Al's Blog-o-Sphere

The efforts of Lockport’s City Fathers to pass a sign ordinance regulating what businesses can and can’t have for a sign reminds me of the Malvina Reynolds song Little Boxes:

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

[dewplayer:http://gritzmacher.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/malvina-reynolds-little-boxes.mp3]

While the song was about suburban architechture on the surface, the conformity this ordinance is attempting to impose fits just as well. Continue Reading…

Just sitting here thinking. That can be dangerous…

I’m not a big user of instant messaging, IM. I’ve had accounts on most of the IM networks, from ICQ years ago, to MySpace IM, a pointless exercise, and all those in between – AIM, Y! MSN etc.

I stopped installing all those – or any of those – networks clients when I found Trillian, a program that connects to all of them at once. It was kind of cool seeing all those little colored dots light up to tell you they were connected. Continue Reading…

According to ESPN, Marshawn Lynch will plead guilty to “an unspecified charge” next week in relation to the hit-and-run involving his SUV several weeks ago.

Doesn’t this raise red flags to you?

First of all, what are “unspecified charges?” You can’t tell me they don’t know what to charge him with. It sounds like Lynch and his lawyer are still bargaining over what they will copp to. Still wheeling and dealing with the justice system.

And next week? Haven’t we been patient enough already? Why is this whole thing going according to Lynch’s schedule? Continue Reading…

Now here’s a scam. I wish I thought of it. It’s gotta be a big moneymaker. A client of mine almost fell for it, but asked me first saving them $$$.

You probably realize that if you own a domain name for your web site, like gritzmacher.net, or microsoft.com, etc. you have to register it somewhere for it to work. I’m avoiding technical details here, because they don’t really matter for this discussion. And these domain registrations work for a period of time, then have to be renewed. Everyone has heard of stories where some big company somehow overlooked renewing their domain name, only to find it registered by someone else who eventually sells it back to them for big bucks.

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone reminded you that your domain was about to expire and offer to handle it for you? Continue Reading…