Saturday, December 8, 2007
Dog-Blogger auto updating
If I'm publishing a doc to blog, can blog post be automatically updated when the doc is altered?
Quoting to end
When the last word in a sentence has quotes at its end, where does the preposition mark go? Before or after the quote. I've always placed it before the quote, which looks ok with commas and periods but not so OK with ? and !. What if your sentence ends with a quote that has a preposition mark of its own, such as ? and !. You probably won't place any mark other than that belonging to the quote to avoid confusion such as "indeed we do!". But then again, hard to say.
Quoting to part
Let's say you want to quote part of the sentence that contains two independent clauses separated by a comma. What's the procedure if you want to quote the first half? Do you include the clause-separating comma before closing the quotes? Do you insert an ellipsis? What if you quote the second half and you are opening with the quote, i.e. the first letter needs to be capital? Do you do one of [Y] those parenthesis around it?
Piking with power
Does Waterpik sharply decrease its performance very soon after you begin using it? How much hope can be invested in cleaning? In general, what's the caring procedure for the big W?
An amnesty for the detachables
Everything should be detachable, compartmentalized, (user) replaceable, modular. Like the medium format cameras. Swap the viewfinder any time you want. Obviously, swap the lens. Swap the film back any time you want, in the middle of the shooting. Want a digital back? Just put it on. No problems. A 50 year old camera shooting 40MP stills. Why not attach a digital video back? Maybe some day you'll be able to, when the media and the processors catch up in the speed/size departments. But this shouldn't be limited to cameras. EVERYTHING should be such, as much as possible. Headphone cable broke? Just replace it, keep the headphone. Hear that Ultrasone? Now you do, but where were you before with the HFI 650? Usb cable breaks, swap it for a different one. Hear me MS? Have to tame my 4000 ergonomic every half hour or so. Compartmentalize. Modularize. Universalize.
Searching for quotes
I wanted to search my blog for " but search returned no results. Why? Will we ever be able to search for punctuation signs such as {?
"Yes!" he said
When quoting speech, what's proper? Should there be a comma after an exclamation point? Certainly wouldn't look right.
Socrates's finger
Every singular possessive must end with 's. No exceptions for those nouns ending with an s, right? No exceptions of any other kind?
Don't's
Is that grammatically proper to write "Don't's"? What are the rules for using 's as opposed to straight s to represent plurals?
NYC ISO
What is the right ISO to shoot in NYC at night? Any special tips or techniques to be mindful of? Do's and don't's?
Laundry frequency
What is the right frequency for doing laundry? Bed linens? How much load is too much? Do you dry unlike colors? Nobody washes unlike colors, but how about cold washing? How common is it for a machine to both wash AND dry?
Parade done right
A parade contains a number of ingredients which must be carefully measured and mixed. Weather and the amount of ambient light are important.
A proper pig
Pig varies form day to day. Sometimes it is fat and lovely, other times - not so much. Likewise, sometimes people are smart and don't cook the pig too long. Other times - not so much.
On sweaters
Sweaters should contain a kangaroo-like pocket closed on top and bottom and opened from both sides where one can put their hands if they get tired and/or cold.
When to use lemon
The more cream a pastry contains, the less lemon you should use with your tea. Since there isn't much grey area between creamy and non-creamy pastries, here's a good maxim: If the pastry is dry (such as cookies), use lemon. If it's not (such as cake), don't.
A proper cake
Here's how to determine which is a good cake, made of sandy layers in-dispersed with generally white creme:
- Are the layers dark?
- Are the layers thin?
Mac shortcuts in Docs
Ok, Ctrl+S to save, says google. But when I do it on a mac, it doesn't save or do anything else for that matter. Command+S brings up a firefox "Save As" dialogue. Out of luck?
Take me to the front
By that I mean, when the post is published successfully, please take me directly to "View Blog" and display an optional notification bar, like you do in gmail, etc. saying "Your post was successfully posted" or something like that. You can even include "Edit this post" link in that notification, if you want (esp. useful for posts that were updated, so they may not show up at the top of the blog and are not very easy to get to). After 5 seconds the notification bar quietly disappears, as per usual.
Notebook neatness
Unmovable doc tabs
In firefox, open a doc and trying moving its tab around, like you usually can. That's right, you can't. Can you? Actually yes, you can. I retried it and now it works fine. Strange.
