Medieval helpdesk

And think... my (future) kids will be looking at my use of computers and think the same thing you will when you watch this...

I LOVE the user manual issue!

Supermarket 2.0

I thought this was a pretty good parody/satire of the whole web 2.0 buzz.

 Although, it may not be all that far off if you look at this photo sent to my by a friend of a local grocery store up by Chicago.

This is what my blog looks like on a REALLY big screen.

 I stopped at CompUSA one day and pulled up my blog on the biggest monitor in the place. WOW. I want one of these screens. My site is designed for 19" monitors.

Creuzer: Broken Blogger "rel" Tags

This is an update to my Creuzer: Broken Blogger "rel" Tags post from a week ago.

I had my webhost create a symlink for me as the blog doesn't have shell access on that login. I had /labels/ symlinked to /tags/ so I can run my tags in, well, the tags directory. Seems to make more sense to me.

A quick update to my page-rewrite function and it's all over but the social bookmarking. Still waiting on that.

Using Ajax to pull in comments to the main blog page

I found a basic tutorial over at this blog that shows how to use AJAX - well actually AHAH which is a simpler piece of ajax to load in comments from the individual post page into the main page.

The whole process is pretty neat, while the end result just makes the blog seem to work much nicer. If you want to look at the comments on one of the main pages, it just kinda works now instead of going to that "add a comment" page to view a comment. That seemed kinda broken to me.

I tested it with Firefox 2, IE 7 and Opera 8(?) which is on my Nokia 770. Let me know if the comments aren't pulled in for you.

There are a couple of changes you need to make that I didn't see mentioned in the instructions, one is adding a pair of named <div> tags for the comments and backlinks to be placed into, the other is to change the javascript to use YOUR blogger blog ID.

Broken Blogger "rel" Tags

I use Operator for FireFox which parses Microformats and allows you to take actions on them - such as add a contact to your address book. Some really cool stuff.

But the "rel" tag is broken on my blogger blog. Blogger doesn't follow the spec. Not that they can, with my site being a FTP published blog, they can't follow spec and still be able to publish the "Labels" as they call tags, correctly. The issue is that blogger makes the URL end with ".html" as the would need to in order for that "Labels" page to work at all.

I took matters into my own hands. I can't fix blogger, but I can fix my site.

My webhost has PHP available to me. I have made 3 changes so I can do some really cool stuff with my blog, like fix the Labels issue.
1) I have all my blogger uploaded .html pages parsed as PHP
2) I use mod_rewrite to allow me to link to /labels/tag as well as /labels/tag.html
3) I use PHP's output buffering to dynamically rewrite the page as it is being served.

In more detail:

1) I created a .htaccess file at the root level of my website (/httpdocs) that contains the following line.

AddType application/x-httpd-php .html .php

This allows all .html pages to be parsed as php code.

2) I created a .htcasses file in /labels that has the following code in it.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /labels/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.+\.html$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.+\.html.+$

RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1\.html [L]

This checks to see if the URL requested ends in .html and if not, appends the .html and serves the file.

3a) I created a file called bloggerrewrite.php and it contains the following code:

<?php
//ob_start("bloggerlabelrewrite");
//ob_end_flush();
function bloggerlabelrewrite($buffer)
{
// Lets find the blogger labels stuff
// It is good to be as specific as we can because we don't have control over any changes Blogger may make
$pattern = '/(<p class=\"blogger-labels\">.*<\/p>)/iu'; //case insensitive and ungreedy just incase Blogger changes something.

$html_array = preg_split ($pattern, $buffer, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE ); // $html_array[0] = the stuff before, $html_array[1] = the blogger lables paragraph, $html_array[2] the stuff after

$trans = array("Labels:" => "Tags:", ".html\">" => "\">"); // the transformation we want to make - Changing Labels to Tags, and dropping the .html

return $html_array['0'] . strtr($html_array['1'] , $trans) . $html_array['2'] ;
}
?>

3b) I then modified my Blogger Template by inserting the following between the <BLOGGER> and </BLOGGER> so I can use the output buffering from the 3a file on each individual post.

<Blogger>
<?php
include_once("{$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']}/bloggerrewrite.php");
ob_start("bloggerlabelrewrite");
?>

[SNIP BLOGGER TEMPLATE STUFF]

<?php ob_end_flush(); ?>
</Blogger>

The results are as you see. My Blogger "Labels" no longer exist, you now see a "Tags" section at the bottom of every post. These tags are properly formatted, and so they work with Operator.

I am kinda wondering, what if a crawler or whatever comes across the site, identifies it as a blogger site, and tries to parse the "Labels" in a BloggerQuirks mode, and doesn't find any Labels...

