I’d like to share with you some of the search terms that brought people into OIM. Unfortunately, none of the search terms that led folks to this site were at all interesting, even though I feel there’s great potential. I offer no commentary because I’m pretty tired today, but some of them don’t need it. These make me fear for the people we are sharing our air with. Parental warning: Some of these are nas-tay!

minneapolis white girl like black guys

“raped than not”

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i like you minneapolis

is there a beach in minneapolis?

little boy porn

minneapolis hipster info

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mom with black guy

myspace www .com crazy white girls in mpls m.n.

o rly fat black lady

old enough to know better midi

sex world minneapolis phone number

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things minneapolis is good for

what happens in male saunas

whore bars minneapolis

(and I saved the best for last) what is it going to happen when you rub girl pussy

The plan was to upload some of the most wonderful pictures I have taken over the last few days, but unfortunately, I cannot locate a free Wi-Fi spot in Yakima, and I am not paying $10 to connect at Starbucks again. Screw that shit.

Oh, how I miss Minnesota and its Wi-Fi hot spots a-plenty. I miss having all of my saved websites and the saved passwords and cookies that I no longer take for granted. It was a chore just to remember how to get logged into my Movable Type from a different computer.

And yes, I miss you, too.

The coverage of yesterday’s bridge collapse has really been something to see. Newspapers from everywhere have dedicated their front pages to this tragedy, but the best stuff has come from the locals. There is a massive amount of information in that thread, from picture/video links to pointing out the newly updated bridge Wikipedia page to countless personal blogs where you can read first hand accounts to extremely insightful perspectives (via the suberb job Erica did on liveblogging at Metblogs). That doesn’t even include the local news sites, who did fantastic jobs covering the event, some staying up into the wee hours of the morning. It was particularly interesting to see how close the local online/blogging community is here.

My thoughts are with the people injured or deceased and their family members.

And for good reason. You should watch these if you haven’t already, 100 times over. Also, he’s going to be guest hosting the upcoming Flak Radio Podcast.

I HAVE WON THE INTERNET! (via.)
The internet has been defeated! I have finally come across the greatest thing to ever be put on the internet, therefore I WIN.

Please behold, in all its majesty, 1500 Filipino Prisoners reenacting “Thriller.” Let me say this again: FIFTEEN HUNDRED FILIPINO PRISONERS REENACTING “THRILLER” I dare you not to feel the same elation I felt. The best part? They are so good it’s totally unbelievable.

Whew, I haven’t used that much text formatting in, like, a really long time.

Notes from the YouTube clip state

1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice! This is not the final routine, and definitely not a punishment! just a teaser.

This more than likely means there were try outs for the main role. That is fantastic. Maybe not so much for the guy who had to sport the halter and pony tail, but he played it with dignity.

Several months back I was interviewed by a freelance writer for some thoughts on OIM; how it’s doing, plans for the future, etc. During the conversation I casually mentioned an interaction I had with the folks over at Overheard in New York that consisted of me emailing them, somewhat out of naivety but totally harmless, for advice on a few topics, including advertising. I was politely advised they did not mind my starting an Overheard site, but that they would not assist in developing a competing business. While I thought it was a tad on the ridiculous side at the time (my thought process at the time: their city population is more than our entire state, so competing I thought was a stretch), I completely side with their response and I hold no hard feelings at all. I mean, hello, if it weren’t for them, I never would have come up with this.

Fast forward a couple months to a follow up email stating she was not able to sell the story then, but now she’s working for City Pages and would like to put something in their Blotter, especially with the 1st Year Annivesary party approaching. I answered a few additional questions and hoped to see it show up in a few days. She also wanted to know more about that above story and even though I was trying to stress that there was no story, that it was not a big deal, she went ahead and contacted the people at Overheard in New York.

They basically told her the same thing and pointed out their newer addition, Overheard Everywhere where they not only accept submissions from, well, everywhere, but they also accumlate some of what they consider the best of the other Overheards across the world, give them their own headlines and link back to our sites. This is something I have been aware of for some time, and OIM has appeared on there quite a few times. I very much appreciate this part of their site. Who wouldn’t?

So, now I’m embarrassed. Actually, this calls for something stronger. I am fucking embarrassed. Something that occured over a year ago that probably wasn’t even a blip on their radar anymore, and it’s brought back to their attention in a way that definitely suggests I’m sitting over here bitter to the point that it’s being picked up by a journalist. Perhaps I am making a mountain out of a molehill here. One could argue they probably don’t give a rat’s ass about me or that exchange back then, but maybe they do. I quickly respond to her to clarify that if she intends to go with that angle for the story that it must include the fact that I agree with them on their response, hold no bad feelings, and that I am grateful for the spotlights they put on my little website. She agrees and acknowledges that it’s “not quite as tight of an angle” as she thought it was.

