Category: Bites

MT-Macro Plugin

Just finished installing Choate‘s spiffy MT-Macro plugin. It’s powerful stuff, allowing you to do regular expression matching on your blog to save on the typing. At the moment, I’ve set it up to let me type little macros like ‘Eco’ in my posts and have it replace it with a nice HTML link to the Ecosystem, but it can do a lot more complex things than that. Check it out!

Showcase Results 11/24/03

It’s Monday, and that means it’s time. This week Anarchy Xero is the clear favorite on the political side, leading with 60 links. On the non-political side, a rather odd contest this week: Pepper of the Earth wins by acclaim as the only non-political entry for the week! Happily, Pepper seems to be a fine blog, so no harm done.
And yes, the League of Liberals is way out in front on the voting-participation contest, with 86.7% participation. Yawn.
Click Read More below for full results; complaints & protests accepted until 5pm PST as always…
Update: OK, it’s official: congrats to the winners!

Continue reading “Showcase Results 11/24/03”

Showcase IE Bug

A quick shout-out of thanks to for pointing out that the Showcase was screwy when viewed with IE: none of the entries were being displayed! I’ve implemented a temporary fix and may play with getting the old layout back later…

Interview with a Bear

David over at of Strain does a Sunday feature interviewing other bloggers. Apparently he’s gone through all 999,999 others, ’cause this week, he did me. Those interested in a little bear Q&A are advised to follow the link…

Front Line Voices

If you have not done so already, you most certainly must check out Line Voices, a new site by Frank and friends. From the mission statement:
It has increasingly been the complaint of many troops that the picture that the media is painting of the progress in the War on Terror is far from reality. The mission of this site is to get out the full story by posting first-hand accounts as written by men and women who have actually been to Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no editing or commentary by those who run this site, and we will print any letter or story submitted by a legitimate source who has served overseas. Our only goal is to offer you the opportunity to read these stories and to find out what the reality is.

Amish Angst?

Lair at Tech Support is making ambiguous noises about possible changes over at his comfortably padded cell.
The End of Amish Tech Support? Whether you agree, disagree, or simply ignore him in disgust, you must admit that the Blogosphere wouldn’t be the same without Amish goodness. (And badness.) He’s a borderline-Touretts semi-sociopath, but he’s our borderline-Touretts semi-sociopath.
Stick with it Lair — change the name if you must, but you can’t leave now. All the plants would die.

A final, first Heinlein novel

Well, is astounding news:
As of this writing, August 31, 2003, there are only about half a dozen people in the entire known universe who can accurately claim that they have read every novel Heinlein has written.
For those of us who thought there would never again be another new Heinlein novel, the impossible has become reality . “For Us, the Living,” is a brand new, never before published novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is going into print now for the first time and will be in bookstores by the end of November, 2003.
“For Us, the Living” was written by Heinlein about 1938-9, before he wrote his first sf short, “Lifeline.” The novel, “For Us, the Living,” was deemed unpublishable, mainly for the racy content.
I find it difficult to discuss Heinlein without falling into superlatives; suffice it to say that yes, I’ve read just about everything he’s ever written (or so I had thought!), and yes, I borrowed many of my core moral and political beliefs from what I found in his work. To find that after so many years we have a fresh opportunity to hear one last tale from the old man is simply extraordinary.
Hat tip: Ambient Irony

Do-overs for Showcase

OK, by popular demand — or at least, request — if you entered the Weblog Showcase over the past few weeks and feel you got hosed due to the Ecosystem problems, feel free to enter again this week. If you need to, fudge your blog-started date so that you qualify for this week’s contest, we’ll consider the date extended backwards a few weeks.