Author Archives: Peter

Form Over Content

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I seem to be doing a lot of metacognition lately. The last post was a blog about blogs. In this post, I’m thinking about how I think about things.

From time to time, I stop and try to get a handle on how and why I perceive things the way I do. I often run into situations where everyone in a group will react one way to something, and I react a completely different way. Or I see a situation one way, and nobody else has any clue what I am talking about. Today I had an insight, or at least an insight into how to concisely label my way of thinking, making decisions, and expressing myself: Form Over Content.
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For The Non-Commenters

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Here are some stats for our website during November:

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4,089 unique visitors
10,423 visits
57,940 pages viewed
85,242 hits
2.18 GB of data downloaded

53 blog entries
48 comments on entries made during November

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This averages out to about 347 visits per day, 1.76 new entries each day, and less than one comment per entry. So my question is, if so many people are visiting our blog, and there’s more than enough content, why don’t we get more comments?

First, besides Becky and myself, there are a few people who I’d consider “regular” commenters. These people have left more than 10 comments total, and I’ll list them here, in descending order of number of comments, as a way of thanking them for their continued contribution to our site’s comments: ***Michelle|http://mikao.blogspot.com/***, ***Jenn|http://junefourteenth.blogspot.com/***, ***Will|http://pulchersentio.prwdot.org/***, ***Chad|http://jayseae.cxliv.org/***, ***Mike|http://mike.refugeisland.net/***, ***Nikkiana|http://everytomorrow.org/***, ***Amy|http://waltondammerunprwdot.org/g/***, and ***Bob|http://bobgolding.blogspot.com/***.

What do these people have in common?
* With the exceptions of Mike and Chad, most are in their twenties
* All of them profess a Christian faith
* All of them have their own blogs
* All of them have time to use the Internet for more than just a few minutes per day
* All of them share at least one common interest with either Becky or myself

So what I don’t know is why other people don’t comment on our blog. I would simply love for people other than those I listed above to leave comments on this entry, explaining why they don’t comment regularly. Is it because you don’t have the time? Is it because you don’t like that our comments form is in a pop-up window, or because your browser doesn’t allow the pop-up window? Is it because you simply don’t have anything meaningful to say? Or are our posts simply uninteresting and not worthy of comments? Or do you simply not understand how the comment system works? I apologize if my writing tone seems accusatory, but in reality I’m simply curious.

I’d love some feedback. Thanks!

Water, Energy, and the Environment

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Apartment tenants in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, gifted with free water usage by their landlords, leave their sinks running, their bathtubs overflowing, and flush gallons of water down the toilet every day, is always needed to contact a plumbing contractor. Those days might soon be numbered. Today on my favorite news radio station, ***WBZ 1030|http://www.wbz1030.com/***, I heard that the Massachusetts House of Representatives had passed ***H5001|http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/ht05001.htm***. H5001 is a bill, backed by environmental lobbyists and landlords, that proposes to amend Mass General Law to allow landlords to submeter their tenants water usage and to bill them for said usage. The bill is aimed squarely at the previously-mentioned water-wasting tenants.
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Linux on the Mac

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For quite some time, I was way into running Linux on my Mac. I was one of the earliest users of LinuxPPC, the first major distribution of Linux for PowerPC processors. I ran it on my SuperMac Power Mac clone, since Apple had discontinued support for Mac OS on clones in the late 1990’s. I thought it was really cool, and I spent lots of time tinkering with the software, compiling my kernels, testing out device drivers, etc. While that was all cool and extremely geeky fun, there was still that naggy feeling that things didn’t just work. I longed to go back to the Mac OS, where I could run the programs I wanted to, plug things in and expect them to work, and just be happy without needing to mess around with my computer. When Mac OS X became publicly available, I installed it on my Macs, and I haven’t looked back since.

However, there are still those who prefer to run Linux on their Mac hardware. They enjoy the extra time spent tinkering with their kernels, configuring the system just the way they want. A new article on O’Reilly’s ***MacDevCenter|http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/11/30/linux.html*** covers some of the ground of those folks who still choose to use Linux on their Macs. More power to them. I’d just rather spend my time doing other things.

