2005 November Archive at T. Longren

Monthly Archive for November, 2005

More WordPress and some FireFox

Published

on November 29, 2005

in Internet, Linux, Open Source and Personal

. 1 Comment

UPDATE: Get SK2-WP2Compatibility, a plugin for Spam Karma 2. It fixes the comment count problem mentioned below when using Spam Karma 2 with WordPress 2.0. OK, just wanted to get that out in the open. Please continue.

Now that I’ve spent a little more time with WordPress 2.0 RC1, I’ve discovered a plugin compatibility problem that’s probably going to destroy me. Spam Karma 2 causes some problems when updating the “comment_count” value in the “wp_posts” table. It doesn’t just cause problems displaying comment numbers, I had to manually updated that field for some posts. But, it’s not like this type of thing wasn’t expected. I’m not brave enough to run slackware-current on my main workstation anymore, this works for me though.

So, I can either use Spam Karma and not have any comment counts for new or updated posts, or I can just stop using Spam Karma. I really don’t want to let Spam Karma go. I’ve already seen about 200 trackback/comment spams since disabling Spam Karma earlier today. I really hope to see a new release of Spam Karma that works with WordPress 2.0. I guess this problem was known about a few weeks ago. I somehow didn’t notice it when I upgraded to 2.0 beta 1 and then to 2.0 beta 2.

Anybody know of a comment/trackback spam WordPress plugin that’s known to work with 2.0? There’s the list in the support forums, which also happens to discuss the Spam Karma problems. I may see if the latest WordPress Hashcash will work at all.

There is good news though, not really relating to WordPress though. FireFox 1.5 stable is out! You can get FireFox 1.5 at the new official home of FireFox and Thunderbird, Mozilla.com.

Also, my favorite Mint Pepper has been updated to work with Mint 1.23. I was thinking of downgrading to Mint 1.14 just so I could have the Outclicks Pepper. Andrew Sutherland couldn’t have picked a better time to release his updated pepper.

CONTINUED UPDATE: Too bad I didn’t see this about an hour ago. Looks like I’ll get to keep my Spam Karma thanks to SK2-WP2Compatibility, a plugin for Spam Karma 2.

SK2-WP2Compatibility is a plugin for Spam Karma 2. It has no effect without Spam Karma 2.0 or higher being already installed on your Wordpress system.
This plugin has no spam fighting or spam killing abilities. Instead, it is intended to provide a way by which all users moving to Wordpress 2.0 can enjoy the benefits of Spam Karma - without having to worry about Wordpress 2.0 specific changes.

Might not need that SK2 plugin for too long, there’s word of a Spam Karma 2.1 soon.

Popularity: 5% [?]

WordPress 2.0-RC1

Published

Tyler

on November 28, 2005

in Internet, Linux, Open Source and Personal

. 4 Comments

WordPress 2.0 Release Candidate 1 is here. I don’t have any official links or anything, I haven’t even seen a mention of it on the mailing list. We’ve had one WordPress 2.0 test release each week for the last three weeks now. I like it. Only way I know of to grab it is via subversion.

I’ve noticed something weird in 2.0 Beta 2 though. It may have been there in Beta 1 also, may still be in RC1, who knows. None of my tags show up on Technorati or anywhere. And I also noticed there’s no data in the “wp_postmeta” table relating to the freshly published post, like there should be. So, after publishing the post, I’m taken back to the “write post” page. Only, the “write post” page doesn’t finish loading for a couple minutes sometimes. Previously, I had just navigated away from the loading page without giving it a second thought. I decided to wait for it to finish tonight. After loading, all the tags I had set for that post were in their proper places in the “wp_postmeta” table.

There were some pretty odd circumstances with that post though. For one, I set the posts date/time to about 3 minutes out from where I currently was. After I published the article, it took about 3 minutes to show up here. That behavior is totally expected though. WordPress is good like that.

Also, there were some values in “wp_postmeta” I had never seen before. I didn’t write em down, if I seem it again soon I’ll make a note. All I know is the “meta_key” value was set to something like “_ping_me” or something similar to that. After the post had published, the unknown “meta_key” value had been deleted and my tags were in their proper place in that table.

