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Gack. There was a time, not so long ago, when I actually got paid to hack PHP and think hard about how I would lay out the tables in a MySQL database. In that mis-spent youth, I also installed more than my fair share of MovableType and vBulletin software. If I'd run into this problem back then, I have no doubt I'd have it solved by now.
My problem is this. I just want TypeLists. You know, like the good folks at SixApart offer their TypePad customers? Well, you can't get that handy feature without joining TypePad. I can't even find it in the documentation for an upgrade to MovableType 4.x. So, I went spelunking for plugins.
Now, this site is not hosted on my own server. It's hosted on Yahoo! So, I have more limited access to the machine than I'd like. Even so, I think I have everything set up properly for a List plugin, but it's just not happy. And, with a baby at home, I don't get to play around with a problem like this for more than about an hour. So, now I have a project. One which I should have been able to solve quickly. My kung fu is slipping!
It's strange. I really was, at one time, an idealist. Apparently no longer, because the treatment our company has received has really pissed me off.
Yes, it absolutely sucks that the Chinese government puts journalists and activists in jail. I wish they wouldn't. Most of us wish they wouldn't. But they do, and the only pressure to make them stop will be political. Telling businesses to do what our government cannot or will not is absurd, and we shouldn't put up with it.
American corporations do business in China. Our shareholders want us to and we want to, because the country represents the single largest market opportunity in the world. In order to do business there, a company must abide by Chinese law. Otherwise, that company would get shut out. I hate to admit this, but companies operate within the law to generate value for shareholders. Any moral or socially-responsible agenda a company may pursue beyond that is wonderful, but that's the baseline - othewise the company ceases to exist.
If a single company decided to take a stand and break the law in China on moral grounds, its competitors would happily eat its lunch. So don't expect us to do it. If the US government wants US companies to refuse to abide by Chinese law while doing business in China, then it needs to legislate that. And even if our government would pass such legislation (they won't), the rest of the world wouldn't necessarily follow suit. So then American business would have pulled out of a huge, huge market, leaving it to the rest of the world to swoop in and make enormous profits for generations to come. That seems a bit stupid to me.
Simply put, this isn't an easy one, and I hate that Yahoo! was singled out and held up to ridicule.
Note: this is my opinion and mine alone, NOT an opinion from Yahoo!.
So, my wife and I rented 9 Songs the other week. For those of you unfamiliar with the film, it's an art film that skirts the line of being arthouse porn. The sex scenes are explicit and unsimulated, and the acting is so/so. Got to thinking afterward about the thoughts the director must have had.
(sound of bong hit being taken) Hmmm. Let's see. I'm a decently reputable director, what should I do next? What do I like? Well, I like sex. Rather a bit, actually. Wonder if I could make a film about sex. It would have to be intimate rather than porn-like, that way I could be explicit while being real. Yeah. Another thing I like? Music. What if I could get into some really great shows for free because they're part of my sex film? I'll cut between the music and the sex. Great idea. Free concerts for me while I make my film. What else? (another hit is taken) Perhaps I can wrap the whole thing up by working in a trip to Antarctica. Sex, live concerts, and the Antarctic. This will rule!
And, that about sums it up.
