WordPress Meetup Wrapup

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Had a good time at the WordPress meetup in NYC last night. Finally met Matt Mullenweg and various other people. It was surprisingly reminiscent of the early days of the Web, circa 1995. Most of the user group meetings/meetups/conferences I’ve been going to lately are very heavily weighted toward techies and programmers. This one was a real mixed group of programmers, artists, writers, sysadmins, VCs, and business folks. I haven’t run into a group like that for a while.
(more…)

Pet Peeve of the Day

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

Blog entries written in the first person on multi-author blogs that never say who’s writing them.

The Proper Way to Respond to Death Threats

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

Rusty Shackleford demonstrates by example:

I have to say, though, that I’m a bit flattered by Jamaal’s death fatwa. Long time readers know, that its been a goal of mine to get myself one. Not just a death threat from a Muslim, I have loads of those, but an official fatwa. I would consider myself lucky to be included in the ranks of Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or Wafa Sultan–all alleged “blasphemers” and critics of sharia and the traditional understanding of the sunna (example of Muhammed).

I’m also flattered that he decided to name his list of targets “fatwa worthy” in an apparent ironic homage to my own “fatwa worthy” list of links to the right [which seem to be down right now due to a problem at blogrolling]. Of course, irony means something like the use of words other than their literal intentions. So, when I say Charles Johnson’s LGF, Ed Morrissey’s CQ, Michelle Malkine’s Hot Air, or Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch are ‘fatwa worthy’, I’m being ironic. When he attempts irony, it falls flat. He really means that the links, like mine, are literally ‘fatwa worthy’. Nice try. Moron.

Which kind of makes me suspect that Jamal is just some unemployed teenager with too much caffeine in his bloodstream and not enough real spice in his life. Maybe he doesn’t have the authority to issue such a fatwa? Bummer.

I also notice that “Radical Muslim” Jamaal claims to live in London. Where the picture above right was taken at rally against some others accused of blaspheming Mohammed. Do we have another Bakri Mohammed follower here? That would explain a lot.

Oh, and last time I checked, death threats were illegal. Even in London.

We’re watching you Jamaal. You, and all your ‘radical Muslim’ friends.

Blogger’s Code of Boring Irrelevance

Monday, April 9th, 2007

Tim O’Reilly is pushing a Bloggers’ Code of Conduct. Frankly this whole idea is bad, but what he proposes goes so far beyond anything I imagined I find it hard to believe. If adopted, it would eviscerate the blogosphere and censor millions of voices. Fortunately it won’t be adopted. Let’s see why.
(more…)

WordPress Upgraded

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007

I’ve upgraded the WordPress engine on this site to the latest version, 2.1.3. Initial results look positive, but holler (preferably via e-mail) if you notice anything going wrong.
(more…)

Death Threats, Anonymity, and Blogs

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

I’ve been avoiding comment on the whole Sierra/Locke/etc. dust-up lately. Most of the commentary seems pretty on-the-mark, but a few usually sensible people are starting to overreact and call for self-censorship. Once the mainstream media gets hold of this next week, expect the customary cast of Congressional idiots to elevate that to calls for government mandated censorship. However the problem has been blown way out of proportion. There’s one thing that I think needs to be said that hasn’t been said yet to put this whole sordid mess in its proper perspective:

Death threats are no big deal.
(more…)