Boston Movable Type Meetup

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If you are a user of the ***Movable Type|http://www.movabletype.org/*** blogging software, or are simply interested in finding out more about it, and you live in the Boston area, you should check out the ***Boston MT Meetup|http://movabletype.meetup.com/15/events/3657375/***. Our next meeting is on Monday, December 13. I have volunteered to be the organizer for this Meetup group, and would like to get the word spread to as many people as possible. If you’re not able to attend, but know someone else who might be interested, please pass the word along. You can use the ‘Email this entry’ link at the bottom of this entry to do that more easily.

Traffic RSS

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Apparently, TrafficPulse has the ability to ***read my mind|http://www.boston-online.com/common/004145.html***. Check their ***RSS page|http://www.traffic.com/Mobility/rss.html*** to see if your favorite city has an RSS traffic feed. Props to ***Boston Online|http://www.boston-online.com/*** for the link.

Quicksilver

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I’m sure ***Will|http://pulchersentio.prwdot.org/*** or someone else has mentioned this program to me in the past, but I finally got around to checking it out. ***Quicksilver|http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/*** is a utility for Mac OS X 10.3 or later that is an application launcher, search engine, organizing tool, and much, much more. It’s hard to describe exactly what it is. It’s much easier to try it out.

ppp|
Quicksilver’s iTunes Functionality|ppp

I would have been a bit baffled with Quicksilver if it weren’t for some tips I received from ***Ben|http://www.benbrophy.com/*** and ***Matt|http://photomatt.net*** at the WordPress Meetup[*]. First, they recommended deleting everything from my Dock and starting with a clean slate. That forced me to rely on Quicksilver for application launching. They also recommended that I check out ***Dan Dickinson’s Tutorial|http://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/03/quicksilver_a_b.php*** and the ***43Folders Quicksilver archives|http://www.43folders.com/quicksilver/index.html***. These tutorials have a lot of tips on how to get started with Quicksilver and how to use it to “own” the Mac OS.

If you’re using a Mac, and haven’t tried Quicksilver… give it a shot. But be sure to go through those tutorials… it will make a lot more sense and be a lot more useful if you do.

[ * I’ve found that when I attend user group meetings of this type, I don’t get as much benefit from the discussion surrounding the meeting topic as I do from simply observing how other people go about using their computers. I pick up far more tips and insight from these face-to-face meetings than I do when discussing things in online forums. With online discussion, you don’t have the opportunity to observe someone actually using their computer and the ability to ask them, “Hey, what’s that you just did?” Don’t get me wrong, discussing the meeting topic is great as well, especially if you have a particularly difficult problem. They’re often easier to solve when meeting face to face. ]

AOL vs. NetZero

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One of the most hilarious things we’ve seen on TV recently is a series of ads from NetZero that nearly recreate similar ads from AOL. The original AOL ads show AOL members showing up at AOL’s corporate offices and bringing up their demands for better service. The spoof NetZero ads use the same sets, the same actors, and, in fact, the same advertising agency. The difference is that the AOL members who show up in this ad are letting AOL know that they are about to switch to NetZero. ***Adrants|http://www.adrants.com/2004/11/netzero-launches-spoof-of-aol-members.php*** shares a link to a page the advertising agency supplied to ***compare the two ads|http://creative.wlv.untd.com/nz_spots_new/376258/final_rev/new/main_new.html***. I suppose if NetZero didn’t ask AOL for permission to use their trademarked logo, then there might be something illegal. Or if the ad agency signed an exclusivity agreement with AOL.

We’ll see how long this lasts. 🙂

As an aside, I’ve been using Mediaone/AT&T Broadband/Comcast high-speed internet for three years now, so there’s no way you could get me to downgrade to either AOL or NetZero.

Meetups

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Today was a day of many “meetups” for me.

