“Second Place Failure”

Hmmm…gonna have to think about that one for a bit….

BUT! More importantly….Have you registered for the 2007 MilBlogs Conference yet? You snooze, you lose! Pony up your $40 now, before the first 100 slots are gone!….

Trackbacked @: Third World County

I know it’s been quiet here, but I managed to get the 2.1.2 upgrade to WordPress in. I’m not so cavalier with my blog data as I sometimes am with other stuff I do, but I really step through is carefully, fearing a massive tear in the database time contiunium will lose valuable info. Well, that assumes this is valuable stuff….

I’ve been toying with a new widgetized theme on another parallel blog to tweak it into submission. I’m learning the CSS stuff bu hunt and peck/trial and error. Some moments I have success, some I do not. I enjoyed the ability of Regulus to swap header pictures easily from the presentation controls, and I’m trying to recreate that capability by grafting it into the new theme, a three column style. I’ve been head down in that for three evening after work and getting close….

In the meantime, for you Seadogs out there, check out Together We Served. So far, after being invited to sign up, I have already been in contact with 4 old shipmates, and a few people who I must have crossed pates with. Anyhow, possibly a better system to re-connect with the people you went to sea with, and maybe find some others you need to catch up with.

Work is picking up, as the days get lighter longer. Wednesdays will still be a standard feature for sea stories. I invite (currently) non-bloggers, who may have a story to share to send them along and I’ll be happy to post them for the historical value of it all.

Coming this week: “JC” Weigman on how to get things done….

Oh, and the current tech item of consideration: Neurok iZ3D LCD monitor.

1680×1050, 5ms response time, iand two DVI inputs, it uses two LCDs, sandwiched with two feeds off your video card, and then all you do is wear polarized glasses (no wires/batteries)….is $819 (if you order by 3/15/2007) a good deal? Flight simmers say any 3D system makes the flying, especially formation flying, far more lifelike and easy to do….

Well, at the MSN Live search engine, I came up as the second listing when one coming to my blog searched for the phrase:

i am not drunk or stoned please help me stop this feeling

Oh, the things people search for…

I suspect I know the answer, but will be trying things out in a few moments. I suspect why one domain and assocaited blog moved so easily is that is wasn’t associated with my first domain and therefore main account. I thing two hosting sites, both pointing the blog and its clone to the same name servers didn’t help…..

Anyhow….I have arrived and even I can get to my blog the “right way.”

I believe I have all the links resetablished to keep the internal functions of the blog intact (going back to older posts), thanks to “find and replace” in WordPad….

Back “online” tomorrow…

For those who have re-found me, thanks for hanging around….

UPDATE:  Superceeded.  The move is over, this post remains for historical purposes.

***********************************************************************

I have been reluctant to post as my domain pointers in the big name server system in the sky has stil not occurred. I keep getting told to be patient, yet…I transferred one other blog in 10 minutes….and the first night I migrated this blog over, so it would pop up all ready to roll about midnight 2/13-14 and I could move back and forth between the two then to make sure I had everything over.

Anyhow, if I post it here, I have to move everything over again (but I believe I have the right sequence, so that the comments, categories, the blogroll and posts keep aligned. I have one more pleading email out to the new hosting place, asking why, after all the basic settings seem to be in place, that the transfer, despite even reclicking the “buttons” at the control panels on each end of the equation once more a few nights ago…..

So…I have everything set up as of the post before this one to re-import (actually reconstruct the databases via SQL) right away.

The good news at least this place has not vanished and the new one not available for the last few days….

Thanks for you regular visitors for clicking in to see if I wrote anything new….I have two posts in my head, not to mention on Wednesday, there will be more of the Z-5-O story in Ropeyarn Sunday and Open Trackbacks…

Dummy Test Link

Update 2/14/2007, at the new day. Moved. Is it all working? Dunno at the fine detail level, but seems to be. If you’re planning to do this, ask. Not impossible, but took some multi-application maneuvering, playing with SQL, and stuff lie that.

