Ones and Zeros

Closing the blog

2007-02-16T00:05:26Z

I still write, just not here. After 17 entries in all of 2006 and none so far in 2007, Ones and Zeros is on hiatus. Please see my current writings at http://mcroft.livejournal.com.

Credit Where Credit is Due

2006-10-05T20:00:41Z

Normally nasty right-wing partisan Michelle Malkin is at least willing to tell her fellow travelers when they're over the line:

Also lost in the feeding frenzy is the plain, indelible fact that Foley initiated his sexually explicit contacts with the exposed young man when he was a minor.
...
The fact that Foley continued his contact with the exposed young man after he turned 18 does not mitigate his original predatory behavior before.--Michelle Malkin

What Foley did was wrong, and no matter what dark thoughts you have about how it got out or who should've done something about it, shifting the blame from Foley to the minors is not OK. I'm not counting on great things from Malkin in the future, but at least she's not trying to blame the Democrats for Foley's predation. Or the victims.

One Toke Over The Line, Sweet Jesus...

2006-10-04T12:14:06Z

Apparently they corrected their "little error" in later rebroadcasts of O'Reilly, but it certainly would be the answer to their dilemma, if it had been the case... (via)

Once More Into the Breach Dear Friends...

2006-09-28T04:02:24Z

Updated To MT 3.33, going to test and see how it works.

God's own yodeller called home

2006-09-21T13:19:29Z

News 8 Austin confirms that yodeller Don Walser died yesterday of complications from diabetes (which can mean lots of things). I saw Don Walser once, and it wasn't my cuppa tea but it was well done and everyone I've ever talked to who knew him respected him, which isn't always the case in the music business. The News 8 article mentions something I didn't know, which that he used to open for the Butthole Surfers. Given that he's also listed as being a "western swing" performer who kept alive the music of Bob Wills, I think I'll see what I think of his stuff now. And I am personally looking for the third shoe to drop. Texas has had a bad September, between Don and Ann.

Every now and then I try to fix stuff, or at least identify what needs fixed...

2006-09-21T04:36:27Z

A while back I was bit by wierd self-closing tag attempts in HTML. I ran into an HTML page that used , which makes sense for anchors as "targets I link to within a document", but not so much for anchors as 'enclosing content that links to some other document or target". Not that I see any way to change that overloaded tag type at this stage. Recently, the fine folks at Surfin' Safari wrote about the oddity that is "valid XHTML 1.0" as interpreted by web browsers, and how it's oddly broken because it usually just gets read as "nearly valid HTML 4.0.1" So http://www.whiterose.org/test/testanchor2.html is a page that validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional and serves as text/html. The anchor tag with the misguided self-closing "/" confuses the hell out of all the browsers I saw, and is similarly broken on all browsers I tried. To be honest, I'm not even sure if it should just self-close or not. The wierdest thing is that Safari and Konquerer display different behavior than Mozilla family/IE6 if the self-closing anchor tag is inside 2 nested divs, but not just 1. I ran into this on Making Light and tried to report it as a Safari bug (8879), but it was closed as badly reported. I'd be happy to have help describing it better, because while it would be nice if it worked right, it should at least not work too differently from Mozilla and IE. This still happens differently with Safari revision 16490 and Firefox 2.0b2. Anyone want to help me write a better bug report?

A tree for Tim

2006-09-19T04:12:51Z

Email from Danny and Mary Lee:

The Upper Kirby District has renovated the Levy Park to include the planting of new trees. As part of this renovation, Houston Intown Magazine and the Upper Kirby District will dedicate a tree in the memory of Tim McGlashen and his contribution to the Houston music scene. It is a small gesture to the memory of a great man. The event will be come as you wish Saturday, September 30 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The park is behind the Upper Kirby District office, located at 3015 Richmond Avenue at Kirby Drive.

If you're a friend of Tim's and in the neighborhood, stop by and see his tree.