First, I met up with ***Nikki|http://everytomorrow.org/*** and Matt in Boston. We walked around the city for a bit and I showed them where Becky works. Next, the three of us met up with Nikki’s cousin Tom and his wife at ***Trident Booksellers and Cafe|http://www.tridentbookscafe.com/*** on Newbury Street for brunch. After (a very light) brunch, Nikki, Matt and I strolled down Newbury to ***Fire and Ice|http://www.fire-ice.com/*** for a late lunch, where we met up with ***PhotoMatt|http://photomatt.net/*** and ***Sarah|http://curiousrose.com/***. Fire and Ice is a much better deal at lunch time… at dinner it’s around $17, but is only $7.95 at lunch. Finally, the five of us walked a few blocks back up Newbury to ***Tealuxe|http://www.tealuxe.com/*** for the ***Boston WordPress Meetup|http://wordpress.meetup.com/10/***. There were nine people at the Meetup:

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* Me
* ***Nikki|http://everytomorrow.org/*** (***Nikki’s blog entry|http://everytomorrow.org/index.php?p=1614***)
* Nikki’s Matt
* ***PhotoMatt|http://photomatt.net/***
* ***Sarah|http://curiousrose.com/***
* ***Matt May|http://www.bestkungfu.com/*** (***Matt’s blog entry|http://www.bestkungfu.com/archive/date/2004/11/the-first-thousand-is-the-hardest/***)
* ***David Clark|http://www.davidsaccess.com/*** (***David’s blog entry|http://www.davidsaccess.com/index.php/wordpress-meetup/***)
* ***Ben Brophy|http://www.benbrophy.com/***
* Marty Rozmanith

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Discussion ranged from upcoming features in WordPress, to Matt’s work at c|net, to Mac OS X, to the unbearably cold weather in Boston (according to the PhotoMatt and Sarah). The company was excellent and I would love to attend this or any other Meetup again. I would encourage everyone to check out ***Meetup.com|http://www.meetup.com/*** and find or start Meetup groups in their areas. Other groups on my docket for possible attendance are the Boston Mac, iPod, PHP, and Movable Type meetup groups.

All in all it was a very long day, and after leaving Beverly at 9:30 a.m., I finally returned at 11 p.m. The photos from today are available for ***all to enjoy|http://gallery.prwdot.org/boston_wp_meetup_200411***.

Turkey Take Two

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Last year, ***Will|http://pulchersentio.prwdot.org/*** ***lamented|http://pulchersentio.prwdot.org/001488.html*** the turkey leftover phenomenon. I’m assuming that it won’t be a problem for him this year, living in Japan and all. Is there an equivalent leftover phenomenon in Japan?

In any case, after this year’s Thanksgiving celebration in South Boston, we were presented with a portion of the leftover turkey. Becky made use of it tonight in the form of Mexican Turkey Casserole:

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MEXICAN TURKEY CASSEROLE
 2 c. chopped cooked turkey
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 c. milk
1/4 c. diced green chilies
2 c. crushed tortilla chips
1/4 c. sliced green onion
1 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
Paprika for garnish

In a 1 quart bowl, combine turkey, soup, milk and chilies. Microwave on full power for 4 minutes, or until hot throughout. Sprinkle 1/3 of tortilla chips on bottom of 2 quart casserole. Pour in half of turkey mixture; sprinkle on half of onion and half of each cheese. Layer another 1/3 of the chips, remaining turkey mixture, onion and cheese. Top with remaining chips. If desired, sprinkle with paprika over chips for added color. Cover and microwave at full power 5 minutes. Turn 1/4 round and microwave 5 minutes longer. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. NOTE: It can also be baked in regular oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Good with rice and green beans.

NOTE: If you prefer a relatively mild flavor, be sure to use mild green chilies. This casserole has an excellent flavor and is not “hot”.

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It was quite good. And there’s still plenty of turkey left over. w00t.

(Speaking of yesterday’s celebrations, there are some ***photos|http://gallery.prwdot.org/thanksgiving_2004_pt1*** from Corey’s breakfast birthday party, and for family members, there are photos from the Southie celebration available in the Family gallery – let me know if you need access.)