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Tuesday, February 24, 2004 |
Slate nicely limns the layers of hypocrisy
surrounding Dubya's attempt to tamper with the consitution. It's
obvious that this amendment is aimed at more than "marriages," its
languae makes it clear it's designed to be interpreted by judges in
such a way as to stop all recognition of non-homosexual relationships.
It's also pretty obvious that it will never pass. All of which makes
Dubya's craven appeal to bigotry even more disgusting. This is the
lowest point at which I've ever, in my 50 years, seen a presidential
candidate stoop. And given Dubya's father's campaigns and those of
Richard Nixon, that's really saying something.
8:14:03 PM Permalink
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Elmore Leonard's 10 rules for writing [bOing bOing]
The article is here. Wonderful stuff, even if you're only a former aspiring writer like me. I read half the new Leonard novel, Mr. Paradise, last night. It's his best in years, with some great characters, very memorable scenes, and some dialog that made me laugh out loud. My favorite line from this list: "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. "
7:53:50 PM Permalink
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Mardi Gras Panorama. For a true New Orleans virtual experience, drink a couple of Hurricanes before viewing this 360° panoramic photograph of the French Quarter during Mardi Gras and keep your finger on your mouse to rotate the image. You'll get that same crazy Carnival feeling while avoiding the indignity of getting arrested, throwing up on a stranger, or passing out on the street. (For added olfactory realness, try spilling some beer and/or urinating in the corner of your room.) It's the next best thing to being here!
"Mardi Gras New Orleans" by Ray Broussard (full screen QTVR panorama w/sound @ panoramas.dk)
See also: Bourbon Street Bead Cam (.rm streaming media @ nola.com) [Fleshbot]
7:18:19 PM Permalink
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MySQL Profits From Open Source.
Linux is still the most famous open-source app, but database software
using the same model is getting some play. MySQL is giving established
software firms a run for their money. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Nice piece on MySQL. I've been up to my ears in it for the last year or
so. As someone who cut his SQL teeth on first Oracle and then SQL
Server, it often times drives me bats. The lack of sub-selects in
versions prior to 4.1 really is aggravating and often makes simple
things take many queries; I also find it a bit tougher to really
optimize queries in MySQL than it is in SQL Server; the lack of
triggers and stored procedures means that you have to rely on client
programs in PHP or Perl to do a lot of heavy lifting, causing more
processing, memory and network overhead than you'd like. Finally,
though it has fine regular expressions for finding data, they are of
necessity slow, and tools for deconstructing text strings aren't as
strong as I'd like. Again, taht means you have to rely on client
programs.
That said, it is really inexpensive, virtually free if you find the
right hosting solutions. The fulltext search is powerful and fast. And
thanks to tools like phpYAdmin and the new MySQL Adminstrator, it's getting easier and easier to manage the thing. Finally, there's the great SQLYog, a terrific front end tool.
2:12:55 PM Permalink
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Soldier of the Truth. Lieutenant Karen Kwiatkowski hasn't let two decades of serving in the U.S. Air Force blur her true colors. The lifelong conservative calls herself a "Soldier of the Truth" after jumping ship from her position as an officer at the Defense Department's office for Near East/South Asia, a part of which was renamed "the Office of Special Plans" in the buildup to the war in Iraq. Calling the Orwellian OSP a "neoconservative coup, a hijacking of the Pentagon", Kwiatkowski went underground and wrote an anonymous column of internal dissent that decorated veteran and former colonel David Hackworth posted on the Internet. -- Utne Web Special, February 24, 2004 [Utne Web Specials]
2:02:33 PM Permalink
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Inconsistent Standard-Bearers. President Bush says John Kerry is "for tax cuts and against them; for NAFTA and against NAFTA; for the PATRIOT Act and against the PATRIOT Act; in favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it." Fair enough. A similar rap against Bush might say that he is "for fiscal restraint and against it; for free trade and against free trade; for federalism and against federalism; in favor of nation building and opposed to it." We won't hear this litany from the Democrats, of course, and most conservatives who care about such things will keep quiet too. Let the great debate begin. [Hit & Run]
8:54:02 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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