blog.ariffic
Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
« Previous EntriesReading and writing (and reading some of my writing)
Some of you might not know, but Scribd (it’s like Youtube for documents) is having the Most Interesting Hard Drive contest, wherein they’re searching for some of the best as-yet-unpublished stuff submitted by their users. The prizes are fairly sweet, and I’m doing ok - #35 as of this morning. However, I’d like to win. This is where you come in.
These are my documents. Everything counts for the contest except the pictures. If you’d go and look at them - maybe several times, maybe over the course of the next few days? I’d appreciate it. But I wouldn’t expect you to do me such a big favor for free. What kind of a friend would I be? No, I have a deal to make with you.
If you leave me a comment with a topic to write about (or a writing prompt?) on any of the blogs that this ends up on, I will write a 200-to-300 word original piece for you and toss it onto Scribd, on the condition that you give it as many views as you can. (Maybe talk some friends into it too. I dunno, you decide.) I promise it will be an actual original piece; I won’t reuse anything I’ve already written (in fact, pretty much everything I’ve written that’s not a blog entry is now on Scribd, which is sadly little because I can’t find my backup of everything I did in college) and I won’t respond to your request for a review of Iron Man by writing “Awesome!” 200 to 300 times.
Alternately, if you’d like to tweet a suggestion at me, you can do so - my Twitter username is macanima.
I don’t ask for favors often, but this is one favor I really hope I can pull off. Thanks in advance!
More of WordPress’s crap
So it turns out that in WordPress (at least the newest version - I don’t know about older versions), by default, you can’t have an RSS feed show full-text - it only shows excerpts. The culprit? This snatch of code from wp-includes/feed-rss2.php:
<?php if (get_option('rss_use_excerpt')) : ?>
<description><![CDATA[<?php the_excerpt_rss() ?>]]> |
<?php else : ?>
<description><![CDATA[<?php the_excerpt_rss() ?>]]> |
Seriously, guys, that’s just sloppy damned coding. I would assume it was on purpose if it weren’t for the fact that in the lines immediately following, which go over the content of the <content:encoded> element, are written correctly. Way to go, WordPress!
Anyone, for anyone wanting full-text RSS feeds, just convert the second call to the_except_rss() to the_content().
Data flying everywhere
Warning: this is going to be of absolutely no interest to anyone but me.
If I post to del.icio.us, that ends up on my blog, which ends up posting it to my LJ.
Also when I post to del.icio.us, it ends up on my other blog on Tumblr, which then gets imported into my Facebook notes.
Posting directly to Tumblr eventually gets sucked into Facebook; posting directly to my blog gets sent to my LJ.
If I make a tweet on Twitter, it also gets imported into Tumblr, and from there into Facebook.
I’ve just now changed things to that instead of posting directly to my tumblelog, my posts on del.icio.us get aggregated only to my regular blog, and then that gets fed into my tumblelog. Meaning, tumbl.ariffic.com is now the endpoint for basically everything I post (and, by extension, so are my Facebook Notes). That anything ends up on LJ at all is pretty much a triviality at this point.
tl;dr: (((del.icio.us -> blog [-> LJ]) + twitter) -> tumblr) -> facebook.
This doesn’t even take into account services that I don’t have aggregated anywhere, such as: posts on Wowhead, RSS feeds of my Google Calendars, and things of that nature. I also have a feed or two that I haven’t made public, and a couple defunct blogs whose feeds don’t update because, obviously, I’m not updating them anymore. In theory I also have a blog on IGN and a blog on Destructoid but I just don’t use those. If I did, they’d probably also end up being pulled into Tumblr, simply because Tumblr allows me to import random feeds.
Oh, and posts I do on RE. But there’s not a lot these days; it’s pretty busy here, and I never think about blogging when I get home.
Dear WordPress, version 2.5 is a Goddamned mess
(Warning: this is a very angry rant. I am using a WordPress version that I do not like in order to write about how much I do not like this WordPress version, so you can imagine how thoughtful and meaningful this is. Skip if you do not like vitriol being spewed in the general direction of web software.)
Why can’t NewsGator count?
It’s crap like this that keeps me switching NewsGator back to its Classic Reader. (Hint: look at the page count on the lower-right corner of the screenshot.)
In their rush to jump on the AJAXified Web-2.0 bandwagon, NewsGator neglected to see if their product could, you know, count properly. This bug has existed for at least four months - hell, it’s existed as long as the new ‘beta’ reader has - and it’s very simple to reproduce. Here’s how you do it.
0) Turn on the ‘mark items read as I view them’ option.
1) Click on a folder.
2) Start reading by using the ‘next page’ buttons.
By about the second or third page, the page counts will be horribly out of sync.
You had a good thing going for you, NG - why’d you have to go and screw it up with this crappy ‘beta’ reader?
lolrus, noooooo
The newest of the email foodgroups
Bacn: email you want, but not right now. (As opposed to spam, which would be email you don’t want pretty much ever.)