Instant tagging in docs
I made a dog in google dogs (sorry, docs). I want it tagged right there and then, like it's done in blogger. Do I have to save & close, then tag it from the general view?
Camera, really obscura
The venerable S60 has turned purple couple of weeks ago. The image looks fine in the viewfinder but it is horribly distorted and purple. [Sample images coming]. Anyone else with the same issue? Is there no salvation? I know I've dropped it a couple of times, but the last drop was almost 7 months ago and it was working just fine until mid-November. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Nice frame you have
Integrated picture posting is hot. But maybe you want your pictures appear in frames to make them stand out better or whatnot. Is there a way to do this? Either on a blog-wide or post-specific basis? Is that something CSS can handle? Maybe that's something blogger can make easier for the non-code-literate folks to manage?
Auto-save correction
Came across when testing the extend of WV limitations: It looks like auto-save NEVER works when editing a blog that's already been posted, not only when the post / blog has been targeted with word verification. Am I wrong on this? Not a big deal, but would be nice to have autosave everywhere.
Who? Whaoa? Santa?
How did this happen? Word verification is magically removed!! How? Who? Did Google Santa visit me when I was away this past hour?
Having had an uplifting breakfast, split between my intention to get to the bottom of the WV situation and my intention to just start an alternative blog where I'd post when the other one is quarantined / crippled, thereby surviving the 24 hour buffer. So I come back, edit the previous post by pasting the relevant quote (in case the link to the discussion goes south somehow) and start looking for some further guidance specifically on google groups (here's my search query: site:groups.google.com "solving a captcha" ). Naturally, blogger help group proved to be most helpful, fetching me the following thread. Same Mishka OP posts:
Some questions that remain:
Having had an uplifting breakfast, split between my intention to get to the bottom of the WV situation and my intention to just start an alternative blog where I'd post when the other one is quarantined / crippled, thereby surviving the 24 hour buffer. So I come back, edit the previous post by pasting the relevant quote (in case the link to the discussion goes south somehow) and start looking for some further guidance specifically on google groups (here's my search query: site:groups.google.com "solving a captcha" ). Naturally, blogger help group proved to be most helpful, fetching me the following thread. Same Mishka OP posts:
Go to your blog and try to post to it from the blogger interface. IfI was getting ready to diligently follow said instructions, when OH MY - Google beat me to it! - the word verification was REMOVED. Just gone. The drafts were autosaving again. The sun came out. The children were laughing. Pure jubilance.
you have a captcha required before posting, then you blog is blocked
by the spam bot because you have been posting enough in one day to
trigger it. You'll need to click on the question mark near the captcha
(hold the control key down when you do this) and request a review to
get your blog unlocked...
Some questions that remain:
- It is still unclear why the algorithm for a whitelisting procedure is left essentially unexplained.
- Also, it is truly a Christmas mystery as to what happened to make WV rightfully unwelcome. It couldn't have been the 24 hour limit, no matter how you count, because WV only kicked in at around 7:09pm yesterday, 17 (12+5) hours or so ago. Some must have manually intervened, somewhere, somehow. But, yes, it is happily non-existent -- at least for this post.
More on more
Found this discussion. My questions are:
- Is the daily limit 50 posts? Is that the definition of "frequent"?
- Can a blog really be locked? Blogger article mentions nothing of the sort.
- How can I get my blog reviewed?
- Can a review help solve the captcha problem? Can it remove WV altogether, despite what the help article says?
| |
Yes, you can't post 50 posts in a day without triggering the spam bot.
Now your blog is blocked to only posting through the blogger interface
because you have to use the word verification to post. There is a link
on the word verifcation form that you need to open (and you might have
to open it in a new window to get it to work) in order to get your
blog reviewed and have the captcha removed. Don't keep posting like
that or you can get your blog completely locked.
On Oct 18, 4:48 pm, NicHub wrote:
> Hello!> I'm receiving an error message when posting via email:
> Technical details of permanent failure:
> PERM_FAILURE: You have exceeded the the allowable number of posts
> without solving a captcha.> Is it because I posted more than 50 entries a few hours ago - it then
> Thanks for help!
> will be OK later? Or is it something else? How can I avoid that?
