* AdSense-ready: The theme comes with three units integrated already. A 468×60 unit on top, a 336×280 unit on top of the sidebar and a 120×600 unit on the bottom of the sidebar. You just need to copy & paste the AdSense code on the specific php files.
* Widget-ready: The theme supports widgets, so just drop the ones you use. (more…)
Steve O’Grady and I have been talking recently about Twitter, social networks, friends, followers and the feeling of responsibility for what you post/tweet.1
Of course it isn’t realistic, but I wonder if people would be more likely to absorb good Twitter behavior if they had to follow people for a week before they could post.
I self-censor in Twitter at times because what I’m writing will be distributed to 1000+ people. I’m sure I still post crap from time to time, but I do make an effort. 
It’s similar to the mailing list warnings I’ve seen. I remember one that would tell you something like:
Your words will be sent to n people and approximately x man hours will be spent reading them. Are you sure you want to send this?
Steve and I have similar tastes in Twitter behavior. After much chit-chat, we have come to the conclusion that Twitter could be vastly improved if they simply changed the question from:
What are you doing?
to:
Say something interesting.
Only somewhat snarkily submitted for your review. 
One other thing we’ve been discussing is how we react to “friending” activities in various social networks. I’ve gone so far as to set up a filter to auto-delete e-mail from Facebook, but similar e-mails from Twitter don’t seem to bother me. The difference is that the Facebook e-mails all come with a request for me to do something (log in, hit some buttons, etc.) while Twitter’s are just notifications that I can ignore or delete at my preference.
After discussing several different social networks, I’ve got a new postulate: the more a social network asks from me, the less likely I am to embrace it.
Agree or disagree? Sound off in the comments.
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I empathize with Smalltalkers and Lispers who are in a perpetual state of been-there-done-that. Tons of “new” technologies (on-the-fly code reloading, edit-and-continue debugging, refactoring, and anonymous functions, among others) have been available in Smalltalk-80 since its inception (and frequently in Common Lisp’s predecessors and peers since before that).
That said, when I read C# developers lamenting that .NET 3.5 is only a bad imitation of Smalltalk-80, I have a slightly different reaction than they. Yes, I wish I could program in Smalltalk (or its successors, such as Self) more often, and yes, I wish Smalltalk had wider adoption, but, at this point in my life, I also recognize that neither Smalltalk nor Common Lisp will ever be a mainstream language. Although I may scream “But we already had this!” from time to time, in my gut, I know that our last best hope is to see existing mainstream languages steal as much as possible from Smalltalk and Common Lisp. To that end, I’m actually excited about C# 3, which I feel adopts more Lisp- and Smalltalk-like features than any other mainstream language I’ve yet seen. Is it perfect? Is it really on par with Smalltalk or Common Lisp? No. But in the end, I’d much rather have 90% of Smalltalk available everywhere than 100% of Smalltalk available only in a few nooks. This is a step in the right direction.
Update to last night’s podcast . . . here are the web sites where you can sign the petitions to tell ASO to let Levi, Alberto and Team Astana defend the 2008 Tour de France:
Let Levi Ride!
¡Contador Al Tour!
Sign the petition and let them know how you feel. If you are inclined to send a personal note to the ASO leadership in addition to signing the petitions, please use the email links below:
ASO Competition Director Christian Prudhomme
ASO Press
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Sydney is a truly magnificent city, blessed with friendly people, great restaurants and one of the most spectacular natural settings of any city in the world. But there’s one area that Sydney is well below par, and it’s even led the proud locals to admit – shock, horror – that they’re being beaten by rival city Melbourne.
Sydney is a terrible place for a drink.
 |
| Sydney: Sure it’s pretty, but can you find a bloody drink anywhere? |
Until now your choices for an after-work tipple or a lazy Sunday afternoon session have been the pub (big, noisy, packed beer barns) and the club (big, noisy, packed beer barns… with poker machines).
All that is soon to change with the introduction of legislation aimed at reducing the licence fee for small venues. Current fees (around $15,000) are set to plummet to as little as $500 for small-capacity licensed premises. The bill, introduced to Parliament by Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore, states that Sydney should boast “a night economy that is diverse and in line with other cities - Australian cities like Melbourne and Perth, and European, American and Asian cities, such as Paris, Florence, San Francisco and Shanghai.â€
Supporters of the change are excitedly predicting a rebirth of Sydney nightlife. No longer will those wanting a quiet drink with friends be forced to run the raucous gauntlet of George Street on a Saturday night. Smaller European-style bars and wine bars (so successful in Melbourne since similar licensing deregulation in the mid-1980s) will soon grace the back lanes and third-storeys of CBD buildings.
