fractalnavel

annoying little bugs to fix on my sites:

• (2003.12.05 done) rss.xsl: “items not shown“ count is wrong
• (2003.12.05 done) resume: skills filter broke
• (2003.12.06 done, but not the way i'd like) rss: display error in descriptions in feed displays embedded in feed item descriptions
• rss: description display in “news“ section is slow
• (2003.12.09 done) posts: “arrange“ index bug
• web: seems to crash ie5.5 on winme (is it the behaviors, the xml, the xhtml, the css, ... ?)
• posts: images in posts are getting cropped in certain circumstances
• rss:  a feed containing a link with a relative url should have that url resolved within the feed's context, and not the context of the page that the feed is embedded on. in. whatever.

• how to use blog comment rss to cause posts with most recent comments to appear at top of list.  probably need to write special xsl for this.
  • 2003.12.06 first step - if an item has comments, rather than show the item's description/content, shows the item's comment feed.
• create a “currently reading“ list / feed.  needs to operate like a combination of my reading list and wishlist.

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^{_{(delayed posting due to technical difficulties - original posting date 2003.11.20)}}

- was at a skate shop today, dropping off my nephew's skates for sharpening, saw this on the counter:
http://www.octodog.net.  ooo-k, welcome to detroit.

- hey, where's the rich-edit controls ?  i'm on an me system right now, and this post form isn't showing the design/html view buttons either.  hmm.  ie6...  no, ie 5.5.  do you think ... ?

- i wanted to add that link to my reading list, and it now occurs to me, if i'm not on my own computer, i'm screwed, since i don't have a generic web interface to it.   it would be a very simple change, since the form only needs to have the url field made editable.  but, hey, i can't remember that form page's address.  ok, i'll go to the ftp site and see what's ... wait a minute, i can't remember the ftp site address.  hmm, i see that i'm becoming over dependent on information stored in various programs on my own pc.  not a good thing.

- so last night my nephew's team lost 4-3.  the opposition's last goal was with only 43 seconds left.  he's improved a lot as goalie.  so then during the first intermission of the wings game (5-1 win over columbus ;-) ), he was goalie in a kid's hockey shootout thing they do for kicks.  in front of 12000 people.  4 of 5 blocks. same for both sides.  cool.  not bad for a - 10? - year old.

- completed my triannual clothes shopping expedition.  i hate shopping.  i had to find my size jeans in the _boys_ section. yeah, stop laughing.  husky boys.  anyway, it's about time, since there's been some discussion about pulling what's left of the clothes i have out of the dryer's lint trap and making thread to reweave new stuff.  i'm such a bachelor ;-)

- why did we stop at the discount bookstore ?  picked up sailing books, "the dictionary of theories",  "dancing wu li masters", bunch of other stuff.  hey, for like 70% off, who can resist ?  hey, and a sushi making kit too.  i'm such a sucker.  i think i'll put it next to my niece's tank to make her fish nervous.

- molson makes 57 packs - uh, 55 packs.  3 layers of 19, with two missing in the top layer, “to leave room for ice”.  i'm thinking this is some sort of canadian trick.

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http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue343/news.html :

illy Connolly, the Scottish actor and comedian who co-stars in the upcoming SF movie Timeline, told SCI FI Wire that he plays a time-traveling archaeologist in the movie, but doesn't really believe in time travel himself. "It's one of those things like cold fusion that is mathematically possible and physically impossible," Connolly said in an interview. "I think it's only possible in the mind. You may be able to do it spiritually, out of body. And I don't think we're good enough human beings yet to do it.

gak, how many things can you count that are wrong with that paragraph ? oh, wait - he's a comedian ;-)

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ha, i knew i wasn't crazy (at least, not about this):

“The Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, which addresses numerous security flaws in Internet Explorer 6, introduces bugs involving the scrollbar. After the patch is applied, the page scrolls up or down twice when the user clicks once in the empty areas of the scrollbar.” ---Bugs, Old File Dates in New Microsoft Patches

friggin' annoying as hell, is what it is.

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why doesn't an rss feed have a node that refers to itself ?  there are links to html site and stuff, but not the rss.  strange. seems pretty basic.  anyway, when i generate my own feeds, i define my own namespace and stick one of these self-reference nodes in there.  then my rss transformations pick this up and puts that little “xml” image in the header. all very cozy.

of course, maybe there _is_ a definition out there in someone's namespace for this.  i haven't checked very closely, but nothing hit me in any of the specs.  or - maybe people are misusing the source link node ?  nah, people misusing rss ?  never happen - ha! ;-)

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• with all the person to person cross references out there in places such as amazon, livejournal, friendster, foaf and so on, i wonder what the government is making of it ?
• hmm - weblogs originally as link lists ?  so, maybe my reading list, up (off-n-on) since mid-2000, is the real blog.  just without the comments, that's all.  until recently, that is.
• uh, i had another thought, honest.  it's late.
• i should be able to add categories on the fly.
• hey, i can embed my feed read thingy here:

