Recently in BlogVanity Category

Just found a nifty sidebar widget that makes getting to my live scanner stream simple, including an imbedded WMP for those who cannot install software at work (you are welcome, Dan!). The screenshot of the widget, aptly named SHOUTcast Sidebar Widget, looked super and filled every need that I had. I was troubled, though, to see a very recent post on the WordPress forums of someone having a problem getting it to work. I thought probably a WP install that falls outside the norm and that mine will work just fine. Well, it did not. The widget title showed up fine, but that was it. So, I opened the code up. Warning - I am not (repeat, not) a PHP expert. Perl yes, PHP, no. So, I did what any good programmer would do (other than RTFM) and sprinkled a few echo statements in the main script to see what it was (and was not) finding. It read my Shoutcast status page just fine, as well as parsed the results properly, but when it arrived at fetching the skeleton page, nothing was retrieved. I looked at the filename and it was correct. What was wrong were two things, one my fault, one the code:

1. In the README file, it says to extract all the files into wp-content/plugins/sc_widget. Problem is that the installation zip file has them in a directory called shoutcast-sidebar-widget. Most widget and plugin installations for WP do not change directory names in mid-installation, most are just drag 'em over. I will take the hit (did not RTFM), but left the directory name as is and changed the code.
2. Looking at the filenames in the script and the skeleton page, all the fully qualified references were to /wp-content/plugins/sc_widget/sc_running.htm, which works just dandy if your WP installation is at the root of the server. Removing the leading slash makes the script and resulting, edited skeleton file work just dandy in any level of the server. There are 6 occurrences in the two files, sc_widget.php and sc_running.htm. Easy enough edit.

I made those changes and it works like a champ, as you can see in the sidebar! I plan on sending the changes to the author next with a nice thank you for writing the original code!

Now that I have mod_rewrite installed and I attempted and succeeded on the main web site, I am adding prettier permalinks on the blog as well. Please stand by. :-) Update: Work complete! Now wasn't that easy!

Ok, I admit it. I do love to find fun, silly, little devices to toss up here. And this one is in the ultimate silly category. While reading the About entry on a blog, I just had to chuckle. I figured what the hell, let's see how I can approximate me on this site. The web site is called Meez and it has a super easy interface that walks you through the process which yields an exportable animated GIF file. They used a lot of imagination in this process, so much so that I could actually get pretty close to how I appear and what I am doing right now. So, what are you waiting for? I know you can't wait to try it yourself! Using that link will gain you 5 extra coinz, the currency used to get extra special additions to your Meez. I admit it - I get 5 as well. And, yes, I know they are aiming at the younger crowd, but us more mature people can have fun, too, right? (via Grilled Cheese)

I was over at the Yahoo Developers web site today to grab an application key for a new web site. I noticed that the featured video on the front page was about a new plug-in for Wordpress. It is used while you are writing a new post (or editing an old one) and what it does is scans the content for possible items of interest from Yahoo. Things like maps, graphics, photos and such. So, what the hell, being a tech toy whore, I decided to load it up and see what it yields from the wealth of Yahoo Maps, Search, Flickr, and whatever other goodies they have stored. So I will pause in writing and see the three shortcuts it found already! (pause) So far, it basically found the links you see in the post above, as well as putting a Flickr badge at the bottom of the post, using those three terms as the keyword search. Now, let us add West Chester, Pennsylvania and the West Whiteland Fire Company to the mix and see what else show up. (pause) So, I removed the links to the three obvious web sites and added in automatically a map of the borough. It did not find the fire company's web site Curious as to how precise the search is, possibly only related to map locations or Flickr-finds. Now going to enable everything and see how it looks in reality! Update: Well, after publishing the web page and bringing it up in both Firefox and IE, I was singularly unimpressed with what happened when you moused over a link. It came up with some skeletal-looking windows and was not until you actually clicked the link that a Yahoo box came up with several search results. While it is a cute way to find related maps and pictures on Flickr for your post, I find that its usability for the general (read: non-geek) reader is lacking greatly.

