May, 2003:

Wow. I’d seen both PX System and XULit! before, but, I haven’t looked at either of them in quite some time. It seems they have merged into one product: XULit!. I think the developers are native French speakers, so the English isn’t top notch. However, after looking at the site, they are basically developing a slightly less featureful Inklog, however, theirs is actually usable. The biggest difference is that their system accepts only TWO types of resources: articles, and everything else. Those items that fall into the “Articles” category are to be displayed in HTML. Those items that fall into the “Everything Else” category are sent to the browser as is (useful for Images, WordDocs, etc). I think there is a huge advantage to being able to submit any type of data and have it presented in any format. However, with their groundwork in place, adding such a feature probably isn’t all that difficult. I haven’t looked at the code, but the website runs pretty clean.

The system uses Smarty templates, allows Articles and Other Objects to be placed into categories (with a Primary category and addtional categories). The URLs are nice and clean and reflect a filesystem as I had intended Inklog to do. The template for each category can be altered independently, categories can be hidden from the main page, side-bar navigation links are created on the fly, and it is extendable via Smarty Plugins. Unless I just haven’t looked hard enough, the actual Article pages must all share the same template, but that shouldn’t be too difficult to alter either.

I’m going to play around with their code a bit more and consider scratching my work on Inklog and teaming up with them.

I’m not dead, just busy. Add that to the fact that it takes FOREVER to get Movable Type to post an entry, and updating becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. Here are a few quick update.

As of yesterday, Inklog is functional, though very unusable. As time allows it’ll get closer to completion. I’m not entirely happy with how certain parts of it work, but I figure, working poorly is better than not working at all. For those who are interested, you can read more about my design goals.

Jess‘ friend Mel came to visit us this past week and a half. We went to Deep Ellum, the StockYards, Sundance Square, the Dallas Nature Center, Eagle Mountain Lake, and Six Flags Over Texas. Needless to say, we were very busy and I had a great time. Despite the fact that Jess hates having you around, Mel, you are welcome in our home anytime. And if you ever want a hook up with Mr. “il est beau”, just let me know.

My French is getting better, though those who speak the language might disagree. Having Mel around helped a lot as it offered a different perspective into the language itself. Additionally, hearing her speak to Jess helped with my comprehension. We never did have our “Journeé du Français”, but we will someday.

I can usually whip out just about any piece of code within a couple of days. If it’s something interesting, I’ll spend most of my idle time (even if it sub-conscious) designing it. But, when it comes time to write it, it just comes out. It’s usually fairly clean, and needs very little debugging afterwards. I’m used to this.

Unfortunately, Inklog is killing me. Every time I even start to code, I get stuck so quickly. And it isn’t because I don’t know how to code it… it’s because I don’t know how it should be designed. I get GREAT (or what I think are GREAT) ideas running through my mind, but, when I go to make it real, it falls apart before I even get started.

I’ve redesigned the SIMPLE version of Inklog about 20 times now and I’m still in the same spot I was at in the beginning. I REALLY need someone to bounce ideas off of. *sigh*

In a future version of Smarty, blocks will be repeatable. According to the current CVS repository, a block function will take an optional forth parameter which will be passed as a reference and set to “false” by default. If, in the course of the function execution it is set to “true”, this will be detected and the block will be run again. It will be up to the block function to iterate through the data properly and set the repeat flag to “false” when the data has been exhausted. The first iterance of any block function will have a NULL content parameter (as it does today). At this point, the function should setup all of the needed information to iterate through the data. Each subsequent call will pass the pre-parsed content as the content parameter. This means each iteration will be set with data reflecting the previous iterations variable assignments. And each iteration is reponsible for preparing the variable assignments for the NEXT iteration. On the final iteration, the function should set the repeat flag to “false” and clean up after itself as it will not be called again. [via Eadz::Blog]

I’ve been waiting for this feature for a while and wondering why it wasn’t in Smarty before.

Don’t you wish you could look at porn at work and not worry about losing your job or your reputation? Have you ever wanted to view naughty pictures from the comfort of your own home without worrying about what your wife, girlfriend, mother or children will think? Well, now you can. [via random walks]

NOTICE: If you have no intention of reviewing the new style system, and don’t know me in anyway, yet still would like me to give you an activation code so that you can receive a service that most other people pay for for free, at least attempt to offer me something in return instead of expecting a handout from a stranger. If you have nothing to offer in return, at least make an attempt to make your email interesting in some way. Thanks.

