Welcome to the my Web site, v. XII. The blog is typically published Monday - Saturday. My primary topics tend to be the Nats, Penn State (esp. football), BeltwayLand, transportation, media, photos and more. The rest of the site gets updated as warranted and is noted on the blog.
I have been using Blogger for this blog's content management for nearly six years, but that is coming to an end. Blogger will no longer be supporting FTP starting March 26, 2010. While they provide a migration tool, that won't get the job done for me since I want everything to reside on yurasko.net (or yurasko.com) and I am not about to put the domain in Blogger's hands. So, I need to find a new content management solution, something I have considered several times over the years.
"Platform nonchalant" is the new platform agnostic - William World News
Thursday, September 17, 2009
"Platform nonchalant" is the new platform agnostic
I really have not had a lunch break today, thus preventing me from blogging in any depth. There is a big meeting for my part of the company and the group I am in watched a presentation in a conference room over and had a pot luck lunch. During the presentation, one of the speakers said we needed to be "platform agnostic." Hearing that I wondered, "does this mean we are not sure we believe there is a platform?"
I essentially posted that on twitter and got a few good responses. The best response came from my friend Tom who suggested a new expression -- "platform nonchalant."
The Post advertises on washingtontimes.com - William World News
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Post advertises on washingtontimes.com
Searching for this morning's Nats headlines, I noticed that the prime advertising real estate on washingtontimes.com had an ad for The Washington Post, the direct competitor. This probably happened because washingtontimes.com advertising inventory is being handled by a third party network and not the Web site staff. One would at least hope so because this looks kind of bad if they are selling ads to their biggest rival.
Here is what a colleague in Ad Ops has to say about this:
That's hilarious.
I would assume that it’s coming from a remnant ad network that they're running on their site...It seems very strange that they wouldn’t have The Washington Post in their blocked list, assuming they have one.
Maybe Dan Snyder is running their sales department over there. You know he'll sell ads to anyone and put them anywhere he can.
New newspaper Web sites: Baltimore Sun & CDT - William World News
Monday, June 22, 2009
New newspaper Web sites: Baltimore Sun & CDT
In the last month or so, two newspaper Web sites in my regular rotation have redesigned their front pages.
centredaily.com - The new CDT site is so...2002. After all of these years, the paper of record in State College still doesn't have a very good Web site. The new design is functional, but blocky and boring. The top navigation is useful though.
The site loads slowly though, about 5 seconds before the page becomes visible and it does not completely load until about 12 seconds have elapsed.
baltimoresun.com - The new Web site debuted last week with the "flag" showing "THE BALTIMORE SUN" prominently in the same typeface as the dead tree version. The page is full of modules with internal tabs that make finding stories about specific topics from the "print sections" possible without navigating away from the home page. That is a good thing too since the load time on this page is pretty bad -- about 9 seconds for it to start appearing in the browser and 16 seconds until all the scripts have loaded. The modules probably have something to do with the slow load time, so in the end, they are probably a mixed blessing. The page also has a little too much "trapped gray space." Overall though, not a bad design and improvement over previous efforts.
Jay Paterno blogs and is on Twitter - William World News
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Jay Paterno blogs and is on Twitter
Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno may not be able to "download a jar of peanut butter," but his quarterbacks coach and son, Jay Paterno is so Web 2.0. The younger occasionally blogs at The HD Journal and is on Twitter pretty regularly. Today's tweet is how I knew it was 100 days until football season.
I hurt my shoulder recently and it has been getting worse, so I am going to rest it a little which means no blogging. Too much mousing around seems to be the culprit. I'm saving it for taking care of Will and work. Hopefully, I'll be ready to go Monday morning after a weekend of rest and mint juleps.
I have a post about i-99 scheduled to roll at 10 a.m. (I think), but other than that you probably not see anything new. Sadly my Pengyunz Haterade post is going to be shelved unless one of my assistant editors feels like taking dictation. I am not counting on that happening.
# posted by Kevin McGuire :
Friday, May 01, 2009 11:44:00 AM
You still should man up and make a pick.
# posted by TMBC :
Friday, May 01, 2009 2:57:00 PM
As you brother I feel it is my job to call you a girly man for injuring your shoulder while using a mouse. I'll point out that the times I have injured my shoulders involve: playing softball, crashing on a black diamond in Colorado, and fighting.
As the ergonomics lead for my office, I feel sympathy and suggest you either use a trackball mouse or contact medical in your building. Provided that they haven't been laid off yet.
Rather than point out the manliness shortcomings of TMBC and YBC, I'll simply take your comments as you volunteering to weed our garden for me. I will concede that both of you exceed my manliness when it comes to dorsal topiary.
Blogger was pretty much busted for the weekend so the comments only showed up now. Good timing for that sort of thing I suppose.
