Blame It on William F. Buckley
Well, I'd said that the real MacCentralCafe Forum would be up by 17 April 2008, but it won't actually be live until 20 April 2008, and it's really William F. Buckley's fault.
First, let me say that I'm not a "Conservative" (well, maybe I am a Goldwater Conservative, kindasorta), but I did greatly admire Bill Buckley, a guy who singlehandedly forged credence and respectability into a force to be reckoned with, that had previously been a bizarre collection of nutcases and crackpots. I think that before, that Conservatives were reckoned to be either whack cases or dullard lumoxes, but Buckley was a classy, foppish, sophisticated dude; and then (after Bill) being a conservative wasn't so uncool with this combo brilliant hood ornament (the face of it) and this brilliant engine driving the machine.
Anyway, interestingly, for being such a brilliant, relentless intellectual, Bill was equally possessed with the fury of life, and was tres endowed with a furious athleticism and hedonism. He was a phenomenonally robust dude.
OK, so we were scheduled to leave Thursday for four days at Yosemite, and so I thought (with Buckley's recent passing) that I should pay reverential tribute to Bill, and do this somewhat as Bill would do it (as my circumstances would permit). Bill would have started off with Bullshots (Vodka and Boullion) before breakfast, then a frigid swim, then breakfast, then flown a plane to the outskirts of Yosemite, where he'd have then had an al fresco lunch (with ample wine), some socializing and debate fueled by VSOPs and cigars, then rafted into Yosemite Valley.
Well, my circumstances did not permit that, but I did do the alcohol part in Buckleyesque fashion. Perhaps since that was the only Buckleyesque part that I could duplicate, I duplicated that part over and over, perhaps to a fault. Actually, we had a grand time, and actually did manage to be stunned by the majesty that is Yosemite, but I could not bring myself to move the test Forum over to the production server and bring it live.
Anyway, I shall do so by 20 April. The Forum is fine - It's tested out just fine, and is (IMO) on the finest platform, whether open-source or commercial, myBB. Phorum is a close second, and vBulletin (the finest commercial platform) is a close third. They're all great, but myBB won.
Oh, before I forget, let me say that Bill Buckley, the founder of the modern Conservative movement, was disgusted with today's Sith NeoCons, as would be Barry Goldwater (but fortunately, he did not live long enough to witness the shameful disgusting mess that is today's conservatism). Well, it has come full circle, back to its roots, a collection of terminally braindead or bizarre nutcases and whackjobs.
My apologies for the delay. The Forum has been spot on for quite some time, and I don't know why I never did put it live, but I instead obsessed over the main portal part (and did have quite a bit of trouble with styling newsfeeds with rich embedded media, in a manner that would not break XHTML and AJAX without resorting to bland, text-only news).
Well, too, I note that presently there are 75 news sources (that perhaps perversely reflect my own twisted eclecticism, including Fleshbot, a pornographic industry gossip rag {narcissism is an appropriate subject, considering this is the internet
}) that took some time to mine and review as publication worthy. Fear not, there's a ton of Mac and Technology stuff. In oldschool MacCentral tradition, I think you'll find this as fairly news dense.
Anway, this is 2008, so there's some newschoolish stuff that MacCentral might do if it still had legs: a social media subsite, Planet MacCentralCafe, which is sorta like the Ning subdomain, but not quite as glacially slow, unstable, or interfacially confusing. It's kinda like MySpace bullsheisse, without the MySpace bullsheisse, if that makes any sense. Media uploads are unlimited, but there is a 300MB per-individual-file-size limit - There's blogging, of course, personal webspaces, and all that other stuff. I think you'll like it better than the Ning stuff.