200th post

Wow. This is my 200th post to this blog. I didn't think I had that much to say.

I worked on my boat tonight. I basically did the same thing as last night, only on the other end brace. I worked on the two bottom stringers - rounding them out and recessing the nuts. I can use a one inch flathead screw on the bottom of the end-brace aluminum and side stringers.
I didn't take any photos as it's the same as last night.

I was hungy so I took a walk. I was in the mood for fish. I stumbled upon Shucks on th Water. The Blackened Grouper Rhuben came highly recomended by the waiter who might be the owner by the way he talks. The sandwich was awesome. The steak fries are as good as they come. I am full, but am getting the triple chocolate cake.

A large hoe is squealing down the road. It is shaking my water on the table. It has traffic all tied up.

Snap link previews

I am trying something new on the website today. I am adding Snap link previews. Now you can hover over a link and see a preview of the page that the link links to.

There are a couple options, I basically turned it "all on". I can have the little icon appear or not appear, I can have the preview only show when you hover over the icon, or the icon and the link.

What do you think? Useful? No? Should I make any changes?

[UPDATE]
It doesn't work on IE7? I loaded this page in IE7 and I don't get the snaplinks previews. It works fine in FireFox.

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

This is a follow up to a post I made 26 days ago. The author of the video has released the final version today. i was the 250th person to view it. I like the video.

Library Thing Writeup in the NY Times.

The New York Times did a nice writeup on the LibraryThing.com.

There are very few websites that I actually like. Most of Google's tools, del.icio.us, and Library Thing. Blogger is on my @#$%^ list at the moment. Well, the stuff I have on my blog is the stuff I like. So check out my books and bookmarks in the right column!

Library Thing

Ok, I have been a bit quite lately, I have been working on... stuff. You shall see, it's the biggest thing since, well, I moved to Florida.

Anyway, I digress, I have added a new feature to my blog. I have a random list of books that I own courtesy of Library Thing in the narrow column. You can also search my current books.

I had ran across them a while ago, how long ago, I don't remember, but it is that long ago (what, 3 minutes some of my friends may claim?). I have been meaning to check them out and whatnot, so tonight I did.

I found a use for my CueCat. That's right, they allow you to scan in the ISBN bar codes with your CueCat directly. How is THAT for convenient. Talk about a BFO (blinding flash of the obvious). Pure Genius! The only thing I saw about it, is that I was mentally saying "beep" in my head every time I scanned a bar code. I was running around my apartment (read: stand up, reach, sit down) thinking "beep beep beep this is so cool beep beep".

Now, too bad most of my books are in storage, at my folks place, etc. Now I have yet another reason to go back to Barnes & Noble's and get more!

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

I stumbled on this video on You Tube. I think this is exactly what You Tube is about - enabling somebody to create and share their insights in a visually stimulating fashion. This is that pearl dredged out of the ocean.

I set back and just think WOW.

I can't wait for the final edition.

Interesting Bits

I have added a new feature to my website. It is the "Interesting Bits" section at the end of the narrow side column, below my Del.icio.us bookmarks. This is a running list of the last 10 blog posts that I have decided to share in Google Reader. This is going to be stuff that is interesting to me for whatever reason. Some of you have similar interests to me, and this is a way to share the articles I found interesting.

I am currently subscribed to 15 different blogs, and the posts listed would be the best out of all of them.

New blog design

One of the things I liked about this new website template is the ability for it to work on many different screen sizes.
  This is how it looks on my 19" monitor at whatever resolution it is set at. I am too lazy to look it up. This takes full advantage of the huge and wide screen formated monitors out there today.


 This is what it looks like at 1024x768. The rightmost column, the thinnest one, tucks down under the middle column. This is your more typical 2 column blog design.


 One of my design critera is that it has gotta work for my Nokia 770 at least 'functionally'. I don't expect it to be wonderful, just not tons of scrolly scrolly to get anywhere!

New website design.

Well, I couldn't sleep tonight, tired, can't think straight, but can't sleep. Lots of fun.

I had stumbled across an interesting site layout at bloggerdesign.com/. It is rather ironic that it's a "blogger" design site but it uses Wordpress. Anyway, I liked the 3 column layout that folds up nicely for smaller screens. Resize the screen, the side columns collapse down and towards the left margin. It works OK for 800x600, a little too much right whitespace, but tolerable. it looks good at 1024x768, and freaking awesome on my 19" monitor, what ever it is set to.

There is a little mini-nav bar on the left edge of the screen that is pretty cool, but I need to find some icons for it. It is not being populated for the time being.