Nice! I can actually use the As Heard On category for myself! I didn't get home for my morning routine until around 9 AM. So I flipped on WCHE AM and started my morning listen to the Jay and Randy Show. All of a sudden, I hear my name... the cat doesn't talk and no one was home but me. Damn! It was on the radio! I proceed to hear Randy talking about my entry on AM radio stations in West Chester and saying that he was wondering if I would be cool with it being read on the air, as well as the web site address! I cranked up AIM and im'd him fast saying sure! Next thing I know, he is reading verbatim the posting. Damn! Thanks for the promo! No, I can't afford to pay your rate card rates ;-) I still can only think of one thing to say... DAMN! And please, anyone who is visiting, courtesy of WCHE, welcome, enjoy and, of course, leave a comment if you feel the urge to do so, and please stop back often! All who agree (and disagree) with my opinion are always welcome!

Yep, it is snowing today - a bit more than the few flakes we had yesterday, but enough to give a minor coating on the grass. So, while tending to cleaning up the rec (read: wreck) room, I am getting things back in shape here. I do like this new format (hats off to Bob) and am having fun adding widgets and plugins. Yes, I am a geek and I do like to over decorate... but things will settle down, just bear with me in the meanwhile. Please, if you see something you like, leave a comment... also if something annoys you too. So, back to cleaning out boxes and straightening out the mess, off- and on-line.

Ok, have I become a Blinker? Damn straight! It is now obvious with the addition of a Blink It! link at the bottom of every post. The Blinklist team has instructions for adding a Blink It! link for Blogger and WordPress, as well as generic instructions for other blogs. Well, since I use MovableType, I took a few minutes to hack into my templates and figure out how to do it. So, here's the way to do it. You have to open up to four templates, depending upon the archiving method you use: Main Index, Category Archive, Date-based Archive, and Individual Entry Archive. i placed the Blink It! link right after the Permalink in each entry. You can opt for either using the Blink graphic or a text link. I opted for the latter since it fit in better with my layout. Here is the code you need to paste into the template to generate the link with your entry's title, permalink, and tag. Note that I am terrible about tagging the category for entries so I just used the blog title entry. So here is the code required: Blink It! with the graphic: <a href="http://www.blinklist.com/index.php?Action=Blink/addblink.php&Description=&Url=<$MTEntryPermalink$>&Title=<$MTEntryTitle$>&Tag=<$MTBlogName encode_html="1"$>"><img src="http://www.blinklist.com/Theme/Graphic/Blink_Small_Button.gif" alt="Blink It" style="border-width:0px;" /></a> Blink It! with a text link: <a href="http://www.blinklist.com/index.php?Action=Blink/addblink.php&Description=&Url=<$MTEntryPermalink$>&Title=<$MTEntryTitle$>&Tag=<$MTBlogName encode_html="1"$>">Blink It!</a> Remember that when you are done modifying your templates, you must rebuild your site for the changes to take affect! So, share the love! Feel free to steal the code for your MT blog!

Something I am always looking for a nifty web page tools. No, not the run of the mill badges, quizzes, my rapper name is graphics, and such, but something that might have some functionality to me as well as visitors (what a concept). I was over at the meebo (web 2.0 universal IM from a web page) site and noticed that they have a new web widget that will allow folks to chat with you from your web page. Written in Flash, it is fast to load and really does work. Well, if I am online and have meebo up, but maybe this is a good reason to use meebo more. I put the widget in the right hand bar of the rest of my web site and, for now, it is below. I'll fit it in somewhere on the blog later on. What ya think? Hey, it's free!

Ok, now that I have MT humming right along, I think it is time to open comments back up. Why? Because I like comments (the real ones). I just set up the Akismet plugin for MT, one thing that I had great luck with when I used WordPress. So, the comments are open again - leave a nice one, please. On the topic of WP, I find it comforting that since I removed all traces of php from our servers that things are running much smoother. Score one for perl and well-written code. Editor's Note: I will have to fixup the templates a bit to re-include the commenting facility. It will be up later today or tomorrow - not my most pressing issue at the moment...

I have been using Furl since it opened up and quite satisfied with the way it works. I have also used del.icio.us as a resource to see what's hot around the net, even had an account though I hadn't used it for storing much of anything. Yesterday, I decided to export my Furl links and import them into my del.icio.us using their import facility. It went very smoothly except for what I think is a major problem: it marked all of the 1750+ links as not shared, hidden from the public view. In a system like this, one that is used by the gazillion or so folks on the web, you would think that there would be a make 'em all public click. Well, there isn't. So, I am off to look at the API to see if there is a way to undo this with a little perl magic. Don't forget - today is 06-06-06, the apocalypse date. Beware of evil spirits!