Can't really support Kinky anymore.

2006-08-28T22:11:27Z

A long time ago, I was in favor of Kinky Friedman's candidacy for governor of Texas. Now I'm not. I've been more and more unimpressed by his lack of an actual campaign as the race has continued, but his big "go to hell" to me and people like me was enough to make it clear that he's not the governor I want for Texas.

"I am going to see nondenominational prayer and the Ten Commandments put back in the schools," he told the Kilgore News Herald several weeks ago.

"If you don't love Jesus, go to hell," he added.
--from Clay Robinson, via Kuff

I'll get right on that Kinky. Want me to save you a seat by the fire? As Joe-Bob is wont to say, "Later, Gator!". We don't need this guy, and voting for him only helps the marginally more loseriffic Rick Perry, so I recommend against Kinky. EDITED 9/14: The Chron didn't keep that editorial handy, but Chris Bell has it, so I changed the link. Also, Clay is quoting a slightly longer piece in the Kilgore News Herald:

Friedman's not afraid of the controversial issues. "I am going to see non-denominational prayer and the Ten Commandments put back in the schools." Friedman said the Ten Commandments might have to be called the ten rules or something similar but they need to be back in the schools. "They say this is part of my wussification campaign but, as my spiritual advisor Billy Jo Schafer says, "If you don't love Jesus, go to hell." --from Kilgore New Herald

Some people think that quote changes the context, but I think it only intensifies the meaning by adding the "spritual advisor" as an authority. Still not buying, he's past his sell-by date.

I thought I'd put this here, too...

2006-08-20T21:10:59Z

I thought I'd put this on my blog, in case some of my readers didn't also read my LiveJournal. It turns out that I realize that I have no idea if any people read this blog who don't read my LJ, so this may be an interesting experiment anyway. Feel free to comment & let me know. Image based on this musing by Kit Kindred.

I spend more time on coding this than writing it...

2006-08-15T06:03:47Z

I added a style sheet selector, based on the one from Making Light (but I fixed it myself). If you're a whiterose user and want this functionality, email me. They styles are ghadawful, but the switcher is a thing of beauty. Maybe I'll set it to "ADP Vanilla Styles..."

Once Upon a Time...

2006-06-13T02:06:52Z

A couple of years ago, I posted some thoughts about Tim Hildebrandt. Tim died yesterday of complications due to diabetes. He was a wonderful guy and one of my first adult friends. He did what he wanted to do. He loved making movies, so he made one in his house. He and his brother painted the original Star Wars Poster for that movie's premier. His wife liked to cook so they made a fantasy cookbook. He did countless book covers and calendars and magic cards, both with his brother and by himself. And he was a hell of a guy. I'll miss him.

Conservatives unhappy that Bush is a tool of business...

2006-05-24T04:59:40Z

Well, it's pretty much "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me 65 months in a row, and perhaps the common thread in the problem is me." The Wapo reports that Sixty-five months into Bush's presidency, conservatives feel betrayed. Me, I'm just unhappy that Bush is a tool. And I knew that more than 65 months ago, guys. You could've asked...

But can you tourture people?

2006-03-20T00:18:27Z

24: The Game comes out soon. It aims to recreate the TV drama. My question: Does it let you torture anyone, or (like the TV show) only the guilty? If you can attach electrodes to their genitals, they must've done it, because you're the hero!

Houston Metrorail Anagram

2006-03-19T18:49:06Z

I think the Houston Metrorail Anagram is world class, don't you?

No such thing as bad press

2006-03-12T14:47:27Z

So, Texas gubenatorial candidate Kinky Friedman was the Grand Marshall of the lower Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dallas yesterday. It has been noted that while riding in a car on a float, he violated the Texas Open Container Law by drinking some Guinness Stout in a moving vehicle. Oops, but DPD isn't ticketing him and I don't think that'll cost him any votes plus hey, it made the news...