Tag Archives: atom

Lying with the Dogs

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I’ve griped and groused here on this old blog, and back in my days with the Twitter, about my need to consolidate all my RSS and Atom feeds under one roof, preferably a web-based one.

I tried Gregarius, as detailed here. And it was cool. I was hosting my own feeds. Problem was, I found the interface to be somewhat impenetrable; it was hard, at least for me, to mark items read, and have them stay so marked. I liked the tagging features, and appreciated the available plugins and themes. Nevertheless, it remained a pain to use.

From there, I migrated to Feed on Feeds. It was easier to navigate, though lacking in available plugins. After a few weeks of use, I noticed that read articles popped up again, unaccountably. Or worse, that unread ones got marked read.

With both, I had to lash up my own feed update mechanism. With both, perhaps my wanting it to do everything I wanted out of the box was part of the problem. Reading feeds shouldn’t be so high maintenance in my world.

So, shamefacedly, and bashfully, I went to the Google, and opened an account.

After a week, I’ll say that it’s a great web-based reader. I don’t like the Google, I don’t trust them, and consider them to be the new Microsoft. Any company whose mantra is Do no Evil is hiding or doing something, to my notion. Do no Evil is best demonstrated by example.

But, at least for now, all my subscribed feeds are back in one sock.

-k-

Enhancement Vendors

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tbbs-land’s Akismet-powered spam trap continues to collect its daily ration of sludge; the count of such occurrences appears in the right sidebar when you visit the site.

A not too scientific analysis of posts which get the most spam hits is one entitled “Wee Willie Wiki”. I wonder whether spammers, especially those hawking male enhancement potions and products, think the post refers to any portions of the male anatomy. I’d like to think that even a spammer has a little discernment. Who knows?

The text of one spam comment to the post was this little gem:

An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.

Heh. Words to live by, even outside the world of enhancements.

-k-
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No Fake Balls in Maryland

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The Maryland state legislature continues to distinguish itself with inane legislative proposals. This time, the law in question would ban display of fake male genitalia from the bumper hitches of SUVs, pickups, and cars. Yep, says so right here:

Maryland Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr. to truckers: If you’ve got ‘em, you don’t need to flaunt ‘em.

As the General Assembly debates global warming and the death penalty, Myers (R-Washington) has something else on his mind: the outsized plastic testicles that truckers dangle from the trailer hitches of their pickups.

Of all the problems facing Maryland, LeRoy wants to clean up displays on personally-owned vehicles he finds offensive:

His bill would prohibit motorists from displaying anything resembling or depicting “anatomically correct” or “less than completely and opaquely covered” human or animal genitals, human buttocks or female breasts. The offense would carry a penalty.

A picture of the Venus deMilo would probably qualify. But LeRoy’s heart is in the right place, and his motives are pure:

“So let’s clean up what our children are seeing on our roads.”

For the children. Yep, that justifies any excess, any trampling of property rights, free speech, and numerous other liberties.

I wouldn’t display such things from my vehicle; I find them tacky. But I’d chuckle if I saw ‘em on the road. To see the plastic stindeens that frosted LeRoy’s presumably real ones, check here.

-k-

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Comment Feed Jam

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I thought my Atom comment feed reader was hosed last night, after all the comments on this post. It is OK now, though. The referenced piece is alone at the top of my “most commented on” leaderboard.

And, as someone near the part of the long tail that’s still dragging the ground, I’m happy with all the responses.

-k-

A Roper!

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I have no clue how I manage to find these stories about livestock on the loose. It’s not some weird Technorati tagging, nor an Atom feed focussing on these things; however, from Newark NJ, a tale of a wayward bull ultimately roped by a manager of the Associated Humane Societies’ Newark office. Denton Infield is the man’s name, and he is originally from South Africa, where rounding up of stray critters is a little more common.

In this case, the 600-pound bull evidently was destined for the slaughterhouse, and either escaped from same, or fell off a truck1 bound for there. In any event, he had a 10 hour2 spree in and around Newark, during which he eluded the best efforts of law enforcement to catch him. Then Infield lassoed him, so that another animal control officer could subdue the bull with a tranquilizer dart.

According to the article:

The bull was corralled less than a mile from Newark Liberty International Airport, about eight miles from New York City.

That’s high-human density for humans, let alone a bull. Finally, before the grills are fired up:

Authorities called in a trailer from Popcorn Park Zoo in Lacey Township, a refuge for abused or unwanted animals that is operated by the Humane Societies. Infield said the bull would be taken there to live out the rest of its life.

Great story; I guess my lamenting the demise of roping was premature.

-k-

1 – Where I hail from, critters don’t “fall off” trucks. But that’s what the article said.
2 – 10 hours!? A long time for a bovine on the streets of Newark.

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The Anatomic Dilemma is Solved

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I pointed out here that the anatomic dilemma in question probably was an affliction of politicos. Within the span of a few days, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), has not only demonstrated that he can ably put his foot in his mouth with his head up his ass, but he’s also one of a rare breed who can talk out of his ass, while his head is simultaneously buried therein.

From an unfortunate slip of the tongue, to the “botched joke” defense, to “there’s no need to apologize”, to “I’m sorry if anyone was offended”, encapsulates the lukewarm vision and sentiment that made John what he is today.

-k-

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Falling Back

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Two times per year, I am reminded of the number of clocks we have in this house. The computers take care of themselves; even my PDA realized that we’ve returned to Standard Time, and set itself accordingly. Now, I get to look at the rest of our clocks, even the ones that get their time via an atomic clock someplace. They occasionally lose touch with the mother ship, and require attention. Then I have to remember the sometimes unintuitive set of key presses required to set each one.

My last blog post got posted into the future, and hence didn’t show up; I fixed that. I think. If this one shows up, that is.

In case you were wondering, this is a post whose primary function is to test the blog’s idea of time. The fact that it is about the return to Standard Time is just gravy.

-k-

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An Anatomic Dilemma

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I saw this question on one of my blog reads earlier this week; I’ve forgotten where, or I’d provide a link. The question is especially timely during this political season:

How is it possible to get your foot in your mouth when you have your head up your ass?

Applicable in lots of non-political situations, also.

-k-

GovTrack.us: Tracking the U.S. Congress

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I came across GovTrack.us today. I haven’t explored it a lot yet, but on the surface, you can track your legislator’s speeches, votes, etc, via syndication (probably RSS, but we can hope for Atom).

Anyhow, with Congress being such a gaggle of the incredibly inane, we need a nice tool to track their progress, or more probably, lack thereof. It also may be of some help in marking the November scorecard.

-k-

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