannah Montana semi-topless, Second Life [call me a curmudgeon but I see no point now or in the future of this Second Life thing], etc.) and it's pretty obvious why a politician might shy away from "web culture" in favor of the "old politics wolf" that, you know, actually works.

(This should be obvious but I'll point out anyway that it costs money to have a staff cover all your web bases. After you drop out you become more concerned with paying off your debts and disassembling your campaign than with continuing your campaign. And the staffers themselves I'm sure are more interested in scoring a paycheck with the Obama campaign than with sending encouraging texts to Stowe Boyd.)

Boyd loses his last shred of credibility with this line: "Or a friend who moves away for a new career in a distant city, and then never, ever calls." Silly blogger, no one calls their friends anymore; they write on each others' walls.