Captain Digital

Random musings on politics, society, and pop culture from the Internet's marketing curmudgeon.

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Flying blind…

I recently (four days ago, to be exact) updated the software this blog runs on, to the latest and greatest version – i.e., WordPress v.2.7. The upgrade was surprisingly easy to do, and by all appearances, went off without a hitch. Um…ALMOST without a hitch. Seems that one of the things that got trashed along the way was the settings for my Google Analytics code. Whoops.

I usually check my GA stats on a daily basis, just to see what’s going on. Check more often, and it will drive you nuts. Less frequently, and you stand to miss a trend…or a problem.

It had been four days since I’d checked my GA account. Color me “surprised” to learn that I’d (according to GA) gone from a significant readership to ZERO hits for the last four days. That’s like going from 60 to zero in, oh, about 0.0 seconds.

Once I saw the stats, I knew something was wrong. I dialed up the New! Improved! control panel, and found that my GA settings were pooched. No code – no tracking. No tracking – no results. No results – unhappy blogger.

I’ve restored the tracking code, and all should be right in my world.

But I’ll keep checking. As Joe Bob Briggs (Drive-In Movie Critic of Grapevine, Texas) says, “Without eternal vigilance, it can happen here.”

Governorgate.

I’m I the only one that is watching the situation in Illinois with a sense of 70’s déjà vù? I mean, this is kind of like watching the döppelganger of a famous scandal (that gave us the postfix “-gate”). I was all of 16 years old, between my junior and senior years in high school in 1974. I was at Louisiana Boys’ State, learning about government down in Baton Rouge – the state capitol. They called us into a big hall and had us sit down and get quiet. Nobody told us what was going on, but we knew it was something bad from the solemn looks on all the adult’s faces. Richard Nixon’s voice came on the radio. He announced that he was resigning from the Presidency. 

You could have heard a pin drop. Some 350-odd teenage boys, not breathing, not making a sound. It was history being made, and we all knew it. 

So you see, I have a special connection to Watergate. And I know that those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. Let’s see how we’re doing so far: [Read more…] about Governorgate.

G-Rod gets caught red-handed.

NEWS ITEM: Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a “staggering” level of corruption involving pay to play politics in Illinois’ top office.

Blagojevich is accused of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy, including alleged attempts by the governor to try to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. Blagojevich also is accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions.

FBI agents served a search warrant on his office at the Thompson Center this morning, said Frank Bochte, an FBI spokesman.

Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning—one day shy of his 52nd birthday.

Wow. [Read more…] about G-Rod gets caught red-handed.

As scene on TV…

One of the many benefits of having a home office is having a TV on my desk. I keep it tuned to Fox News or the Sirius Classic Jazz channel for most of the day – having either a background of news or jazz suits me just fine. I also have a conveniently-located mute button, in case I need to take a call, work on audio, or if it gets distracting.

This time of year, most companies pushing gifts spend a year’s worth of ad budgets in 30 days or less. Where as before November 2nd we were assaulted with All Political Ads, All The Time, now it’s ads for Omaha Steaks (making me hungry), has-been singers pushing a Greatest Hits album, or the latest and greatest kitchen appliance, each and every one guaranteed to be The Perfect Christmas Gift.

I’m sure you’re as annoyed with this kind of dreck as I am – at least you would be if you left your TV on all day. My vote for the most annoying ad in the Fox News rotation? Christy Lane’s 30 Christmas Classics. [Read more…] about As scene on TV…

O.J. (Karmically speaking.)

Karma. What goes around comes around. Fate. Call it what you will, it looks as if Orinthal Julius Simpson has finally gotten what he deserves. I’m not sure if the time he’ll serve is more severe because of his infamy over beating the rap for murdering his wife and a waiter. It could be that he’ll serve less time, because he’s famous. In this case, I doubt it, because he already used his “Get out of Jail FREE” card he was issued due to his fame. Nope, I think he’s getting what he’s gotten, at least partially because he got off scott-free before. Not just that – he got off, and then spent the intervening years searching for his wife’s “real” killer on the nation’s finest golf courses.

Give me a break. [Read more…] about O.J. (Karmically speaking.)

