Coral

Coral is a web-based server-load-distribution app that can help mitigate bandwidth spike for lightweight content providers.

The instructions are simple:

“Just append .nyud.net:8090 to the hostname of any URL, and your request for that URL is handled by Coral!”

[via MeFi.]

This rings a bell on a blog-chat b/t Tom Harpel and myself about a year ago, but i couldn’t dig up the linkies.

What's that? I have a LARD in my ear!

Reported presence of long-range acoustic device (LRAD) at protests – is Xeni’s BB entry passing on indymedia linkage of an experimental crowd control acoustic weapon at the RNC protests in The City. Much to Xeni’s (and presumably the blogosphere’s) credit, the post then pulls all the available web-published coverage of the LARD (sic fucking hoc, okay?) together, including a publicity pic of the device, and concludes with an indymedia shot of a police truck (gone downtown, probably not to pick up drunks) which appears to show the device ready to go.

Hot damn, now that’s a blog post.

When I emerged from the smoking rubble

Saw this at BB, and can’t let it pass: Tactics by Police Mute the Protesters, and Their Messages [NYT]:

“The demonstrations, too, have thus far been more restrained than many recent protests elsewhere; five years ago in Seattle, for example, there was widespread arson and window-smashing, none of which has occurred here. Lacking bloody scenes of billy-club-wielding police or billowing clouds of tear gas, the cameras – and the public’s attention – have focused elsewhere.”

(Bold mine.)

Widespread arson?

Well, I suppose so, if ONE DUMPSTER constitutes “widespread.” Here’s an HTML version of the SPD wrap-up report (PDF), in which the word arson occurs once, in conjunction with an arson incident on November 1 at the main GAP store in downtown Seattle, a month before the WTO protests got rolling. I did note anecdotal reporting of “trashcan arsons” as I Googled, but no primary sources, and I sure don’t recall any media coverage of it. I very stongly suspect that the burning dumpster at Pike and Third was the only verifiable incident.

But hey, what to I know? It’s not like I’m being paid to avoid groundless assertions in my writing here (or typos, for that matter).

Lucy

Ages ago, Viv and I picked up a pair of Lucy chairs to go with our red formica kitchen table. Eventually, we figured out that we should have picked up four, but by the time this happened, Target was no longer carrying the chairs in-store. The topic came up at our party a couple months ago and Sunday night Viv reminded me about it when I was in a Googlin’ mood.

The skinny is, Target carries them online, but the delivered price was abut $220, free shipping notwithstanding. American Chairs offers them as well, but the shipping costs pushed it up over $200 again.

The link I initiated this post with, however, produces a shipping-inclusive price of $197. Now, I’m not necessarily ready to spend $200 on a couple of chairs, but maybe Viv is. So here’s the link.