Ming the Mechanic
The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
Tuesday, December 5, 2006day link 
 Barcelona Street Art
picture
Metafilter:
Barcelona Street Art. Most places consider graffiti a form of vandalism, but in Barcelona, street art is embraced. The result is a city with public walls like giant canvases of modern art.

[ | 2006-12-05 16:06 | 4 comments | PermaLink ]  More >

 Suxors
picture Hey, I just notice that I'm still #1 in a Google search for "Western Union Sucks" and "Budget Sucks".

Not that I'm particularly in the business of bad-mouthing others, but I do find it to be a wonderful balancing factor that anybody who feels they've been screwed over by some Big Soulless Corporation can simply talk about it on their own website and grab a part of the mindshare. Of course it helps a bit if one has a blog with PageRank 7.

If you didn't already know, whenever you would like to check out how clean a certain company is, searching for "[company name] sucks" in Google will give you a bit of a clue. OK, sometimes people badmouth companies for no fair reason, but if you find lots of entries from different people, you might catch wind that there might be some problems with their practices.

As you can see in the comments to my Western Union post, there's no lack of other people who've had the exact same experience. In brief, what happened to me was that I needed to transfer some money quickly, and they accepted the order, charged the money from my bank account immediately, and then later sent me an e-mail to call them, after which they presented me with a "security" interview, confronting me with erroneous 15 year old credit report entries on me, and when I didn't agree with them, they denied my transfer, and then took 10 days to refund my money. So much for "money in minutes".

And don't get me started on Budget Rent-a-car.
[ | 2006-12-05 16:08 | 3 comments | PermaLink ]  More >

 CMSILF
If you're in the market for a Content Management System, and OSCOM or OpenSource CMS are too complicated for you, then maybe you just need the complexity translated into terms you can understand, like in Content Management Systems I Would Or Wouldn’t Fuck, by Jason Stratham:
Would:

  • Vox - The Japanese schoolgirl of content management systems, practically begging for you to stalk it on Myspace or rub up on it in the subway.
  • Drupal - The exotic foreign exchange student. If you can figure out what the hell language it speaks, it’ll be so greatful for the attention it’ll bend over backwards and let you do whatever you want to it.

Wouldn’t:

  • Blogger - Really popular, and consequently has every virus known to science.
  • Wordpress - High maintenance; you have to read a lot of documentation in order to do it right. Always leaves you wondering if you should have used different plug-ins.
  • Movable Type - Looks like it used to be a lot of fun when it was younger; now it just sort of lays there and doesn’t do much. Takes forever to refresh. Spends most of its time changing in and out of different outfits.
  • Livejournal - The CMS most likely to be into Harry Potter bloodplay.
  • Textpattern - Looks very attractive and willing, but beware. Textpattern whispers in your ear “I’ll do whatever you want. Come on, touch me here,” and you touch it there and it DIES.
Hm, but what if I just want a candlelight dinner and snuggle in front of the fireplace kind of thing, what's my CMS?
[ | 2006-12-05 18:08 | 2 comments | PermaLink ]  More >

Main Page: ming.tv