Let’s take it on the road

Well, folks, it’s time to pack it up and head over to the new place. And that place is:

http://www.hoodathunkblog.com

HoodaThunk? will continue to cover what I’ve been covering up to this point, it’s just going to do it over there. Barring some issue, I don’t intend to update this WordPress.com site any further. While there are a few items that still need to be straightened out (the blogroll, for example) the basic functions are all there and are all working.

So, I look forward to seeing you all over there and let’s get back to blogging!

OK, so what’s going on at HoodaThunk?

OK, so the combination of being out of town for a few days and a decision about the blogging here have made for very light posting for the past week or so. Time for an explanation.

The part about being out of town is self-explanatory, but there was an additional twist to this one. I was doing some serious electrical work at my Mom’s house which involved me crawling around in the attic for a couple of days and cutting holes in the bedroom ceilings. Given that I also want to put in an attic fan in her house this year and the high degree of confidence that it’ll be me doing the electrical work on that project as well, I made certain additions to my design to make it easy on me the next time i show up. That takes time. And, when you’re crawling from joist to joist in the attic, you’re not banging keys for a blog post.

The other issue is this: I’ve been doing some research into moving this blog to a hosted server. The reason for this is simple: I’ve been wanting to add functionality to this blog for a long time that I’ve been unable to add due to it being hosted at wordpress.com. Please don’t get me wrong – this is a great service and it’s handled my needs for at least 3 years. But there are tools and widgets I’ve wanted to use that I can’t unless I move. So… I’m moving.

I am in the process of setting the new place up. At first, I was working to make the new blog location look as much like this one as I could. I’m still working on some of the basic functions (which I do like and do want) but I’m taking the opportunity to rework the page a bit and see what I can come up with to reflect the new status.

Lastly, I’m going to be playing around a bit with some of the monetizing features to see if I can get this hobby to actually generate some capital. We’ll see how that part goes but I can assure you I’ll not sacrifice the readability here. So again, stay tuned and see what comes.

Changes coming

I’m working on the blog right now and that’s taking up all of my bandwidth. Stay tuned for changes coming.

RTB Complete

Well, we’re back at the home base after a week out. The visit to family members out that way was fun and I accomplished the goals I’d set in handling some of the larger tasks my mother had on her household “to do” list. A good visit in all respects.

As usual, the return trip was draining and we’re all sitting around in that “don’t wanna do nuthin’” droop. Give me a few hours and I’ll get back up to speed.

Light blogging alert

I’m in the middle of some rather long-range travel at the moment, blogging this morning from a hotel. We’re visiting some family this week so I might be a little lighter in the blogging department. There are some interesting goings-on lately, however, so I won’t be completely silent. Hope all of you had a Happy Easter!

Cybersecurity Act of 2009

Would a bill introduced to Congress put it within the President’s power to completely shut down your access to the Internet in a “national security emergency” as defined by the President and his assigns? Excellent question. The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (S.773) is being discussed in many quarters as enabling the President to do just that, a grant of power to the Executive that many – if not all – of my colleagues on the left would have been howling in anger over had it been introduced last year at this time. They would have screamed that Bush was showing his jack-booted colors. Now? Not so much angst over there.

Ah, but are we putting the cart before the horse? The Cybersecurity Act is a pretty standard-length bill, which means it’s huge and unwieldy to read. But, in keeping with my profession and within the auspices of 2 of the professional organizations of which I’m a member I’m going to delve into this bill and see what’s really there. This will not be a quick post nor will it be fast research but I think it’s important. I’m putting this into a category of its own so it can be retrieved quickly.

Stay tuned.

Back on-line

We appear to have fixed the issue with the laptop and I’m getting back on-line. Slowly.

Bloggus Interruptus: Dead laptop edition

Laptop dead. Blogging seriously curtailed. Send guns and money.

OK, just send the money, then.

(Kidding. About the money, not the laptop.)

Typical response: blame the person who points out the truth

Blogging is an interesting endeavor, equally for having a venue to express your thoughts and for seeing what, if any, reaction you invoke. My grousing about the dearth of any reaction from the… shall we say “aggressive” feminist contingent of our body politic regarding the judgement of a Saudi court convicting a gang-rape victim for being raped was something I had a suspicion would arouse a response. I had hoped for, but not counted on, a reaction that would actually show some focus on the issue I spoke of, rather than the fact that I, a mere man, had been the speaker.

Well, maybe it did out there somewhere but the one who actually linked to the post failed to rise to the occasion. Typically, it’s the notion that I find the problem to be their lack of interest in what should be a serious concern that finally stirs a vocal response, and it’s directed at me not the people who need it. Spinster Aunt relies on prose that proves my point about those folks at the diversity training and hammers in yet more stereotype. Not my fault this time, ladies, so enjoy. Meantime, maybe the ladies at “Blame the Patriarchy” will get around to actually, you know, speaking out about this Saudi mess. Lord knows I couldn’t find anything over there about it.

Thanks for stopping by, Aunt. Have a good one!

Latest Scribefire release not working with WordPress.com (Update!)

I got the latest update to Scribefire (version 3.2) when I logged on this morning and got a nasty surprise: I couldn’t post to HoodaThunk? at all with it. It appears to work normally right up to the moment when I confirm that I want to publish the post. At that point, it acts as though I’ve canceled the publish request instead of actually sending the post.

I’ve had to revert back to version 3.1.6 (which works fine, by the way) and I’ve posted an issue update with the coders. We’ll see what they find.

Update: This just in: if you’re using Scribefire 3.2 with WordPress, select the Settings tab at the left-hand margin and then select the Publishing tab within Settings. Uncheck the “Automatically insert invisible tracking pixel” and you’ll find it works like a charm. Click on the issue update link above for the latest.