Nifty! I've been well quoted... Dave, thanks for the quote, and far more importantly, thanks for the cool software.

Check out the Radio homepage, and by all means DO try out Radio 8. I think you'll like it. A lot. And the best part is it's gonna keep getting better!

Radio 8 -- it's as geeky as you wanna get!

If you just want inexpensive blog hosting and a kind blogging tool, this is it. You'll have your blog going within a few minutes of your install. And you'll can get all kinds of blog-fodder from lots of websites, updated hourly right to your computer. Posting this news feed is as simple as clicking two buttons.

You say you want a robust blogging tool, eh? Cuz like, what if your end of the net is down, huh? With Radio, you can still make blog-posts while you're offline, and then publish them to a different server when you get back online. How's that for robust? You aren't relying on anyone else's server running, since you've got your own inside Radio!

And if you have some programming chops, you can extend what's already in Radio to do your own bidding. Nice. Very nice.

Oh, and here's the actual full paragraph of my email to UserLand that was quoted:

On the brighter side, <pullquote>this release is about ***five
HUGE HUGE HUGE steps forward*** for making something pretty darn
usable out of the box for someone new to Userland software. I
think that was the goal, and I think you've done a good job of
going there. Within a few minutes I can have a blog and news feed
purring away, and interacting with each other. Very
slick.</pullquote>

The not-so-brighter side was some whinging of mine for features I wanted to see (Guess what? Those features are slated to appear in an upcoming version --and I got that straight from the guy who owns the company, and writes some of the code. Heh.)

BTW, I've been paying Userland for an annual subscription for their software since March 1999. I anticipate that trend continuing for a while, based on Radio 8, and Userland's responsiveness and innovation.
11:02:35 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    

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Rude Cheeto®! Rude!

Timeline:

1997
CHEE.TOS® brand Crunchy Nacho Cheese Flavored Snacks are introduced.

03 Jan 2002
I pull out a Rude Cheeto® from a small vending machine-sized bag, in close proximity to the camera...

It kinda reminded me of the R. Crumb 'Keep on Truckin' dudes, in a way. Except I'm pretty sure none of them had a big cheesy-flavored schvantz like that...

Pics at other angles of this snack-food abomination are available on request.

6:40:25 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    

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<serious stats geek mode>Ooooh, a free primer on IRT!</serious stats geek mode>

Item Response Theory. Quote: "The goal of this page is to provide resources to help you learn more about this class of measurement models. The main feature of this page is Frank Baker's exceptional book, The Basics of Item Response Theory, which we have made available, in its entirely, on-line, at no cost. This delightful book will allow you to acquire the basic concepts of the theory without becoming enmeshed in the underlying mathematics and computational complexities. We hope you will take advantage of this important contribution by Dr. Baker"

1:48:21 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    [blinked via Serious Instructional Technology]  

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It always a good idea to keep in mind a checklist of the assumptions underlying a particular statistical method, when you start spelunking thru your data. Particularly if you are dealing with the rarified air of advanced analysis methods...

Four assumptions of multiple regression that researchers should always test. Osborne, Jason & Elaine Waters. Quote: "Several assumptions of multiple regression are "robust" to violation (e.g., normal distribution of errors), and others are fulfilled in the proper design of a study (e.g., independence of observations). Therefore, we will focus on the assumptions of multiple regression that are not robust to violation, and that researchers can deal with if violated. Specifically, we will discuss the assumptions of linearity, reliability of measurement, homoscedasticity, and normality"

1:18:25 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    [blinked via Serious Instructional Technology]  

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