LiveJournal has added a great new feature to its long list of recent changes. You can now customize the “read comments” and “post comments” pages of your weblog/journal. This means that, for those of us who stopped using (or never used) LiveJournal because you couldn’t maintain the same site look and feel throughout your journal/weblog, this is no longer an issue.

Add this to the weblogs.com pinging, Search Engine friendly URLs, cleaner, shorter URLs in general, recently improved RSS export capabilities, and RSS reader capabilities and LiveJournal is really shaping up. In order for it to be truly usable by any/everyone who currently maintains a weblog/journal using other software, it would need the following features:

• Trackback/Pingback support.

• Categories.

  • Actually, LiveJournal already has “memories” which are very similar to categories. The only problem with memories is that they are really geared toward being used AFTER posting by the journal/weblog owner, not by its readers. If the “memories” feature were going to be used as “categories”, they would need the following enhancements:

    • A cleaner URL.

    • Ability to customize memories page.

    • Ability to present a list of memory categories on the main journal pages.

    • Ability to add an item to a memory category during post creation within the client.

    • Ability to list entries cleanly by memory category and have them appear in chronological order acting as a filter on the entries available for reading on the main page.

• Customizable “Thank You” page when posting a comment.

• Entry Search support.

There are a few more that I’d like to see, but the above list is the stuff that is REALLY needed.

Regardless, this is a huge step in the right direction. I urge you all to consider using LiveJournal if you haven’t before. If you need an activation code, I have plenty to spare.

I always get wierd people adding me to their MSN list. They always send me a message thinking I am someone I am not. However, they are never willing to talk long enough to tell me who used to use this name — until this morning. Apparently my MSN name (therev @ hotmail.com) was once owned by “Father Mike” of “St. Peter’s Church”.

I could have a lot of fun with this.

clevercactus, an integrated email, rss reader, weblog posting, fully searchable, contact management, task list, information organizing client, is a great idea. I haven’t actually installed the product to see how it works, but, based on the feature set, it could change the way a lot of people organize information, both online and off.

There’s a poor little birdie trapped in the hallway in front of our apartment. He’s been there all day. I figured he was confused and couldn’t figure out how to get out, so I walked real close to him in order to urge him in the right direction.

This worked fine until he took a wrong turn into the stairwell and under the staircase. I’ve tried everything to get him out. I tried offering him a broom handle as a perch. I’ve tried placing cardboard under his feet so that I could slowly pull him out. I tried climbing under there with him hoping my presence would scare him out. None of those worked. The problem is that, if I am under the stairwell, then I am blocking most of his only way out, which I am sure is enough to scare him into staying right where he is.

He plays dead when I touch him with the cardboard or the broom handle. he doesn’t move. If I move him, he stays where I put him. Eventually, however, as I push more and more on him, he realizes that I know he isn’t dead, and so he flaps his wings, knocks his head on the very LOW ceiling (we’re talking less than 2 feet here) and pushes himself further back under the stairwell.

I don’t know if little birds eat bread or not. But I decided to leave him a small trail of bread pieces leading in the right direction. I hope this works.

I’d crawl under there and just pick him up, but he’s tiny and I’m afriad that he’ll either have a heart attack or, because of my scent on him, he’ll be rejected from his family.

Poor little birdie.

Update: He’s free. I crawled under the stairwell and urged him out. Then he flew, but went the wrong way and ended up latching onto the exit gate. We opened the gate, and he flew into the corner. So I pushed his butt up a little and it seemed like his foot was stuck in the gate grating. Jess went on the other side and tryed to push his claws free. He eventually freed it, and flew some more and landed just outside the open gate. He took a few steps and then flew into the wall. Then he looked around a bit, and started calling for his friends. I don’t know if they ever answered, but, eventually, he squated down low, jumped high in the air, and flew to a tree across the street.

Having so much to be grateful for,
(Comfort and happiness
are too good.
Trust and faith
are too much.)
I fashion negatives
and whisper them in my own ear.

I hold tightly these theories
like new religion,
with no basis for belief
other than
“it
just

is”.

And in these thoughts,
you are at fault.
You are the problem.
You are the reason
that I am hurting you.

I have not gone unpunished, however.
My false accusations
see daily justice
as I lock myself in this
mind-forged cell and lie
about how I got here.