Posts Tagged ‘blogging’
Kilroy Says: Download WordPress 2.8 at your own risk
Written by Kilroy
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 19:55
1 Comment

A long time user and avid fan of WordPress (WP), I have to say I love the WordPress community. I'm talking about a bunch of folks who work hard for free to bring you great themes like the one you see on this site every flipping day. They do it for the love (and little else) and I am very appreciative. I mean where else are you going to get awesome themes and a user friendly platform like this for free? And that's one reason I have never complained about the hiccups which sometimes occur when using WP…until now.

It was announced today that WordPress reached a milestone with it's latest "upgrade." The milestone in question was that WordPress 2.8 has had over 1 million downloads. Everyone on the thread over at the WP Blog was positively giddy. I'm wondering why? Maybe it's because their sites didn't crash after upgrading to this latest version. My experience on the other hand wasn't so pleasant.

Since upgrading to WP 2.8, my backend (no pun intended) has been broken. Additionally, several experimental themes I'm working on will no longer work with my site. A little research revealed that scores of people have sites which are now busted to hell because of the latest WP upgrade. And yet, we're breaking out the champagne to celebrate 1 million downloads.

With so many people's sites wrecked due to the 2.8 upgrade, why in hell is WordPress still offering it? As soon as they were aware of this, at the very least they should've put up a warning to download at your own risk and at most, pulled 2.8 until 2.8.1 stable was released. No. Instead, we're encouraging people to download and install it.As I said in the preface to my comments, I love WP and I've seen a lot in the years I've been blogging with them, but this I don't understand.

 
I WANT THAT JOB!
Written by Troglodad
Wednesday, 06 May 2009 01:17
2 Comments

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up  and become a super-villain or a commando. Then, when I did grow up, I wanted to be a writer or a minister. As life would have it, I am none of the above. I am a civil servant by day, and write for fun, not profit, by night.

But now, I want a new job.

Ghost Hunter.

I was very surprised a few months ago when my wife started watching all these ghost shows on TV. This is the same woman who forbids me from saying the name of a movie that scared the living crap out of her. The woman who fast forwards (thank you digital video recorder) through commercials for scary movies.

But she loves the ghost shows. In particular, Scifi's "Ghost Hunters,"  a show about some regular-joe Plumbers that hunt clogs by day, spirits by night.

Like any good husband, I agreed to watch a few episodes with her. And, like any good computer nerd, I began to research the show on the internet. I came across a lot of criticism of the methods the "Ghost Hunters" use and accusations of faking results.

Okay, first off, it's TV, people! What do you expect?! It's not shown on PBS or even Discovery channel. It's not a docudrama. It's frickin' entertainment.

Now, before some diehard fans of "Ghost Hunters" start to blast me, I'm not saying they fake anything. I'm saying I don't care if they do. Real or fake, it's a fun show. It's well-edited to hold your interest, and you get to see places from around the country. What the hell else do the critics want?

Now, I'm not a fanatical follower of the show. I don't accuse the critics of being haters. I'm just saying it's TV. Take it for what it is and change the channel if you don't like it. Do people think "Survivor" is a real survival show? Do they think Donald Trump fires people on the "The Apprentice" based solely upon their work performance?

The "Ghost Hunters" have a sweet deal. They drive to some old house, they wander around in the dark, recording this and that. No heavy labor. No tedious paperwork. If they don't find anything, no big deal. You can't disprove what isn't there. It's like one of my favorite shows, "MonsterQuest." No one is going to fault you for not producing results. It's the search that people tune in to see.

And now they're hiring.

That's right, Pilgrim Productions has a call out for a "New Generation" of Ghost Hunters. If ever anyone was going to apply for a reality show, this is the one to apply for. I personally would hate to be on TV- I don't use a pen-name to be clever, I want my privacy. But stick a recorder in my hand, shove me into a dark house with a film crew and then give me a paycheck in the morning and I'll laugh all the way to the bank. Much better than my day job where I have to sit at a desk all day, answering phones, doing paperwork and listening to the public bitch and moan. Holy Crap. What an awesome job the Ghost Hunters have.

Unfortunately, I think they're looking for 20-somethings for the new show. A younger crowd keeping in line with Hollywood's ongoing theme of reinventing everything. I can't wait to see a reinvention of "Grumpy Old Men" with teenagers. The title alone will be worth waiting for. Or "On Golden Pond," maybe with teenagers battling cancer.  And they're blonde.