Concur with YBC on the ergonomic side. There's a decent trackball from Logitech that will suffice (it lacks a lateral scroll feature on the wheel, but the left click and ball make up for it). It'll run you about $30 for it.
# posted by Muha :
Monday, May 04, 2009 5:15:00 PMPost a Comment
GeoCities: Not dead yet, but soon - William World News
Friday, April 24, 2009
GeoCities: Not dead yet, but soon
So Long, GeoCities: We Forgot You Still Existed - PC World That headline pretty much says it all -- who knew GeoCities was still alive? Raise your hand if you had a GeoCities page at one point (*raises hand*). It all went downhill when the brought pop-ups into the Web. The watermarks were dumb too. Do we even consider GeoCities Web 1.0?
The story has some other rich nuggets:
GeoCities is survived by two cousins, Angelfire and Tripod, along with an uncle, Jeeves. All three are believed to be terminally ill.
Of the 12 remaining GeoCities users, only one was available for comment. "Holy crap!" said the user, a red-faced fellow named Strong Bad. "The scroll buttons and animated GIFs on that site were unbeatable."
The GeoCities site is expected to remain functional through midyear as a tribute to its life. Funeral arrangements are now pending.
Left unsaid is the curious decision by declining social network MySpace to emulate the look of GeoCities in its heydey.
Welcome to my Web site, thanks for visiting. I am William F. Yurasko and this is where I blog about things that interest me. Frequent topics include:
Washington Nationals - I have been blogging about the Nats since before the arrived. My first post about D.C. baseball on this blog was April 9, 2004 (though I mentioned D.C baseball as far back as 2000 on the predecessor of this blog). A great deal of my Nats content, from the time they were relocating from Montréal, has been an executive news summary style link aggregation of daily headlines with commentary. I also recap Nats games and other events and include photography.
Penn State - As a 1999 graduate of the Pennsylvania State University, I spent a lot of time thinking about and following my alma mater, especially the Nittany Lions football team. I don't get up there like I used to, but I am still keeping an eye on campus and State College.
Washington Capitals - D.C.'s hockey team is my second favorite local team. Back when they were still wearing those stupid black uniforms, I made it out to half-a-dozen games a year. Now, it is more like one.
BeltwayLand - That is my nickname for the greater Washington D.C. area. I blog about stuff around D.C., Northern Virginia and even Maryland to some extent.
Food & Drink - From time to time we get create in the kitchen or grill and I blog about it. More often I seem to be blogging about restaurants I have eaten at locally and elsewhere. People really like it when I blog about "exotic" fast food joints that are not in the D.C. area. I also talk about beverages now and then.
New York Yankees - They are my AL team; my grandfather was born and raised on 161th Street in the South Bronx (same street as both Yankee Stadiums) and my mother worked for them during the end of the Mickey Mantle era. For the record, I am Swiss in games between the Nats and Yankees.
Yale - The old man went there, so I keep an eye on it, especially the football team.
Other D.C. teams - I blog about the Redskins and the NFL occasionally and recently aligned my NFL allegiance to the Redskins. I am pretty ambivalent about them, but occasionally have something to say. I am even more ambivalent about D.C. United and the Wizards, but enjoy attending their games.
Transportation -- Ever since I was a little kid I have enjoyed reading road maps and highways in general. I also blog about trains and subways, especially the new Silver Linemetro being built along the Dulles corridor.
Blogging/WWW - I am new media professional and avid blogger, so I am always interested in what is new and exciting in the field. Note that I do not represent the views of my employer and I don't even publicly that company.
I use Blogger as my content management system. Subscriptions to the blog are available in numerous formats linked on the top left side of the page or at the bottom of individual entires. I also use Twitter and Flickr.
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Web Site Terms and Conditions of Use - William World News
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Welcome back, Marmaduke Explained - William World News
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Welcome back, Marmaduke Explained
After a six month absence, Marmaduke Explained has returned with several posts this month. I have highlighted a couple of recent posts in my Google Reader widget over the last few days. Hopefully, Joe Mathlete will continue to provide us his observations on America's first or second most popular large orange/red cartoon dog.
Courtesy of his favorite site, dcrtv.com, I have learned that Don Geronimo of the late Don & Mike Show is on Twitter. He is getting remarried in a week and waiting out his non-compete clause. I'm following...
5 years and 5 days of William World News - William World News
Monday, March 16, 2009
5 years and 5 days of William World News
Last week I forgot to mention that Wednesday, March 11 was the fifth anniversary of this blog. It has been a fun ride that I have gotten a lot out of that I never expected. If you are so inclined, check out the Best of WWN for highlights of some of my favorite, most popular, most notable blog posts over the last five years.