Time to move hosting places. I spent the weekend “experimenting” on super secret” blogs (meaning no one would even notice me mucking about with the servers settings, .htaccess pages and the like, until I am positive I can move this blog, with the minor exception of the blogroll DB, to another place in cyberspace…..More domains, twice the hard drive space, less cost.

Update 2/13/2007:� Getting close to being able to make sure everything comes across the great divide intact, and, with all the links updated.� I’ve been in the bowels of SQL and text editors, looking at raw data dumps.� The first pass left the Army blogs listed as “Navy” and the Navy blogs as “Military.”� I figured out how to fix that, but then it threw off the post category listings, which became it’s own investigation, but all are looking good now, I just need to do a find and replace in the old posts, so when they come across after the final import, the lniks in my work won’t be broken.� If anyone is going to migrate a WordPress installation, I’ll be happy to advise.

Set back: If you have been using my post links, the database set the lead in as “http://chaoticsynapticactivity.netfirms.com.” Like my advice to beginning bloggers a few posts back, I now see that was an issue I needed to address right away on this blog set up, before I went public.

If you have blogrolled me, and you’re will to try and hang onto my link, check to see if its “http://www.chaoticsynapticactivity.com” or the NetFirms version that may have been a result of a copy and save from the address box at the top of the browser.

I have some posts in mind, but I don’t want to loose them in the next few days.

I did move one domain yesterday and it was all done within about 30 minutes, including the response on the new name servers…..

So, “loyal” readers, or those who just found me and want to keep reading, if your link to me is “broken” in the next day or two, look at the browser address. If it’s www.chaoticsynapticactivity.com, then it’s probably not yet been flushed through all the net name servers. If you’re using the Netfirms pointer….please consider fixing it.

Of course, if you’ve got a broken link, these directions will have evaporated anyhow….

So, follow me and I will also be making sure the email for the site gets moved, too, so the access will have some degree of continuity.

Later, all and thanks for all the fish…

Yes, the game console craze is in “full swing” so to speak.

Need a little “dark” gaming humor to make you smile (and warn you of the dangers of Wii)?

One excerpt of note, a poem about the result of loosing a controller into the air, and where it fell, well, these people know where:

So, its Christmas eve. I’m happy, the family is happy. One wii sports homerun later. We have a broken decorative teapot. Blame the over zealous father. I wrote this poem to commemorate the occasion.

I’m a little teapot, short and stout.
somewhere is my handle, over there is my spout.
When I get all wii’d up, hear me shout.
“OH GOD, IT HURTS, WHERE IS MY HANDLE,
SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!”

-Bradford

Check out the damaged pets, people, TVs and computers, as well as other breakable objects in the vicinity of gamers gone wild…

Trackbacked at:
Third World County

A about a year ago, I decided to leave Blogger and to get my own domain. Here were some observationsfrom my earlier days of “the Struggle.”

As I approach the ending point for a really great deal for a years worth of hosting ($10), I am stuck trying to figure out how to move to a more advantageous host, yet not lose a years work of worth.
Here’s something I learned (which ties into why my comments didn’t work for the last week): I should have tied my blog to my domain name right away. Why? Because now all the links I have placed “out there” or those links into me from other places, will all be broken, and I’m not about to pay to leave a digital bread crumb trail. I’ll just have to hope some of my small reader ship does a little bit of typing to find me, if I move later this month.

The reason my comments didn’t work is because I thought I had followed my directions to have my blog links migrate over to www.chaoticsynapticactivity.com, vice the chaoticsynapticactivity.netfirms.com. While you could still see the posts, the blog pointers got lost by not picking up the post title when you tried to post a comment.

Anyhow, this is first notice that I’ll be experimenting to make sure I can successfully connect post to my domain name, and then I will no longer be chained to any one hosting service.

If anyone is interested in any results of that and you use WordPress, leave me a comment, and I’ll make sure to cut you in on how not to get bruises on your virtual blogging shins along the way.

In the meantime, do what you have to to get your domain name secured, then make sure you know how to “mask” or redirect your link titles…so you won’t get lost in the “translation”…

Andi is hard at work. If your calendars are not yet marked, do it now! If you have any talent to offer, she certainly could use some help, I imagine. Shoot her a note if you can help.