But I digress.  If you're not into ghosts, watch this show at least once and appreciate the luck of the "Ghost Hunters" in scoring such a great job. Live vicariously through their good fortune. Because at the end of the day, these guys get paid whether they find spirits or creaking floorboards. And that should raise anyone's spirits.

 
THOR’s DAY RANT: You Darn Kids Get Off My Laptop
Written by Troglodad
Thursday, 30 April 2009 14:20
8 Comments

Why is it that when you hit a certain age, it annoys you that kids are playing in your front yard- especially other people's kids? Stranger's kids.

They aren't really hurting anything. Hell, stomping that grass might slow it's growth, ultimately saving me from having to break out the riding lawnmower and all the intensive labor that would follow. Like steering. And working the pedal.

Maybe it's the noise? It bugs me when I hear car doors slamming outside, or cars driving by. Which is weird, because when I was stationed overseas, planes were always taking off, all day long, and I completely tuned it out.

Is it like super-powers? Does age grant some kind of cosmic awareness that replaces the obliviousness of youth? Coupled with hyper-irritability?

I know something that irritates me. Twitter.

Here I am, only 41 years old, and Twitter really bugs me. Not because I'm a technophobe. Or a grownup. I'm neither. I play Xbox, I carry an Android Developer Phone and have been using computers since the Timex Sinclair (that's pre-Commodore 64 for you wannabe geeks). I email regularly. Obsessive-compulsively, in fact. As soon as I get an email, it's like someone knocking on my door and I have to answer. Same with my phone. Damn texting.

But I don't get Twitter. Heck, I don't get Facebook or Myspace either. What's wrong with reliable bulletin boards- BBS is what we used to call them in the heady pre-Al Gore-invented-the-internet-days…. Heck, even those Yahoo Newsgroups are okay.

Whoops, it's been five minutes since my last Twitter, hang on a sec…

Yeah, I'm Twittering. I feel like Billie Madison, back in kindergarten or something. I know, lots of old people Twitter. Brent Spiner for example. I sort of get why kids like to hear what Ashton Kutcher is eating or flushing at any given moment, but Brent Spiner? Data? Do kids these days even know what Star Trek: The Next Generation is?

Call us crazy at MTW, but we decided that maybe some Twittering would be good for us. Get the old creative juices rejuvenated with some hip, young Twittering. Or e-rambling, as I like to think of it.

"Burp. I burped."

"Tasted that chicken from lunch."

"Lunch was two hours ago. When will I have to potty?"

"Uh-oh, teacher sees me…"

You get the idea- Twittering is just random drivel. Thoughts people too lazy to say "please" and "thank you" punch into mobile devices with obsessive zeal. Observations and reflections that should have been left to their inner voice. Assuming they have one. Those kids are getting louder day by day, you know.

The worst thing about Twitter though, is the mobile-phone connection. Not only does it allow you to ramble out loud on the internet, via your cellphone, like deranged, demented elderly people in nursing homes, it also allows you to hear other people rambling. Better have an unlimited texting plan though- some people can't shut up. They feel compelled to comment every five seconds. Heck, since I started this article I've Twittered over a dozen times.

It kind of reminds me of Phillip K. Dick. He wrote this great book (those pressed, wood fiber sheets with letters, that don't require batteries or cellular service to read), entitled "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I wonder if electronic sheep dream of androids. Android phones. All these folks Twittering are like sheep. E-sheep, standing around in the virtual world of the web, bah-ing occasionally to no end. And of course, to Twitter, you need a phone. And Android is the freely-distributable OS for cellular phones put out for Google.

There. See how easy that was- that was a Twitter-like line of thought. In Twitter speak, I'd have said it like this:

"Bladerunner. Good movie."

"Bad Androids."

"Bob has an Android G1."

"I like iphones."

I know, a lot of info left out of the Twitter stream of consciousness. But kids these days are too lazy. I mean, they have abandoned blogging and the deep, soulful reflections full of prose and wit and replaced it with… twit.

Really though, I should embrace Twittering, because it is close to caveman speak. Simple exclamations, short on durations, conveying meaning.

"Food."

"Hungry."

"Eat?"

It's like e-grunting. Beat that, Twitter!

NOTE: Come see me at www.twitter.com/troglodad and read for yourself how uncool and old I really sound.