daleynews

Show's over folks, move along, nothing to see here:

I am migrating to a Wordpress installation, here, at the same domain but at the root, so if you have this page bookmarked, just remove the /weblog. Or just click...

http://daleyblog.com

Last man standing:

An LA Times article looks back at the East Coast / West Coast rap wars that claimed the lives of Tupak Shakur and Biggie Smalls, among others. The evidence implicates Sean P-Diddy Combs' crew.

Strange bedfellows:

It turns out now that support for Hillary Clinton is a vast right-wing conspiracy. I'm unconvinced.

Almost there:

I think it's time to say goodbye to Moveable Type. First the comments broke after I was attacked by comment spammers. An upgrade broke my ability to go in and edit templates and I was getting tired of the interface and lack of customization. So I tried Wordpress. I was not initially excited but the more I explored, the more I began to like it. I installed the newest version, 2.5, last week and now I am excited about it. I wanted to tweak the style code (I used a free theme that, layout-wise, was what I wanted) but first I had to learn how things were structured; where files were kept and how they were referenced. Most of that is done and I have a few things that have to be done with the design. In the meantime, I'm working on photo workflow from Aperture. I think I have that down but there's some testing to go. So the bottom line is that I expect to 'go live' here in the next week or so here and close down the old site -it'll still be there for archive searching. Wish me luck.

Ray the DA:

First, there's the retro 90's visual explosion style of the page. Then, there's the 'then and now' photos of criminals, the bald guy news, the daily sentencing, the cops and robbers report, the radio promotions and the Outrage of the Month.

And here's our guy's page. Talk about a study in contrasts.

All over but the shouting:

The Speaker has dropped all pretense of having an open mind on casino gambling. Now we'll see how quickly all those undecideds become no's.

Much ado:

I'm on the other side of the casino issue from Sal DiMasi but this Globe story on the speaker and the gambling moguls is a little thin if you ask me. He played golf with an old friend with an interest in a casino and discussed the issue. In fact he often plays golf with friends with an interest in legalizing gambling and still over the years has persisted in his opposition. As far as it goes, that's the story.

Then we learn that he was invited to play golf with Donald Trump. Hmmm. And, the implication is, everyone is lying about the Trump connection. Evidence of a cover up? Essentially, here are the facts - stripped of references to "lily white suits" and "royal palm trees" - as reported or reasonably assumed:

Part 1

Donald Trump tells his staff that he wants to play golf with DiMasi.
An invitation is extended and someone reserves time at a golf club.
The invitation is declined.

Part 2

DiMasi's people state that he was invited to play with Trump but declined.
A golf club scheduler says time was reserved.
Trump says he invited DiMasi but it never ended up on his schedule or as he put it, "we were never scheduled".

None of that jumps out as being inconsistiant. From the time Trump extended the invitation until the time DiMasi declined, don't you think a wise assistant would have covered his bases by reserving time on a course, even if it wouldn't go on Trump's schedule until it was finalized?

Despite the effort expended by the writers, I'm underwhelmed by the evidence.

Great outdoors:

First woodpeckers, now ice fishing. If the Globe keeps it up you'll be able to cancel your subscription to Field and Stream.

Was that a duck blind I saw in the marsh on Morrissey Boulevard?

Underutilization:

Did you know that nearly all McDonalds restaurants have wi-fi? AT&T has set up pay hotspots in most of the Golden Arches. But when is the last time you saw anyone surfing the web while wolfing a burger? You'll tend to see more laptops in Starbucks (which is switching to AT&T hot-spots from T-Mobile) but I doubt that many are surfing the web, especially on a casual, pay as you go basis.

Pay wi-fi doesn't get used as much as it should. It costs too much and it's hard to set up. I've tried in Starbucks and it's not easy. It takes ten minutes, a dozen page loads and scores of clicks just to set up a $10 day-pass on the T-Mobile site. It's not worth the effort for casual use.

Unless, of course, you already have an account. Then it's easy and free. So will AT&T change the Starbucks internet experience? I think so. And I think they'll extend the use of the service to existing AT&T / Cingular wireless customers (of which I am one.)

There seems to be a convergence of interests. First, there was the Apple / Starbucks partnership. Then, AT&T and Apple partnered and now Starbucks and AT&T have partnered.

With all these overlapping partnerships Starbucks could be the place where a new and viable wi-fi business model emerges. It could be win/win for customers and providers.

UPDATE: Here's more on this from Glenn Fleishman.

Mega-merger:

I've gotten into the habit of reading Robert Cringely's weekly column when it's posted each Friday. It is, in my opinion, just about the best and most informed technology writing out there. Here's his take on the Microsoft / Yahoo! deal, which, by the way, appears to be falling apart.

In the middle of the stream:

As Clinton re-calibrates her campaign, I will, for obvious reasons, have to re-calibrate my prediction of a Romney vs Clinton general election. Mitt's out, that part is easy, but that's not the only upset in sight.

The Democratic race seems to be playing out like the Superbowl: slim margin throughout with a late heroic surge by the underdog. Obama / Manning. Now there's a ticket.

(Speaking of football, Andy Rooney suggests we change, or rather, return the name of the New England Patriots to the Boston Patriots. You know, there's an argument to be made there.)

Counter-intutitive:

Hold that Diet Coke. Studies suggests that artificial sweeteners will cause you to put on more pounds than sugar will.

Zippy:

The Webkit engine could be the fastest web browser ever. Give it a shot.

Choked up:

In yesterday's column, Joan Vennochi called out journalists for unbalanced levels of scrutiny in covering the Clinton / Obama contest. She makes a point.

Location, location, location:

I'm happy to see that, with the national spotlight having moved on, things have gone back to normal in New Hampshire.