Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Movable Type support?

I’ve been a big fan of Movable Type. It’s been good to me. But then, I’ve never tried anything else.

Now this little blog has become unweildy. It’s been having trouble for months - tonight it was down for an hour - a bunch of hung processes on my account.

I’ve not been able to find the help I need. I’m happy to pay for support, but I’m not reassured by what I read. Any feedback from fellow Movable Type users?

LATER: The site’s been down all night and has gone down a couple times since. Movable Type says good luck and won’t help; my site’s unstable they say.

Thanks.

I’ve upgraded to 3.3 but that hasn’t helped. ICDSoft suggests the problem is trackbacks. Time to disable them. But is it also time to try move on from Movable Type?

Betty on Ann

Betty Bowers reviews Ann Coulter’s Godless:

Let’s be honest: Reading a book about religion from Ann Coulter is tantamount to reading a book about dieting from Michael Moore. After all, who wants to be lectured about not being Christian enough by an almost-50 year-old boozehound in a black leather miniskirt who has never been married?  Count me as having a healthy skepticism over whether Miss Coulter has saved herself for marriage.  Or anything, for that matter.

RELATED: The single Ann calling Bill and Hillary (and Al Gore) gay reminds me to point to the findings affirming that homophobes tend to be homos themselves. But I don’t think Ann a homphobe; I think her a media whore (and not that kind of Media Whore).

Via Gay Orbit.

LATER DOUG SEZ: “She’s apparently no friend of bloggers. Her cafepress store includes
these lovely items. =-O =-O =-O”

I SAY: “Like she should talk???”

Ya Pee Pee

I’m watching YouTube for the posting of Rob Corrdry’s Macaca piece last night. (Comedy Central should get on the ball and post those pieces right away, I’m happy enough to point to their ad-laden video if they would just get it together).

In the meantime, here’s a good roundup of macaca coverage. I’ll quote Salon:

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word dates back to the mid-1600s, as a Flemish approximation of the Bantu word for monkey in the Congo and southern Gabon. The word migrated north, taking on all the racist connotations that followed African colonization. By the early 1800s, Jacko Maccacco, a famous fighting monkey, could be found on display in Westminster Pit, a notorious London arena for dog fights. The word had entered the common vernacular, and it eventually became a racist shorthand for blacks.

Today, the word is used mainly by two groups of people: scientists studying African and Asian primates, and bullies looking to insult others for the color of their skin.

NOT MUCH LATER: It’s herre:

Toothless Fake News inquiry

Marketplace had a story on the FCC investigating the use of “video news releases” in TV news broadcasts:

The Federal Communications Commission wants to make sure stations that air these commercials identify them as commercials. The FCC is looking into 77 stations.

Diane Farsetta of the watchdog Center for Media and Democracy says the Feds are asking a key question:

DIANE FARSETTA: What was the monetary relationship? Was there actually payment to play these video news releases?

She says PR firms increasingly pay stations in return for guaranteed airing. That way, fake-news buyers can target certain viewers at certain times.

I’m all for it, let’s crack down. But I note that the action taken was that it ”mailed letters to the owners of 77 television stations.”

Wow-wee!

And the maximum fine is $32,000.

Mercy-me!

Compare that to the new indecency fines signed into law in June by President Bush: $325,000 a station for each instance! More on that, here.

And here’s the Center for Media and Society study that triggered the Fcc inquiry.