I decided to play with my CSS chops a little more and redid the template for my photo albums. It’s got a spiffy new look!
Update: I added the ability to switch between HTML and XML/XSLT rendering. For those of you with browsers that support it (Mozilla/Firefox and IE 5+ do for certain, but Safari does not), click on the rendering switching link in the lower left corner of your screen. The appearance should be the same, but doing a “View Source” will show the raw XML code for the page rather than HTML.
Despite my efforts in controlling comment spam through mod_rewrite rules, the problem was getting worse. Very little comment spam was getting auto-posted, but I was getting about 30 messages a day that I would have to go through and delete later. Very, very annoying.
After chatting with my bud Jerry on the subject, I came to the idea that a simple additional input would do. (The real credit should go to Jeremy Stein, who made the initial suggestion in a comment entry on my initial attempt to stop the flow.) So I added a checkbox to the comment pages, which says:
Please Confirm:
I am not a spam bot.
If you don’t check it, the comment doesn’t get saved. So far, it’s stopped all spam except for one, which I suspect was manually entered anyway.
I’ve been using the plainly-named Desktop Manager on my Mac for about a month now and think it’s the best virtual desktop program available on any platform. The best feature from a “coolness” perspective are the variety of transitions available, which make good use out of the 3D video card in my computer. Watch some Quicktime snippets of the various transitions available. My favorite is the “Cube” transition.
The lack of a decent virtual desktop program for Windows is one of the most severely limiting things I find when using it. I used VirtuaWin for a while, but found I’d frequently get into funky states when using Visual Studio. Once you use a virtual desktop manager, it’s hard to live without one.
Of course, the reason I don’t have facial hair is because my wife won’t get me keep it…which is probably the same reason I wouldn’t have the time to develop a programming language, let alone a successful one.
I’m considering migrating off of WordPress. I originally switched to WordPress for licensing issues, but also to avoid the onslaught of comment spam I was getting. Now that WordPress has gotten popular, the spam is just as bad (actually, worse) than before, so now I have to find a new, more obscure weblog program.
I’m looking at several Java-based ones, just because I happen to like the Java language. (I looked for Ruby- and Scheme-based solutions, but couldn’t find any.) Blojsom is a strong contender, but Roller and Pebble are other possibilities.
In the meantime, I learned there’s currently no export script for WordPress. It’s one of the goals for version 1.3, but I checked the CVS version out and didn’t find it anywhere. Thus, I wrote my own export script, which exports data to an XML file. The XML isn’t in a standard format, and I’m not aware of any standards around other than the awful format used my Movable Type, so if you use it you’ll need to write your own import script. You’ll also need to make sure the DOM XML module is installed in your PHP installation.
Last night, some friends of ours came over to watch Maggie while Hong and I went out for sushi. It was soooo nice! We didn’t talk about baby for the two hours we were gone, didn’t even think about her…well, I wasn’t thinking about her at least. There was some worry that she might not be good around strangers, but when we returned found she was very content while we were gone. We will have to do this kind of thing more often.
Ever since I left my former job, I’ve slowly but steadily been gaining weight. My daily commute by bicycle really helped me to keep a constant weight, but I’ve watched my jeans get tighter and tighter over the last six months. I decided that after Thanksgiving, I would go on a diet, so I wouldn’t have to go out and buy new pants. My goal is to lose 10 pounds.
I started calorie counting, intaking 1500 calories per day. Drinking water and eating fresh fruit helped a lot, but it was still a challenge to keep up with. After cheating a few times this weekend, I decided to avoid the explicit calorie-counting and just try for a sensible diet. This includes:
Eating a PowerBar for breakfast instead of a bowl of cereal
Drinking low- or no-calorie beverages instead of milk or juice
Eating an apple every day as a mid-afternoon snack (also good for keeping the doctor away.)
So far, I’m a third of my way toward my goal.
Listening to: My Elusive Drug from the album “Peachtree Road” by Elton John
It’s been a while since I wrote anything substantial here, so I figured I should sit down and write.
Hong returned to work a few weeks ago. She’s only working three days a week for the remainder of the year, due to the abundance of unused vacation time she has. For the days she goes to work, we have a nanny come in to watch over Maggie. It’s more expensive than daycare, but neither one of us were comfortable with the notion of sending our precious 3-month old daughter to daycare where it’s a 4;1 ratio of babies to caregivers. Since I work from home, it also means I can keep an eye (or at least an ear) on what’s happening, and can go check on her every once in a while.
Thanksgiving was fun. We had some friends over, ate turkey prepared by Boston Market, and played UNO Hearts. Yeah, after performing the full Thanksgiving regalia of preparing turkey, stuffing, potato rolls, and pecan pie last year, I took the easy route and paid a corporation to make my dinner. Maybe I’ll swing back to going all-out next year and prepare a Turducken instead.
I’m posting this entry from a trial version of Ecto, an OS X program for managing weblog entries. So far, I’m pretty impressed with it, although I don’t know if I’ll plunk down the money for it. Still, it’s a far cry better than using the web-based editor.
Currently listening to: All Is Vanity from the album “Snow” by Spock’s Beard