nichole's auxiliary storage

Chowhound & Burger King: separated at birth?

Same font, same color scheme...weird. Unless Chowhound/CNET and BK are bedfellows, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL: Madison.com now user-friendly

Sorry to yell. Just illustrating a point about html page titles in the new, more user-friendly WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL. Read the article fast, before the link breaks.

Two suggestions for Madison.com re: actual user-friendliness, especially for bloggers:

• please provide meaningful html titles, ideally including the name of the paper and the headline of the article.
• please provide permalinks.

Sorry to sound snarky, but this is pretty basic usability stuff. Thanks for listening.

Cap Times: New move set to ban phone profits at jail

Update: There will be a press conference about the ordinance in front of the Public Safety Building, 115 W. Doty, Thursday afternoon at 1pm (via email from Ashok - thanks for the news).

Hear hear for Ashok Kumar, the Dane County Board Supervisor who's introducing an ordinance that would prohibit the county from entering into contracts that generate revenue from incarcerated people:

Kumar says that charging people for phone calls and amenities when often they're in jail because they can't afford bail is a regressive policy that needs to be changed.

"People are taking it out of their monthly paycheck and it's a huge chunk," he says. "This is actually dipping into funds for food, children, housing and other basic needs. We're not fining inmates, we're fining families."

Hear hear for Madison-area Urban Ministry as well. They've advocated this change for some time. Dane County's budget greatly benefits from the way things are, as reported by Channel3000 in 2004.

Despite what the frothing "community comments" on the Cap Times article say, this is not a move to make taxpayers buy amenities for people in jail. As I read it, it merely seeks to ban Dane County from profiting off inmates. Who, as a refresher, may or may not be convicted criminals.

Making it easier for inmates to make calls would have the added effect of reducing recidivism and inmate indigency. As the article notes, people lose their jobs and their family ties suffer when they can't make a simple phone call. No job, no family = more likely to end up right back in jail.

I really hope this ordinance passes.

Bonus: a sample of what you can buy in jail.

2007 Origins International Game Expo and Fair

It's taken a week to recover from the Origins game convention in Columbus, where I played a lot of (but not enough) games, ate some great food, and had a fine time with friends & family. More photos are here.

Like last year, librarians get in free with the "Teacher's Hall Pass." The seminars and discounts this year were unfortunately not as good this time. That, or I was more discriminating in where I spent my time & money.

Unlike last year, where, in ignorance, we ended up at bd's mongolian bbq for one horrendous dinner, I did my foodie homework. Here's a map of the downtown and Short North restaurants that Chowhounds and local experts recommended. North Market was a given, but sadly it took me until the second-to-last day to get some ice cream at Jeni's.

We made it to Flatiron (excellent muffuletta) and Northstar Cafe. Northstar was just the kind of granola place I love - good coffee, great organic bakery with local eggs, and a quote from Omnivore's Dilemma on our table tent.

Bonus: Here's an amazingly accurate portrayal of every game of Thurn und Taxis I've ever played. (I'm always the one on the left).

Double bonus: We thought up a name for the vegetarian cafe/board game library that we'll open when JM's a rich and famous game designer: the Kettlers of Seitan.