Tuesday November 19, 2002

So what is all the fuss about?

dIon wonders Is this just a way for the people with an opinion to get a public forum? Well, that is certainly part of it, but it is also yet another way to be a part of a community (okay, an overused word). Since I've started blogging and working on Roller, I've "met" many interesting people from all over the world - the western hemisphere mostly.

Somehow blogs hadn't held much interest for me before, I hardly ever read them. Having one of my own allowed me a place to respond, since I don't always like leaving comments or want to expound to a greater length. And, as evidenced by my blog name, vanity certainly does play a part.

Why do you blog? Leave a comment. ( Nov 19 2002, 08:09:19 PM ) Entertainment Permalink [Trackback]

Saturday November 16, 2002

1993?

What was I doing in 1993? Well, a month later I'm ready to answer that question. I'd finally gotten to grad school, after working while my wife finished college (we married 2 weeks before I graduated) for three years. I was in my first year of the Neuroscience program at the U of MN, and in February my first daughter was born.

Tell us the rest of the story, Grandpa!
That year was rough. While being a graduate student was great, we were sliding deeper and deeper into debt (even on a stipend!), and I found my infant daughter infinitely more interesting than lab work or homework. I was put on academic notice (shape up or ship out). Fall of '93 I got my grades back up, made up a few papers, and was off notice. My academic advisor, however, could tell my heart wasn't in it. She offered to let me take a sabbatical, I could come back anytime up to year. So after I finished the first quarter of the 93-94 year, I went on leave. And never went back. I still look back. I miss academics, and neuroscience in particular. I still track what goes on in science, New Scientist being a great periodical, but too damn expensive. Its a weekly, and they have to ship it from England. (Hey, if any of you guys over there subscribe, could you send me copies when you're done?)

But how did you get to be a Java nut?
Well, children, that is a long and winding road. If you really want to hear it, I'll tell you the story another night. Now, all of you off to bed! Did you brush your teeth? Scoot, off with you now. ( Nov 16 2002, 03:37:17 PM ) Entertainment Permalink Comments [1] [Trackback]

Spam via Referer log Dave reports problems with nasty referer spam. I had it too this morning. I updated my ignoreHosts setting (which had the unintentional side-effect of wiping out my referer logs) with the two offending sites, and haven't had to worry about them since.

We do need to improve this though. It'd be nice to be able to change the "rules" and have them applied to referers already in the log. ( Nov 16 2002, 10:27:54 AM ) Roller Permalink [Trackback] [Link]

Thursday November 14, 2002

S P E L L   C H E C K E R

Yep, I checked the code in a little while ago ;-)

It's still rough around the edges, I'm hoping Dave or Matt will sand it for me. I did my best, but making things all shiny and glossy... well, they usually come out looking odd. Anyway, I'll try and get the code deployed to Brainopolis this weekend and set up a test user so ya'll can try it out. ( Nov 14 2002, 08:56:44 PM ) Roller Permalink [Trackback]

www.brainopolis.com is back

For those that didn't change their dials to brainopolis.dnsalias.com, brainopolis.com is back. I can see there were a few of you from my referrer logs ;-) The dnsalias url will continue to be good, so as not to punish those who continued to tune it. ( Nov 14 2002, 07:58:58 AM ) News Permalink Comments [4] [Trackback] [Link]

Wednesday November 13, 2002

More Nanning

Jon, sorry I missed that Nanning has runtime attributes. commons-attributes sounds cool, I haven't caught any posts on it or seen any code checked in, though. Waiting with baited breath. I have got to find some time to investigate Nanning, but the Roller users have spoken. ( Nov 13 2002, 10:21:47 PM ) Technology Permalink Comments [1] [Trackback]

Some People

Some People

Spike's GeekBlog:

I"VE GIVEN UP HERE this roller thing is interesting, feature rich but still lacking in onet hing i want. Comments. so i've packed up my blog and gone home. as cartman sez: Screw you guys, i'm a goin home. my new geek blog is here.

I guess he feels he is important enough to need comments. If he really cared about it he would pay attention to the Roller developers list and see that comments will be in the next release. Good riddance.[Anthony Eden]

The ironic thing is, I don't see anything worth commenting on. Oh, and Spike also whines that he cannot change the template. Well, he could do it manually, or he could wait for it. Oh, and Spell Checking is coming soon too. ( Nov 13 2002, 10:11:27 PM ) Roller Permalink [Trackback] [Link]

Spell Checker in progress

I'm still working on the spell checker, but I'm getting closer to done. I've added a "Spell Check" button to the weblog editor, which takes you to this screen. The questionable words are turned into select-lists for you to choose from. Or you can scroll down and edit the text directly after having seen what Jazzy flagged as suspicious.

Its still a bit awkward, and Jazzy's choices aren't the cleanest... But it's better than nothing, and leaves room for improvement ;-)
( Nov 13 2002, 09:38:02 PM ) Roller Permalink [Trackback] [Link]

For further reading on today's posts:

jutopia : I really wish I had the time to work on Nanning . With the XRAI stuff that Ara recently checked in it should be entirely possible to add Rickard's latest "innovation" to Nanning. [ Vanity Foul ]