Solving a captcha
As we have gently seen, blogger won't allow you to post even as draft
w/0 verifing {ofxmf}. Just another test before jumping off into the
deep...hold on... Yep. Same error bar, and {ctajoio} came up. That's
cool. Now, blogger proudly claims in the mentioned explanatory
article that you can post by email and then the post will be drafted,
not outright reject. So, let us try this by emailing this very thing
instead of ctajoioing around.
There it goes. 1, 2, now.
Snap! Read below:
P.S. The only consolation to be had at this point is that blogger only targets a blog, not the user. I can post to my other blogs under same account w/o encountering WV.
w/0 verifing {ofxmf}. Just another test before jumping off into the
deep...hold on... Yep. Same error bar, and {ctajoio} came up. That's
cool. Now, blogger proudly claims in the mentioned explanatory
article that you can post by email and then the post will be drafted,
not outright reject. So, let us try this by emailing this very thing
instead of ctajoioing around.
There it goes. 1, 2, now.
Snap! Read below:
Ok. So much for:
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
[blogger email @ goes here]
Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: You have exceeded the the allowable number of posts without solving a captcha.
Notes:
- In cases where word verification is required, all posts made via email will be saved as drafts, rather than published.
- Auto-save is disabled. Permanently. Even if you enter the required letters into the verification field but do NOT hit "Publish Post" or "Save As Draft." Does it work when you go back and edit the post after posting or drafting? It should but we'll check. And we are checking. Nothing thus far. 11.10 - start the clock ... if there is no auto-save for the whole minute, you know it's not coming ... - 11.11 end clock. Yep. NOTHING. No auto-save for you. Now, to be truly scientific, I need to come back when I'm not WV-grounded and try to edit this post again and see if it auto-saves then. 24 hours w/o blogging, though... can anyone handle that?
- Emailing of posts is disabled.
- Saving as draft is disabled w/o verifying.
P.S. The only consolation to be had at this point is that blogger only targets a blog, not the user. I can post to my other blogs under same account w/o encountering WV.
Hair and sweat?
Is there a correlation, or any connection whatsoever, between the two? It is common wisdom that hair is there to combat sweat and so it locates itself appropriately. But is this really true? For all animals? Less predisposed to sweat = less hair? What about all those polar bear type guys? How did they get that way? Since we are on the subject: PROTECT THE BEARS!
Avoiding a swamp
take your t-shirt or anything else off. Put it on later. Especially in the winter when you are going to put a second layer of coating on top of whatever body cover you are wearing in the bathroom. If you get your t-shirt wet, even an insignificant spot like [future image goes here], it will feel very uncomfortable against the skin. Moreover, it will take ages for it to dissipate if you put something else on top of it, such as a sweater. It will be sitting there, moisturizing to no end, like a miniature swamp. Don't let that happen to you. Just take the t-shirt off.
Draft postage
All right, so let's pretend I'm offended by the mandatory word verification blogger's automated brain imposed on me and instead of posting directly with "Publish Post," I pull a fast one with "Save As Draft." After the afore(below)mentioned 24 hour of non-posting expires,
Hahaha. That's funny. It won't even let you DRAFT POST without entering a verification word. A truly unmissable error bar materializes: "ERROR. Enter the letters as they are shown in the image."
Are you kidding me? Not even a draft post? Ok, but at least now it is asking very sweetly with an irresistable {cuoca}. How can anyone NOT verify that one?
- will the {botruk} verification word of the moment be removed from the post and I'll be allowed to post this very post freely with a mere push of Publish Post just as I should have been able to do from the very beginning?
- will blogger be so kind as to post with the date at which the post was last Saved-As-Draft or will it throw off my whole cycle and post it when it is Publish-Posted? I suspect it will do the honorable thing, as by default it is cleverly pre-wired to note the START time of the post, i.e. the time you start writing it, not the time of either actual or draft posting.
Hahaha. That's funny. It won't even let you DRAFT POST without entering a verification word. A truly unmissable error bar materializes: "ERROR. Enter the letters as they are shown in the image."
Are you kidding me? Not even a draft post? Ok, but at least now it is asking very sweetly with an irresistable {cuoca}. How can anyone NOT verify that one?
CompUSA, in death a triumph
The Flock bashing came all too soon. It seems to be the only anything that easily allows one to blog about blog-like material (anything that's RSSable, that is). Just click blog and you are blogging, like a baby. How come google, the interactivest of them all couldn't have something like this built into Reader to tie it up with its very own Blogger, of all things. Anyway, here's to Flock.
