Monthly Archives: November 2004

Happy Thanksgiving to you

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Every year I have so much to be thankful for. I’ve been blessed. But I gotta admit, this one is special – it’s Richelle’s and my fifth anniversary.

I’ve gotten in a habit of writing a Thanksgiving list every couple years and I feel one coming on. But let me say this while I have the opportunity:

Thank you Lord for my friends, who are the best any guy could ever have.

Thank you Lord for my family, that is stronger and warmer than any I know.

And thank you Lord for Richelle, who you made my wife and my partner in this world.

And thank you Richelle – for choosing to put up with me 🙂

Love ya sweetie.

Looks like I need to work on my commenting system

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Saddly, I am coming to understand why some bloggers are I respect, like Rafe, have decided to forgo allowing comments on their site.

I don’t want to go that route since I think so much of blogging is about the conversation. It’s a two way virtuous street. As Dan Gillmor says – my readers know more than I do – and we can both learn together.

So I’m not going to eliminate comments entirely. I’m going to enforce having you register to post them. This site is for you, my friends, so I’m sure you won’t mind having to do this. It will keep the comment spammers out, and anybody else who wants to post anonymously to hijack my site for their own purposes. Apologies for any inconvenience.

In the meantime, if you have an issue or idea related to a subject I am posting about – feel free to email me.

Vietnam Vet, 53, Called for Duty in Iraq

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A 53-year-old Vietnam veteran from western Pennsylvania has been called up for active service with the U.S. military in the Iraq (news – web sites) war, The Tribune Review of Greensburg, Pennsylvania reported on Wednesday.

Paul Dunlap, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, will join an armored division next month as a telecommunications specialist in Kuwait, and expects to be there for at least a year, the newspaper reported.

Dunlap, who has not been in combat since serving as a 19-year-old Marine in Vietnam, could not be reached for comment. He will leave behind his wife Mary, four children and three grandchildren.

Yahoo!: Vietnam Vet, 53, Called for Duty in Iraq-Report: 11/24/2004

Lobbyists try to kill Philly wireless plan

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No matter what your take on this is, I hope you agree with me that corporations shouldn’t stand in the way of a public works project funded with tax payer dollars.

Disclaimer: I work for Comcast, do not have any idea what my company’s position on this is, nor do I speak for my employer.

More at Engadget and at Muniwireless.

Rather Pissed

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I’m familiar with the 60 Minutes flap over the fake National Guard memos. I certainly believe Rather and CBS News stepped in it over that one; and I believe they were eager to promote a story that was unflattering to the president. Not like there wasn’t any of that going on against both candidates this past election. But that’s not to say I think it was a good thing to do, it wasn’t.

But none of that irritates me as much as the spectacle of puffed-up, self-important, self-promoting, arrogant little prigs congratulating themselves and celebrating the announcement of Rather’s retirement, all the while heaping scorn upon him in an orgiastic ecstatic exercise in self-justification and mutual masturbation.

Groundhog Day: Rather Pissed: 11/24/2004

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Pennsylvania GOP strikes again – now SEPTA at serious risk

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HARRISBURG, Pa. – Republicans who control the Legislature said Monday they won’t return to Harrisburg to discuss Pennsylvania’s cash-strapped public transit systems, even though the session doesn’t end until Nov. 30 and Gov. Ed Rendell is unhappy with a stopgap funding bill awaiting his signature.

The House and Senate both recessed early Sunday without acting on a plan backed by Rendell to raise $110 million for 41 transit agencies by increasing taxes and fees on new tires and requests for driving records, among other things.

phillyburbs.com: GOP leaders: Legislature won’t return to deal with transit woes: 11/23/2004

Those that rely on public transportation in Pittsburgh and Philly stand to lose.

Loading data across domains in Flash

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Flash 7’s security model provides a way for servers to authorize your Flash .swfs to load data from them, however, you might run into a host that uses IP based access control.

Old tried and true methods still work – routing your Flash data requests thru a ?Proxy? hosted on the same server as your .swf. This is especially handy when you need to communicate, using XML-RPC, with a remote host somewhere. Apache provides a handy XmlRpcProxyServlet that fits the bill.