Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Long before Mr Rogers made the scene, Mr. Peppermint entertained (and educated) the small fry of North Texas. I note with sadness that Jerry Haynes, who created and played that character, passed away yesterday at age 84 of complications from Parkinson's disease. He started the role in 1961 on WFAA (the ABC affiliate for the area), wearing a red and white striped jacket and straw hat, and carrying a candy-striped cane. I was in first grade at the time. As was the fashion at the time, he had a collection of stock characters, mostly puppets; the one I remember best was Mr. Wiggly Worm - performed by Haynes by sticking his finger up through the hole in the bottom of the box in which Mr. Wiggly Worm lived. Simple but amusing to us, his audience. Wikipedia notes that through a quirk of fate and timing, Jerry Haynes was the first person to report the assassination of John F Kennedy on local news. Haynes was born and raised in Dallas, graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School and train...

Okay - update to my unfortunate brush with the Google+ Identity Police . My "old" identity, "Dr Ralph," did not past muster. Having read the reports of how Google+ was cracking down on fictitious identities, it came as no real surprise to discover they'd finally sniffed me out and suspended my Google profile , although the Gmail account associated with the account was untouched. They *did* offer me an opportunity to edit my profile to come up with something less overtly fake. Amazingly, "Post Ralphaelite," was good enough (this is also the ID that Facebook found acceptable). So I'm back.

Well, I suspected this would happen when I started hearing about Google+'s "Identity Policy." Boiled down, it says users must use their real name or a name they use in everyday life on their Google+ profile . Yeah, well that's not going to happen here. Do you think I'm out of my mind? So, for the record "Dr Ralph" did not meet their standard for real names. Am I surprised? Not particularly. To their credit, Google does give you a chance to edit your profile so as to meet their standards. We'll just see if "Post Ralphaelite" passes muster. I have a feeling it may take several passes before I wiggle past their Identity Cop. For the record, Facebook didn't like "Dr Ralph," either. Stay tuned.

For the past 3 months or so, you needed an invitation from an existing member to join Google+. Not that this was much of a problem - there were numerous on-line presences that would extend an invite to anyone who emailed them and asked for one. A few enterprising souls attempted to sell them on eBay. Still, "by invitation only" gave the service the cachet of pseudo-exclusivity, much like Facebook in the early days. No more! Google announced on the Official Google Blog that, among the many other numbered improvements they've added, invitations are no longer required. Take that , Facebook. Most of the other improvements announced centered around the Hangout feature, which I've never used. By the way, my Google+ profile is shown on the right sidebar of the blog (at least until they catch wind of the fuzziness of my actual identity). Update : I've been busted by the Identity Police !

Once upon a time, Netflix was touted as a case study in the emerging world of dot-com startups. Now it's an object lesson. In case you've missed the drama, Netflix, not satisfied with pissing off its customer base by splitting its DVD-by-mail and streaming subscription services (net result: nearly doubling the cost for both services), continues its campaign by announcing the two services will be split into two distinct companies, with separate billing and customer accounts. If you were a Netflix customer and hadn't dropped one or the other service in the wake of the price boost, this will likely do the trick. For those of you out there who were never customers, here's a little background. Netflix launched its original DVD-by-mail service in 1997 using a traditional $4 per rental model. By 1999, they'd moved to a subscription service that featured unlimited rentals without due dates or shipping fees (the different tiers of service revolved around how many disk at a ...

Mozilla (who produces, among other things, the open source Firefox web browser) is running a promotion for " 4 Tools for Back to School. " Among them is the browser extension Zotero , which is used to collect, manage and cite on-line research resources.  It is a product of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, where Youngest Son is a Junior Computer Science major. Kudos to the team that produced it and congratulations for the deserved recognition - it is a very slick tool. Read more about Zotero at the Zotero site . If you've never visited the Center for History and New Media website, check it out - Zotero is but one of many useful tools to be found there for historians, educators and scholars.

The word "anniversary" doesn't feel right - anniversaries are something I associate with joy. I don't feel qualified to make any profound observations or pontificate on the significance of today. I'll leave that to others. Instead, let me point you to a piece in the New York Times entitled " Mom's Last Lesson, " written by a friend who lost his brother at the Pentagon that day. Today's Doonesbury pretty much nailed it, too. For the record, I'm leaving my TV off today, too. I rewatched that horrible footage way more than was healthy when it first aired.

If you know British actor Hugh Laurie primarily from his hit TV show House, you may be unaware of his previous role on the BBC production of "Jeeves and Wooster," based on the stories of P. G. Wodehouse (both the TV series and the books they were based on are hilarious). Laurie was a comic genius in these, but he also displayed his musical talents, performing (in character as Bertie Wooster) novelty songs of the era. I was always left wanting just a little more. I want no more! The multi-talented Mr Laurie has released a CD entitled Let Them Talk inspired by his love of New Orleans blues. It is great stuff!!! I downloaded it from the Amazon MP3 store (my favorite source of downloaded music these days) and am marveling at the goodness of it all. He sings, plays guitar and piano, and is joined by a number of outstanding guests, such as Dr. John and Tom Jones. Hit his website for more info and some downloads. Here's a sampling to give you a taste (I own a mahogany...

My libertarian friends are fond of trumpeting all of the alleged failures of the Obama administration. For the record I find myself becoming disillusioned as well for his less than sterling performance in a few specific areas. "Obamacare:" this was not healthcare reform - this was insurance re-form. What we needed was a single-payer system, like Canada. What we got was bullshit. I don't care what they say, this was a giant french-kiss to the leviathan that is the insurance industry in this country. FAIL. Copyright and Intellectual Property issues : the Music and Movie industries (RIAA and MPAA) have lots of money and absolutely no shame.These are the people who have attempted to argue that the musicians who record albums produced " work for hire ," who use their ratings system to lock out independent filmmakers , who use their army of attorneys to shut down websites without any sort of due process, who work to erode *your* rights under copyright law. Obama ...