SkaroffBlog

Be afraid spambots and hackers!

So apparently since Obama was elected there isn’t a reason to blog here anymore. Maybe someday we’ll all be back.

There’s some stuff over here though.

WordPress is updated to 2.8.4. Stay away evil worm.

Skaroff.com has been offline for the past week or two as I moved a whole bunch of servers around. While before I was self-hosting, this site now runs on the pairlite.com servers. I think I’ve mostly completed the transition, but if you see anything going wrong, let me know.

And in case you haven’t figured it out, all the real action is over at my tumblelog: Ort.

Just downloaded the wordpress app for iPhone and I’m giving it a little spin.

Attached is the view from my desk. If you squint you can see the ballpark and the Linc

UPDATE: this is gonna be a very useful app. You can even post photos from the synced photo library (not just the camera roll):

I’m giving Blogo, a blog post editor from Brainjuice a try.

This is just a test.

As if you needed another reason not to vote for John McCain

(h/t Atrios)

Imagine this: It’s August 28th, 2008 in Denver, Colorado and the Democratic Party is concluding its convention on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech by nominating the first African American candidate of a major party in American history. The crowd is cheering, the balloons are falling, and across the country and the world there is a sense of history being made.

On to the stage steps the tall figure of Barack Obama beaming his megawatt smile and waving at the crowd. He is flanked by his wife Michelle, his running mate, and the running mate’s spouse. They’ve joined hands and lifted their arms in the air. It’s a new day and a new direction for the Democratic Party.

Can you really imagine the last person on that list to be former President Bill Clinton? Can President Clinton be the fourth most important person on the stage that night?

And come January, when it would become President Obama, could he truly run his administration with President Clinton advising Vice President Clinton across the street in the Old Executive Office Building? The man is undeniably brilliant but can he stand in the shadows?

I think Senator Hillary Clinton would be a great running mate and a great Vice President. It could be a 16 year ticket of progressive good governance. But I worry that Bill Clinton, the only Democratic president I have known in my lifetime could not handle his far less prestigious and powerful role.

I’m not sure this is a dream I want to have.

Cross-posted on DoubleSpeak.

For some reason, it seems like our fair city often finds itself at the top of top 10 lists. Unfortunately, we’re often peaking on lists that you wouldn’t necessarily want to find yourself on. Well, add another one to the list.

The Kryptonite lock company, maker of pretty much the best bike locks around, just published their “Top 10 Worst Cities for Bike Theft List.” Oh yeah, we’re #1.

1. Philadelphia, PA
2. Chicago, IL
3. New York City, NY
4. San Francisco, CA
5. Tucson, AZ (tie)
Portland, OR (tie)
7. Denver, CO
8. New Haven, CT
9. Cambridge, MA
10. Austin, TX

Yup, I’m shocked, but that’s what the data tells us. This list is compiled by our proprietary data….input from our regional managers, hundreds of shop visits, input from colleges and universities we talk with, our customer service interactions (both over the phone/email and at events) and data from police in various cities. When we did the compilation, there wasn’t even a city close to Philly. Not even close.

Yikes.

I carry at least one Kryptonite lock on me daily, the Evolution Mini. It’s small enough to easily carry in my bag, in a pocket, or on my Fabric Horse belt if I’ve got that on, but still plenty strong (and actually the smaller size makes it harder to break into). Combined with a cable that I loop through the front wheel and using the rear wheel through the triangle method, I generally feel comfortable locking up for relatively short periods. If it’s gonna be much more than an hour or two I’ll even bring along another Kryptonite U-Lock for added piece of mind.

But this makes me ever more paranoid. Leave my bike alone!

(h/t Cyclelicio.us)