You found me! Most popular posts 03.2008 - 02.2009 - William World News
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
You found me! Most popular posts 03.2008 - 02.2009
On March 1 I completed a year of using Google Analytics on this Web site. While I believe Google Analytics may undercount (Sitemeter thinks I have more hits/visits) it is nevertheless a very robust service. Over the next week or so, I will be sharing a few details from my site tracking
Here are the most popular posts to William World News between March 1, 2008 and Feburary 28, 2009
This is of course inexact science since it is possible to read entire posts from the index page or archives. This favors people who only come to the site based on searches and are not necessarily regular readers.
8 years later: Prehistoric Nats blog post - William World News
Monday, March 09, 2009
8 years later: Prehistoric Nats blog post
Years ago, my Web site had a news section, called Weekly William News (named after the long-lost/lamented Weekly World News) that I updated manually. Essentially, it was a blog, but I didn't call it that since I had not heard of such a thing yet. It also did not have any sort of content management system, so after working with even a primitive one professionally, I lost interest in updating pages through a text editor and FTP.
Anyway, eight years ago today, I put up this "post" on the proto-blog:
Of course, MLB waited another 4½ years to listen to me and I did not blog about D.C. baseball again until April 9, 2004 (fourth item), about a month after I started up William World News. Distinguished Senators, the first blog specifically about D.C. baseball, waited until June 2004.
Okay, enough Nats stuff. What say ye on the PSU cagers chances of making the NCAA tourney?
# posted by The Maryland Bureau Chief :
Monday, March 09, 2009 1:58:00 PM
Don't worry TMBC, I'm going to be working on a post, probably for tomorrow, about that subject. No time for lunch blogging today.
# posted by WFY :
Monday, March 09, 2009 2:12:00 PM
Post a CommentYou found me! Tracking keyword searches to this blog - William World News
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
You found me! Tracking keyword searches to this blog
On March 1 I completed a year of using Google Analytics on this Web site. While I believe Google Analytics may undercount (Sitemeter thinks I have more hits/visits) it is nevertheless a very robust service. Over the next week or so, I will be sharing a few details from my site tracking
The most popular search to William World News over the last year was overwhelmingly Bob Shepherd, ailing Yankee Stadium p.a. announcer. In aggregate, 2.37% of visits related to Bob Shepherd.
Other popular searches: Don and Mike, penn state TV, penn state football story, pj maierhofer, les halles pronunciation, sports cafe state college, gmail crashes firefox, tony's big easy and national chili day. The highest Nationals related search was "fire jim bowden" the 42nd most popular keyword.
On March 1 I completed one year of using Google Analytics on this Web site. While I believe Google Analytics may undercount (Sitemeter thinks I have more hits/visits) it is nevertheless a very robust service. Over the next week or so, I will be sharing a few details from my site tracking. The first post, on keyword searches, will publish at 10 a.m. today.
Title of the post and upcoming series stolen from the immortal Run Up the Score!
# posted by 3-time La Coupe Hauxer Champions :
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 6:05:00 PM
Probably, it would be good for my Web traffic too.
# posted by WFY :
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 6:44:00 PM
Post a CommentI think I'll be quitting Facebook over their new Terms of Service - William World News
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
I think I'll be quitting Facebook over their new Terms of Service
Revised TOS Gives Facebook Perpetual Rights to User Content - Marketing Vox The headline just about says it all. Frankly, Facebook is not that important to me and if they don't change these terms by COB Friday, I'm done with the service on Saturday morning.
Facebook has a rebuttal up, but I am not satisfied with it -- change the TOS if you really mean it, Zuckerberg.
Today is the 13th anniversary of my first Web site. Little did I know what I was getting into back then. If you are interested in finding out more, I had a lot more to say about my Web site(s) back on the 10th anniversary.
You are on thin ice with me Blogger - William World News
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
You are on thin ice with me Blogger
Here is the problem. If you are seeing this post, they have fixed it -- at least temporarily.
I am leaning towards moving to a real CMS, but have been advised Joomla isn't great for blogging. What about Drupal? I would hate to put the effort of upgrading everything for just WordPress.
Why wasn't Sammy Baugh above the scroll/fold on Post? - William World News
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Why wasn't Sammy Baugh above the scroll/fold on Post?
The greatest Redskin of all (if not the greatest D.C. athlete ever), Sammy Baugh, died last night. For some reason, washingtonpost.com did not feature this news above the scroll as of 9:45 a.m. Their local competitors washtimes.com and dcexaminer.com both had Baugh in their carousels. On the print edition, Baugh's passing is only noted at the bottom. The front page of The Wash. Times has the news on the fold. Even the Philly Daily News had Baugh's passing noted on the back (sports) page.
Baugh made football in this town and revolutionized passing. He was also one of the greatest punters of all time and an excellent defensive back. His #33 is the only number officially retired by the Redskins. He was the only quarterback to lead the Redskins to multiple titles (1937 and 1942). I hope the Redskins honor him with a #33 patch on their uniforms for the rest of the season.