5 May, DC Area. Cocktail meeting the evening before. Be there to see Uncle Jimbo in person, it’s well worth the price of admission (oh, yeah…it’s free to attend. Just have bail money if you plan to go out Saturday night in the wake of Matt and Jimbo).

And you Navy types….we could use some more of you there this year….

“It is a small mind that tries to make the subjective an absolute.” – Me 1/19/2007

That being said, I’m entering the stream of consciousness mode, for this discussion will have legs. Some ground work is necessary, and I’ll openly admit, I have not done “due diligence” and located the actual documents from Congress from the late 40s that seem to be the foundation for the currently brewing discussion in our Nation.

My opening quote is to describe a philosophy I picked up from Wesley E. Jordan, Jr. He told us once to not present statements using subjective terms in our briefings, but to present the numbers (or facts) and “smart people will be able to figure it out.” There were two parts of that approach: The first was to allow the expertise and experience of others factor in (e.g. someone might see 67% this year as a vast improvement, because they knew it was 28% two years ago, but you weren’t around for that time frame), and you could also flow with the mood if the person you were briefing jumped up and said “THAT’S GREAT (HORRIBLE)!” Yes, a political dodge, but, at least you acknowledged that things can be more detailed than you are aware of and subjectivity reigns supreme in just about every venue of life. Get over it, it’s not fair….

So now we open a discussion in the public debate arena on “fairness,” but only in “media” and it’s being led by the Democratic Party. Great. First off, I’ll say the devil is in the details and I now prognosticate that the Democratic Party, if they “have their way” will, once more, fall into the deadly trap they walk into over and over and over (but I digress).

The trap? Precedent. Over 9 months of intensive academic work on a degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies, I walked away with this understanding: “It’s always (note the absolute tone) dangerous (not deadly, just dangerous, worthy of serious consideration and, I’d venture to say, a healthy appreciation for the risk management discipline in cases where physical safety is involved) to set a precedent.” That’s my line. Use it if you need to, but I swear by it, for I believe I have a comprehension of human behavior that is unassailable in this area. Why is it dangerous? Because, just as feminists have found out in the case of sexual harassment and divorce law: “Because you never know when you’ll have to live by it yourself.” (That’s the second part of my understanding of human frailties).

This brings me to the understanding that the efforts to apply “fairness” will necessarily provide lots of entertainment value in the field of unintended consequences. If the Democrats, in their efforts to moderate (being kind) or squelch (less polite terminology) or silence (maybe over the top word?) any critics by legislating “equal time,” let them see the possible firestorm of response that will bring their way. The current concern among conservative talk show hosts, notably Laura Ingraham, Michael Medved and Russ Limbaugh, is the effort is not to make things fair, but to silence them, meaning the conservative talk show hosts, which dominate the RF spectrum was call AM Radio.

If I was them, I’d push my listeners to do everything they could to get this put back into law, and then, let the games begin…..You have to remember, fairness is about a two way exchange, not one side taking over. Has Nancy Pelosi managed to consider that? Much more to be discussed there…

There are many aspects of the details here to debate. on the Laura Ingraham show the day before yesterday, Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) was on. He said this was a revival of the 1949 law, that came about as a result of the people seeing how the media in the nations of the Axis prior to WWII had a large effect on the initiation of the war, and the Fairness Doctrine was an effort to keep from having such narrowness being a major factor in our society. Noble concept, executed by humans (and, therein, lies the pragmatic realities, but…more later in that vein). Without doing my homework, but knowing some history of the world in the 1930-40s era, I’d venture to say that “media” (back them essentially AM Radio) in the nations of our enemies was, in fact, not commercial, privately held, entities, but departments controlled directly and completely by the governments of those countries. If anyone else knows something to the contrary, please leave it in the comments. This being the premise, then to apply a rule set to American “media,” in order to keep from having this happen here is, to be polite, a stretch of logic that boggles the mind. To be less polite, you’d have to be a complete idiot to believe that then, let alone now, that our government has that degree of control over “THE MEDIA!”

If you disagree with me, please send me the name of the person today who is the direct equivalent of this man pictured below:

Read the rest of this entry »