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thus begins another rounds of family visits.  heading up tuesday so that i will be around for all the hockey wednesday.  nick, my 10ish nephew, is playing goalie at the joe for some game they have over there.  then a bit later, we go to the wings game.  no idea who they're playing, but any game is a good game,  especially when you have nosebleed season tickets like my brother's ;-)  he  says we'll do some tailgating in between.  beer and brats in the parking lot - !

then i hang for a couple days somewhere.  good thing i have several brothers and sisters in the area, so i can take turns playing annoying houseguest.  on saturday a niece is being confirmed.  then a couple more days to play, and i then will be babysitting for my brother.  this may be some sort of trend; the last time i was up, i was babysitting for my other brother's kids.  hey, i get paid in beer and floor space (no connection - the floorspace is to sleep on).

after that is t-day; and there may be a saturday dinner or something as well.  that would be nearly two weeks up there.  kind of a lot, but such are the circumstances.  i agree pretty much about that fish and houseguests thing, regardless of what people say.

so i gotta remember to pack everything i need.  and to leave room for picking up my newly serviced scuba gear, including 5 tanks that were hydro'ed.  full jeep, very full jeep.

maybe i'll bring my bike ;-) 

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after the first round of mucking about in the gui portion of this thing, it seems the “presentation” layer separation stops at the point where the skins begin.  it would be nice if the various skin creators abided by some sort of conventions, but that would probably need to come from some sort of central guidance associated with the blog engine itself.  it seems to me that the engine should just spit out a series of structured divs in no particular order but with a consistent naming convention so that “skins” could be style sheets instead of full aspx pages.  or even generate xml so that a combination of css/xsl could be used.  ah well, it's a learning thing. or perhaps it's a place to begin creating improvements; hey, this is our engine now ;-)

i also discovered that, in our implementation at least, the site is eminently hackable.  no security if you know the urls.  what'd we do wrong ?

and i suspect some common blog features may be missing, but that won't really show until the volume here goes up.  meanwhile, why are our post and comment counts broken, eh ?  i'll leave that to the site admin - right, craig ? ;-)

meanwhile, how 'bout that floating post arrangement on the home page, huh ? huh ?

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Homeless Gain Address on the Internet

now this is an interesting development.  “hey buddy, can you spare a buck for wireless access ?”  but similar programs have been started in poor areas of the world, and generally what happens is the stuff is vandalized or goes unused or - perhaps worse - is used for what the rest of us use it for: porn, games, entertainment.  but that's actually ok, since there is also a similar proportion of productive use, as in resolving community issues, overcoming communications hurdles, accessing sevices and information not formerly avaialble, and so on.

this may also give the homeless, etc. a way of being less disenfranchised in world affairs.  hell, it gives them access to government services, job searching, education and so much more.  a few years down the road: they may be homeless, but the local street people are all sporting the latest in wearable technology.  oh, the possibilities...

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1. Someone says to you, "Please?", instead of saying "Huh?"
2. You ask the waitress for a "three way," and it's not a kinky proposition.
3. What groundhog?  It's the St. Patrick's Day parade leprechaun that forecasts how much longer winter will last.
4. If someone asks, "what school did you go to," they mean which high school not college.
5. Indiana is about 20 miles away but it takes about four hours to get there.
6. It's too cold in the winter and too hot and humid in the summer, to ever stay outside for very long.
7. You drive to Columbus or Louisville to avoid the prices at the Cincinnati airport.
8. City council members hold debates on whether or not they should debate in the first place.
9. High school football gets 15 minutes of air time on the 11:00 news; The NBA and NHL? Zero.
10. Tourists still flock downtown to catch a glimpse of cast members from "WKRP," even though the show hasn't aired on network television since 1984 and the show was filmed in L.A., anyway.
11. You ask lifetime residents where the President Taft house is but they don't know either.
12. If you do something, anything in public long enough, sooner or later it will be banned.
13. Your low-fat diet is never low enough to exclude a Graeter's ice cream.
14. You order "goetta" (pronounced "get-uh") and the counterman actually knows what the hell you're talking about.
15. You get through winter listening to Marty and Joe's broadcasts from the grapefruit leagues.
16. Big Red Smokies are a ballpark treat not cause to dial 9-1-1.
17. If necessary, the city could easily be sliced into two new countries: East and West, and it would take 20 years for anyone to notice something happened.
18. There is chocolate and cinnamon, not peppers and beans, in your chili.
19. You can drive 30 minutes in any direction to hear a different accent than your own.
20. Accurately judge the social status of a person by learning at which Kroger's store they shop.
21. You can go to any Church festival in any neighborhood on any weekend and see at least 5 people you either work with, went to school with or dated.
22. Even the slightest mention of former baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti makes your blood boil and your ears steam.
23. The temperature hits 45 degrees and the sun comes out in any month between November and April, people walk around downtown wearing shades and no jackets.
24. The top stories on the local 6 o'clock evening news look suspiciously like the articles you read in the newspaper that very morning - and even use the same quotes.
25. Any carbonated beverage is a "coke," a coke is a "pop," a pop is a "soda" and a soda is a "float." Any questions?
26. You've talked about leaving this dump for 10 years and you're still here because despite all there is to poke fun at, Cincinnati isn't a bad place to live.

--- from lenny b.

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