Depending on the source, Baugh may have never returned to Washington after retiring in 1952, preferring life on his Texas ranch.
Better Wifi at Nationals Park in '09 - William World News
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Better Wifi at Nationals Park in '09
Washington Nationals swing for the fences with high-speed Wi-Fi - Computer World Next season, fans will be able to download game highlights to handhelds, among other things I don't go to the ballpark with a laptop (I like watching the game unplugged as it were) so this news means nothing for me, but I know some people will appreciate it.
Another early Nats blog is shutting down, this time MissChatter :(. She promises to keep posting of photos on her flickrstream though and crashing attending Nats events. Hopefully hosting Baseball on the Barn will live on too. I don't know how she did it for so long.
So, the 2005 Nats (of course I started in 2004) bloggers lose another member -- not too many of us are left. I am not exactly burning it up like I used to either, though my Google Reader recommendations are full of Nats links when appropriate.
Jim Bowden meets Fire Jim Bowden - William World News
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Jim Bowden meets Fire Jim Bowden
What happens when the blogger from Fire Jim Bowden meets Jim Bowden? An epic battle between blogger and an embattled Nationals general manager. As debates go, this one probably goes down as a tie, but that in itself is a win for the blogger, no?
FJB also talked to Stan Kasten and Mike Rizzo. The former acted as he has for the last two years, while the latter provided some insight and reminded us why "Nationals GM Mike Rizzo" is something we would not mind hearing in 2009.
Anybody have any suggestions on FTP clients? I have been using CuteFTP, but it seems prone to not actually uploading files when it says it does. As you can imagine that is quite frusturating. It could be the server too, but I can't do anything about that so trying a different FTP client seems like a good start.
How long until China shuts down Twitter? - William World News
Monday, August 04, 2008
How long until China shuts down Twitter?
Have you noticed that "will be Twittering from Beijing" has been mentioned in most Olympics coverage? I wonder how long until China shuts Twitter down.
We Love DC launches; Metroblogging DC withers - William World News
Monday, July 07, 2008
We Love DC launches; Metroblogging DC withers
Remember Metroblogging DC? I used to be a regular over there. The regulars who stayed have broken away and launched a new site called We Love DC. It is pretty much the same idea as Metroblogging, but with a superior design and completely local ownership. It went live on Independence Day. Coverage will be anything inside the Beltway. I am may even get involved with it, we'll see.
washingtonpost.com cutting back on chats - William World News
washingtonpost.com cutting back on chats
Post.com Cuts Back On Online Chats - Fishbowl DC Fewer live discussions? Chats are one of the things that really sets washingtonpost.com apart from other newspaper Web sites -- nobody has done them better. For the record, my favorite chats, in no particular order are the Nationals, Gene Weingarten, Marc Fisher and Capitals. I also check in on the Tom Sietsema, Dave Shenin and Thomas Boswell chats.
This development could be a great opportunity for washingtontimes.com to claim some chat traffic by upgrading their software to something more robust.
Ultimate Sports Roadtrip visits Nationals Park - William World News
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Ultimate Sports Roadtrip visits Nationals Park
Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell of The Ultimate Sports Roadtrip, attended last weekend's games at Nationals Park. These two guys from Buffalo have been to every venue in each of the traditionally four big North American sports leagues (and then some). Back in 2005, I (unknowingly) talked to one of them during batting practice of a Nats vs. Cubs game at RFK.
Aside from the Nats Express buses to RFK, they seemed to enjoy the new park. No mention of half-smokes though, I hope they got to sample some. I will link to their official review when it comes up, in the meantime, here is what they blogged about the trip:
Western Alexandria: Near the end of his life, Thompson was quite angry about the Bush presidency. I kind of get the feeling that he would have been very pleased by the Obama run.
Alex Gibney: I do think you're right. I suspect that Hunter would have liked Obama. He seems to capture the same kind of idealism that Hunter responded to with Robert F. Kennedy and George McGovern.
Actually, I know Thompson would have been all over the Obama campaign, but he chose to blow his head off in 2005. Back then, I said it was a "logical end to an illogical life" and while I still maintain that is true, I was not defending his decision. Suicide is a the most selfish act and had he not made that decision, he would finally have a candidate he could believe in. The joke's on him I guess, so in other words teenage suicidegonzo journalist suicide, don't do it.
Tonight's the nigh...wait a minute - William World News
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tonight's the nigh...wait a minute
With the arrival of my son, I have had to reevaluate the time I spend blogging. For over four years I have been posting the day's Nationals headlines with commentary around 6:30 a.m. six days a week. It has been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. I have come to unavoidable conclusion that things need to change, so I started to investigate "retirement."
