Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Happy Passover; Life; Cars

Posted

First off, I want to take a moment to wish all my Jewish friends and the greater, worldwide Jewish community a happy, safe Passover. I encourage all my non-Jewish friends—especially Christians, who share much of the Jewish religious heritage—to read up on what Passover is all about and take this as an opportunity to learn about (and pray for) the Jewish people, their history, and their safety. Claire Simmons has an excellent column in the Washington Post today that discusses Passover in the context of the Jewish peoples’ incredible strength and tenacity that held fast even even as some of the worst atrocities in history were committed against them in Nazi Germany. Check it out.

In other news, I’ve been as busy as ever but things are going pretty good. My mom is in town this weekend so Melissa and I got to hang out with her some yesterday and will see her again tomorrow. Meanwhile I’ve continued trying to stay motivated to write both for this site and on more long-term projects I’ve had in mind. So far it’s going pretty well. I’m also mentally preparing myself to get back into biking now that the weather has turned warmer. I probably won’t be able to get out there this weekend, but I’m expecting to venture out on a 10+ mile ride sometime in the next week. I’m going to make a low-budget bike rack for the back of the SUV (inside), a project for which I already have all the material, so I’ll probably do that first . . . maybe tomorrow.

Read more . . .

FCC Reviewing Comcast Broadband Abuses

Posted

Reuters reports that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reviewing Comcast’s questionable practice of blocking some Internet traffic and whether it is ‘reasonable’. Good.

But, as I have said before, ‘Net Neutrality’ needs to be enshrined in honest-to-goodness law, not just protected by the transient decree of an unelected (and largely unaccountable) commission. The Internet and companies that have spawned from it (Amazon, Google, etc.) have relied on a network that treats all data in a random, equitable fashion. Every bit and byte of information—whether it’s a news web site, iTunes music file, BitTorrent transfer, or software download—is treated the same.

Internet providers like Comcast have a responsibility to provide their customers with ‘virgin’, unfettered network access. Many Republicans claim that Net Neutrality legislation would go against their free-market inclinations, but—on the contrary—it is a neutral net that facilitates the modern, networked free market.

The views expressed in this post are mine and mine alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, Web.com.

Maybe the $30-Million Hotel Will Be ADA-Compliant

Posted

While George Mason University officials press on with their ludicrous $30-million hotel and conference center plans, more questions are emerging about the University’s ability to manage its existing infrastructure and support its existing students. The most recent story, as reported by WTOPNews.com, has the university on the receiving end of a lawsuit for gross violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

April Cave, who is confined to a wheelchair following a car accident a few years back, specifically requested a 1st floor dorm room when enrolling at GMU. The university, however, apparently thought it would be funny to put her on the 4th floor instead. Not only did the school assign April to a 4th floor dorm room, but they made zero accommodations for her evacuation in the event of an emergency. In November of last year, when the building’s fire alarm went off, April was left to fend for herself. The alarm was a false one (as they often are in dorm buildings at GMU), but the school’s utter negligence—while not surprising—is inexcusable.

Pam Cave, April’s mother, wrote an excellent letter to the editor that appeared in the Washington Post on Sunday. It’s unfortunate that GMU, an academically strong school, is hobbled by such incredible, persistent mismanagement.

WordPress Plugin Roll-Call

Posted

As many of you are aware, I switched to the excellent WordPress blogging and content management system on April 1 (and had been using WordPress internally for several months previous as I developed and staged the new version of the site). I have been extremely happy with the system, and have found it much easier and friendlier to use for my day-to-day web site needs than the Joomla system I had used previously.

I have been quite impressed with WordPress’s capabilities, especially in the newly-released 2.5 version. I had to spend a lot of time hacking Joomla to my liking, but WordPress pretty much arrived ‘right’ for my purposes out of the box. Features that WordPress lacked were easy to add through its plugin architecture, and—to my pleasant surprise—I didn’t have to make any plugins myself. For everything I wanted to do, some other kind soul in the WordPress community had already done it. I’m writing this entry to thank the creators of the WordPress plugins I have made use of and, hopefully, drive them some well-deserved traffic. If you have a WordPress blog (or are considering creating one), give these excellent plugins a look!

Read more . . .

Inter-Gang Relationships: The Untold Story

Posted

Tony from West Side Story threatened to kill girlfriend Maria during an argument over whether their 19-month-old child would grow up to join the Anglo Jets or the Puerto Rican Sharks. . . .

Ludicrous? Yes. But, sadly, plausible in gangland-America.

According to The Denver Channel, a couple arguing over what gang their 19-month-old would join caused a public disturbance and the father was arrested. The mother is a member of the Crips, the father a member of the Westside Ballers. Clearly, this child is on the road to success like his parents before him.

I see a West Side Story sequel in the making.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.