I need to complete some significant rebuilds and updates on my servers this evening.  While the majority of this work will be completed without interruption, I do need to reboot them to complete the major updates.  I’ll be doing this around 10 PM Central this evening.  I thought I’d mention it in case you have some problems around that time.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

— Samuel Butler

Sadly, MTV appears to be a Microsoft whore.  I went to their site today to read the entertainment news and to either prove or dispel a rumor I heard yesterday about Linkin Park.  I clicked a link to read “more” news than what was shown on the main news page and was greeted with this:

PC Users with Netscape, Mozilla or Firefox: you need to run Internet Explorer to use MTV Overdrive.

That is quite disappointing.  I said before that web developers should code to standards and not to specific browsers.  What does MTV do when someone is running Linux?  And what about Macintosh users?  And what about people who don’t want to run IE because it’s full of security holes and doesn’t implement web standards correctly (or, at least, less correctly than other browsers)?  In essence, MTV is saying that it’s easier to subject users to possible security breaches and a substandard web experience than to code to W3C standards.  Pitiful… Just pitiful.

I know that IE still does not consistently display my own site correctly.  This is not because the site is incorrectly coded.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  My site is fully CSS and XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant (among other standards).  If Microsoft would fix the rendering engine in IE so that it correctly interprets and displays standards-based pages, this wouldn’t be an issue — but it still is and has been for years (as long as MS has been developing browsers, in fact).

I’m sorry that MTV has inept web programmers who are unable to see beyond Microsoft’s Internet Exploder while coding applications for a world audience.  I’m sorry that they try to force people to change their computing habits just to view their site content.  Sorry, guys, but that’s not how the web works.  The point is to be accessible to as broad an audience as possible, not to cram your own small-minded technology views down the throats of others.

I’ll not be visiting MTV’s site anymore.  I’d rather get my entertainment news from an organization which believes that its visitors should be able to decide on their own how best to access the site.

Oh, and another thing.  This also negates all accessibility standards that I also previously mentioned, so PC users who are blind and must use a “reader” rather than a “browser” are essentially screwed out of using MTV’s site as well.  That’s discriminatory, and it shocks me that MTV would support such blatant exclusionary practices.  Shame on you!

Republican Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the congressional representative for San Diego, today pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, tax evasion, and mail and wire fraud.  Caught with his own stupidity in a dirty house deal in California, investigators found Cunningham was selling his influence in government affairs.

This should come as no surprise.  He simply erred and was caught.  How many of them in office now are doing the same thing, have done it, or will do it given the first opportunity?  I feign shock and horror when you say a great many of them have been in the cookie jar at least once; I suspect that is accurate.  Most of them, I believe, will also get away with it.

In a written statement, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the case “is just the latest example of the culture of corruption that pervades the Republican-controlled Congress, which ignores the needs of the American people to serve wealthy special interests and their cronies.”

Nancy is a bit daft, is she not?  She inferred the corruption is only within the Republican segment of Congress, but what she meant is exactly what she said: it pervades the Republican-controlled Congress, and that happens to include members from all parties — including her own.  Kudos, Nancy!  I bathe in the warmth of your silver-tongued gaffe.