Now, I don’t know if this behavior is always there when post-dating a post, but it seemed like the ping services (in “wp_options” table) were actually being pinged while the “write post” page was loading right after I had published.

Who knows, maybe it’s all coincidence. Time will tell. Oh, and before I forget, PHP 5.1.0 broke WordPress and lots of stuff for me, and lots of others as well. Tried upgrading to PHP 5.1.1 today, same broken shit. Pages load blank the first time around, second time they load perfectly. I’m sticking with 5.0.x for a while. Soon to be moving to MySQL 5. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to pay for MySQL 5, I gotta research that a little first. I assume I can because the .tar.bz2 source is where it should be on dev.mysql.com.

OK, time to upgrade to WordPress 2.0 Release Candidate 1 before bed. I gotta say though, I love the new dashboard. It’s got a Web 2.0 feel to it, but nobody knows what Web 2.0 is. So, I’m gonna take a chance and say “I really dig the new half Web 2.0 WordPress.”

UPDATE: OK, all updated to 2.0-RC1 now. You should ignore everything above this update pretty much. The problem I spoke about earlier isn’t related to WordPress, don’t hold me to that though. I did some more testing before upgrading to 2.0-RC1. I think it’s some odd plugin functionality. I’ve been using Jerome’s Keywords for tagging. Every time I edit a post the tags get wiped. I know that’s the general problem. I don’t know if it’s caused by the plugin or if it’s WordPress wiping out all the “custom fields”. Jerome’s Keywords stores its tag data in those “custom fields”, inside the “wp_postmeta” table.

You can get WordPress 2.0-RC1 in the nightly builds directory on the wordpress.org server.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Ramsey Clark is Defending Saddam

Published

Tyler

on November 28, 2005

in Govt., Personal and War

. 0 Comments

H/T to Jay over at Stop the ACLU for the good word early this morning. Too bad I’m a lazy ass, posting 13 hours after the fact. We (errr, I) should for sure be back into the swing of things by tomorrow around here.

Ramsey Clark, the guy that defended ole Slobodan Milosevic, AKA “Sloppy-Joe Missle-Bitch”, will be seated next to Saddam Hussein through the rest of his trial. That is, assuming he doesn’t get whacked, which wouldn’t be all bad. From the BBC:

Former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, an outspoken critic of the trial, was seated alongside the defence team.

Mr Clark, 77, who flew in from the Jordanian capital Amman on Sunday, said he wanted to protect Saddam Hussein’s rights.

“A fair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth,” he told Reuters news agency.

The left-wing activist, who held office in the 1960s under President Lyndon Johnson, has previously described the special tribunal as a creation of the US military occupation.

What the fuck Clark? Saddam murdered thousands of people, and you want to make sure his rights, of all peoples, aren’t violated. I think Ramsey Clark just qualified himself for the “Douche Bag of the Year - 2006” award. Clark shouldn’t be allowed back into the U.S. He’s a freakin “enemy combatant” as far as I can tell. Jay has some to add:

Mr. Clark doesn’t have that great of a success record, but he has a long history as an international lawyer practicing his favorite pastime, America bashing, and defending America’s enemies. In 1985, the former Chairman of the National Advisory Counsel of the ACLU, filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against his own country while defending Libya’s dictator, Qadaffi. In 1980, in the midst of the Iranian Hostage Crisis Ramsey flew to Tehran not to help the US hostages but to take part in a “Crimes in America” symposium.

Who the hell would sue their own country on behalf of another country? Stupid question I guess. The Washington Post has an article about Saddam’s defiance today. Other blogs on the subject:
Michelle Malkin
Protein Wisdom (w/ Original Content)
California Conservative
Evil Conservative
Thinklings
Donkey Stomp
Oblogatory Anecdotes

Popularity: 6% [?]

