Renovations

So, we’ve been working on the house bit by bit since we moved in three years ago. We’ve painted a number of rooms, installed laminate flooring in about half the house, got cool new bedroom furniture in February, etc. Our third bedroom has been what Wife calls “Steve’s Room” and what I call “The Crap Room.” It’s where the Mac lives, all my flyfishing gear lives, etc. It’s a mess, too, though it has been “re-decorated” at least once.

The mess and just plain disorganizedness of it has been wearing on me for a while now, though. I’m a big believer of the “mess environment, messy mind” theory. So, I wanted to redesign the room to be organized, attractive, useful, and “family friendly,” a new emphasis around our place with the arrival of Daniel.

So, Saturday we ordered some furniture, and I’ve been slowly (over the past few weekends) sorting and categorizing (Keep, Throw Away, Sell/Give Away). Next comes painting and then new furniture. I’ll post pics of the new furniture from the manufacturer’s website (warning: heavy Flash content) over the next few weeks. The furniture will be delivered within 3-8 weeks (what a tight window, huh?).

Mac keyboard shortcuts

Most for my own reference, but useful for anyone using a mac: Magical Macintosh Key Sequences [via Mr. Barrett]

This is a trackback test

dumpsterhead: nother test is a test post on my TypePad beta blog. There’s nothing really to see; I’m still playing around with the config stuff (hence the eyecatching color scheme).

independent vs. corporate content

John Gruber waxes eloquently about independent content in today’s Daring Fireball. He makes a lot of good points about the goals and means of independent vs. corporate content (and not just on the web). While his categories of “independent” and “corporate” imply a pigeon-holing that is pretty strict, his observations about content and audience can be applied to the advantage of corporate publishers as well. More on this later once I’ve had a chance to study on it a bit more.

UPDATE: Bloggers Gain Libel Protection

UPDATE: Jeff Balkin, an attorney who blogs clarifies the court’s decision mentioned here the other day. Bloggers aren’t protected from libel laws for things they write themselves, only for linking to libelous stories or — and this may be most important — libelous statements written by others but published in the blogger’s comments section.

Newspapers ARE liable for libelous statements in letters to the editor, presumably because they are checked thoroughly before publication. Would a newspaper that allows comments on its stories on its website which are NOT edited (just like most bloggers’ comments) be protected under this ruling if someone were to post a libelous comment to the newspaper’s website? I would think so (based upon my reading of the decision and my legal education), but it might have to get tested in court first, an expensive and embarrassing (just being accused) prospect for any newspaper.

That being said, I would like to see more newspapers experimenting with real comments sections targeted at individual stories, just as many bloggers (myself included) offer comment sections for each post, especially if reporters and editors get involved in the comments, creating a two-way conversation about the news.