DesertStandard

ESPN is making a stance against the ad networks and turning them off of its properties. This is a losing effort on their part as you cannot fight the technology, you must adapt to it and make it work for you:

So can ESPN change the model? “It won’t have the desired impact,” said Adam Kasper, senior vp, director of digital media, Media Contacts, unless the top 10 or so Web sites followed suit. ESPN is “essentially fighting technology. That’s a hard thing to do.”

ESPN Turns Off Ad Nets

I received an email inviting me to join Konnects this morning. The problem is that its from someone who I dont know, which is SPAM. Curious about new websites as I am I googled them and naturally found a writeup on Mashable from last year. I also did a Technorati search and found Mr. Berkowitz’s take on this which coincidentally is right along the lines of my point of view: SPAMMERS.

From their about us page:

Konnects, Inc. is an online business networking platform designed to give the power of online social networking to business professionals. Konnects has created over 350 city business networks around the globe, and over 80 unique industry networks. Konnects partners with existing organizations to create unique online business networks which can then be promoted on the Konnects network of sites. Organizations can choose to remain private or allow the general public to join at their discretion.

When a social network has its number of networks hardcoded into their page is a sign that something is fishy. First of all these numbers are tiny and embarassing for anyone that is championing a ‘patented’ solution for business networks. 350 city business networks should be for Phoenix alone. In LA or New York their should be ten times that many, if you want to impress anyone. A more effective approach would be to have an active update of how many networks are on their system.

Of course that could be gamed as well, but it would be more effective marketing. Which is what this site seems to be about more than anything else.

Looks like Mccain is pretty knowledgable about foreign policy:

Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was “common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.” A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate’s ear. McCain then said: “I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.”

It is absurd that this man is even a candidate. How do we plan on being successful in a WAR if we dont even know who we are fighting?

A McCain Gaffe in Jordan | The Trail | washingtonpost.com

This has been killing me since last week. To me Easter is an April thing, but not this year. So I started asking around and no one had the answer. Then Google came to the rescue:

Definition of Easter Sunday Date
Easter Sunday is the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon (PFM) date for the year. In June 325 A.D. astronomers approximated astronomical full moon dates for the Christian church, calling them Ecclesiastical Full Moon (EFM) dates. From 326 A.D. the PFM date has always been the EFM date after March 20 (which was the equinox date in 325 A.D.).

How Easter Date is Determined

I don’t know about you but my fall-down-drunk days of green beer are retired. Nowadays I am much more interested in outdoor festivals with bands and lots of people. From the sounds of it Chandler is gonna have a pretty good try at it this year with their first annual St Patricks Day Festival.

Its right downtown south of Chandler Blvd on Arizona and starts at 4pm till 11pm. Its being organized by the non-profit Downtown Chandler Community Partnership.

I finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns a few weeks ago and am working on a review for it but it is taking longer than I want. The big thing that it made me realize is that we have completely forgotten about this war. A war in which a close neighbor of mine is on the front lines of putting his life on the line.

In the book Hosseini covers 30 years of Afghan history, though it is a work of fiction he does reference many historical periods and events throughout the story. One thing that is mentioned again and again is that the warring will always come back and as we are seeing now the Taliban has made a huge shift in momentum. Even against the mightly US military:

Nagl listed a catalogue of challenges in Afghanistan, including its harsh climate and terrain, its lack of centralized government in the past 30 years, the destruction of roads and other basic infrastructure, and the state of its army.

“I’ve worked with the Afghan security forces a little bit. I find them to be diligent and dedicated and trainable (but) not particularly well educated … The Iraqi security forces are far more advanced than are the Afghans,” he said.

“The Taliban did extraordinarily harmful things to the intelligentsia of the country. The people you need to run a country no longer exist.”

The last sentence there is the critical component of what we are missing and what we have left out since our intervention in the 80’s with the USSR’s war there. There is a huge vacuum with regards to education in Afghanistan. What is there to replace it is obvious: Radical Fundamentalist Islam.

Mccain’s answer is for more guns, but the need is for more books.

Afghan war trend worse than Iraq: U.S. trainer - Yahoo! News

I need to do a post on all the various blogs and websites that I read so that you know where I am coming from. Anyway I wanted to mention two new ones that I am subscribed to now:

Tim Saffles and I have been buds for a few years now. It all started at that strange event known as Retention where we worked for Bob Parsons at Godaddy.com. Our dark and sarcastic humor pretty much clashed right away and it was all over but the arguing after that. He is a really good writer and gets his thoughts out like I wish I could:

So I have a dilemma: I want to purchase a place of my own, I feel that there will be no better time that in the next year or so, but I don’t think it will be a worthwhile investment of capital or time. I’m torn between sentimentality and responsibility. : TimothySaffles.com

Renting vs. Buying: Housing Dilemma

The second one is from Biray Alsac who I just learned of today via her teaching a blog workshop at the Chandler Library on March 26th at 6:30pm called Stop, Blog, and Roll. She is a fitness guru and really into the Internets. She is also a very good writer and I look forward to reading more from her:

Despite being a bit of a techno-geek, I’m still a health educator and fitness professional first. I admit, I spend countless hours on the web exploring online tools and reading up on new technology. But I see my efforts as directly helping me better understand this gadget-driven, internet-savvy culture. I’m striving to become more effective […] : Be Fit With Biray

Everyone Could Use Some Spare Change

Just a few tidbits about the Phoenix Monsoon season as provided by the Weather Underground, just good to know:

Precipitation statistics for the Arizona monsoon season (june 15 to
September 30):

… Phoenix…
normal rainfall 2.76 inches (1971-2000)
wettest season 9.56 inches (1984)
driest season 0.35 inches (1924)
average number of days with measurable rain 12 days

… Yuma…
normal rainfall 1.29 inches (1971-2000)
wettest season 7.22 inches (1909)
driest season 0.00 inches (1962/1914/1878)
average number of days with measurable rain 5 days

Weather Underground - go to bottom of the page

Commuting is big news now that gas is getting more and more expensive. I have been writing about taking the bus, setting up a commuter shop, and the federal budget for public transit. Now the eggheads have confirmed what I have been feeling:

Mass transit use increased by more than 2 percent in 2007 to the highest level in 50 years. Americans took more than 10 billion trips on public transportation, while the number of vehicle miles traveled was flat in the first 10 months of the year.

Public transit use climbs as gas prices rise - The Business Journal of Phoenix:

Those that know me know that I have had a serious itch for Dubstep for a few years now. The stuff just gets right under my skin almost as much as Drum and Bass does. XLR8R is a cool music magazine for all electronic stuff and their recent podcast has an interesting take on this sound:

São Paulo-born DJ, producer, and party king Bruno Belluomini reminds us that dubstep isn’t just for the pale faced Brits and California hippies. This selection of tracks, many of the unreleased, showcases how producers near and in the Southern hemisphere are interpreting the dubstep sound.

Exclusive Mix: Dubstep Goes South