July 5th, 2002:

loophole. wooo!

I have created a small script to allow syndication of a Movable Type journal to Live Journal. It’s usage is very simple. You create a category in Movable Type. You can call it whatever you like, but I suggest a name like “LJ”. The magic happens when you add a “TrackBack URL” for that category that points to my script. My script will gather the information from your Movable Type entry, and post into your Live Journal with a “Read More” link that brings the reader the the rest of the entry in Movable Type. It can also be done by specifically adding the “TrackBack URL” each time a user wishes to have their Movable Type entry syndicated to Live Journal, but this requires more typing, and that the user remember the URL. It just seems easier to make a category.

At this point, I am the only one who has used it, and even then, I have only used it in a testing scenario, as I don’t actually use Movable Type for journaling. It seems to work okay.

There are a few things that are less than optimal, but I can’t think of a better way to do it. Movable Type’s API is barely usable, their XMLRPC support is incomplete, at best, and a lot of things are left to be desired in the application, even though they did add MySQL support in their latest version (v 2.21).

One thing, that isn’t so nice, is that the “TrackBack URL” that is used is crafted to contain your LJ username and password. I could have those who wish to use this script register, and provide their LJ username and password during the initial registration, but then, a username and password for the script would have to be supplied in the URL, which is still less than optimal. It would be best if Movable Type would speak to LJ directly and with enough hacking, it could, but I don’t feel that it is worth the time and effort.

If you would like to use this script, or know someone who might benefit from it, send me an email and I will contact you with the information you need. If I get enough testers and enough people claiming that this is useful, I’ll write some official documentation for it, and provide a website to announce it’s existence. Until then, word of mouth will have to do.

I like waking up before the sun does. This is much different than staying up until the sun does. Staying up until the sun does involves being tired, and run down, and ready for bed. This is much different.

I drive the streets at 90 miles per hour and see myself in the rolling flashes of the street lights that line the highway. I am clean, and showered, and fresh. I share the road with only a few. A fresh cup of news is served on the radio along with my coffee and I feel like the entire world is mine. I could drive for hours and be content as long as I keep moving and the radio keeps playing.

Since I always forget WHEN I do this, I figured I should document it here, so that I can refer to this, if I forget.

Batteries placed in charger.

I’m up. I’m awake. And, now, I’m out the door.

In other news, I managed to wash a pack of cigarettes with my last load of laundry. So now there are bits of tobacco, pieces of paper, and just the pseudo-cotton portions of the filters floating around in the washer. Do you think that’s a sign?