Doug Berger – Page 145

June 24, 2007April 18, 2020

New home for this blog

This is the first post on this blog since I moved it to a new server.

I want to say that my previous host – 1and1.com – was a good host. They were easy to use and provide a good package with unlimited e-mail boxes and several mysql databases. In the approximate 4 years I was with them, I had only one real technical issue and that happened early this year when one of my databases went down due to the server going down. It was fixed in few hours after my I put in a ticket.

The reason I’m leaving 1and1.com is because they had severe restrictions on running scripts and since I use Movable Type, my blog is mostly scripts. I understand that in a shared hosting environment that resources need to be shared but I was paying for the top shared package and it was getting to be useless.

And before various fanboys point out that I am using dead technology etc… I know that some others have passed MT by (like WordPress) but I spent literally hundreds of hours on this blog and I don’t feel like learning new software. However getting a glimpse of MT 4 currently in Beta may change my mind – it seems at the start too much like Myspace or Vox and I like old school blogging. If I wanted 1500 pictures of people I really don’t know to clog up my web page then I would be based on Myspace. Send your fan mail to my contact page.

Any way, my issue with 1and1 started slowly, I would get 500 error messages that I never had before and rebuilding my pages would get slower and slower before crapping out altogether. I tried all the tweaks and hacks I could to squeeze out the rebuilds. At the end I was working on slices of 5 pages at a time and it would take an hour and half to rebuild my pages if I made any changes to the structure. I think the problems got bad when 1and1 started offering a blog feature.

The other issue I had was that 1and1 has had issues with spammers. I found that out when my e-mail to a friend at AOL bounced because the 1and1 mail server was blacklisted. I had also heard some stories that 1and1 had an issue with hosting spam sites and not booting them out quickly enough.

My contract was coming up so I decided to find a host that was more Moveable Type friendly. Six Apart, the makers of MT, has a partner page that listed some hosts that 6A recommended. That’s how I found NEXCESS.NET

For about the same price I was paying for 1and1’s top shared host package, Nexcess had an entry level VPS package.

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. It is a bridge between shared hosting (many accounts on one server) and dedicated hosting (you are the only one on the server). VPS has two or more accounts on a server with separate resources and the big feature is that I have root access to my server. I also have my own mail server and name servers.

This has allowed me to put each of my blogs in their own accounts, separate from each other.

It is so nice to be able to rebuild my blogs without any errors and it finishes in a reasonable time.

The downside is I know next to nothing about running a server.

Wish me luck.

For more info:

MaxVPS

MovableType Hosting Partners

June 10, 2007April 18, 2020

2008 Election Burn Out Not My Fault

A friend of mine, on an e-mail list in which I participate, asked us what we thought of the recent GOP presidential candidate debates. I made a snide comment: “There was a debate last night?”

She said that one of those men could be the next the President so I should care.

I don’t and here’s why:

I am not a member of any party so anything having to do with choosing any party ticket is not relevant to me.

My concern is from Labor Day weekend 2008 to November 2008 when the two people we are forced to choose from will be on my ballot and their final messages will be out.

I’m guessing that Hillary and Rudy will be the two evils I will have to choose from when I really want to vote for Obama since I can’t vote for Pete Stark since he is not running.

But, Doug, how do you know it is going to be Senator Clinton and Rudy Giuliani in 2008?

I’ve seen it before. The Democrats seem to let conservative “hit” men and their media lackeys pick their candidate. Back in the 2004 elections, the populist candidate was Howard Dean. He had the buzz and the money. The GOP was scared so they and their media flunkies destroyed him. They got the candidate they wanted in John Kerry.

Basically they want someone to run against who they can smear effectively. They had pretty much nothing on Dean but tons on Kerry.

In recent weeks there have been 3 or 4 books released by conservatives about Senator Clinton. All of them rehash falsehoods from the time her husband was President. The GOP HATE Senator Clinton and they know if she is the Dem nominee they can solidify their base like they did against Kerry in 2004.

Take a look at this article:

Wash. Post review misrepresents, conflates allegations in Clinton books

Until 2008 I really don’t care as it is out of my hands – right now it is all about filling time on the 24 hour news channels, in between stories about missing white women and out of control young Hollywood starlets. It seems they can’t deal with real issues that are happening in the world today that effect real people.

Like the Democrats caving to a President with an approval rating of 28% on the issue of a timetable to withdraw from Iraq.

or this one:

John Boehner- Hypocrite

May 25, 2007April 18, 2020

On Star Wars – 30 years later

I remember it well. The film had been in theaters almost a year when I finally was able to see it. It was the talk of my school and several kids already had the action figures and other merchandise. We were too poor to see a movie all the time so I had to basically wait until my Mom got her tax refund. But there I sat in my seat at the old Cinema World theater just outside the Fort Findlay Mall.

“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away…” appeared on the screen then it fades out. Then *BLAM*

STAR
WARS

fills the screen and John Williams score fills the once empty void around me. Then the beginning crawl tells me the point in time of the story. Then the music starts to simmer down and the picture shows a star field as the camera pans down to show the horizon of Tatooine and we hear ominous music – Darth Vader’s theme I learn later – and a space ship moves from the top to the bottom of the screen.

That was cool.

