Aargh! I hate these freakin’ things. I’ve been messing around with PHP-Nuke off and on over the past several weeks. Like Linux and British sports cars, it’s pretty cool when it works but it doesn’t work often enough to be of actual use.

So much promise. User comments. Polls specific to a particular entry. Threaded topics. Aargh!

But I’m not real handy with PHP (I can order a few drinks and catch a cab home, but I won’t be writing a novel anytime soon), and I end up spending more time trying to track down the meaning of some cryptic error message (to say nothing of how to fix the error itself) than I do actually using the damn thing.

So I continue with my late-’90s solution of hand-coding everything and FTPing it to the server. It’s clumsy, it doesn’t allow for much interaction. But it is pretty darned secure (nobody but yours truly has write access to the server; over the years I have come to appreciate the network admin’s lament that the only thing keeping their network from being perfect is the users) and it rarely, if ever, breaks.

I want to be bleeding edge, but who has the time? I’d rather put together quality content than spend hours futzing around with software. This isn’t to say that I’ve given up on PHP-Nuke or any other content management system, just that for anything but experimental purposes, I may not be leaving the quaint hand-coded HTML paradigm real soon.

Anywho…

More Wells Reaction

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that my problem with this signing isn’t with David Wells himself. I believe he could be useful in 2004. My problem is that the Padres still haven’t gone out and gotten the #1 starter they said they would, and it appears they’re not going to now that Wells is here. Wells is not a terrible acquisition, but he’s also not a #1 starter.

More articles from Bill Center at the U-T:

• If healthy, Wells should be ace of deep starting staff

  Supposedly Greg Maddux is looking for at least 2 years at $11M per year. How this is "beyond the Padres’ financial reach" is a mystery to me. Interestingly, even Kevin Towers is quoted as saying of the signing, "I think it’s a good gamble." My question is, don’t you want more than a "good gamble" at the front of your rotation? Sterling Hitchcock was a good gamble, because if he doesn’t pan out it’s no big deal; you were only hoping he could pull up the back end. But if your #1 doesn’t perform like one, seems to me that’s a little bigger problem.

  My favorite passage comes from writer Bill Center, who asks: "With their depth in starting pitching, might the Padres trade a pitcher for help elsewhere?" I just look at this and shake my head. I think the staff has some potential, and I’m particularly excited about the long-term prospects of the big three up front, but to call the Pads deep in starting pitching is incredibly misleading. Sure, they’ve added three guys with experience over the past several weeks, but there are still only three who will/should have value in trade (four, if you count Ben Howard). And none of those three should be moved unless something really special drops in Kevin Towers’ lap.

• Return to hometown fulfills childhood dream

  Contains a few quotes from Wells, most of the fluffy variety. I only know the guy by reputation, but this caught my eye: "It’s going to be fun for me. I love helping people out. It’s a matter of the young guys listening. I do know mechanics. I do know how to adjust." Let’s hope so.

• Wells and pitching coach go back, way, way back

  Wells and Darren Balsley, in addition to pitching against each other in high school, were roommates with the Blue Jays in 1987. Here’s an interesting quote from Balsley, in response to whether he had concerns about the influence Wells might have on the big three:

  “Not at all,” said Balsley. “There were no problems when I roomed with him in 1987, although we didn’t hang out that much together. But the three young men we’re talking about are very level-headed. The only way David can influence them is in the right way . . . in their profession.

  “They can learn a lot from watching David and asking questions. He knows how to win at this game.”

Gee, I spent a lot more time bitching about stuff today than I’d planned. I’ll leave things on an up note. I’ve just finished the compilation portion of the Best of Ducksnorts 2003 project. I’m about a third of the way through re-reading, editing, and annotating the document, which I expect to make available by Monday, January 26. Stay tuned…