It’s not just you – things look a little different around here. As of this morning, I have completely moved over to WordPress.com hosting with Google apps for everything on the back end. The theme is going to update again as soon as I dig through some old photos, but I’m otherwise set. In a nutshell, it’s hard to argue with $.83/month hosting.
July 17, 2010
$850 Million in the Hole
The last two weeks have seen a lot of cheering* and celebration* over the passing* of the 2010 Pennsylvania Budget. This is good* news because unlike last year’s disaster, not a single state agency was forced to alter operations and not a single state employee was forced to work without pay. Now that the budget is finally* in place*, we can go on with our lives* and enjoy things as they are for the next 11.5 months.
* – There’s a catch.
July 4, 2010
Harrisburg Jazz & Multicultural Festival
(presented by Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson, Mayor (Harrisburg (Mayor)))
I largely ignored all the complaining about the event’s name change. I think the name change was silly, sure — but it’s still an event. It’s still an excuse to get outside. It’s still free, it’s still accessible to everyone, it’s still festive, and we still have fireworks. In theory, it should be exactly the same as last year but with different letters on the banners. Right?
Yeah. The thing about theories is that they aren’t always right.
May 23, 2010
Twelve Weeks Later
Back in January I did some comparison shopping among the major downtown Harrisburg apartment complexes. I wound up signing a lease for a medium-sized (about 800 square feet) one-Bedroom in Executive House and moved in February first. It didn’t take long for me to realize I made the right choice.
May 22, 2010
Tom Corbett Gets Slapped Down
Facing a mountain of criticism from local and national news agencies as well as a firestorm of commentary from social media sites, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett backed down on his subpoenas yesterday.
Earlier this month, his office issued a subpoena demanding private information on users critical of his campaign. With growing accusations that his office has improperly flexed its muscle to help his gubernatorial campaign, perhaps they finally realized that flexing their muscle to help his gubernatorial campaign might not be the best way to respond.
Because if he was truly right — if he truly believed he had such powerful evidence that he needed to invoke the power of a grand jury in order to hear it — he should never have backed down. You don’t give up a fight when you’re right, and we don’t pay our politicians to back down when they’re pursuing a just cause.
Let’s assume — for the sake of argument — that Corbett’s subpoenas really were part of a criminal investigation. And let’s assume that the use of a grand jury to seek evidence for a criminal trial that has already concluded is somehow appropriate. And, just to play devil’s advocate, let’s assume that CasablancaPA really is Brett Cott.
Assuming Corbett was right on all counts, that leaves just one question unanswered:
With Cott having been rushed off to prison immediately after his sentencing, why is the blog and Twitter account in question still being updated?
Either CasablancaPA is not Cott, or the account password has been shared across multiple people. Tom Corbett was either wrong in his assumption about the account’s true owner, or he willfully used his office’s power to obtain the names and IP addresses of innocent citizens who happened to criticize his campaign.
May 20, 2010
Tom Corbett for Governor?
Generally speaking, I don’t do politics on this site. If it’s politics you want, you can Google the name of your favorite candidate or party and find approximately eleventy trillion other sites on which to get your fix. But earlier this month, our Attorney General did something that can only generously be described as “questionable”:
He subpoenaed Twitter and Google to reveal the identity of some people who have been critical of his campaign for governor.
May 10, 2010
Clear 4G Harrisburg: Review at the Half-Way Mark
Back on April 28th, I attended a launch party at the Abbey Bar for Clear, a 4G wireless Internet provider that just recently launched service in Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, and Reading. As part of the event, I received a USB aircard with 30 days’ worth of free service to use as I saw fit. Previously, I talked about the launch event itself and gave you an extremely basic primer on wireless data. With that out of the way, let me tell you about my early experiences with the service itself.
Full disclosure: I received the aircard for free and one month of service for free. At the end of my evaluation period, I have to give the aircard back unless I want to continue service.
