Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Lawyers Eat Trees
March 15, 2006

Things have been quiet around Asymptomatic this week because I have been spending entirely too much time playing catch-up with email and other tasks in the evening. Why haven’t I been doing this during the day when I would usually expect to be able to do it? I’ve been on jury duty.

As a jury member, I’m not supposed to discuss the case outside of the courtroom. I take this matter pretty seriously, and I fully intend to abide by the judge’s order on that matter, at least until the trial is over. At that time I should be able to say whatever I want and, really, I have a lot to say. But I did want to expound on another topic that is an adjunct to my court experiences this week:

The Social Wall
March 12, 2006

We were sitting in a booth in the Burger King rest stop on the turnpike when I was struck with oour situation’s coincidental similarity to japanese rice walls.

The couple in the booth behind us had three children, boys from what I could tell. The father was doing his best to keep the children at an even keel - something at which I have personally been doing a poor job during this excursion.

I forget exactly what he was doing, partially because I was staring off toward the restrooms, but he noticed my gaze and returned a look of “why are you staring at me?”

Two Dinky but Useful WordPress Plugins
March 10, 2006

I’ve been using these two plugins for a little while, and they seem to generate interest in people when I mention them, so I have decided to release them and see what happens.

The first plugin, Auth Only, allows only logged-in users to access your blog. It also allows you to customize your login page by adding a login.php template to your theme. Using a login template will allow you to create a customized experience for your registered users.

You will need to use a plugin like the Role Manager to edit the capabilities of roles to grant view_site capability to whichever users or Roles should have permission to view your site.

Wireless Broadband Everywhere... except Johnstown
March 09, 2006

This weekend marks another trip to Johnstown to visit Berta’s family. Without intentionally disconnecting myself from the outside world, this is one of the few times I can’t connect to the internet. And boy oh boy, it’s like quitting crack cold-turkey.

Johnstown isn’t a very high-tech area. Most of its residents are elderly, so I wouldn’t expect much of an uptake in internet connectivity. They do have DSL and cable connections there, and there is a business-grade fiber installation company out there, but Berta’s family are not as computer-dependent as we are to have contracted any of these services.

So if I’m to connect my notebook to the net at all, it’s going to happen via dialup over a very old POTS line. Ugh. I have been trying to find some alternative solutions to my connectivity problem, and I’m coming up short.