As in:
- every notice Facebook ever sends out, ever
- MySpace crap
- Twitter ‘following you’ notices
- mailing lists
- forum reply notices
… you name it! If you want to read it at any time, but not necessarily right now, it’s bacn.
Pownce invites
Anyone want a Pownce invite? I got invited by mah boy Burch, and it sort of strikes me as a cross between Twitter, del.icio.us, and box.net. Oh, and maybe ICQ.
I dunno if I’ll use it that much but the client software reminds me of Twitterific, and that’s hard to come by on Windows, so it might get more use while I’m at work. This is me. You can see how much I’ve used it.
Anyhow, if you want a invite, let me know. I’ve got 6 or so.
Inspired by an actual work conversation
The Bartle Test for MMO Players
So, the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology was created about a decade ago by Richard Bartle, popped online by Edwin Andreasen, and is superficially similar to the MBTI. The Bartle Test recently got an update to go from focusing on the MUD crowd to being geared towards the MMORPG crowd. Click here to take the updated Bartle Test yourself.
Naturally, I couldn’t resist. Read the rest of this entry »
addictive vs. addicting
Attention, Internet in general (and I’m especially glaring at you here, Diggtards): addictive and addicting are not! frigging! synonyms!
This is the word addicting. Addicting is a transitive verb. A transitive verb requires a subject and one or more direct objects; for example, “Your improper use of the word ‘addicting’ is abusing my ears.” See what I did there? Abusing, verb, ears, direct object, your improper use of the word ‘addicting,’ subject. Get it? Got it? Good. Side note: if you use this word properly, it is an awkward f’ing word. Let it go.
This, on the other hand, is the word addictive. Addictive is a frigging adjective. It is, in fact, a word that can be used to describe something! As in, ‘ranting is addictive,’ or ’sandwiches are addictive,’ or ‘this Kool-Aid is so good it’s addictive!’ Get it? Addictive is used TO DESCRIBE SOMETHING THAT CAUSES AN ADDICTION.
You people need to quit frigging using addicting when you mean addictive. Oh, sure, you say ‘this cocaine is addicting,’ and you might mean ‘there is a specific property of this cocaine that is addicting me to its use,’ but guess what - you probably damn well don’t. You mean addictive, you English-language-abusing twit.
addictive:
1. Causing or tending to cause addiction: an addictive substance.
2. Characterized by or susceptible to addiction: an addictive personality.
addicting:
1. Causing to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance: The cocaine was addicting the thief.
2. Occupying (oneself) with or involving (oneself) in something habitually or compulsively: Playing so many video games was addicting the child.
3. NOT THE SAME DAMN THING AS ADDICTIVE, STOP IT, SWEET JESUS, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE
Just in case you were wondering, I’m not the only one who cares. I’m just more annoyed. The English language is already dying a slow, painful death - can we please stop buggering it in every available orifice? Thanks.
Open letter to Amazon.com: it’s 2007 - can we have multiple item selections, please?
Did you know: you cannot just submit an email to Amazon using the form on their site unless it’s associated with an item or an order? This is a stupid idea, especially for cases where, I dunno, the problem or suggestion in question is with the website!
Still, that’s not the main thrust of this.
To whom it may concern:
Can we please, please, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE have the ability to add multiple items from the recommendations list to the Wish List or cart at once? Sometimes I want to add 9 or 10 items that are recommended to me to either the wishlist or cart and instead, I have to
1) add one item
2) navigate back to my recommendations page
3) hope it’s still on the recommendations page where I left it
4) repeat steps 1-3 about 10 times in a rowI’d rather do this:
1) click checkboxes beside items I’m interested in
2) click an ‘Add Checked Items to Cart’ or ‘Add Checked Items to Wishlist’ buttonAnd boom, done in two steps.
PLEASE! Pass this along to whoever it needs to be passed along to in order to consider adding this! It’s an incredibly obvious feature, and in this day and age I’m honestly shocked that Amazon.com doesn’t already have it.
Thanks,
Phil
My cell is at the ready
City of Heroes, of all things, has been optioned for a film. I stand at the ready to play Stormchaser, a role I play a few nights a week anyway.
I have no idea how I’d look in that sky-blue-and-yellow suit, though. Or the dark grey one. Hmm.
Deal of the century
I can has Faberge egg?
He’s 90 stories tall, and his adventures are legendary
Stupid essays. Also, more stupid essays.
I chose Walt Whitman for my biography report because Mr. Farlow said that if I wasn’t going to take this class seriously and pick a real poet I may as well not come to class anymore. Walt Whitman was an awful child molester who was born in ancient Hong Kong. He is over 3,000 years old and remembers the names of all the forgotten Gods.
The one on atoms is pretty good, as is “Preserving the Future: The Fight to Save Pop Rocks.”
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