Saturday, 09 April 2011

Geezering

15 Years? You don’t say!


Charles G. Hill tells all:

This site went live on 9 April 1996 with seven pages...

The dustbury.com domain was obtained in March 1999.  At the time, the counter service I was using had recorded 6,444 visits; I then switched to Site Meter, and set the starting number to 6,445.  The count is currently a bit over 2.1 million.
and what’s more...
Originally everything here was hand-coded.
Why, back in my day, we had to write out our posts on Western Union forms, then hand-carry them down to the telegraph office.  In the rain.  Uphill.  In both directions.

Seriously, in any terms (not just “internet years”) 15 years is a long time!  I don’t doubt that among Dustbury’s readers are one or two who weren’t even born when Charles put up his first post. 

15 years is (almost) longer than I’ve been on the internet.[1][2] (I arrived later than many, but in the mid-90s I was trying to build a business, and viewed the internet as a dangerous distraction. (I was right.))  Once online, I spent most of my time hanging around Slashdot[3] and some of the commercial sites; personal spaces like Geocities, AOL, and LiveJournal didn’t interest me.   But 9/11 changed my habits: My search for news that day led to discovering  Instapundit (probably via a Slashdot link), and, through him, the whole world of (what were then called) warbloggers.[4]  Someone along the way pointed me to Dustbury,[5] and I finally got around to adding Charles to my bookmarks on June 1, 2002.[6]

So congratulations and happy anniversary, Charles, and so much for all those whippersnappers who think they’re cool because they’ve been on the web for all of 10 years.

(And as this post turned out to be as much about me as about Charles- but isn’t that the usual way the web works?- I’ve moved most of the personal stuff into the footnotes, and slated the whole thing into the “Geezering” Dept.)

-----
[1]  When I tried to determine a date, the earliest document I could lay my hands on was a July, ’99 printout I made of a web article by Tomi Engdahl about how to use a PC’s parallel port for I/O control.  (That was for a never-really-started project to assemble  some remote-control CD players.)   I know I have some earlier Usenet threads somewhere in the archives...

[2]  Using Netscape something-or-another on a Windows 95 PC, via a 25-(on a good day with the wind behind you)-K dialup pirated from a friend’s Ameritech account.

[3]  I posted there for several years under the nick Old_Grouch, but declined to sign up when they got around to offering memberships (thereby missing the chance for a coveted 3-digit registration number).  The advent of  “moderation” made it increasingly difficult for the non-registered to be heard; I gave up posting there two redesigns ago.

[4]  Where I was gratified to find common ground with such mugged-by-reality former liberals as Bill Quick and (pre Pajamas Media) Roger Simon.

[5]  The details having vanished into the mists of history- and crashed hard drives.

[6]  I finally got myself into the blog business in April of 2007, when Ambient Irony’s Pixy Misa posted an offer of beta subscriptions for a new blogging service called mee.nu (Get Yer Own Blog here!).  My very first oldgrouch.mee.nu post went up April 10th (“now let's see how much software I can break”), but I consider my real start at blogging came two days later, with a “Dear Diary” post about April weather, followed by my first Review the next day.  (Hey, I need to do more of those...)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Geezering at 15:53:08 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 596 words, total size 5 kb.

Thursday, 07 April 2011

In Passing

It helps if you remember the purpose of the HR Department is to keep the company from being sued

Dilbert==documentary  Dept
LeeAnn posts a dialogue from her past:
“How” I asked the Intern, “in the world does she think I’ve threatened her?”

Intern:  “You’ve made no overt action.  She feels intimidated by you, however, and wished to make an official complaint.  We felt it was better to discuss the matter with you before taking any action, if necessary.”

Me:  “Exactly what did I do?”

Intern:  “Er… nothing, really…. she said she’s intimidated by you, because you talk about people and events that she knows nothing about, and she said it makes her feel stupid.”

Me:  “You’re kidding, right?”

Intern:  “We have to take it seriously, it’s in the manual. ”
...and draws some responses:
...The most concrete statement I could get, after no specific offenses had been cited, was that “I walk around like I’m smarter than everybody.”
I didn’t quit that job until the review few months later wherein I was told, in writing, that I “lack initiative” and ‘frequently overstep my authority”.  In the same sentence.
I have gotten reprimanded for doing too much work and “making everyone else feel inadequate...”

