Notebook

Well, i have added automatic image thumbnail generation ( at Bill's request). I need to generalize one part of the code and removed my hardcoded hack before i release it, but i should be able to do that this evening. You can see the thumbnails in my recent images sidebar (halfway down the home page). The directory for the thumbnails is configurable as is the maximum size of the thumbnails. I don't want to make this too complicated, though, so I think that may be as far as these options go. Maybe i will add something to fetch remote images to make thumbnails as well, but for now this works solely on local images.

Posted by at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We are very excited to inform you that your monthly phone bill is going DOWN! Our price on the Residential Premium Unlimited Plan has been dropped AGAIN!
The base price of the Residential Premium Unlimited Plan will drop from $34.99 to $29.99 as of your first billing cycle on or after May 17, 2004.
There is no need to contact customer care - you will automatically receive the 14% monthly savings. The new, lower price plan will be reflected in your next billing cycle. By adding 150,000 customers to our network, Vonage has cemented its lead in the industry. As a reflection of our commitment to our customers, we would like to reward you by passing the operational efficiency and cost-savings we've achieved through our success directly back to you.
Again, thank you for your continued support and loyalty. Without you, we would not have been able to pass this significant savings along. If you have any questions, please email us at customerresponse@vonage.com with the words "Price Change" in the subject line.

Posted by at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had a comment on mt-plugins.org in march regarding my plugin but hadn't been notified, so I didn't know about it. I did, however, realize that some of my images were not being picked up by the plugin, so I finally did something about it.

As it turns out, I was only processing the main entry body and not including the extended entry in the fold. This solved my problem, and hopefully it solves that user's problem as well.

You can download the updated plugin now if you need the fix.

Posted by at 12:49 PM | Permalink

I thought I had retired the movable type gripes category, but alas and alack, Mena, Ben, Anil and the rest of that wacky six apart crew has given much of the blog happy internet reason to groan this week.

The gory details come from the post, Mena's Corner: It's About Time at the sixapart site.

I have been waiting for MT3 to come out for a long time. I participated in the alpha and the beta and i have to say i am not impressed. Not that 3.0 is not a good piece of software, but it is almost purely an update to 2.6 with a new layout for the admin tool. The only 2 new features are the ATOM API support, which is incredibly poorly documented, and the TypeKey integration. Now, I understand that sixapart wants to have a lovely little monopoly on the blogging tools market, but i don't want someone who comments on my site to have to register with my site OR anyone else's to call me a jackass or suggest a link I missed for a story. They did add comment moderation, which is what i have been waiting for, but the math just doesn't add up for this update.

I run almost a dozen blogs for friends and family with movable type simply because i can control it and just turn them loose with a simple username and password. No muss, no fuss for me as sysadmin and friend helping friend. Now, with this new license, I will have to shell out $700 bucks just so my wife can keep our friends and family aprised of the girl's latest exploits, her friend can ramble, I can ramble and keep track of some code updates and friends can archive their dream lives.
Now, call me crazy, but that is bullshit. Ben Trott writes some beautiful perl code, but the thing about a blogging system is that they are not terribly complicated. And movable type has yet to add anything terribly compelling to make me care about it more than Blosxom (perl) or WordPress (php).

Feh. I expected more. Especially since they took their sweet time getting a new version together. And now they have money! Funding and everything, and they come out with a mediocre product and an outrageous price tag. Feh.

So, i think I will keep my 2.661 install for friends and family and then start looking for greener pastures for myself. As if I don't have enough to do.

Posted by at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

Chicago's PBS station, WTTW, Channel 11, has one of the nation's longest running video and independent film programs, Image Union. I haven't gotten into the habit of watching it, but the start of tonight's program was too good not to comment on.

"Lamb," by Emma Freeman, is a story about a down on his luck farmer in rural Australia with a young, blind son. The film is only 7 minutes long so I don't want to go into details, but the film is dark and hopeful and manages to squeeze pathos and genuine fatherly love into a short, short film.

Atom films online has this short categorized as "Dark Comedy" which i find a little off, but I could see this as funny if it wasn't made so earnestly.

View "Lamb" at Atom Films

Posted by at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Damn.

I haven't posted in so long that my last post broke my page. The templates are forcing me to write enough to fill out this page!

Get crackin, sucka!

Posted by at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

While tracey and I were out in vegas last weekend, I made a new friend at the venetian.

Posted by at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)