Then I see the Imperial Star Destroyer as it fills the screen as it pursues the other craft…

WOW!

So began my love affair with Star Wars.

So, for better or worse, a tip of the hat goes to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope – released on May 25th 1977.

Star Wars

May 24, 2007April 18, 2020

Findlay Mayor Race Open?

The usual way things go in politics in Findlay is if you are an incumbent you pretty much can phone in your reelection. Findlay doesn’t change very fast if at all and as long as you don’t get in trouble you don’t have to worry about elections – especially if you are an incumbent Republican.

Mayor Tony Iriti found out that some Republicans didn’t like how he was doing his job and they decided to nominate political novice Pete Sehnert as the GOP candidate for mayor in November.

Sehnert’s campaign consisted of doing a lot of footwork to visit voters and pledging to get “Back to basics”. That was it.

While Iriti had some big ideas and changed a lot of the way Findlay government operated the GOP voters threw him out.

The local paper, The Courier, speculated that the negative vote was due to low turn out (only 4,391 Republicans voted out of a city population of 39,000), changes he made (eliminating and combining city jobs), and some PR blunders that made it look like he was throwing bones to his business supporters (like having the city buy a burned out building whose owner was a friend).

There are some conservative voters in Findlay – who vote – who HATE spending any tax money for any thing except basic city services (police, fire, water etc…).

Democrat Tom Knopf had no challenger in his primary so he will face Sehnert in the November election.

Knopf now has a campaign website which has more information on him than has ever been written in The Courier.

Knopf also has taken Iriti to task for some of the same issues that led to his defeat – spending money on projects like decorative light poles on Main St or on the environmental impact study of the Brandeman tire dump site. He also proposes to create more channels of communication with “all” members of the Findlay community.

One real issue addressed by Knopf is his proposal to use the land of Brandeman tire dump site to build low income housing – something Findlay has always lacked enough of. My sister was on a waiting list for 3 years and still wasn’t able to get into one of the few apartment complexes that allowed low income residents.

When I was a boy I lived in a trailer park on Trenton Ave. just outside the city limits. The county health department cited the owners because our well water was not drinkable – it was contaminated with sulfur – and the park’s sewer service was substandard. Being so close to Findlay, the owner petitioned to be annexed into the city so we could get city water and sewer service. The city rejected the request. Why? The official reason was the city didn’t see a good reason to approve it – after all we all had lower incomes and lived in trailers that violated city regulations on house trailers. Did you know the city of Findlay basically will not allow a trailer park to be built in the city?

Eventually my family moved into the city and today you can visit the old trailer park when you go to the new Wal-Mart. The land was sold and developed into retail space and then annexed into the city.

Even though Tom Knopf doesn’t have to worry about battling an incumbent for the office of Mayor, he will still have a big challenge against Pete Sehnert simply because Sehnert will have “Republican” next to his name on the ballot.

I think it is sad that in a city that advertises itself as highly patriotic and flies the flag almost as a bodily function would be less than advertised when it comes to the democratic process. The local media doesn’t help the matter by its lack of detailed coverage of the candidates or the issues.

Thomas Knopf for Mayor

May 8, 2007April 18, 2020

Summer movies I love

I got to see Spider-Man 3 this weekend and it was pretty good. There was a lot of “stuff” crammed into the 2 1/2 hours with many story threads. The part I liked best was several shots of Peter Parker tooling around the city on his beat-up scooter. And there were a few out loud funny bits involving J Jonah Jamison.

This weekend was Superhero weekend for me. I rented the DVD of Superman Returns which I saw last summer and I fell in love with the film all over again. I forgot I wrote a review on IMDB so here is a clip of that:

When an iconic film is remade you can go two ways – totally go down a different road and destroy what made the previous film iconic – think “Poseidon”, or you can do what Bryan Singer did and almost duplicate the feel and humanity from the previous Superman series of the late 70’s early 80’s.
This isn’t just a rehash but Singer tips his hat enough to the Donner directed films to satisfy this old fan and bring enough of current culture to satisfy new fans.
It starts with the return of the classic style for the opening credits and liberal amounts of the fantastic John Williams score. I did expect to hear some hip-hop or some bland pop music but luckily that wasn’t the case.
A Great Homage to Donner and Reeve

One of my favorite scenes is actually the first time that Superman reveals to the world that he is back and comes about 40 minutes into the film. Lois is on an airplane covering the launch of a new version of the Space Shuttle when a blackout scrambles the computers and the Shuttle can’t detach from the jet she is on. The main engines come on and sends Lois flying to the back of the plane and as she is struggling to reach an oxygen mask she happens to look out the window and *blip* sees Superman streak by to save her and all those on the plane. The look on her face and the music cue just chokes me up every time. Real tears.

The last part of the sequence is also a hoot. After Superman sets the plane down on the ground, he rips the door off and goes inside. He asks if everyone is okay and he and Lois make eye contact. Then after a bit of a pause he says, in a homage to the first Christopher Reeves film, that he hopes the emergency doesn’t put people off flying and that statistically it is the safest way to travel. He then flies off. Lois stands at the door watching him leave then she faints and falls down the emergency slide.

Here is a clip from that sequence so you can see why I love it so much:

I hope the coming summer movie season has a few more favorite scenes that I can watch 50,000 times on DVD.