Trinity’s World

Lorelle VanFossen is probably one of the most respected bloggers in the WordPress community. If you want to see an example of someone who knows how to take blogging seriously but still keep it fun and up beat, she’s an excellent person to watch in action. I’ve been reading her “Lorelle On WordPress” blog for about year now, it was one of the first RSS feeds I ever subscribed to.

I saw this post in my feed reader today that was titled “Want to Help Google Clean Up Splogs,” and was drawn into it right away. For those who don’t know what a “splog” is, it’s the blog equivalent of spam: when a post appears on your blog serving only to offer a link to another site or blog in attempts to bring in money to that blog (usually the ones I have to weed out are pornography related). So I found myself caught in a bit of a catch 22 on this one.

There are some people in the internet community who have put two and two together and come up with a really great solution. Splog = content that I don’t want on my blog website that is mass duplicated with same info designed to generate money. Google = one of the most powerful search engines in existence. Therefore they conclude that Google should offer some kind of way to filter out splog entries in blogs. However, in this case 2+2 does equal a good result. In fact it leads to something that has the potential of going to a very dark place.

The whole idea of blogging, at least in it’s current idiom, is that you throw an opinion out and let the world respond. Blogging is, by it’s very nature, an open forum. As an American, I take for granted every day the right that I have to express myself with out fear of retribution from my Government. I can post any anti-government sentiment I want on my blog and nothing can be done because I have the right to my opinion. If I choose to move to a remote cabin in Montana, call myself the “Ultimate Cheese Wheel Trinity” and start my religious group of dairy lovers, as long as we do not break any laws (such as stock piling fully automatic assault riffles, or dealing in drugs) we can proclaim our message of “cheezy goodness” (yes, I spelled it with ‘z’) via our blog and not have to worry about government intervention. But, what if someone finds that our message of “cheezy love” is too radical and dangerous in a day an age where lactose intolerant people have finally established a place of equal recognition and respect for the first time in centuries. They don’t want be subject to such a bizarre and blasphemous attraction to the gift of the “Sacred Cow”. What would the children think if they saw such a thing on U-Tube?!

OK, so I went over the top a bit there, but I think I got the point illustrated there. The real crux of the issue is that at heart of Content Filtering lies this really sticky debate about how to allow open communities to exist and at the same time impose some sort of way to protect that community. Once again we return to the basic conundrum of the American Way of life: Protecting my Freedoms may cost me some of my Freedoms, so where do I draw the line.

This is where I draw the line on this issue: If I want people to be able to post openly on my blog, I have to accept responsibility for the posted comments according to my personal convictions or moral standards. I should have the right to choose weather or not I want to give this responsibility over to a company like Google, but I do not agree with having to submit to an all powerful content filter in order to make other people’s blogs adhere to those other people’s set of standards. The same goes for spam and splogs, one of the largest money making industries in the Internet World. Yes, it’s vial and fowl in my opinion, but I have the power to eliminate this particular wrong doing from my blog is I wish. The last thing the internet needs is a content filter who’s control does not lay with the individual user.

***Updated latter that day****

So Lorelle very kindly pointed out that I did not have a clue I was talking about…..apparently splogs are Blogs that exist as a way of generating money. They are the same blog, with the same penny here penny there money earning set up, that propagates out into multiple instances to make it look like each is a different blog. So, in essence, it like a mass money making scam.

The same voice that brought you the great hit classic “Upgrading to version 9 from Version 8.x” now you can have even more of that great Tech Support love with a whole new collection of Tutorial Movies for the Laser App Enterprise program, brought to you by Laser App Software. Now you can learn how to do useful things like “How to Download and Install Forms”, “How to manually input your client contact data into the Laser App database”, or “How to import your client contact data from Excel or CSV File”.

Or if you are a power user, one of those people living on the cutting edge of technology who says, “Why should I learn a whole new program when my client data is already in one that works just fine for me,” fear not. Laser App works perfectly with many diffrent database programs. Take a look at the “Using Laser App with Red Tail” video to see just what me mean.
Stay tuned for new videos, coming soon to the Laser App Support page video’s page Great tools such as, “Using Laser App with SmartOffice”, “How to create form groups”, and “Saving forms in Laser App”. More to come, and all brought to you by ME! It’s what I do for a living!