Recently, I visited a Nats bloggers retirement home, located on the old D.C. General Hospital near RFK Stadium, to see what it was like. One former blogger merely sat their painting pictures of Ricky Henderson in a Nats uniform. He looked up at me and said, "you have a blog?" Another stared at a photo for former catcher Brian Schneider while tears ran down his face. The most recent addition noted he still had higher traffic than the top three Nats blogs combined, despite not posting for a month. Then he swallowed a veggie dog whole. Sideways. Even 2006 color commentator Tom Paichorek was there, occasionally saying "Wow" and nothing else. Saddest of all, was the blogger who stopped blogging on Opening Night 2005. He was confined to a wheelchair having fallen off a concourse. I surveyed the scene and realized that while I was thinking of cutting back, I wasn't ready for this yet.
I will still be blogging about our Nationals, but on a more limited basis. I don't quite know how this is going to take shape, but I think the last few weeks has been a pretty fair preview of what is to come. I will also continue blogging about all that other stuff I like to blog about, but probably not as much. I also hope to do a bit of a site redesign to make my Google Reader recommended reading a little more prominent -- that will be updated regularly with Nats coverage both from blogs and MSM. If washingtonpost.com could learn how to regularly deliver a RSS feed, we'd really be in good shape, just thought I'd mention that too. I also plan on some new features in the near future with details to come.
Have you installed Firefox 3.0 yet? - William World News
Have you installed Firefox 3.0 yet?
Yesterday, the latest version of Firefox became available. I have not installed it yet and before I do I want to hear some feedback. How is it? Do popular extensions like Web Developer and ScreenGrab! work on it?
It looks like a very promising browser, but I want to make sure I can use my extensions before I make the switch.
On JoePa & the media class and JoePa & the media; blogs - William World News
Monday, June 09, 2008
On JoePa & the media class and JoePa & the media; blogs
JoePa's media drills land him in class - Tribune-Review An article looking at the "how the media covers Joe Paterno class" is a look at how the media covers Joe Paterno. It is a good article about the man and the class. It also contains a quote that might make a few bloggers upset:
"It's impossible to tell the difference between a good blogger and a bad blogger," he said. "The media has to figure out a way to teach students about the impact of blogging on legitimate journalism."
I can't get worked about the quote, but I bet somebody does. I guess EDSBS (h/t, btw) kind of does.
As for Paterno in the media -- no one in sports controls the message as well as he does, Redskins owner Dan Snyder aspires he were 10% as good as Paterno.
new washingtontimes.com debuts - William World News
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
new washingtontimes.com debuts
The new washingtontimes.com is here. There is a fair amount of video now and it is embeddedable. The "newscube" treatment on the front page is kind of a 3-D spin on the rotating tabs that most papers use. There are links in the cube stories to related themes (tags more or less) and other stories. That is a nice feature, but on the stories themselves, there are not related stories.
There are dozens of RSS feeds, but there is not a feed specifically for the Nationals, something I was expecting. There is a baseball feed, but I don't want to clog Google Reader with stories about other teams like the Orioles. I also don't think the "Themes" area is working as it is supposed to yet.
Overall the design seems kind of dated. The content area is barely 800 pixels wide, over 100 fewer pixels than many contemporary designs. They also appear to have migrated out of the Saxotech content management system. Right now, there are some problem with the section fronts delivering the same content every time they are refreshed. For example, I had seen a story about Ryan Zimmerman's shoulder on the Sports front, but after I read a different story and returned to the Sports front, the Zimmerman story was gone.
So far, the new washingtontimes.com is okay, but they have some bugs to work out. I will check back in several weeks and see how it has come along.
There are several redesigns to newspaper Web sites that are here or almost here.
Washington Times provides sneak preview of new Web site - The Wash. Times They have a mockup online, but I would not go as far to call it a beta site since the functionality is not there. A rotating image on the front -- something many sites started doing last year, but are starting to abandon. So far, the new washtimes.com site looks okay and I like the idea of "400,000 custom news feeds" being made available.
I have heard that the goal is for washtimes.com to become one of the top 10 sites -- not newspaper sites -- in the world. I don't see that happening.
Also, philly.com, the Web site for The Inky and Philly Daily News has taken a step back and switched the front page design for something less robust and with a terrible color palette. I had really liked the way the had it, particularly the way they gave each paper its own site with suitable designs.
Lots of journalism folks love the Philly.com redesign, but I'm not a fan either. I miss the tabs and the easy access to the sports stories near the top. I'm really looking forward to the day when newspaper sites stop re-arranging deck chairs and start doing something innovative.
Anyway, I've been reading your blog for a while and figured I was overdue to leave a comment. So, hello.
# posted by Daniel Victor :
Monday, May 19, 2008 1:17:00 PM
Oh, no, mainstream media. This blog has lost all credibility.
