Monthly Archive for December, 2005

Daddy, I want to be like Scoble when I grow up!

Published
by
Chris Meller
on December 22, 2005
in Announcements, Commentary, Links, Random and Techno-Babble
. 0 Comments

It’s official, Scoble is my idol:

Anyway, I

What I’d Like to See from Akismet Next

Published
by
Chris Meller
on December 22, 2005
in Commentary, Follow Up, Incoherent Code and Techno-Babble
. 2 Comments

UPDATE: Just after posting this, I logged in to FeedLounge for a little evening RSS reading and saw Andy Skelton’s post about adding stats to WordPress.com. Who knows, maybe Matt and the gang are way ahead of me on this and Akismet will get a little stats-lovin’ while they’re at it!

You know, I find Akismet to be pretty kick ass overall. The ironic part is that I actually commented about such a service on someone’s post about SPAM only a week or so prior to the announcement of Akismet. I guess that’s the story of my life: a day late and a dollar short.

Well, as great as Akismet is (with my enhanced plugin, of course), there’s something I’d like to see which can really only be done (effectively) on their end: statistics!

I’d love to see a page (likely in your Wordpress.com Dashboard) that lists several statistics:

  1. Which blogs are using my API key?
    I’m using my API key on about 4 different blogs, and I’d like to have a list of which ones I’m using where.
  2. What have those blogs been up to?
    • How many messages have been checked for each one?
    • How many of those messages were SPAM and how many were HAM?
    • How many messages have been manually marked as SPAM for each one?
    • How many messages have been manually marked as HAM for each one?
  3. What was the last User Agent that polled the Akismet service?
    This would help me track down any of my blogs using outdated / different plugin versions (assuming they all report something unique as the User Agent, like the original Akismet plugin does).

Now you could take this data and skin it 30 different ways. Anywhere from just plain text to dynamically updating (not to mention pretty) pie charts and graphs of all shapes and sizes. I’m sure you could even come up with some ingenious overall comment tracking, even down to “common topics” stats, author stats and linked URLs.

Sure all of what I’ve said thus far could be done in the client-side plugin, but a centralized resource for all this information across all of your blogs would be, I think, very welcome. Besides, if it were all done on the Akismet server, comparisons could be made to the global blogging community. They could give you various indications of how well your comments stack up against the rest of the world in signal-to-noise ratio.

What do you think, Matt? Anything like this in planning already, or am I totally off in left field?

My ACLU vs. Tennessee Rebuttal

Published
by
Chris Meller
on December 21, 2005
in Follow Up, Freedom of Speech, Legal, Links and Rants
. 1 Comment

I just got a trackback on my post from yesterday about the ACLU and Tennessee seperation of church and state issue: Incoherent Babble (indeed).

Since “Damion’s Journal” apparently won’t let me comment without registering, and I can’t find where to register, here’s my rebuttal:

Now, to be fair, I wasn’t bashing the ACLU or Tennessee for this situation. I honestly didn’t even read all of the story to see why they had this on display (ie: was it actually purchased to be part of the display, was it some decorator that happened to include it because they liked it, or was it simply someone placing it on their own desk?). I was just getting in on the general ACLU bashing because I know how annoying they can be.

Personally, I agree that the seperation of state and religion should be severely maintained (since I’m a non-Christian living in the Bible belt of the south, surrounded by religion-obsessed Southern Baptists). I’m just tired of the ACLU rocking the boat about insignificant stuff. Where were they with Bush’s Intelligent Design BS? What about the Dover, PA schoolboard’s Intelligent Design desision (which was just ruled unconstitutional this week)?

Let’s stop worrying about a stupid candle in a statehouse and find something that really matters to complain about, shall we?

I Salute You, Mr. Schwarzenegger

Published
by
Chris Meller
on December 20, 2005
in Commentary, Daily Grind, Legal, Links and Rants
. 0 Comments

Alright, for this story, I just can’t beat the hilarious headlines that were awarded by loyal Fark submitters:

Schwarzenegger to Austrian death-penalty critics: Suck it

Mayor of Schwarzenegger’s home town: “Suck it? OK”

Now that we’re done with that, let’s see if I can sum this up for all of you who don’t feel like reading those rather lengthy articles.

Basically, Arnold Schwarzenegger (you know, that actor dude turned political dude?) was apparently criticized by the anti-death-penalty residents of his home town in Austria (a city called Graz) after refusing to grant clemency to Stanley “Tookie” Williams, who was put to death by the State of California for 4 counts of murder on December 13th.

In response, he demanded that the town stop using his name to promote itself, and rename a soccer stadium which had been dedicated to Schwarzenegger in 1997:

“The reason for this action is apparently a decision I reached as governor of California,” Schwarzenegger said. “I rejected the clemency of a rightfully convicted four-time murderer after thorough review, and as a result, he was executed according to the laws of this state.”

Not only that, but he’s also decided to return a “ring of honor” that was given to him by the city officials in 1999:

Since “the official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me,” he said. “It is already in the mail.”

Well, of course this couldn’t go un-answered:

Siegfried Nagl, mayor of the southern city of Graz, said he dashed off a letter to Schwarzenegger pleading with him not to return a ring of honor bestowed on him by officials in his birthplace in 1999 and reassuring him that most residents still admire him.

Now, regardless of this name-use and ring stuff, I think you have to respect the man. He’s standing up for what’s right. Whether you believe in the death penalty or think it’s barbaric (such as most Europeans), Arnold did his job as he was elected to:

“The reason for this action is apparently a decision I reached as governor of California,” Schwarzenegger said. “I rejected the clemency of a rightfully convicted four-time murderer after thorough review, and as a result, he was executed according to the laws of this state.”

“The death penalty is law here, and I have to uphold the law of the land and the will of the people,” Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying, adding that he still considered himself “Austrian with all my heart.”

Can you find me another politician that would stand up for his actions like that? One that would logically and rationally justify his position in a reasonable manner as backed by the law of the province over which he presides? You sure as hell won’t find one in Washington, DC…

The ACLU vs. Tennessee, Round 1

Published
by
Chris Meller
on December 20, 2005
in Commentary, Daily Grind, Links and Random
. 1 Comment

Ah yes, the year just wouldn’t be complete if the ACLU didn’t get their panties in a wad over something displayed at a State Capitol.

Frankly, I’m glad to see Tennessee join South Carolina in pissing off the ACLU. Maybe now we can get distracted by their menorah and finally forget about the Confederate flag being flown on the State House grounds in Columbia? Hey, at least this time we’ll offend someone other than the blacks (umm, I mean African Americans)…

Tis the season to boycott…!