A little housekeeping…

Well, campers, the readership of Captain Digital Speaks! is growing by leaps and bounds. That’s good. Unfortunately, along with that growth comes a bunch of associated problems – mostly of the spam variety. At first, it was enough to simply delete entries that were obviously spam. That worked for a while, but as you would expect, spammers have gotten increasingly more aggressive, not to mention crafty. Whereas before, I’d get a comment that was obviously spam (my favorite had to be the Viagra ad that was posted in reply to a piece I wrote about the Episcopal schism). But recently, the spammers have gotten sneaky – they’ll actually reply with some text that looks as if it’s a real comment…but then link back to a bogus website that either attempts to sell you the latest in sexual dysfunction products, or (even worse in my book) attempts to infect your computer with a variety of virus code. Not fun.

So with something of a deep breath and a great deal of trepidation, I’ve reconfigured the blog to require everyone to register before commenting. Furthermore, I’ve implemented a WordPress plugin that is designed to detect bots and gently discourage them from registering…or posting.

Frankly, I’m a bit fed up with idiots trying to spam this blog. I’m trying to share what I know with a larger audience. It’s a lot of work to post on a daily basis. While I enjoy all the “real” feedback I get, having to deal with a bunch of second-raters who parasitically glom onto creative work and then use it to spread their useless snake oil wares is a colossal waste of time. I’m in hopes that I can eliminate the spammers from the site, and get back to spending my time talking about marketing.

If you have any problems with the registration process, please let me know.

Ayn Rand was Right.

I think most people go through life paying attention to their own specific interests, all the while blotting out what’s happening around them. They only wake up when something dramatic happens, or when it’s too late to do something about whatever it is that’s suddenly captured their attention.

9/11 is a case in point.

Aside from CIA, FBI, and NSA people, most people living in the pre-9/11 world had no concept of the danger we face from Islamic fascism.

That’s human nature, I suppose. We tune out most things that happen around us, because, frankly, we just don’t have the bandwidth. But that’s a dangerous habit when it comes to personal safety/homeland security. I’ve also come to believe that it’s equally dangerous when it comes to society and culture – specifically pop culture. [Read more…] about Ayn Rand was Right.

Journalistic Malpractice.

Keeping to my pledge to lay off politics for a while is going to prove to be more difficult than I thought.

Yesterday, I heard a report of an on-air chat between reporters talking heads Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw, where they sat around (basking in the post-election afterglow) and opined that nobody really knows anything about our President-Elect. They were somewhat mystified that anyone could get elected to the Presidency, without knowing what they think about the important issues of the day. (Keep in mind, we’re not listening to a couple of wet-behind-the-ears, 20-something bloggers here – these two gentlemen of the press have what amounts to a lifetime of experience between the two of them.) They both remarked that “we don’t really know anything about Obama.”

Whaaaa?!

[Read more…] about Journalistic Malpractice.

Conservative News…and Views.

Amarillo is a pretty conservative place. Conservative politically. Conservative socially. Conservative fiscally. So it came as something of a surprise to me that there was no local, conservative newspaper or magazine to provide conservative viewpoints on local and national issues.

Now, there is.

The Amarillo American Standard has released it’s first issue, as of today. I designed it, and contributed both artwork and one feature story. It’s available all over Amarillo, at various merchants. If you’d like to look at a copy online (and don’t mind a 3MB PDF) you can download it here.

This is the “preview issue” – the plan is to begin publishing on a weekly basis, starting in January.

Let me know what you think.

Karma is a Hillary.

shirt courtesy of VectorRight.com

There are so many ironies in the last days of the campaign, that I hardly know where to begin. But I’ll try. Here’s a baker’s half-dozen things that I think the Left is doing to hand McCain the victory he wants, and the country needs:

ITEM ONE:
The latest flaw in the Master Plan of The Chosen One revolves around a video tape detailing the close, personal relationship Obama had with a Palestinian terrorist. At least that’s what it smells like, but the L.A. Times (“All the news we slant and print”) won’t release it. They’ll be more than happy to tell us what (they say) is on the tape, but are standing on “journalistic ethics” (an oxymoron, with an emphasis on the last two syllables) if ever I heard one), and refuse to release it. [Read more…] about Karma is a Hillary.