ChrisKnight – Page 33 – The Wacky World of Chris Knight

2008/07/31

Gravatar – Fun while it lasts

I recently upgraded to WordPress 2.6, and I was playing with new themes today. One of the things I noticed in the currently active theme is avatar icons next to comment postings. Thinking that was fairly nifty, I went to the WordPress admin panel to set up my icon. No dice; there is no way to set it from there. OK, right-click on the avatar image and check out the URL. The URL points to a site I had never heard of: http://www.gravatar.com/

The premise is nifty. Globally consistent avatar images anytime you post to a Gravatar enabled blog. The gravatar enabled blog generates an image src tag that uses a MD5 hash of the email address you supplied for the account or comment, so that it references your Gravatar image without exposing your email address.

Alas, unless they ‘go evil’ and start replacing people’s avatars with advertising icons, I’m just not sure they’ll be able to make enough money to keep afloat. Surely they are using the images served to track people’s web-related activities; but is that knowledge really worth serious cash?

-Chris

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2008/07/27

Alzheimer’s, or a case of perpetual back-flips?

Really, I feel sorry for him. Maybe it is stress, maybe it is Alzheimer’s, maybe it is that he would rather lose an argument with himself than lose an election… I feel sorry for anyone who can’t remember their own train of thought. I fear getting old and senile, and it is painful to watch someone put themselves in the spotlight while their own inner light is noticeably dimming.

Think Progress » McCain Caves To Right Wing On Gay Adoption, Says Orphans Shouldn’t Have Gay Parents

In the interview, McCain repeatedly said that he is “for the values and principles that two parent families represent.” He also said preserving traditional families is “not the reason why I’m running for president of the United States.” Just seconds later, however, he reversed course and bluntly stated, “I’m running for president of the United States because I want to help with family values.”

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2008/07/25

If only the media worked like Usenet

Media Matters – Stein on Obama’s convention speech: “Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that’s something the Fuehrer would have done”.

Summary: On Glenn Beck, Ben Stein, while discussing Sen. Barack Obama's plan to deliver his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination at Denver's Invesco Field, stated that he did not "like the idea of Senator Obama giving his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 wildly cheering people." Stein further stated: "Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that's something the Fuehrer would have done."

If only the media ran like usenet of old… Because at this point, having made the inevitable Nazi reference, everyone would just add Ben Stein to their ignore file and that would be the last we would hear of his drivel. (I’m not going to call the ignore file by its technical name, because ignorant people might think it is a threat of some sort.)

-Chris

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