There's a couple of chat spaces. One is a conventional chat space you can pop out from the right sidebar/sidebox, and is loginless. It is crap, though, as is conventional chat, in that it's a chaotic clustercopulation, as is chat, but it's there if you elect. Better is the Pibb chat channel, which has threaded chat, i.e., chat threads (sort of like forum threads) - The caveat, though, is that it is an OpenID signon/login. Of course, with cookies, the first signon is usually the only painful one. BTW, might as well get onboard with OpenID sooner rather than later, since it is the future of the internet, and does make a multiple login internet eminently more convenient and secure. Google developers had built another really cool threaded chat proof-of-concept, HuddleChat, on the Google Apps platform, but 37signals (Campfire, RoR, etc) managed to turn it off on conflict of developer interest, so that's pretty sad, however, there is Campfire (commercial) and Pibb (free).
There's a calendar in the forums (and the real Forum does require registration in order to post/write_privileges), but I am sure there will be a global calendar (but, again, requiring registration).
Oh, also, if you're a Soul Music lover, there's a 'popout' link for a Soul Music streaming radio station Jukebox, in the right sidebar/sidebox, for your background music listening pleasure, if so inclined, while surfing MacCentralCafe. The playlist is limited, though, to American roots-based R&B and Pop; Electric Blues; Jump Blues; Rockabilly; Appalachian-Celtic; Y'alternative; Cajun; American-roots-influenced Latin American Pop/R&R; and a smattering of West African.
So, anyway, what it is:
MacCentralCafe News, portal and gateway to MacCentralCafe media
The One Forum, old-fashioned, 'One Bucket', robust-spunk forum (not live til 20 April sometime, when I regain consciousness, just kidding.
MacCentralCafe Pibb Chat Channel, threaded chat (way cool, since it's threaded and not chaotic - embedded media, avatars, archives (downloadable), other cool stuff
Planet MacCentralCafe social media, i.e., MySpace bullsheisse without the MySpace bullsheisse (personal webspaces, unlimited media uploads {w/300MB individual file size limit}, shareable {or not}, Web2 badging bullshit, blogging, etc
OK, too, I need to consider some kinda contingency thing in the event of somethin like what happened with Stan, not just for y'all but also for family (they've gotten quite accustomed to domain email, etc, and it is a nice and conveniencing heritage). I do plan on sticking around for awhile - I aim to to hold my eldest to her new personal goal of climbing El Capitan (which ensures some fitness on my part for some time, since she'll not be ready for that til she's fullgrown {she's a mere 11}, since a fullgrown's reach makes El Capitan attainable in a day, whereas a child's doesn't {irregardless of upper and lower body strength, endurance, climbing skills, etc}), and since I'll be her partner, I should be around a few years.
Oh yeah, registrations: The portal, MacCentralCafe.com, doesn't require registration, since there's no interaction (but that may change, but it is nice to not have that comments stuff to deal with, but Planet MacCentralCafe does, as does The Forum. I could eventually hack a bridge for a single signon to all the platforms, but I'm not going to do that, since it is an aggravation, and really, what makes sense (at a later date - I'm kindasorta done with this, for the time being) is an OpenID single signon. You will likely eventually OpenID your internet experience - myVidoop is probably/likely the finest/best OpenID identity provider (and they do double yeoman duty as probably the finest multiple-conventional-identities manager) - myVidoop is free, of course. myOpenID is also another excellent provider (but myVidoop is the best).
So, anyway, the best to you and yours,
Ed/Soulotomy
P.S: Rendering Speed: OK, the MacCentralCafe sites/subsites/media are not lowband-friendly. A proper Mac user/devotee is highspeed broadband, and is used to being dragged into the future whether he likes it or not - This makes it pretty simple for designing/building for a Mac devotee/user. Sadly, though MacCentralCafe media is for Mac users (with zero regard for a PC experience, or IE compatibility, since it logically does not apply), the MacCentralCafe (PHP-MySQL-XMHTL-AJAX) is quick/snappy on PC IE and renders properly, and can be sluggish although rendering properly on a Mac (because of the nature of rich media newsfeeds). Well, the snappy and proper portal rendering is IE8 (and so it does seem to be truly standards compliant, as advertised), and have no clue what it's like in 7 and 6 (but that's irrelevant, since the PC experience is irrelevant). Anyway, it's sad that IE8 seemingly outrenders Firefox, Safari, Opera, Konqueror, Opera, etc. However, The Real Forum is frigging blazing quick on any platform/browser, and the Pibb Chat Channel and Planet MacCentralCafe are the same on any platform/browser.