My co-worker forwarded this to me today. It’s a WordPress blog called “Vista Sucks“.

If you read this post about What Laptop Steve Ballmer used for one of his recent Microsoft presentations, you will see something very peculiar about the hardware he has at the podium.

The day has finally arrived. Microsoft is now use Apple products in order to show case how to do things on a PC. I bet Steve Jobs is sitting in his office right now, thinking something like “And they said it would never happen.”

I think safety is an important thing. I feel glad that I, as an American, have the right to travel to any state with out fear that the Federal Government can, Constitutionally, prevent me from going and coming as I please. I am a law abiding, tax paying, citizen, and therefore have no reason to fear interstate travel.

The morning of September 11, 2001, I went to work not knowing what had happened in New York. Being on the West Coast, and listening to a radio show that was know for it’s morning pranks on people, I did not even think twice about the news story that planes were being crashed into the Sears Towers. I was shocked, angry, and confused, like most of the people I knew and lived with. But this incident is more than five years behind us. It is time for the government to stop reacting to 911, and take a good long look at the effectiveness of the policies created in the wake of that tragic event.

I’m glad that Airports have had to step up secruity. It makes me safer as a traveler. Yesterday, due to a 911 secrutiy policy, I was denied access to the terminal to board my plane because the security check point was so backed up there was no way I could make my flight. OK, fine, I was running late and that is no one’s fault but the people who booked me longer that I was supposed to speak. So I was booked on the next aviable flight, spent the night in a hotel, and went back the next day.

The boarding pass I was given had a big “S” printed on it. My ticket agent said nothing about it, and I cleared the TSA check point with no mention what so ever of any issues. I went to my gate and checked in with the desk, something most people do not do but with the issues I’ve had with the trip I like to have a security blanket. I was informed that I had been flagged as a TSA security risk, and that I would not be allowed to board the plane until TSA stamped my boarding pass. So I had to walk all the way across the airport to the nearest TSA check point, and tell them about the issue. I was told to go back to my gate, and an agent would be there to take care of it.

The agent arrived as my flight was boarding, I had made it back to the check point with 20 min till they started boarding. He had to do the following before I was allowed to baord:

1. Hand check the laptop bag I carried that already had been x-rayed
2. Use a wand to check me for mettle, having already cleared the mettle detector
3. Physically pat me down for weapons

All of these procedures had already been done at the check point,but I had to do this again at my gate. When I asked why, it was because I had changed my flight. That is all.

Does anyone else thing this is just a stupid way of going about making thing more secure?

I like travel. I like going to new places, seeing new things, tasting new foods, talk to people with different accents, the whole experience of being in a place different from the one you live.

So I’m still in Indiana. I was supposed to leave the conference I was scheduled to speak at by 4:00pm today. But someone decided to use last year’s agenda with out looking a the changes, and promoted a huge big panel discussion with all the software vendors. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30pm, and the conference was a good 60 miles away from the airport.

Now, if you have read the previous post, you know my feeling on speed limits in states other than California. Well, the freeway system here is similar to a country mountain highway in California, only with about have the amount of traffic that fits on a LA freeway. Put it all together, and you get me showing up to the Continental Airline check in counter, at 6:15pm. Enter the modern age of technology and security paranoia that is our post 911 world in the USA.

Now I’m totally willing to admit that I’m spoiled as a Californian who lives in the LA area. There are no less than three major airports with in a hour and a half of my house. Ontario International, is a small airport compared to most, but it is fast. I’ve never taken more than 15 minuets for a security check, and there are only two outgoing terminals to choose from for domestic flights. Indianapolis is very different.

When I arrived at the airport at 6:00 I turned my rental car in and knew that I was strapped for time. I got in the shuttle to the terminal and ran to the check in desk. At 6:15 the very polite and nice woman with a thick British accent told me that she could not check me in. When I asked why, she said that the computers prohibit people from being checked in so close to the departure time. Apparently the standard time to get through security in Indianapolis is one hour on a good day. I requested that they put me on the next available flight to Ontario, and they said there were no more flights leaving today. When I asked for a flight in to Burbank, LAX, or San Bernardino, or any other of the many airports in So Cal, they said they would not be able do do so. Apparently all flights out of Indianapolis are booked. ALL FLIGHTS, not just to California. The next available flight they could put me on is for 6:15am tomorrow morning.