# posted by DJ in Hbg :
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 11:00:00 AM
Post a CommentCapital Punishment DFA'ed - William World News
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Capital Punishment DFA'ed
This morning, Stan Kasten was probably lighting a cigar with a $100 bill. Jim Bowden probably tricked out his Segway a little more and rode it to the leather pants store. Frank Robinson probably slept in. Mike Bascik probably watched a video of him giving up 756 to Barry Bonds. Why are they celebrating? Chris Needhamis shutting down Capitol Punishment, one of the longest-running and the best Nats blog. Between this and Barry Svrluga moving to the Redskins beat (hopefully just a formality before getting a columnist position) coverage of the Nats is taking a hit.
While I appreciate Needham's 3.5 years, I can't help but think he's letting all those guys off the hook. At least he is doing it on his own terms and not because he fell off a concourse on Opening Night 2005 like the Nationals Pastime guy.*
*Just a theory, it did happen to someone that night though.
Flyers vs. Pens: Hockey blogger looking for correspondent - William World News
Monday, May 05, 2008
Flyers vs. Pens: Hockey blogger looking for correspondent
A noted hockey blogger I know may be looking for a correspondent to collect video, photos and observations of the Happy Valley scene during the Flyers vs. Pengyunz series. Apparently, it was quite something the last time these two teams met in the playoffs; I had already graduated, so I missed it. Actually, I may not have missed it. I do remember what the town was like when the Eagles and Steelers met in the regular season a few years ago though and that was pretty intense. Drop me a line (e-mail link below) if you are interested.
As for the series, I won't be watching it, but I hope that Pittsburgh loses.
In all seriousness, when is finals week in Happy Valley? The series doesn't start till Friday, so the semester outta be winding down before the Pens knock the Flyers out.
# posted by The Maryland Bureau Chief :
Monday, May 05, 2008 1:11:00 PM
Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of discussion about blogs and the mainstream media. I figured I would add my perspective as someone who knows both worlds.
# posted by DCSportsChick :
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 7:06:00 AM
Congratulations! From your friend at Ramblings 1.5!
# posted by Kevin McGuire :
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 4:53:00 PM
Post a CommentCaps beat Devils; bloggers raise $ for Wilson High hockey - William World News
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Caps beat Devils; bloggers raise $ for Wilson High hockey
Last night our Nation's Capitals shutout Martin Brodeur (pictured above) and his NJ Devils 4-0. Even Donald Brashear scored! Not a bad debut for G Cristobal Huet. The teams split the season series 2-2.
One Mission, Two Newsrooms - CityPaper A river runs through the struggle for the future of the Washington Post. The Post and washingtonpost.com are two separate newsrooms, separated by over three miles, five Metro stops, the Potomac River and a state line. Not surprisingly, the two cultures sometimes have trouble working together and yet, washingtonpost.com is one of the best five newspaper Web sites in the country. When you consider that in many ways, washingtonpost.com is still Web 1.0, that is even more impressive. Integration between the two, while seemingly an obvious decision, is likely being held back because of the Washington Post Co.'s preference for Web employees that are not part of the newspaper guild. Virginia, a "right-to-work" state, provides that option, while The District does not.
Had a little problem with the yurasko.net Web host yesterday. After that was resolved, BloggerTM would not recognize my new FTP password. This morning it is, so back to regularly scheduled programming. I'll try to get Blue White Roundtable up over the lunch time hour. The two posts I tried to publish yesterday morning are there with their original time-stamp too, be sure to read them.
maroonandblack.blogspot.com still available - William World News
Monday, February 11, 2008
maroonandblack.blogspot.com still available
New Redskins head coach Jim Zorn got off to an inauspicious start (DC Sports Bog) when he mentioned that Redskins colors were "maroon, black and yellow." I immediately thought that Maroon and Black would be a great name for a new Redskins blog, so I checked to see if it was available.
I am almost disappointed to see that it is still around. Somebody step up to the plate or more appropriately, behind center.
Also, lost in all the Zorn coverage is his tendency to run fake field goals when he was the Seahawks holder and the NFL Super Pro Club booklet that he was in.
# posted by WFY :
Monday, February 11, 2008 5:17:00 PM
Post a CommentSuggested sports blogs names and topics, many of them obvious - William World News
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Suggested sports blogs names and topics, many of them obvious
In the tradition of withleather (possibly NSFW, depending on where you work), the band is out on the field and a bunch of other blogs named after infamous quotes, actions, etc. here are some suggested names for sports blogs.
makeitrain - athletes and strip clubs, what could go right?
icantdownloadajarofpeanutbutter - Joe Paterno doesn't use the internet, but his fans do.