Fast forward a couple more weeks, and not a single word has been uttered, that I can tell, anywhere in their Blotter or elsewhere, and the party was a week ago. So I’m wondering why a scandal has to be what gets covered about OIM. Is it because of CP or because of the reporter? Either way, it made me feel pretty lousy, and nothing even ran!

Thank you.

PS, If I’m wrong and just missed it, someone please point it out and I will replace above post with an apology. I am not completely unapologetic. But until then, you’ve lost a reader and a supporter.

The SoundExchange executive [Jon Simson, executive director] promised — in front of Congress — that SoundExchange will not enforce the new royalty rates. Webcasters will stay online, as new rates are hammered out.

Read the rest: Wired.com - Blog Network - Listening Post

From Worse Than Failure:
Monday, July 09, 2007
by Alex Papadimoulis

Not too long ago, there was a small furor in the local media about a major disaster at The State’s Technology Services Division. The details were a bit sketchy – mostly because The State was “unable to comment on an ongoing investigation” – but what was reported was that, for two full days, employees of The State were unable to logon to their computers or access email, and that this caused business within The State to grind to a halt.

As the “investigation” carried on, the media lost interest in the story and moved on to more newsworthy stories like who Paris Hilton was partying with last weekend. Fortunately for us, a certain employee of The State named J.N. works in the Technology Services Division and decided to share what really was behind those fateful days.

When employees of The State came in to work following a three day weekend, they found their workstations overloaded with “cannot logon” and “Exchange communication” error messages. The Network Services folks had it even worse: the server room was a sweltering 109° Fahrenheit and filled with dead or dying servers.

At first, everyone had assumed that the Primary A/C, the Secondary A/C, and the Tertiary A/C had all managed to fail at once. But after cycling the power, the A/Cs all fired up and brought the room back to a cool 64°. At the time, the “why” wasn’t so important: the network administrators had to figure out how to bring online the four Exchange Services, six Domain Controllers, a few Sun servers, and the entire State Tax Commission’s server farm. Out of all of the downed servers, those were the only ones that did not come back to life upon a restart.

They worked day and night to order new equipment, build new servers, and restore everything from back-up. Countless overtime hours and nearly two hundred thousand dollars in equipment costs later, they managed to bring everything back online. When the Exchange servers were finally restored, the following email finally made its way to everyone’s inbox, conveniently answering the “why”

From: —– ———–
To: IT Department
Re: A/C constantly running.

To whom it may concern,

I came in today (Monday) to finish up a project I was working
on before our big meeting with the State —– Commission tomorrow,
and I noticed that there were three or four large air conditioners
running the entire time I was here. Since it’s a three day weekend,
no one is around, why do we need to have the A/C running 24/7?

With all the power that all those big computers in that room use, I
doubt it is really eco-friendly to run those big units at the same
time. And all computers have cooling fans anyway, so why put the A/C
for the building in that room?

I got a keycard from [the facility manager’s] desk and shut off the
A/C units. I’m sure you guys can deal with it being warm for an hour
or two when you come in tomorrow morning.

In the future, let’s try to be a little more conscientious of our
energy usage!

Thanks,
—–

As for the employee who sent it, he decided to take an early retirement.

(via.)

I had Overheard’s June entries rated and this is what it spit at me:


This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

* ass (6x)
* sex (3x)
* poop (2x)
* hurt (1x)

When I had it rate just the first page, the recent posts received a “PG” rating based on the presence of the following words:

* gay (2x)
* dead (1x)

I am not sure why they didn’t appear when it looked at the whole month. At any rate, you heard it here first! Overheard in Minneapolis should have a Parental Warning! Back off kiddies!

from The SaveNetRadio Coalition

The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). To protest these rates and encourage the millions of net radio listeners to take action and contact their Congressional representatives, a national Day of Silence will be held June 26. Webcasters across the country will observe this day of silence in a number of ways, including dedicating entire programs to the campaign to save Internet Radio and broadcasting complete silence. For an updated list of the participants in this national day of silence, visit http://www.kurthanson.com/dos/. Webcasters who would like to participate in the day of silence, place contact the SaveNetRadio coalition at dayofsilence@savenetradio.org. Net radio listeners, please excuse the interruption of your normal programming and take action to ensure this silence is not permanent. Call your Congressional Representatives today.

Contact your Senators or Representatives and tell them to support The Internet Radio Equality Act H.R. 2060, that was introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL).