TC the Terrible

On Blogging and the American Revolution

It struck me over the weekend (while flying a kite by the way) how blogging is similar to the pamphlets and newspapers of the American Revolution. Yeah, I know that’s not a very coherent line of logic to follow, but there is a place they both share.

In the 1760 and 1770s most of the people living in the colonies weren’t very literate and word of mouth was still the best way to spread the news. Granted there were lots of people that could read and write so newspapers did a booming business but they weren’t what we would really consider newspapers. They were more or less opinion columns wrapped around tiny nuggets of real news, shaped to support the writer’s point of view. Fair and biased were not yet terms that could be associated with newspapers.

So when news broke of a new tax being levied by Britain on her colonies it was the pamphleteers and newspapers that created exaggerated tales to stir up colonists’ emotions. When the disagreements began to calm down between the Crown and the colonies in the late 1760s it was this same group that kept the revolutionary fires smoldering.

The technology is different, but many bloggers are doing the same today. Electrons are cheaper so there is a wider array of opinions on display than there was at the formation of the nation, but the concept is still there. People are getting emotional about issues and trying to stir up conversation among the masses. Like before not everyone is coming down on the same side (despite what you learned in junior high school many colonists were in favor of remaining a part of the British Empire) and not every issue finds a voice. Still the independent blogger keeps on typing.

And now the major news players are beginning to take notice. The Washington Post has for the past few months been linking back to blogs (via Technocrati) that reference their stories. CNN is creating a special place for bloggers to place their stories and video clips, giving semi-official status to the articles that are approved. Bloggers have broken major political stories (see Clinton/Monica and Kerry/war record) and been on the edge of social trends. It could be the signal that our concept of what is and is not news is changing again.

July 31st, 2006 Posted by TC the Terrible | Blog, News, Random Non-sense | one comment

Monday Morning Speed Round Edition

Welcome to rapid fire Monday. I’ve got a busy day so here are the bullet points for you to ponder this morning. Maybe I’ll have time during lunch to provide a bit more thoughtful insight on a couple of things.

• That big thing from last week looks like it may happen today.
  
  
• The Redskins are claiming to have it all together again this year. It’s the third year we’ve heard this from Gibbs and based on his current track record this year he may be right.
  
  
• Senator McCain is putting his money where his mouth is. His youngest kid is set to ship out to the Marines in a few months. I like the fact that service to the nation runs in their family.
• If you don’t set boundries for your kids then you are Toxic. Having to be home on time doesn’t stop kids from acting badly. I’m confused.
  
  
• Hilary likes shots. I just hope that things didn’t get too far out of hand. It makes me shudder to think of Ted Kennedy doing body shots out of Hilary’s belly button.
  
  
• Comic book fans were right after all. One of Saturn’s moons could be a lot like Earth and that means that someday Mexicans will be sneaking over a much bigger border to find construction jobs.
  
  
• Tom Cruise wants people to blog about him. Over on LiveJournal Tom is asking posters from a wrestling related blog to begin posting about him instead. So far few are welcoming the chance to take “Tommunion”.
  
  
• Microsoft is struggling to pay the bills. Dozens of companies manage to give out free downloads of new software but Microsoft is charging now for that service. It makes no sense to me.

I’ve got to go save the world now. Enjoy the start of your work week.

July 31st, 2006 Posted by TC the Terrible | Politics, News, Sports, Random Non-sense | one comment

Site Update

There is a new button in the bar below the page header. This one is called “Quote Wall”. It’s an online version of one that we have up in our office. Essentially, when somebody in the office hears a co-worker (term we apply very loosely here) say something stupid they write it on a Post-It â„¢ note and put it on the wall. The Quote Wall here is sort of the same principal, but I’m going to include profound or cool sayings too. If you want to add to the wall feel free. Plug it in on the Comments and at some point I’ll add it to the page proper.

And I get linked to from other sites on occasion. The most famous one being a few weeks ago when Wonkette liked my new t-shirt and the resulting traffic nearly ate all my bandwidth for the month. But today’s is really out of left field. The folks over at NPR linked back to my post on earning money from AdSense. I wonder how a ball bashing conservative like me got past their left-wing firewalls.

Here are the three strangest search terms used on Google to find the site this month; 1) airbrushed birthday suits, 2) best massage in memphis with happy ending, and 3) sac cz tc boys.

Any way, that should do it for today. Enjoy the weekend.

July 28th, 2006 Posted by TC the Terrible | Blog | 9 comments

Another reason to get Firefox.

Some days I feel like I’m on a holy quest to get people to dump Internet Explorer. It’s one of the best things that a person surfing the web can do. Now there is another version of IE coming, and you may not be able to stop it.

Microsoft is getting ready to push out IE 7 later this year to all Windows XP users as a ‘high priority’ update to your system. Bear in mind that IE 7 will look a lot like Firefox but will not perform the same. IE will still take longer to load web pages and more than likely will have just as many security issues as ever.

The majority of users are still using Internet Explorer as Firefox has less than 15% of the browser market. I don’t know if this is out of laziness, or ignorance. If it is the former then those people deserve the problems they will have. For the latter group here are two good sites (here and here) that make the case for Firefox. The statistics trackers on this site show that IE users lead Firefox users by only 8% leading me to believe that my followers are very tech savvy.

While Firefox isn’t bullet proof like many people will claim, they do respond faster to problems. When a flaw in Firefox is found the fix seldom takes more than couple of days to appear, and then get loaded to the user’s system automatically. With Microsoft a user often has to wait for weeks to have a ‘patch’ released that addresses the problem. Then they have to find the patch and install it themselves. This leaves many machines unprotected for prolonged periods of time.

IE 7 will be an upgrade for users over the current version. The real test is if it will be enough of an improvement. Looking back at Microsoft’s history, I think it’s a safe bet the answer to that question is no.

July 28th, 2006 Posted by TC the Terrible | Blog, Geek | no comments