Iraq’s Good, Lets Jet

Published

Tyler

on November 26, 2005

in Govt., Personal and War

. 0 Comments

Earlier this week, Condi Rice said the current level of U.S. troops in Iraq probably wouldn’t be needed much longer. That’s a long shot from what she was saying earlier this year. Could it be due to the immense pressure being put on the Bush administration by everyone to leave Iraq? Probably.

In a departure from previous statements, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week that the training of Iraqi soldiers had advanced so far that the current number of U.S. troops in the country probably would not be needed much longer.

President Bush will give a major speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., in which aides say he is expected to herald the improved readiness of Iraqi troops, which he has identified as the key condition for pulling out U.S. forces.

The administration’s pivot on the issue comes as the White House is seeking to relieve enormous pressure by war opponents. The camp includes liberals, moderates and old-line conservatives who are uneasy with the costly and uncertain nation-building effort.

Sounds like those that oppose our presence in Iraq will be getting their way soon. Iraq will be worse off than it was before if we leave now. Hopefully I’m proven to be a doomsayer and the islamo-crazies will just leave us alone as soon as we leave. I don’t think it’ll work that way though, unfortunately. In their eyes, American’s don’t suck cuz we’re in Iraq. We suck because we’re Americans and not muslim.

I just think it’s a bad idea to start talking about these things now. Justin Gardner at Donklephant thinks it’s a bad move too.

Don Surber seems to think it’s time for us to pull some troops out:

The left can pretend they were “right” all it wants. America has done what it set out to do: Stopped Saddam from developing more WMD, stopped Saddam’s support of terrorism and stopped Saddam. Time to turn Iraq over to Iraqis.

I don’t know that I agree with Don’t rationale there, but he does have a good point. Something I can easily agree with:

We are now being inundated with innuendo suggesting an early troop withdrawal from Iraq. The only way that such a withdrawal can possibly take place is if the government of Iraq expressly demands our departure.

John Cole over at Balloon Juice also thinks these pullout plans are sprouting from the recent press and debate instead of facts:

While drawing down 40k of 160k troops over the next year is certainly not cutting and running, I think it is pretty clear this decision is being based on domestic political considerations rather than facts on the ground.

Which, of course, makes this administration no better than the cynical Democrats who have been using this issue for their own political reasons. Worse, some might argue, since this adminstration led us into this war, and now seems unwilling to win it.

This post is linked at The Political Teen, Stop the ACLU, Wizbang, Mudville Gazette, and Point Five.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Bombing Al Jazeera?

Published

Tyler

on November 25, 2005

in Personal

. 0 Comments

Should Bush and Blair Consider Bombing Al Jazeera? Why not, they obviously all reside in the same area/building 24/7/365. Stupid. Daniel Johnson does make a good point in the end:

Actually, we have no right to know the contents of secret conversations between presidents and prime ministers. Now that this particular cat is out of the bag, it may make sense for British authorities to put the record straight. But, in general, no government is obliged to reveal anything at all about operational decisions in wartime.

Wartime? Aye, there’s the rub. Most Americans believe they are fighting a war against terror. Most Europeans don’t. Most Americans are determined to win this war. Most Europeans have already given up.

Power Line has more.

Popularity: 3% [?]

WordPress 2.0 Beta 2

Published

Tyler

on November 25, 2005

in Internet, Open Source and Personal

. 2 Comments

WordPress 2.0 Beta 2 is out now. I upgraded yesterday while I was at home. I fucked up my wordpress database a little earlier this morning. Had to revert back to a slightly older database to get WordPress back to functional state.

Some pretty weird shit has been going on around here lately. A new PHP version is out, which seems to totally kill WordPress.

Mint 1.23 is out. I upgraded recently from the previous stable version, 1.14. The upgrade hasn’t exactly gone well. My stats aren’t updating at all. Waiting on a resolution for this still.

There’s supposed to be a new version of this WordPress theme out soon. Hari will be updating the theme to fix the sidebar issue in Internet Explorer. He seems to think he’s got a fix in place already.

I’ll be blogging regularly again this weekend, hopefully tonight once I get all these little issues worked out. There’s been a lot going on that I need to catch up on.

Popularity: 3% [?]