Monthly Archives: June 2003

Hopefully it’s oversight

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And not a case of routing around. There are tensions between the preexisting weblog java community and the new one springing up at java.net. Both are looking for the major webloggers (the so-called ‘A-list’) for recognition and linkage.

Here’s a hint to the folks at Sun – this isn’t an automatic process. It’s going to take time. Keep linking to the best Java webloggers out there and you will eventually see the links flowing back to you. It’s a two way street.

Important show for The Phoenix Trap tomorrow night

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They wil be playing at The Hard Rock Cafe to compete for an opening slot at Rolling Rock’s Town Fair IV.

Update: It was a great show. The crowd was enjoying themselves, I even saw a 5 year old girl dancing between a few dinner tables! There is no way I couldn’t notice their growth over the three times I’ve seen them this past year. Musically they are tighter (the chorus to “Miss You” had a few old heads rocking) while their stage presence has grown tremendously. The entire band is rocking out now and having fun – as it should be. Keeping my fingers crossed for them. 🙂 And yes, Mark (their bass player) is a friend and fellow weblogger, and I am biased, but I wouldn’t steer you wrong. Give them a listen – you won’t be disappointed.

A great new weblog

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A few months ago I complained that there were no weblogs that gave you political points of view across the spectrum. Almost all weblogs have a bias to the left, right, or somewhere in between, and rarely, with a few notable exceptions, would these sites cross link or cross discuss.

WatchBlog is the site I’ve been waiting for. It’s a project I hope to see a success.

Grading the Philadelphia Experiment

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Schoolkids aren’t the only ones in Philadelphia praying for a good report card this month. Last fall, with most of the city’s students testing well below state averages in reading and math, Philadelphia’s assertive new schools chief, Paul Vallas, handed over control of 45 of the city’s worst schools to seven private operators, including nonprofit organizations, universities and, most controversially, three for-profit companies. Now that the school year is ending, everyone is looking to see how the newcomers have done. Vallas has already given privatization a qualified endorsement by reaching agreements with six of the seven managers on contract terms for next year. This week a critical batch of test scores will provide the first hard data on how students have fared under privatization, a wrenching process that involved new principals, teaching methods, rules and expectations.

Read the rest by Rebecca Winters in Time Magazine.