Via Charles G. Hill, who wonders:
Is it time to throw some dirt on top of Western Civilization?
No, only the “corporate weenie” part.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:04:43 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 216 words, total size 3 kb.

Wednesday, 06 April 2011

In Passing

Senate holds the President to his own words - NOT

Never Mind!  Dept
Allahpundit:
This wasn’t a resolution to authorize operations in Libya but something far craftier — a resolution reaffirming Obama’s own words from 2007 that “the President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”   When Paul first introduced the idea last week, a flustered Harry Reid temporarily closed up shop to keep it from coming to the floor.

Turns out he needn’t have worried.  The roll: 90-10 opposed. Disgraceful.
...
...Since Democrats weren’t about to let this pass, there’s no reason Republicans should have let... [procedural objections] deter them from supporting it — if only to remind The One of what a hypocrite he is.
37 of the 47 Senate Republicans skip yet another chance to define the differences between the parties (or, alternatively, to remind the Democrats that Republicans can play politics, too), and instead vote to “get along by going along.”

Included in the 47, unsurprisingly: Indiana’s pair of establishment squishes, Coats and Lugar.

The list[1]:
Alexander, TN
Ayotte, NH
Barrasso, WY
Blunt, MO
Boozman, AR
Brown, MA
Burr, NC
Chambliss, GA
Coats, IN
Coburn, OK
Cochran, MS
Corker, TN
Cornyn, TX
Crapo, ID
Enzi, WY
Graham, SC
Grassley, IA
Hatch, UT
Hoeven, ND
Hutchison, TX
Inhofe, OK
Isakson, GA
Johanns, NE
Kirk, IL
Kyl, AZ
Lugar, IN
McCain, AZ
McConnell, KY
Murkowski, AK
Portman, OH
Risch, ID
Roberts, KS
Rubio, FL
Shelby, AL
Thune, SD
Vitter, LA
Wicker, MS

They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity...

Although. as Glenn Reynolds notes:
So the headline should really be Senate Rejects Obama View Of War Powers 90-10.  Right?  Of course, only after Obama himself rejected it...

-----
[1]  Republicans voting Aye to table (i.e., reject) Paul’s amendment.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 15:39:19 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 308 words, total size 4 kb.

Monday, 04 April 2011

In Passing

In Congress *WAY* too long: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)


Calling for a blasphemy law?

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Congress might need to explore the need to limit some forms of freedom of speech, in light of Tennessee[1] pastor Terry Jones’ Quran burning, and how such actions result in enabling U.S. enemies.

“I wish we could find a way to hold people accountable.  Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war,” Graham told CBS’ Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” Sunday.
...demonstrating once and for all his lack of understanding of American liberty and, therefore, his unfitness for office.

I mean it.  Freedom of speech is something you don’t fool around with, and Graham is a fool.

Chef Mojo:
The people of South Carolina need to get their collective heads out of their asses and hand Graham his on a platter.  His support of limiting our speech to appease the Religion of the Perpetually Offended is but one of many reasons to primary his ass out of existence.
Rick Moran:
...a dangerous, doltish example of the kind of casual authoritarianism found in today’s Congress.
Ace:
No matter what the nail, for a certain segment of the population the right tool for the job is always some more state control and forbiddance of unhygeinic thought.
Mark Steyn:
...Ever since I ran into a spot of bother in Canada, I’ve found myself giving speeches in defense of freedom of expression in Toronto, London, Copenhagen, etc.  I did not think it would be necessary quite so soon to take the same stand in the land of the First Amendment against craven squishes of the political class willing to trade core liberties for a quiet life.

Elsewhere:

The rest of the list:
(so far... Hey, it’s still early, and I haven’t got around to Richard Lugar yet!)
Rep. James Cliburn (D-S.C.)
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.)
Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas)
...and don’t forget the 92
-----
[1]  LATER (110404 03:00):  One of Glenn’s readers puts the credit where it’s due (for those who didn’t read the Daily Mail article linked in the previous post):
“Please correct the shoddy reporting in that Newsmax article.  Terry Jones is not from Tennessee, he’s from Gainesville, Florida.  For all the ‘hillybilly’ crap we’ve gotten from them over the years, make those damn Gators own this crackpot.”

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 00:24:16 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 403 words, total size 6 kb.

<< Page 2 of 2 >>
91kb generated in CPU 0.023, elapsed 0.302 seconds.
53 queries taking 0.2885 seconds, 209 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.