With the help of our illustrious Pixy, Paul, Ogre and Phin, I was able to get my sidebar up (when youÂ’re viewing my site in a maximized screen). THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED! WOOHOO! ALL HAIL THE MUNUVIAN GENIUSES WHO VANQUISHED THE EVIL MERCURIAN FORCES!

Can you tell IÂ’m happy? Well, heck yeah. Now I will boldly go forth, defying once again the Mercurian forces, to finish:
- adding my category archives (which eventually will be in a drop down list)
- creating a PDA format of my site (so I can check up on ColinÂ’s posts)
- creating an Atom RSS feed format (so I can be read as easily and widely as the Instapundit!)
- fixing color schemes for active and visited links
- fixing all font sizes (Now it's the date header that's driving me nuts!)
- creating drop down lists for some of my link sections (like News Briefs & On the Left)

ThereÂ’s more, but that should take care of my idle time till the end of August. In the interim I'll try to find time to do some sports blogging:
- Larry Brown coming to coach the NY Knicks (yes, good for us!),
- Hockey season (finally!) resuming and Gretzky coaching the Phoenix ___?
- Bertuzzi returning to the NHL
- The NJ Devils loosing 2 of its top players, causing it's post season chances to look bleak at best!

Update: I'll be playing host to a couple of upcoming carnivals so I won't have much time to do sports blogging. But just wait till hockey and basketball season begins, you won't be able to shut me up.

Posted by: Michele at 08:59 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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As you might have noticed, I've been trying to use that "computer high geek" knowledge to finish the vision I had for the site a while ago.

Unfortunately, every time I implement a new phase of my changes my carpel tunnel acts up, so this will be slow going. I'm currently working on getting my sidebar back up on the right side of the screen again (right now it's at the bottom). What I had intended to do was to adjust the Index Template so that I could easily set up both, an Atom RSS feed and PDA version of my site, to make it more accessible for readers to view my site in different formats.

So, till I get everything fixed up and/or Mercury retrograde cycle ends and begins to move forward again (8/15), we'll have to live with my bar being at the bottom.

If you ask me, it's karmic retribution for my hubris of posting my "high geekiness" score. This post will remain at the top until things are fixed

Posted by: Michele at 03:10 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Here, here! It's about high time this was done somewhere. Tolerance of these individuals has only netted the spread of hatred through out the world.

AP has has the story here and Reuter's story is here

Posted by: 1Colin at 09:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Kudos to "Ian Johnston, the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police," who having been taken to task by a local human rights lobby group for saying "his officers won't be wasting time searching 'little old white ladies' on the Tube," has gone ahead with detainments and searches.

Unfortunately here in NYC the NYCLU has filed a federal lawsuit to stop searches of riders as they enter the NYC subway system.

"A plaintiff in the suit, Joseph Gehring, says the searches have forced him to fear the police." Interesting, I guess he either fears terrorists less or wasn't living in NYC on 9/11.

I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Posted by: 1Colin at 09:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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[Via Laughing Wolf]

Posted by: Michele at 12:07 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 You big geek!

Posted by: Contagion at August 05, 2005 12:53 PM (Q5WxB)

2 Off-topic - all your posts seem to be displaying inside your sidebar? Messed with your template lately?

Posted by: Harvey at August 07, 2005 01:47 AM (ubhj8)

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Blog Daddy, Harvey of Bad Example broke the news about blogger supporting photos (with some major limitations) in this post. Now I'll break the news about Blogger's Mobile Photo/Blogging feature, which I've been using for the past few weeks now, since my computer has been out of commission. [I'm currently visiting with my mom's and I'm using my sister's computer to post this.]

Anyway, being that I had a camera phone w/video capability I decided to test both my camera-phone and their hosting capabilities out. So I decided to resurrect my old blogspot spite temporarily to engage in an experiment of sorts. Well, after only a few tries I loved it. Espeically since my pc accessibility at the moment is limited as Colin explains in this post

So far I love it. I just snap, email or mms with a subject line (which is the post's title), then write as long or short a text message (which is the body of the post) as I want to and then send it to blogger... they do the rest. Later I can go in and edit what I've written or delet the picture from the HTML code. Now the question that's not addressed in their info is size capacity of photos and/or total photo storage capacity. Hmmm, must explore!

To view my first efforts please visit: lettersfromnyc.blogspot.com. Feel free to leave a comment there.

Posted by: Michele at 09:57 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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In the Spring Â’05 issue of The Wilson Quarterly, an international opinion magazine published by Princeton UniversityÂ’s Center for IntÂ’l Relations & Diplomatic Scholars, William Powers writes a lengthy article on the 7 Steps to Big MediaÂ’s Salvation (free). I summarize his views here for your consideration, and then take issue with his viewpoint.

1. Relax. Nobody likes a whiner, particularly one who doesnÂ’t know how lucky he is. YouÂ’ve been around for centuries, and youÂ’re more powerful now than ever before.

2. Enjoy yourselves. Â…traditional news outlets have become joyless things. Most American [broadcasts and] newspapers are dull, fearful creatures. In contrast, blogs and other online news sources often possess an attractive, intelligent vibrancyÂ… because it connects us to the great throng of humanity.

3. Be natural. Enough already with your pretensions to objectivity and neutrality. Everyone has leanings, passions, and, yes, biases. By claiming to be superhuman—bias free—you come off as weirdly subhuman. In all honesty, sometimes you have the public personality of an android. Striving for perfect fairness is a fine goal. Just don’t act as though you achieve it on a regular basis.

4. DonÂ’t patronize. One reason young people say they avoid newspapers and other traditional news media is that whatÂ’s offered by those outlets has no apparent connection to the world they live in. To them, the news doesnÂ’t look or sound like life but rather like some false approximation of it. Swear off demographics. Hire journalists of all ages, and deploy them in unexpected ways. In journalism, thereÂ’s no such thing as generationally correct work. Have an octogenarian cover blogs. When David Broder retires from The Washington Post, give his column to the sharpest 27-year-old you know. The results could be strange and wonderful.

5. Make trouble. ItÂ’s a fact: Nobody respects a suck-up. Why did it take the surprise attack of 9/11, and a war launched partly on the basis of bad intelligence, for you to wake up to the problems in the U.S. intelligence agencies? That story was an investigative journalistÂ’s dream, and you missed it. You were probably in a strategy meeting about how to regain all those eyeballs no longer trained on you.
more...

Posted by: Michele at 03:17 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Guest: You see, Miles, if you gently apply pressure to the shaft while lightly grazing its base, the rocket will launch rather effectively.
Miles: But what about the danger of another explosion?
Guest: Oh, I am sure of it.

Earlier: Is That a Rocket in Your Pants or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

[via Gawker]

Posted by: 1Colin at 03:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Thought I'd share this item from the London Times with you:

"Over the past fortnight Israeli intelligence agents have noticed something distinctly odd happening on the internet. One by one, Al-QaedaÂ’s affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain..." more...

Posted by: 1Colin at 01:32 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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