So I called my company, spoke to the guy who sent me here, and got a hotel room paid for by the company near the airport. I am stuck in Indiana

Plus side…there is a great pub across the street from my hotel. I had a this excellent chicken burger that made the day worth it, along with a Guinness. So, the day is not a total loss.

Time to go to sleep, I have to be up early tomorrow.

That’s right, this post is being posted from my hotel room in Kokomo Indiana. I’m here on business, my company needed someone to come out here and do a training for the back office of on of our Broker/Dealers.

I like traveling. But I’m really glad I don’t have to do this on a regular bases. I’m only going to be gone for one night, I don’t like being away from my wife. I like flying, the sensation of take off is just awesome. But I’m really glad that I will have one more trip next month, and I’m done for the year (I pretty sure)

So what have I learned from this trip so far:

1. Never let your itinerary of your sight.
   • This means that when you are jotting notes down on it the day before you leave, because you want to make sure you remember what the head of marketing wants you to cover, you actually put said itinerary in your laptop bag to take with you (not leaving it on your desk to scramble back to the office to get in time to make your flight the next morning)
2. Sonic Burger is the food of the gods:
   • I used to think Inn and Out was the king of the burger universe. Sonic Burger was in California for while, and I hear rumor that there are still few locations left, but not where I live. There is a Sonic Burger down the road from my Hotel, so my dinner tonight was most excellent
3. All states that are not California, need to re-think their speed limits
   • With possibly the exception of Nevada, driving outside of California is hell. Just to illustrate my point, the posted speed limit in my home town was 55MPH. No before you point out that I grew up in the middle of no-where, the posted Speed limit in the city of Rancho Cucamonga, near where I live, is also 55MPH. The posted speed limit on most of the 5 freeway in California is 70MPH. I get here to Indiana and have to drive 60 miles to my hotel from the Airport and it took me almost two hours because the posted speed limit on the 645 freeway is 45MPH, and it only has two lanes.
4. Rental Car companies exist so that you do not make a mistake buy a car that sucks
   • I’m a firm believe in the “Try before you buy” philosophy. This Chevy four door that I was given as a rental car, is so unbelievable bad that I think it is powered by hamsters. Not only is it a hideous Khaki color, not only does it look like the orphaned step child of a VW hippy van and a Ford Escort, but when you step on the gas it makes high pitched whine like you asked it to do something hard. I think the name is Katimer or something like that, I’ve honestly mentally blocked it out it is such a bad car.

So that’s all from Kokomo. I’m going to settle down and watch some TV and go to bed now.

I know I have not posted in a while, but I’ve been sucked into randomness of RenFair and work stuff. I’m working on a prodject at work that has me developing a knowledgebase. I found a cool widget for WordPress that lists the categories for posts as a collapsing tree, and sub-categories show up underneath, as well as posts. Problems is that I’m getting weird stuff in the end result. I’m posting here because my work site is not public to the world (hopefully will be if we can get things like this worked out), and I wanted the widget’s creator to be able to see what is going on.

The following is a pic of three screen shot pasted together, showing what is wrong. The left most column is the Category list generated by WordPress’s default. The middle is how the widget displays, and the right is an expanded view.

I drew a blue square to show categories that are completely omitted, and a brown square around posts that are duplicated.

Rob, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

FYI, this is a kick but widget for anyone who is hosting their own WordPress on a server. You can download it from the WordPress repository here, at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/collapsing-categories/

OK, so my blog has been inactive for…a few months. I’ve been busy, and I’ve had a new job. Between stuff with the Belles, work, trying to find a new place to live, and general life issue, I’ve been really pressed for any time at all.

The real reason I even bothered posting today is that I have a really stupid thing that I feel special for doing. I’ve been asked by my company to do Internet video sessions on how to use our program. The first one is now live, and you can see it on my company’s web page by clicking HERE. More will follow soon!

Take a gander, give me feed back about the incredibly boring and totally random bit of information that this could provide for you.