ivegotafamilytofeed -- overpaid NBA stars
misterirregardless -- this what Saved by the Blog should have been called before Mottram the younger joined Mottram the elder
playedlikedidleypoo, weletthemoffthehook -- coaches losing their cool in postgame interviews
thebearsarewhowethoughtheyare -- great for an NFC North blog
rickeyknewaplayerwhoworeabattinghelmet -- athletes who talk about themselves in the third person
haveanotherdonutyoufatpig -- I can't believe there isn't a hockey blog named after this great Jim Shonefeld line
givinghimthebusiness -- Football officiating
blesshishearthemustbethesickestmaninamerica -- when horrible things happen to good players
whatsgoingonwithbritney -- a look at sports non sequitors or "Mike Patrick's slow descent into madness is no longer so slow"
icanhaspittsburgher -- black and gold sports
hicksdigthelongball -- HillbilliesSons of the soil talking about home runs. I suppose there could be a dcsportshick too.
Go ahead and start one of these up, just be sure to link back to where you got the original idea.
I'm playing with my BloggerTM template to see if I can improve the search engine optimization. BloggerTM is not nearly as robust for people who FTP their content to their own domains as it is for people using blogspotTM. I'm trying to overcome that by moving my title and META=keywords tags out of the head and into the body of the document after the Blogger tag. This isn't an according-to-Hoyle-way to layout HTML, but if I can provide this blog with better SEO, I can live with bending a few rules.
So far, this appears to put the title of the post in the title field which was my intention. The downside is the title of the most recent post will be added to the title on the main page, but I can live with that happening.
If any of the 6% of Macs users or 1% of Linux users who visit could verify that the site looks fine in their browsers, I'd appreciate it. I have tested it with Firefox and IE on my Wintel machine and it seems to work. If I don't encounter any problems and Google and Yahoo index the site properly, I'll describe in detail what I did to make it happen.
# posted by Eric McErlain :
Thursday, December 20, 2007 7:29:00 PM
Thanks Eric
# posted by WFY :
Friday, December 21, 2007 8:09:00 AM
Post a Comment<i>Collegian</i> Web site redesigned again - William World News
Monday, December 10, 2007
Collegian Web site redesigned again
The Web site for Penn State's student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, has improved upon a redesign that began in 2006 and was fully implemented in July. Drop down menus and an eyepiece with rotating images/stories have brough the Collegian up to speed. It is a little blocky though and I still don't like the serif text. Overall, it is pretty good though -- the CDT could learn a lot from this new design. By the way, I have been meaning to talk about the CDT, Inky/Philly Daily News and Post-Gazette redesigns for a while.
New(ish) Web site for Times Community papers - William World News
Friday, December 07, 2007
New(ish) Web site for Times Community papers
Northern Virginia's Times Community Papers has a new and improved Web site for its Fairfax County weeklies -- fairfaxtimes.com. I'm not sure how long ago this new site debuted, because I rarely went the previous, zwire powered Web site because it was awful. I'm glad that when I click on my hometown of Vienna/Oakton (which is served by The Vienna Times) I actually get content -- that didn't happen on the old site. If they could get some RSS feeds for each community, we'd really be set.
Caps bloggers on Hockey Night in Canada (updated) - William World News
Monday, December 03, 2007
Caps bloggers on Hockey Night in Canada (updated)
There are some familiar names and faces in this CBC Hockey Night in Canada video. Put another feather in D.C.'s cap as the best sports blogging town around.
Anybody using Google analytics? - William World News
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Anybody using Google analytics?
Is anybody out there using Google Analytics? What are the pros and cons?
I've been fairly happy with using SiteMeter for my Web tracking, but I wouldn't mind something more robust that doesn't require me to deal with PHP. Other suggestions are welcome too.
I've replaced the YouTube category (what BloggerTM calls a "Label") with Video since more sites than ever are making embedded video available. For the ones that don't, get with the program!
Speaking of embedded video, I won't be embedding any more pennlive.com videos for a while and not just because the Penn State regular season is over. While they have the right idea, they haven't gotten their technology perfected resulting in some very slow load times. I'll still link to them though.
I have also updated the links on the right, adding a bunch of Penn State ones (great, now that the season is over, right? Wrong, the season has been over since Sept. 22) and put others ON PROBATION for underachieving of late.
Lastly, I have reduced the number of entries on the index page to keep load times lower too. I appreciate those who shared their concerns about how long it was taking to load the page.
My favorite tabloid's Web site has been redesigned. nydailynews.com has a clean, modern design with more information on the front. There are thumbnails of the covers that are above the scroll and click through to larger versions. I also like that the rotating eyepiece runs "down" the three big headlines rather than left to right like just about everybody else.
Blogger having lots of problems of late - William World News
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Blogger having lots of problems of late
You may have noticed that old content has been showing up lately or new content has been disappearing. This appears to be a BloggerTM issue and not a WFY issue. I have been posting at my regular times of late only to see posts disappear. I apologize for the problems.
