Google Analytics Open to the Public

I had to wait about 4 months before Google finally gave me an analytics account. You can get your own right now. Trust me, its worth the time. Just login here with your google account name and password. Check it out, I can see you:

FOX Leads the New Wave of Media (again...)

Writing those sort of headlines makes me feel like I need to to take a shower. Yet, sometimes the truth is dirty, and the truth is that Rupert Murdock "gets it".

Fox has annouced that that they will use their network of sites to offer downloads of their televised content. [see news story]

Now, admittedly, this pay-per-view model sucks the private parts of goats. Who wouldn't pay 1.99 for an episdoe of 24? Well, let's see....

Everyone.

However, these things evolve slowly, like the law. Sooner or later FOX will realize that there is far more money to be made from offering vidoes for free, and using whatever methods are possible to force consumers to watch 40 second ads for pringles, or the airforce. 

Microsoft Introduces Desktop Blog Client

Amazingly, the very fact that you see this post means it works with Drupal's XML-RPC script. Its called "Windows Live Writer". But no gives a rats ass about the vaporbrand "windows live", so its probably just going to be known as Writer. [free download for Windows].. My impressions?

General:

  • I love blogging from my desktop. The experience is 10 times smoother.
  • TinyMCE WYSIWYG sucks. And while it might suck less than any available alternative it still sucks. It sucks because both javascript and browsers suck. I perfer this interface.
  • The desktop enviroment kicks AJAX's ass.
  • Why not use a desktop client?

Limitations:

  • No support for multiple content types
  • No support for categories
  • Does not interface with any existing content or files

Pure Speculation

  • Writer is probably a proof-of-concept for the next generation of Microsoft Word Products
  • Writer will come bundled with Windows in the near future
  • Microsoft is full of smart people

Unfortunately, the limitations I listed make the program impractical for drupal users. Sadly, this means I need to continue using tinymce. But seriously, Drupal should not shy away from the opprotunity to fully integrate with this program. Like it or not, I suspect you'll start to hear a lot more about Writer in the future.

Redstate Has Gone Drupal

Redstate.com has gone with drupal.org.
We made the decision to move to Drupal a while ago. It was clearly coming along as a robust platform, that met all of our needs. Why did we move from Scoop? Well my issues have long been documented, but mostly they revolve around the fact that the Scoop developer community is extremely small, relatively closed, and overwhelmingly liberal.
Redstate.com is one of the more influential sites that represents the followers of the American Republican party (many of them deny this, but these types deny a lot of thing). Word of warning to redstate.com about dealing with the drupal community -- you're probably going to want to keep your political leanings like you keep your shirts: "tucked in".Drupal is not merely an overwhelmingly artsy-fartsy and left-wing, "liberal, liberal, liberal" (in the words of Rush) community. Its much worse: it has Europeans. Some of which are even French.Redstate's political shortcomings aside, sounds like they did a great job in putting the site together.
For the Drupal geeks: It's Drupal 4.7.3 with some serious modifications in Views and CCK. The Drupal code base is untouched, but we have a custom Redstate module with some assorted functions.

And, at the very least, the redstaters are not idiots like some of the people who "strategize" for Democrats. On numerous occassions, I've tried to talk up drupal to Democract consultants, but they'd always say the same thing: "we're going with scoop!". I'd ask them why. I'd try to pick apart their argument. But they'd bark, "Kaus uses coop!" This apparently is an alpha and omega answer. Open and shut case, Johnson.Well gee. You can't argue with that. I asked them whether they truly believed the Daily Kaus's success was a result of the technology they used. They'd reply, "A good deal of it, yes."Thats when I knew they were idiots. Their argument (if that's what you call it...) is about as naive as it gets. They probably still think websites are magic tricks.

The Quiet Death of the Major Re-Launch

Wow, these thoughts are pure gold. No really, I hate the word "wow", and yet here I am saying "wow". 77 houris to the author Jared Spool. A teaser:

The VP leaned forward and asked me, "How do we orchestrate a re-launch on a site this big without upsetting our customers? Any change is going to be so dramatic that people are definitely going to complain. How do we do this?"

I leaned back in my chair, paused for a second, then dropped the bomb. "You don't, " I responded. "A re-launch is a very bad idea. I highly recommend against it."

Drupal.org's Stance on Fantastico

Steven Wittens (that's Drupal.org's 10th user), writes:

Fantastico De Luxe by Netenberg is an add-on for the popular cPanel web management software, available on many web hosting providers. It promises an easy, turn-key installation of dozens of web applications, including the Drupal CMS.

Hey Drupal and Moodle: Stay Out of Education -- Blackboard Got a New Patent

Michael Feldstein is sounding an alarm; and some good people are probably going to need to watch their back. Blackboard may have realized how crappy of an application it is, and now is seeking to crush all those teachers who've deceided they can develop their own solution. May I recommend that we colllectively instigate a lynching of blackboard? If lynching sounds strong, well... read the f#cking patent.
The ever-brilliant US Patent and Trademark Office has apparently granted Blackboard a patent for...well...pretty much anything remotely related to learning management systems. As I read it, Blackboard basically owns the patent on any sort of groupware at all that is used for teaching purposes.

I'd also like to point out that the hearsay I've heard about blackboard's owner was not inspiring. Apparently, he's very happy about being rich and young, and that's basically it. Education isn't his main concern, according to this hearsay. So, be aware.

Flying Without an ID

I just got back from Washington DC. At no point during my journey did I have a government issued ID on hand. This seems to be incontrovertible proof that you can indeed fly without a government issued ID.

Now, by “no government issued ID”, I do not mean “presented a social security card, along with several non-government photo IDS.

As Bob Marley once sang, “hey mister police officer, I ain’t got no birth certificate right here.”

Flying to and from Washington DC, I only showed one form ID: my checkcard, which has my picture on it. I prepared an array of various papers, IDS, and whatnots to prove my identity, but no one ever seemed to interested in looking at anything more than my bank of America card.

The Road to Drupal Hell

Hell Opens Up New Exclusive Layer for Drupal Developers

(PRWeb) -- Lastweek, the Drupal Content Management System became the first opensource CMS to have its own layer of hell. Though many proprietary CMS's, most notably Vignette, have long had their own exclusive parts of hell, this was a first for open source.

Vincent Pendragoon, a spokesman for the Lucifer Ventures, described the new layer as a place for "Generally inexperienced, slothful, or overconfident developers who don't bother with things like APIs." When asked whether this meant hell would put a new emphasis on open source, Mr. Pendragoon replied, "Hell is merely acknowledging the amount of misery open source can inflict."

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