May 16th, 2003:

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.