Caps embrace the blogosphere - The Wash. Times A look at the blogs and bloggers, especially On Frozen Blog, Japers Rink and Off Wing Opinion, that make the Capitals the best blogged about NHL team. You see links to these blogs on the right navigation and frequently in the "Recommend Reading" Google Reader widget.
PSU preview video: pennlive.com sorta gets it - William World News
Thursday, September 20, 2007
PSU preview video: pennlive.com sorta gets it
I have never been a big fan of pennlive.com (or any of the Advance sites like nj.com). The site, which hosts content from the Patriot-News, has never been terribly well organized (try finding the Penn State football section) and doesn't run photos, which is a no-no in this multimedia world we live in. Right now, it seems that it is also in between an old and new design, making the site even harder to get around.
I will give credit when credit is due though, they taking a good step with the Penn State football videos. Not only do they have video now, they allow users to embed it on their blogs, Web sites, etc.
YouTube has shown there is a demand for this kind of feature and media companies who are not moving in this direction are missing out. The Web professional in me notes that the should have an ad appear before the content in the video and a Web ad appear in the player.
Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site - The Times It turns out online advertising is better than paid subscriptions. Starting at midnight, the subscription wall will come down on parts of nytimes.com. It will be interesting to see if there is an impact on circulation based on this move.
Troubles with <i>Post's</i> Nats RSS feed - William World News
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Troubles with Post's Nats RSS feed
Seemingly since I started using RSS feed aggregators, I have had trouble getting washingtonpost.com's Nationals feed to come through reliably. I can't count on it to deliver the most recent headlines as they are published. Typically, I get a bunch of them all at once every several weeks. Just a few minutes ago, 54 items from the feed "washingtonpost.com - Nationals," dating back to August 22 just appeared in Google reader. This was a problem when I was using SharpReader too.
Were it not for the general screwiness of the Post's RSS feeds in general -- seems that you need to subscribe to 10 different feeds to get all the stories, and then you get 10 copies of some stories -- I'd blame Google Reader.
# posted by Chris Needham :
Tuesday, September 04, 2007 7:50:00 PM
I just got the "We've Got Heart" post from 7:55 a.m. at 8:01. They are blogspot too.
# posted by WFY :
Tuesday, September 04, 2007 8:48:00 PM
Yes, I seem to get the Post RSS feeds en masse about once a month. Dunno why, but I suppose I should start investigating, eh? It's always been that way for me.
<i>WWN</i> Pentagon City bureau - William World News
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
WWN Pentagon City bureau
This past spring, William World News moved its headquarters from Pentagon City, Arlington to the west end of Alexandria. The move was made to realize lower costs of owning a headquarters instead of leasing it. Despite the move, WWN continue to maintain a Pentagon City presence with the establishment of a bureau there. Fritz Hamme will serve as bureau chief.
The home page is less cluttered and has slightly more white space
Like many redesigned newspaper sites, there is a tabbed eyepiece/carousel/widget. However, there is a lot trapped white space when tabs don't have photographs, a typical situation in the early morning.
Blogs are given more prominence with a box that begins near the scroll
Columnists are not as prominently featured on the home page, but more so on the section fronts.
Video has been added to the home page and section fronts, but is below the scroll.
It is a seven column grid.
I like the three promo spots near the scroll.
I don't like the new typeface for the baltimoresun.com logo.
Overall, it is an improvement over their previous design.
It's broomball night in Arlington - William World News
Friday, June 15, 2007
It's broomball night in Arlington
Tonight from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. there is broomball at Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Ballston, Arlington. I think it is going on tomorrow night too. Last week it cost me $7 to play. It is worth noting that a broomball shootout would be an excellent way to settle La Coupe Hauxer.
Also, did you see the new washingtoncaps.com? The NHL has just adopted a league wide template for team sites and I have to say it is an improvement. The old site took too long to load.
Yesterday, washingtonpost.com had its OFF/Beat blogger live blog the world's stupidest and least fair lawsuit Pearson v. Custom Cleaners. Yes, that is the case of a JUDGE suing a dry-cleaner for $54 million over a pair of lost pants.
Live blogging this helps expose Pearson for the clown that he is and his unreasonable, if not evil reaction to a lost pair of pants. He might be setting this up as a way to expose problems of the legal system and frivolous lawsuits, but I doubt it.
My return to Metroblogging DC is now officially triumphant. For the first time (that I know of) Express, the free tabloid The Post gives out, has referenced a blog post of mine...sort of. Yesterday's entry about the difficulties of finding Schweppes tonic water in greater Arlandria got this blurb:
Nice work. It can be weird to see which stuff they think is funny/relevant. (The last time I was mentioned, my reaction was: "Of all the stuff I've said, you chose that?!")
# posted by dl004d :
Friday, June 08, 2007 6:59:00 AM
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