Not everyone is welcoming the change. Predictably, the Australian Hotels Association is opposing the liberalisation of licensing laws, with the Association’s president stating, “We (people from Sydney) don’t want to sit in a hole and drink chardonnay and read a book.†It seems, though, that as with cultured cities the world over, some Sydneysiders want to do just that.
As usual in a bar fight in Australia, the last word goes to a Labor Party identity. This time it was former Prime Minister and withering orator Paul Keating, who weighed in on the issue late last year: “The pub culture in Sydney is stultifyingly bad. It’s raucous and it’s noisy in the Klondike-like saloons. All that’s missing is Lola Montez. The idea that you have to go into these swills to get a drink, and not in some more beguiling place, is a shame.â€
Bring it on!
–John Ryan
Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s tours and things to do in Sydney, including Sydney food, bar & nightlife tours. Also read John’s previous post about finding a decent place to drink in Melbourne.
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WordPress 2.3.1 Release Candidate 1 has been released, time to upgrade!
WordPress 2.3.1 is almost ready to go. Before we send it out the door, we’re making a release candidate available so everyone can give it a last look.
2.3.1 fixes over twenty bugs. Some of the notable fixes are:
- Tagging support for Windows Live Writer
- A login bug that affected those with a Blog Address different than
their WordPress Address is fixed- Faster taxonomy database queries, especially tag intersection queries
- Link importer fixes
More details will be provided in the final release announcement. Until then, download RC1 and let us know if it fixes a particular bug in 2.3 that was annoying you. If you find that something has broken since 2.3, please open a ticket so we can address the problem before the final 2.3.1 release.
A freaky procedure was carried out to turn a body-art fan’s eye blue, ala. Dune.
And it took FORTY insertions of the needle to get the job done.
Volunteer Pauly Unstoppable, from Canada, has perfect vision but jumped at the chance to be the first for this unusual work.
See some nasty shots in the gallery. But be warned - the pictures are very graphic. The one with the guy with dirty finger nails made me cringe.
Brave Pauly said he had, had full confidence in the team working on him - but urged people not to try it at home. He then said, and I quote “The procedure was extensively researched and done by people who were aware of the risks and possible complications and that it should not be casually attempted.
“Now that this experiment has been started, please wait for us to either heal or go blind before trying it.”
I haven’t seen a follow up that said he had gone blind. But I assume that the healing process takes a while.
[Story from The Sun]
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A portion of a CheatCC review…
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a must-buy for fans of the series. The amazing amount of features and characters included in the game plus the online gameplay make Brawl one of Nintendo’s best titles to date. Even those Nintendo fans who are not interested in fighting titles will find this one appealing. It’s not just a game; it’s a Nintendo museum!
Full review here
Seems RED Camera is going to give us some information about Scarlet, a camera they have kept under wraps for the last few years at NAB 2008
Information about said camera is Sketchy at best.
RED
Pocket
Professional [not prosumer]
Named Scarlet
Will not compete with or replace the RED ONE
To be introduced at NAB 2008
It’ll have a sensor
And [metric] buttons
Jim has confirmed it is a “motion capture camera” so not a still camera.
Will it be?
“Tomorrow is another day,”
“I’ll never go hungry again!â€
If you are wondering about quotes, another famous Scarlett, not to be confused with a color
From a list:
Subject: Nikon at Imaging USA (Tampa, FL), MacWorld (San Francisco, CA), PMA (Las Vegas, NV)
From: Michael Rubin
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01?? +0900Howdy folks,
If you are going to be at any of these shows, so will I. Please stop by and say hello. We’ll have presentations on hardware and software at Imaging USA & PMA and software at MacWorld.
We’ll have experts on the D3, D300 and other products at all 3.
And you can come meet me in person and complain about or compliment Nikon!
If you would like a free pass for MacWorld, please email me privately: mrubin !-at-! nikon.net and I will send you a pass code and registration code.
…
Hope to see a bunch of you soon!Michael
