28. February, 2004 - Dub’s Pub, R.I.P.
- Got a call last night from Mike. It was the very last night of business for Dub’s Pub. Apparently the sale finally went through yesterday afternoon. Good luck to the crew from there, but after nearly ten years of hanging out there, I’d kinda decided to stop going even before they sold, so I don’t feel that much loss.
- Transit workers go to last-chance mediation Monday, and if that doesn’t get them a contract they’re happy with, they’ll meet on Tuesday to set a strike date. Many of the folks I know depend on the MTC to get them to and from work, and while there are a lot of carpools forming and some who are planning to walk to work, a strike is going to hurt a lot of people, and probably cut long-term bus ridership as people explore alternatives. Doug Grow has some background on the story, too. The biggest issue is health insurance and Peter Bell’s insistence that drivers are overpaid compared to private industry. Having driven schoolbus for private industry, it’s true that MTC pays (and paid) significantly more, but part of that was because the private transit companies trained drivers, whereas the MTC pretty much took drivers who only already had experience. Think of the private companies as the minor leagues for the MTC, and you won’t be too far off the mark, so it’s not surprising that they get paid more.
- Results are starting to trickle in regarding the drop-caps I added. Donncha at Holy Shmoly! thinks the drop-caps are
Nice!
. Bill at End the War on Freedom gives them a Humph!
(but seems to have something funky going on with his permalinks). Jim said he didn’t especially like them. I dunno. I think maybe the solution is for me to offer some sort of style-sheet preference, since I’ve already written the code to change out the sheet based on the browser you’re using. Maybe I’ll just add something to cookie you and switch sheets based on that, too. I think more time needs to pass before I do anything, though. It also looks like I might need to serve up slightly different style-sheets to account for differences in positioning in Safari and Mozilla. Feh. I really don’t want to have to maintain 23 different style sheets, especially since I’m not doing anything all that complicated. I’m thinking that maybe this will give me the push I need to write the style-sheet preprocessor I thought about long ago. The idea is to have macro-expansion within a master style-sheet that’s served up to clients based on their preferences, browser, the phase of the moon, and whatever else I need to base the changes on.
- Dudley Hiibel is Fighting for Right Not to Show ID. I pointed to his website earlier, but this Wired article about his case is pretty good. The case will go before the Supreme Court on March 22, and there will probably be a decision before fall.
- And Then There Were None by Eric Frank Russell is one of the earlier libertarian-leaning science fiction short stories, and is available online. I suggest you give it a look, f you’ve never read it.
- David Grenier has a suggestion of how anarchists handle telemarketers. The only thing to remember is that owners of toll-free numbers automagically get caller ID information about who’s calling them, so you may not want to call from home.
Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek.
Last updated on Sat, 28 Feb 2004 09:05:07.