I like how the post area is about 25% bigger. In the posts, the images and videos where kinda cramping any text that was flowing around them. I also like the wider side column, it is big enough for my fish-cam and my google calendar. I was thinking of running the wider column for stuff internal to my blog, and the narrower column for stuff external to my blog. The calendar kinda sorta breaks that, but I guess it is still about me, so I will say it is internal to the blog.

I think I have a good site template, I just need to work on making it "pretty" now. I want to make some kinda of fancy top for the 2 side columns and a curve/angle for the bottom right edge to lead the columns back into the main column.

I would like the design elements to be freshwater aquatic plant themed. Not sure how I would do it, so it probably won't happen. All of my designs are so... blocky looking. **sighs**

Well, if I am going to be worth $.02 at work tomorrow I had better try and get some sleep.

Blog Template

Is it bad that I am a web developer and use a default template for my blog?

I have had my blog for nearly a year now... Looking back... 10 days and 1 month short of a year it looks...

Tonight is my first major tweakage of the template. Well, I had added my Delicious bookmark's tag cloud, Google calendar, and just a few weeks(?) ago I added my PicassaWeb photo album. Oh, this last week I added a Technorati search to the site too. I guess I have added to the template a fair bit.

After the Blogger Beta incident I am wanting to have my list of Labels in the WORST of the ways! Forbidden fruit tastes the best, right?

Playing around a bit, I had a thought. I host my own blog. I wonder what happens if I put PHP into my blogger template? By George, a little .htaccess magic, and it works!

Sweet!

OK, first thing's first. I want to post to my main blog (this one) a running tally of updates to my car blog. I whipped up a little RSS reader that I include into my template and viola! Instant RSS Feed of my cars blog on my main blog!

WOOT WOOT

Stumbling block, no RSS feed for my labels.

DOH!

Guess I am going to have to roll my own. I have PHP take a peak into my /labels/ folder, read all the files, tally up the number of posts in each file, and create a tag cloud. How is that for a run-on sentence? The amazing thing is, it works. Really well. I love it!

OK, this calls for a re-think of my cobbled together right column. A bit of consultation with Stewie and I moved just about everything around. I think it works.

I still need to tweak the photo album as it doesn't display quite right in FireFox. I also need to colorize my new Labels Tag Cloud.

What do you think?

Upgrading to Beta Blogger

How Frustrating.

I have been watching Blogger Beta for a while now, wanting access at the "labels" feature. These would give me a great way to organize my blog on topics and not just by date. My posts have a few natural groups and no easy way to clump them together.

I would switch to wordpress, simplog, or roll my own blog engine except that, well, I am a Google Geek and use all of their tools. Picassa & Docs (which is what I am writing this post in right now with), gmail, and the list goes on. Everything just works so well together. I don't dislike blogger, I just want some of the "modern" features that beta promises.

So, today I come across http://knownissues.blogspot.com/2006/10/initial-release-of-blogthis-from-picasa.html which says Picassa is now supposed to work with Blogger Beta. Great! A friend tested it for me and he got it to work.

I make the switch.

Ohhps!

Guess what, it doesn't work! I can't use the new templates because I FTP publish my site (please don't let FTP publishing die Blogger, PLEASE!). OK, no biggie, I am clever, I still have the original blog that I don't FTP to my sever. I can play with the template there, and copy it to my main blog. WRONG. Well, when they publish an API, hopefully they let me emulate the features I want via AJAX or something.

However, the bad news doesn't stop there! Oh No. I can't publish to my main blogs with Picassa. I can publish to the test blog. Great. Either a template issue or an FTP issue. I did a lot of twiddleing with this and that. The only thing I can come up with is that it's either the template or FTP publishing.

Blogger, what are you guys doing over there? Why does my choice in DISPLAYING a blog affect how your software ACCEPTS it?

Frustrated. I broke my blog even though I was being very careful not to.

HELP!

Blogging from my cell phone. Gas pumps. What causes them to slow down to a stop when it gets cold out. I was at a station and had to leave.

Creuzer's Cars: New Blog

To all of you who don't care, I started a new blog at Creuzer's Cars that showcases a few of the cars that I have seen in my travels.

Blogging, just a fad?

Well...
I have 7 or 8 domain names, free hosting with several different webhosts, and I can write my own blogging software in PHP, Do you THINK I have a blog yet.

Google has a new tool Google Pack. http://pack.google.com/pack_installer_new.html They seem to make things so dang easy, that I was just compelled to give it a try.

I have been using Gmail for a while now, over a year! My first message was sent 11/10/04.

I have been using google talk (well, not the cleint, just the jabber server) for a few months now.

I bought myself a new computer for my birthday, and decided to take the plunge.

Google Pack Here I come.
Gmail, Google Talk, Picassa, Blogger, Hello, the whole nine yards.