Recommended: Oregon Media Insiders

I've recently been following the conversation there. The community is still small, but appears to be growing. Decided to get an account and test the waters. Nice site that appears to be well run.

If you dig media gossip, then this site is worth a look a few times per month. Nice job Lynn!!

http://www.oregonmediainsiders.com/

The scandal of scandals.

From the Dailykos: Phony Front Companies Cycle Millions Back to GOP!

I'm not going to add much commentary here, this summary teaser should suffice:

The Duke Cunningham scandal goes much deeper than just the $2.4 million in bribes being reported by the media. There is a lot the media is not telling you.

Ever wonder why the Republicans have SO much money in every national election?

And what did the Dukester do to get his Rolls-Royce, anyway? Whose Lear Jet was he flying around in? The answers to those 3 questions turn out to be The. Biggest. Scandal. Ever!

The. Biggest. Scandal. Ever! on the flip!

Go on, you know you wanna get the scoop!

And they say bloggers are not journalists. Ha! The blogsphere is a bit noisy, but the good stuff never fails to rise to the top. Having been peer reviewed, commented on and contributed to, the top stories reach acceptable depth and credence far more quickly than they do via the traditional media channels these days. '06 is shaping up to be a very, very interesting year indeed!

Perhaps undoing scandals like these will bring elections closer to parity, allowing other parties a solid chance at some seats. Given the high disapproval ratings we are seeing today and our founders desire for a representative government, it seems only right for some gains to happen next year. Here's to hoping!

2005 Minigame Compo Voting is complete.

My first entry, Ooze written in the budding Batari Basic language for the 2600, managed to place 11th out of over 20 entries in the 4K game catagory.

You can view the voting results here. Go ahead and bonk on the results link, found at the left of the page. Dammit, I hate it when sitemasters make direct linking a non option.

That's it really, just happy others found my game worth the effort. While there, be sure and play the winners on your emulator of choice. While this is my first year actually taking part in the Compo, I've been a fan for a number of years. The quality of the games, given the harsh restrictions on system resources, is always better than one would expect otherwise.

Interestingly, had these games been made in the early 80's, the authors would have been millionaires! Now it happens for fun and to keep a rapidly fading art alive!

Riding the bus in Portland Oregon?

Then you really should give Google Transit a try. While Microsoft is working hard at playing 'look at me!', Google continues to churn out a steady stream of useful web services. Needless to say, I remain sold on Google for the time being.

Be sure and format your to and from route query properly. I found this example worked well.

12345 ne somestreet, portland oregon 12345 to 5432 sw someotherstreet, portland oregon 99887

They give an interesting cost to drive -vs- cost to transit comparison that I'm not totally sure I buy. For example, my drive to work takes about 20 minutes and uses about $1.50 in gas, but they said the trip actually costs about $4.00! Perhaps they are factoring in car wear, insurance averages, etc... Anyway, the transit time was fairly accurate, including the segments where you need to walk!