Oh, let me plug Yosemite in the Spring. It's a lot better, although it is already very busy and crawling with people, but it is a far site better than summer - Spring seems to be when Yosemite fields a lot of its return visitors. This seems a perfect time - Any rock falls are pretty much over with (I would guess), but the east (and I believe, north) entrance is still closed til summer, as are many of the auto roads, although you can drive into Yosemite Valley, Ahwahanee Lodge, Yosemite Lodge, Visitors Center, Yosemite Village, Murry Village, etc, etc. We stayed at the Tenaya Lodge, in French Camp, a few miles past the south entrance, about a 45 minute drive from Yosemite Falls or Half Dome's trailhead (El Capitan or Bridal Veil Falls were about a half hour).
We didn't go up north to Vernal Falls, Cathedral Peak, etc, as it was too far for the time we had, and only hiked El Capitan, the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, Bridal Veil, Half Dome, and the Mariposa Sequoia Grove, the main tourist attractions in and around the Yosemite Valley (which is way too frantic and too much territory to cover - Yosemite really needs to be experienced in a timeframe that allows a mystical, transcendental reverie). I'd recommend two weeks minimum to take in Yosemite's most famous features, and a lifetime to do it wholly and properly (Muir said that the 'clearest path to the universe is through a forest wilderness', and Yosemite likely inspired that belief).
Oh, the other nice thing about Spring is the lodge rates (if you don't want to camp 'for real', or in the cabins) - They're half of the summer rates. I don't know what the Ahwahanee's or Yosemite's rates are (they're in the heart, in the Yosemite Valley), but the Tenaya was $149 weekdays and $209 weekends (nice digs, three restaurants, shops, indoor/outdoor pools and spas, gym, etc, etc) - The Tenaya summer rate is $400+. The weather was brilliant: low 70s some days, and of course brisk mornings and frigid nights.
Oh, the other nice thing about Spring, the bugs aren't yet quite what they are in summer, although it is a very hospitable time for them.
First, let me say that I'm not a "Conservative" (well, maybe I am a Goldwater Conservative, kindasorta), but I did greatly admire Bill Buckley, a guy who singlehandedly forged credence and respectability into a force to be reckoned with, that had previously been a bizarre collection of nutcases and crackpots. I think that before, that Conservatives were reckoned to be either whack cases or dullard lumoxes, but Buckley was a classy, foppish, sophisticated dude; and then (after Bill) being a conservative wasn't so uncool with this combo brilliant hood ornament (the face of it) and this brilliant engine driving the machine.
Anyway, interestingly, for being such a brilliant, relentless intellectual, Bill was equally possessed with the fury of life, and was tres endowed with a furious athleticism and hedonism. He was a phenomenonally robust dude.
OK, so we were scheduled to leave Thursday for four days at Yosemite, and so I thought (with Buckley's recent passing) that I should pay reverential tribute to Bill, and do this somewhat as Bill would do it (as my circumstances would permit). Bill would have started off with Bullshots (Vodka and Boullion) before breakfast, then a frigid swim, then breakfast, then flown a plane to the outskirts of Yosemite, where he'd have then had an al fresco lunch (with ample wine), some socializing and debate fueled by VSOPs and cigars, then rafted into Yosemite Valley.
Well, my circumstances did not permit that, but I did do the alcohol part in Buckleyesque fashion. Perhaps since that was the only Buckleyesque part that I could duplicate, I duplicated that part over and over, perhaps to a fault. Actually, we had a grand time, and actually did manage to be stunned by the majesty that is Yosemite, but I could not bring myself to move the test Forum over to the production server and bring it live.
Anyway, I shall do so by 20 April. The Forum is fine - It's tested out just fine, and is (IMO) on the finest platform, whether open-source or commercial, myBB. Phorum is a close second, and vBulletin (the finest commercial platform) is a close third. They're all great, but myBB won.
Oh, before I forget, let me say that Bill Buckley, the founder of the modern Conservative movement, was disgusted with today's Sith NeoCons, as would be Barry Goldwater (but fortunately, he did not live long enough to witness the shameful disgusting mess that is today's conservatism). Well, it has come full circle, back to its roots, a collection of terminally braindead or bizarre nutcases and whackjobs.
My apologies for the delay. The Forum has been spot on for quite some time, and I don't know why I never did put it live, but I instead obsessed over the main portal part (and did have quite a bit of trouble with styling newsfeeds with rich embedded media, in a manner that would not break XHTML and AJAX without resorting to bland, text-only news).
Well, too, I note that presently there are 75 news sources (that perhaps perversely reflect my own twisted eclecticism, including Fleshbot, a pornographic industry gossip rag {narcissism is an appropriate subject, considering this is the internet
}) that took some time to mine and review as publication worthy. Fear not, there's a ton of Mac and Technology stuff. In oldschool MacCentral tradition, I think you'll find this as fairly news dense.Anway, this is 2008, so there's some newschoolish stuff that MacCentral might do if it still had legs: a social media subsite, Planet MacCentralCafe, which is sorta like the Ning subdomain, but not quite as glacially slow, unstable, or interfacially confusing. It's kinda like MySpace bullsheisse, without the MySpace bullsheisse, if that makes any sense. Media uploads are unlimited, but there is a 300MB per-individual-file-size limit - There's blogging, of course, personal webspaces, and all that other stuff. I think you'll like it better than the Ning stuff.
There's a couple of chat spaces. One is a conventional chat space you can pop out from the right sidebar/sidebox, and is loginless. It is crap, though, as is conventional chat, in that it's a chaotic clustercopulation, as is chat, but it's there if you elect. Better is the Pibb chat channel, which has threaded chat, i.e., chat threads (sort of like forum threads) - The caveat, though, is that it is an OpenID signon/login. Of course, with cookies, the first signon is usually the only painful one. BTW, might as well get onboard with OpenID sooner rather than later, since it is the future of the internet, and does make a multiple login internet eminently more convenient and secure. Google developers had built another really cool threaded chat proof-of-concept, HuddleChat, on the Google Apps platform, but 37signals (Campfire, RoR, etc) managed to turn it off on conflict of developer interest, so that's pretty sad, however, there is Campfire (commercial) and Pibb (free).
There's a calendar in the forums (and the real Forum does require registration in order to post/write_privileges), but I am sure there will be a global calendar (but, again, requiring registration).
Oh, also, if you're a Soul Music lover, there's a 'popout' link for a Soul Music streaming radio station Jukebox, in the right sidebar/sidebox, for your background music listening pleasure, if so inclined, while surfing MacCentralCafe. The playlist is limited, though, to American roots-based R&B and Pop; Electric Blues; Jump Blues; Rockabilly; Appalachian-Celtic; Y'alternative; Cajun; American-roots-influenced Latin American Pop/R&R; and a smattering of West African.
So, anyway, what it is:
MacCentralCafe News, portal and gateway to MacCentralCafe media
The One Forum, old-fashioned, 'One Bucket', robust-spunk forum (not live til 20 April sometime, when I regain consciousness
, just kidding.MacCentralCafe Pibb Chat Channel, threaded chat (way cool, since it's threaded and not chaotic - embedded media, avatars, archives (downloadable), other cool stuff
Planet MacCentralCafe social media, i.e., MySpace bullsheisse without the MySpace bullsheisse (personal webspaces, unlimited media uploads {w/300MB individual file size limit}, shareable {or not}, Web2 badging bullshit, blogging, etc
OK, too, I need to consider some kinda contingency thing in the event of somethin like what happened with Stan, not just for y'all but also for family (they've gotten quite accustomed to domain email, etc, and it is a nice and conveniencing heritage). I do plan on sticking around for awhile - I aim to to hold my eldest to her new personal goal of climbing El Capitan (which ensures some fitness on my part for some time, since she'll not be ready for that til she's fullgrown {she's a mere 11}, since a fullgrown's reach makes El Capitan attainable in a day, whereas a child's doesn't {irregardless of upper and lower body strength, endurance, climbing skills, etc}), and since I'll be her partner, I should be around a few years.
Oh yeah, registrations: The portal, MacCentralCafe.com, doesn't require registration, since there's no interaction (but that may change, but it is nice to not have that comments stuff to deal with
, but Planet MacCentralCafe does, as does The Forum. I could eventually hack a bridge for a single signon to all the platforms, but I'm not going to do that, since it is an aggravation, and really, what makes sense (at a later date - I'm kindasorta done with this, for the time being) is an OpenID single signon. You will likely eventually OpenID your internet experience - myVidoop is probably/likely the finest/best OpenID identity provider (and they do double yeoman duty as probably the finest multiple-conventional-identities manager) - myVidoop is free, of course. myOpenID is also another excellent provider (but myVidoop is the best).So, anyway, the best to you and yours,
Ed/Soulotomy
P.S: Rendering Speed: OK, the MacCentralCafe sites/subsites/media are not lowband-friendly. A proper Mac user/devotee is highspeed broadband, and is used to being dragged into the future whether he likes it or not - This makes it pretty simple for designing/building for a Mac devotee/user. Sadly, though MacCentralCafe media is for Mac users (with zero regard for a PC experience, or IE compatibility, since it logically does not apply), the MacCentralCafe (PHP-MySQL-XMHTL-AJAX) is quick/snappy on PC IE and renders properly, and can be sluggish although rendering properly on a Mac (because of the nature of rich media newsfeeds). Well, the snappy and proper portal rendering is IE8 (and so it does seem to be truly standards compliant, as advertised), and have no clue what it's like in 7 and 6 (but that's irrelevant, since the PC experience is irrelevant). Anyway, it's sad that IE8 seemingly outrenders Firefox, Safari, Opera, Konqueror, Opera, etc. However, The Real Forum is frigging blazing quick on any platform/browser, and the Pibb Chat Channel and Planet MacCentralCafe are the same on any platform/browser.
Oh, let me plug Yosemite in the Spring. It's a lot better, although it is already very busy and crawling with people, but it is a far site better than summer - Spring seems to be when Yosemite fields a lot of its return visitors. This seems a perfect time - Any rock falls are pretty much over with (I would guess), but the east (and I believe, north) entrance is still closed til summer, as are many of the auto roads, although you can drive into Yosemite Valley, Ahwahanee Lodge, Yosemite Lodge, Visitors Center, Yosemite Village, Murry Village, etc, etc. We stayed at the Tenaya Lodge, in French Camp, a few miles past the south entrance, about a 45 minute drive from Yosemite Falls or Half Dome's trailhead (El Capitan or Bridal Veil Falls were about a half hour).
We didn't go up north to Vernal Falls, Cathedral Peak, etc, as it was too far for the time we had, and only hiked El Capitan, the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, Bridal Veil, Half Dome, and the Mariposa Sequoia Grove, the main tourist attractions in and around the Yosemite Valley (which is way too frantic and too much territory to cover - Yosemite really needs to be experienced in a timeframe that allows a mystical, transcendental reverie). I'd recommend two weeks minimum to take in Yosemite's most famous features, and a lifetime to do it wholly and properly (Muir said that the 'clearest path to the universe is through a forest wilderness', and Yosemite likely inspired that belief).
Oh, the other nice thing about Spring is the lodge rates (if you don't want to camp 'for real', or in the cabins) - They're half of the summer rates. I don't know what the Ahwahanee's or Yosemite's rates are (they're in the heart, in the Yosemite Valley), but the Tenaya was $149 weekdays and $209 weekends (nice digs, three restaurants, shops, indoor/outdoor pools and spas, gym, etc, etc) - The Tenaya summer rate is $400+. The weather was brilliant: low 70s some days, and of course brisk mornings and frigid nights.
Oh, the other nice thing about Spring, the bugs aren't yet quite what they are in summer, although it is a very hospitable time for them.
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