Yabfog » miscellany

I'm #1 (too)

Dan — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 18:28:52 +0000

Wow!

[via Dave]

My Link Blogs

Dan — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 04:48:14 +0000

Finally have a bunch of my link blogs posted. A little explanation, though.

First, this is an OPML file, generated by NewsGator, filtered through sed, and displayed by Optimal.

Second, I maintain these link blogs in FeedDemon and my own aggregator built on the NewsGator API.

As of the latest version (ver. 2.5), FeedDemon automatically syncs your "News Bins" with your NewsGator "Clippings Folders" -- two terminologies for the same thing. They really ought to pick a name. In any event, now that I've set it up, these should self-maintain without any additional work on my part. That's what programming is all about!

Quick WordPress Upgrading

Dan — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:13:51 +0000

Note to self:

Grab a unified diff of the new version versus the old version:
svn diff -r HEAD --old http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/ \ --new http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/

Apply the changes to the current installation:
patch -d -u -i

Rhapsody Rabbit Realization

Dan — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:07:31 +0000

I've always loved the Bugs Bunny cartoon Rhapsody Rabbit and wished I had a recording of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 performed by the pianist who performed it for that cartoon. Well, today I went down the rabbit hole searching for an answer.... And I found it. The pianist was Jakob Gimpel. I also found this fascinating story by Gimpel's son in which he hypothesizes that the pianist in "The Cat Concerto" (the Tom and Jerry version of Rhapsody Rabbit that won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for 1946) was Shura Cherkassky. (See: The Cat Concerto Controversy (Mystery Solved?).) Now, to find a recording....

Superhero Meme

Dan — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 00:20:54 +0000

As seen on Scripting News and TechCrunch (among other places)...

Your results:
You are Hulk

Hulk		80%
Superman		65%
Spider-Man		60%
Green Lantern		60%
The Flash		55%
Iron Man		50%
Robin		45%
Catwoman		45%
Supergirl		35%
Wonder Woman		30%
Batman		25%

You are a wanderer with
amazing strength.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality
Test

Without an analysis of why I was characterized as Hulk, I think this gimmick lacks social punch. Of course, I know what the questions were and what my answers were. So, I can understand being Hulk, but unless you take the Superhero Personality Test yourself, you'll have no idea why this post is at all interesting.

BlackBerry Browser User Agent

Dan — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 14:58:25 +0000

FYI: My BlackBerry's Web browser identifies itself (i.e., "User Agent") as: BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1

So in PHP, an inexpensive check would be something like:

if ( 0 === stripos($useragent, 'blackberry') ) {
    echo "True";
}

UPDATE: Washington Post Fixes Website for Mobile Users

Dan — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 16:49:19 +0000

After about two weeks of unresponsiveness, I finally found yet another way to contact the Washington Post to complain about their broken website (see my previous post for more info). This time, they promptly responded to my complaint, and within three or four days, the website was fixed.

My contact person, Sarah Lumbard, was courteous and helpful. Thank you, Sarah.

Shame on you, Washington Post

Dan — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:50:10 +0000

At some point today, the Washington Post broke its website for Blackberry users (and perhaps other mobile device users).

Now, any time I try to access an article by clicking on a link in my RSS aggregator on my Blackberry, I get redirected to some lame "mobile site," and I can't see the story I'm trying to read.

Shame on you, Washington Post!

UPDATE: Emails went unanswered, so I called them at 703.469.2500. Me: "Your website is broken to Blackberry users." WaPo (with a level of disinterest I thought only possible when talking to an accountant at a cocktail party): "It is?" We'll see what happens...

Note To Self: Del.icio.us API Change

Dan — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 15:30:34 +0000

Del.icio.us rolled out a new API server. Eventually, the old server will shut down. This will effect MySQLicious.

If the old URL was:

http://del.icio.us/api/posts/get

the new URL will be:

https://api.del.icio.us/v1/posts/get

Note:

The use of https (for secure connections)
The new server name
The addition of a version number where the /api/ used to be

Why I Listen

Dan — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 04:53:04 +0000

Thank you, Jason Calacanis, for helping me realize why I listen to the Gillmor Gang podcast despite the many things I dislike about it.

What I don't like: six minutes of introductory commercials; conversations that meander down dead ends; the sound quality; Steve Gillmor bullying the other Gangsters. (Maybe bullying isn't the right word, and maybe the bullying is good natured. I don't know Steve Gillmor, so I can't say. All I know is that it sounds tense, and it makes me feel tense.)

Why I listen: the golden nuggets.

Like Jason said in the most recent Gillmor Gang podcast, every show includes at least a couple golden nuggets of insight or well-crystallized analysis. Something illuminating.

And that's worth the price of admission (but thank goodness for fast-forward -- sorry, EarthLink).