Knight Rider
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Knight Rider was awesome. NBC, please don't treat it like Fox did Firefly.
Technorati Tags: Knight Rider.
John McCain "suspends" campaign
Saw this picture on the Washington Post homepage after hearing that John McCain was "suspending" his campaign (ahem, dodging the first Presidential Debate on Friday which was probably going to have a lot of questions that he couldn't answer well about the economy) to return to the Senate and "get to work" on this lovely bailout package.
Anyway, here's the picture - slightly modified to read his mind:
I'm sure this has nothing to do with McCain's nine point slide in the last few days, what with him changing his stance on the economy three times in the last week.
Risky Business
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Over the last week we have watched as the US stock market has gone on a very scary roller coaster ride. In the last few months, we've watched as some of the largest financial corporations in the world have failed, gone into bankruptcy, and in some cases have been "saved" by the US government with our very own tax dollars. Just this morning, Treasury Secretary Paulson announced a major "bailout" plan for these huge companies in crisis. He said, and I quote:
"We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars - this needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get at the heart of the problem," he said. "This is the way we stabilize the system."
Where's this money coming from? US tax dollars. Your money and my money. Right now they're just digging a deeper hole into the national debt, but in the end it's our hard-earned money that's paying for this. I understand that it's a necessarily evil right now - if some of these companies were allowed to fail - and I do think that many of them should be allowed to fail in most cases - after all, they are risk-based businesses and where's the risk if you know the government is going to bail you out when you fuck up? - it would cause a global economic crisis even bigger than the one we're seeing now.
But one thing that's not being discussed and I think really should be is the CEO's and executive officers of these large corporations who really are at the foundation of why these things are happening. While we've seen that the regulators for Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac have denied their CEO's their so-called "golden parachute" severance packages, the fact remains that these people are still ungodly rich and are going to move on to be on the board of directors and executive arm of other large companies. It's just how the business works.
I think these men and women at the very top of these institutions should not only be denied their severance packages, but they should also be held accountable in other ways. If you're on the board of Countrywide or Lehman Brothers, you shouldn't be allowed to take another job on the board of another large company for, say, ten years. It's not like these people are poor, either. They're rich, white men and women, and what they don't get out of their golden parachutes they easily have in some kind of investments - and probably have been smart enough to invest in things that most of us can't afford or don't understand - things that aren't doing poorly in this crisis like precious metals and oil.
So I ask you, my friends and readers, to write your Senators and Representatives and ask them to make sure that these sleazebag executives get held accountable and pay a price for what they've done. This isn't a democrat issue or a republican issue - it's an everyone issue.
Technorati Tags: SEC, Stock Market, Taxes, Accountability, Golden Parachute, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bailout, Financial Crisis.
Websense: Bane of my existence
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
As you may have noticed, I've been somewhat... quiet lately here on my blog. Maybe you thought I slipped into a lull like I occasionally do. Maybe you thought I was dead. Maybe you didn't notice - shame on you! Never the less, I'm still alive, still kicking. Just a bit miffed, that's all. After threatening to do it for years, the agency I contract on-site at finally decided to install and activate Websense - internet filtering software - here at the office. So now... well, let's just say that my days became a bit more frustrating.
As of a few days ago, however, I'm using an online service called Log Me In to access one of my computers back at home and use THAT computer to surf where I need/want to without being blocked by the filter. I must say that I'm pretty impressed with the service and that it even lets me remote connect to my MacBook - which Go To My PC doesn't let you do.
Anyway, that's why I've been quiet. More good stuff to come, including a possible redesign. I've been playing again with Ajax and have am looking to implement some fun tweaks to the blog including some interfacing with the Twitter API.
Oh - one more thing: To those of you who are hand-coders and are hardcore Homesite fans, if you're looking for a more up-to-date version of Homesite, look no further than TopStyle 3.5 - it's got all of the best features of TopStyle for CSS along with a new HTML coding mode that looks and works almost exactly like Homesite 5.5+ because it's made by the same guy who designed Homesite originally. Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: Internet Filtering, websense, LogMeIn, Ajax, Twitter, Homesite, TopStyle.
Silverback - for Usability!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
I heard about Silverback on Monday from Jen at Thinkgeek, and after testing it out by myself at home, I decided to bring my Macbook into the office today and show off how easy (and cheap) usability testing can be with Silverback - a wonderful new application from Clearleft.
Without going too deep into the details, after I made one single live recording of myself using the SAMHSA.gov website to find a specific grant and explained what this simple usability test could mean, the clients were so impressed that I was asked to make a "wish list" for this upcoming fiscal year in which we'd purchase a few MacBook's or iMac's, along with licenses for Silverback, and we'd finally get to open our own USABILITY LAB! Nice!
I've been pushing for having Mac's here at the office for a few years now, and thanks to Silverback and the sheer simplicity of it, it looks like that may finally be coming to fruition!
Anybody looking to get quality usability testing done on the cheap, Silverback is the way to go!
Technorati Tags: Usability, Silverback.
It's back!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A List Apart has put up it's second "The Survey For People Who Make Websites". Last year was their first survey and the results were extremely interesting to anyone in the IT field - specifically to website developers and designers.
I just took the survey for this year, now it's your turn. Click on the image below to get started. No personally identifiable data will be collected.
Technorati Tags: A List Apart, The Survey For People Who Make Websites.
Your vs. You're
Monday, July 28, 2008
An important lesson for everyone to try and remember:
Props to The Warehouse for the use of their awesome comic.
Technorati Tags: The Warehouse, Grammar.
Quick Picks
- From the Washington Post: A simplified chart of the McCain tax cuts vs. Obama tax cuts.
- Matt Damon on Sarah Palin: "You do the actuary tables, there's a one out of three chance, if not more, that McCain doesn't survive his first term, and it'll be President Palin. It's like a really bad Disney movie, "The Hockey Mom.' Oh, I'm just a hockey mom from Alaska, and she's president. "She's facing down Vladimir Putin and using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink. It's absurd." Amen!
- Google's new browser, Chrome, passes the ACID2 test with flying colors. w00t.
- Karl Rove calls Joe Biden a "big blowhard doofus". Yeah, coming from the closest thing to a real-life Emperor Palpatine that really stings. LOL.
- McCain's running mate has a pregnant and unwed 17 year old daughter. Family values indeed!
- Command line to GUI to command line. And so we've coming full circle: Mozilla introduces Ubiquity, a mash up command line for the web.
- What's the best part about Fox News at the DNC? THIS is the best part! The crowd chanting "Fuck Fox News" at the end of it made my bad day turn around!
- China's Olympic gymnasts may not be old enough to compete. "Shocking" that China is cheating again. It happened in the Sydney Olympics, too. CHEATERS!
- Coolest video you'll see today: Space Shuttle launch recorded from an airplane.