Morning Bites

Morning Bites: 12.17.08

* The cover of today’s Daily News expresses outrage that Governor Patterson is considering taxing iTunes downloads (among other things). I’m surprised it’s taken the state government this long to consider that as a revenue stream. Also, how is that tax assessed–if you buy an mp3 while using a NY-based IP address, or if you’re a NY resident anywhere buying an mp3? If the former, couldn’t I just drive to Jersey to download, say, Scott Weiland’s new solo masterpiece?

But what amused me even more about this cover was that it features a close up on an iPod, and the iPod is playing Hot Chip. Because you know that the editor-in-chief said, “Oh no, I’m not paying for a photo from Getty! Find someone in the office who’s got one of them things! Look in the steno pool if you have to!”

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Technical Nonsense

In Case You’re Interested…

…and I know you are, I’ve added all 2006 entries to the new site. So delve into the past, if you are so inclined. I’ll be moving on to 2007 next and sending periodic updates of the progress therein.

Truth be told, there was one post from 2006 that I didn’t add, which pertained to the old Scratchbomb podcast, Holy Goddamn! That’s because I hope to revive the podcast some time in the near future, and didn’t want to confuse the issue by having an old post pointing to a weird mp3 that doesn’t exist.

When shall that podcast be up and running again? I hope to have one ready within the next few weeks. I’ve laid the groundwork for doing it tech- and site-wise, now I just have to think of some ideas and carve out the time to do it.

Technical Nonsense

Commenting: Okay, For Real This Time

I know I said commenting was fixed. Apparently I lied. One of these days, I’ll catch up with me and give me a piece of my mind!

Well, it wasn’t broken per se. But I wasn’t happy with Movable Type’s commenting options/interface, or at least as I wasn’t happy with the way they were working with my site. So this time, I actually did some research before destroying the site (again) and decided to go with Disqus.

This will allow commenters to upload and display avatars. It also allows for threaded commenting, and even has RSS feeds for comments. I don’t know if anyone out there is remotely interested in RSS feeds for comments. But hey, it’s there if you’re into that sort of thing.

So now to comment, you must sign in via Disqus. You may have an account with them already, since they power commenting on a bazillion blogs already. If not, signing up and registering your account should be just as easy as it was with Movable Type–plus you’ll be able to upload an avatar that will actually display.

The bad news: you know all those awesome comments you added when I finally “fixed” commenting? They’re kinda gone. They exist somewhere in the bowels of my site; I just have to find them and reinsert them in the older posts. But other site tasks may take precedence over that. Sorry about that.

But I promise that I won’t screw around with commenting again if I can help. And by “if I can help it,” I mean, “as long as something better doesn’t come along.

Onward and upward!

A potentially explosive collection of verbal irritants