WordPress 2.5
Well, I’ve jumped in & done the upgrade to the newest version of WordPress. Version 2.5 came out about a week ago, but I haven’t had the time to get to the upgrade, what with all the testing & checking for updated themes & plugins, until today.
Those who visit the site directly will notice a new theme has been installed. Not because I was necessarily dissatisfied with the old one, but more because I like to change things up every so often, and picking a new theme that was 2.5 ‘compliant’ seemed as good a reason as any.
I think that I was able to test things out enough to ensure that nothing is broken, but it’s almost a certainty that something will have slipped through the cracks. So, if you run into anything that doesn’t work right, please let me know by dropping me an email or just clicking on the ‘Contact’ link near the top of the page.
-ghp
Purple Spin
Well, today there’s been a new salvo in the ongoing Issues, Etc. cancellation controversy. Namely a more fully-worded explanation from the Executive Director of the Board for Communication Services, David Strand (aka, the guy who pulled the trigger…)
An Updated Statement on “Issues, Etc.”
A more fully fleshed out response, written by someone with some knowledge of the inner workings of things within the Purple Politburo [props to Rev. Cwirla for that term...] can be found at the Save the LCMS! blog: Obfuscation!
My own take, at least initially, is that the folks who are calling what happened “understandable,” based on the data listed in Mr. Strand’s press release, are correct, but only to a point, and even then somewhat tenuously.
Primarily, the problem with this latest statement is that it takes into account none of the ‘viral’ marketing appeal (and success) of Issues, Etc.. Issues, Etc. didn’t gain its world-wide audience by folks listening to it in real time (either on the radio or on the web). No, Issues, Etc. made its mark via podcasting-enabled time-shifting. Folks around the world would listen to the archived shows. They would download them & listen to them on their computers, Ipods/MP3 players & burn them to CD for distribution to friends & family. I know I did.
Even in light of the ‘hard data’ of ratings books, the decision was based on 3+ year old data and a hunch that nothing significant had
changed in terms of real-time listenership. Funny, but there always seemed to be enough folks listening to call in & help fill the 3 hours
every day…
Anyway, this shows why the communication arm of the Synod is having trouble - they don’t seem to “get” what the new-media landscape is all about.
And this statement is still woefully, and shamefully, inadequate.
Too bad. If they really “got it” then maybe this would’ve been avoided, and Issues, Etc.’s faithful witness would still be ringing forth.
Btw, for what is pretty much the best continuing up-to-date coverage, commentary, & comments on this whole kerfuffle, be sure to subscribe to the Weedon’s Blog feed.
-ghp
Technology, Education, Society, & Change
Go read this article. Really. Click the link & go read it.
I’ve read Cringely for a long time, before and after he left Infoworld, where he assumed the mantle of their industry gossip column, and took it to great heights. His book Accidental Empires is a wonderful read about the growth & emergence of the pre-dotcom Silicon Valley culture & power brokers (Gates, Jobs, McNealy, etc…).
Anyway, he’s written a gem of an interesting column this week. I work in higher-ed, and I have two elementary-ed aged kids. My parents were public school teachers. I’ve grown up immersed in the ethos that learning, both in the vocational and liberal arts senses, was a good thing. I’ve also spent my entire working life in computer technology (and most of that in higher-ed). This is why I find Cringely’s column this week to be so interesting.
I don’t know if he’s exactly right in all of the particulars, but I do think he’s right in the big-picture sense. We’re on the cusp of a huge change in what education means & how it is delivered. It may even change how I go about making a living. It depends on just how fast some of these changes take effect.
As an example, back in my first attempt at grad school (UNC-CH’s School of Information & Library Science) in 1989-90, database construction & searching was very different than searching has become. Full-text was not a viable option & was rarely available. Entire graduate-level courses were dedicated to understanding database design, query design, & how to best go about doing research for folks, because online, searchable database access ran anywhere from $10-$300+ per hour. You had to know how all the different databases were constructed & indexed, so that you could write queries that got all the necessary, relevant, & useful results without spending too much time, and thus, money. IOW, “normal folks” didn’t have access to the data repositories.
I remember thinking & wondering how much better full-text indexing & searching would be, and wondering why it didn’t seem to be more of a priority. Well, I guess it was, because now we’ve got Google & all of these huge data repositories that are full-text, cheap (if not free), and easily accessible by even the “normal folks”. Getting data is no longer the problem/bottleneck - knowing which of that data is actually information is the challenge. Not to mention how to use it.
So, if you’ve gotten down to this point, and you didn’t go and read the article/column yet, here’s a second chance - hopefully you’re intrigued enough to go read it now…
Let me know what you think.
-ghp
It’s alive!
It’s alive… alive!
The new “old” 500mb SCSI drive has been successfully installed, replacing the dead 120MB drive (that had replaced the original 20MB disk). System 6.0.8 has been successfully installed, and my little SE is now running just as smoothly as it did on the day I got it in mid-March almost 20 years ago. Better, even, because I didn’t get it upgraded from 1mb to 4mb of RAM until Fall ‘89 (at a cool $250/MB from the UNC-CH Tar Heel Bookstore!).
Also nifty to to note is that I was able to resurrect some files from an 18 disk (1.44mb format) full backup of the 20mb hard drive that I made back on 12/25/90! That is pretty darned neat. I remember how very cool & impressive I thought that 20MB hard drive was back when I got it. It was my first computer with a hard disk, and I was in heaven, because I didn’t have to worry about boot disks, system disks, data disks, and all the juggling thereof. I couldn’t imagine ever filling all that space. Even so, I was very careful about keeping everything backed up, just in case. And it only took 18 years to have such vigilance vindicated!
Now I just need to get my next project done — a “bridge” Mac of some sort, so that I can get all of my old word processing files (Mac Word 3.x, natch - I used Mac Word long before WinWord even existed, and even remember my first exposure to PC Word, when I was aghast at what a character-based piece of garbage it was…) migrated over from the SE-era floppies onto the MBP. I’m thinking something running, maybe OS 9.x. It’ll interesting, though, because my experience with MacOS jumped from 7.1 (in 1990) to 10.x (in 2002). I pretty much had no exposure to, or experience with, 7.5, 7.6, 8.x or 9.x, so whatever I decide to go with will be a learning experience.
-ghp
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