Now, concerning the actual post below. I now understand the sudden sale at desperate SDHC prices and the shabby store condition, and the sense of fear in people's eyes. Although the latter two symptoms were palpable since the early 2000's. Well, at least got my 114 and my glove back. That's a triumph. Also, it has the 4000 Ergonomic on sale for $40. Something to think about given the recent cable tensions.
RIP, CompUSA: 1984 - 2008
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Days after we first reported that CompUSA could be shutting down for good very, very soon, [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Continue reading RIP, CompUSA: 1984 - 2008
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Hyperlink body removal
Sure is easy in Edit Html. Sure is abscent in Compose WISYWIG. You can click and clack all you want, the hyperlink stays. Erase the word completely (kill the hyperlink substrate), then type again with saddened face.
Picture formatting, Chapter IX
Is there no way to change picture's alignment after it was uploaded and inserted? Is the Browse and Upload dialogue is when alignment gets irretrievably set in egg cement? Downright medieval if so. But hey, it's all free. Everybody smile.
Is that your moral compass?
Just something out of the blue that appeared when I pasted some text from a webpage into blogger. What does this awl mean?
Beta login screen
Looks like this:
Normal screen, on the other hand, is much more googly, graphic laden and instruction driven, looks like that:
So, blogger, confess: Why make the two different? Any deep meaning behind such difference?
The meaning for me is that in the beta screen my browser is able to remember field values, so when I type in the first letter of my user name, it helpfully offers to fill all the rest. Just clock enter and you are blogging. With the standard blogger screen no such luck - firefox doesn't catch the fields, no reminder is offered. Although, as far as I can tell, logging into either takes you to the same feature-rich BETA place rather than the standard blogger edition, if you're signed up for beta blogger, that is.
And by the way, why is the standard login field undetected by firefox or other Mozilla-based browsers (just like login to Yahoo! Mail)? Granted, haven't tried IE or even Safari, Seamonkey or Camino, nor have I tried any toolbars featuring form auto-complete, such as those offered by google or yahoo, but still. Was this undetectability intentional? Is it possible to make the fields detectable?
Normal screen, on the other hand, is much more googly, graphic laden and instruction driven, looks like that:
So, blogger, confess: Why make the two different? Any deep meaning behind such difference?
The meaning for me is that in the beta screen my browser is able to remember field values, so when I type in the first letter of my user name, it helpfully offers to fill all the rest. Just clock enter and you are blogging. With the standard blogger screen no such luck - firefox doesn't catch the fields, no reminder is offered. Although, as far as I can tell, logging into either takes you to the same feature-rich BETA place rather than the standard blogger edition, if you're signed up for beta blogger, that is.
And by the way, why is the standard login field undetected by firefox or other Mozilla-based browsers (just like login to Yahoo! Mail)? Granted, haven't tried IE or even Safari, Seamonkey or Camino, nor have I tried any toolbars featuring form auto-complete, such as those offered by google or yahoo, but still. Was this undetectability intentional? Is it possible to make the fields detectable?
Expand it again, Sam
It used to be all expanded. Pretty much like it is now when you turn No Script on, but fully functional. Now, however, working in the fully functional mode (how ironic) you must click and sometimes even subclick to get to the "Post Options" you want. Not cool, baby. Bring the groove back.
The name stays
Chose it, and it stays with you, no matter what settings you change in the gmail, google docs or otherwise. Is there some truly global setting where you can come, fall to your knees and say: I want my name changed, where is the judge?
Friday, December 7, 2007
Enigmatic titling
Just when you get to the most important part of the title in Google Docs, it gets repressed by that spiffy ellipsis. Any way we can negotiate ourselves out of this?
Accidental publisher
You've got me. I published by accident in google docs. How do I reverse this unfortunateness? Is there way to unpublisize a document? If I delete it, will it still appear there, publicly, in defiance? Like the Big K talk about it - Being Oneself in Defiance, defiance of one's maker. Some sweet stuff right there.
Anyway, problem solved. Just go to "Publish" tab and click... "Stop Publishing." That's it. No broken windows. No damaged property.
And the moral? Not for nothing do they call publishing publishing -- to PUBLish is to make PUBLic. Now I see.
Anyway, problem solved. Just go to "Publish" tab and click... "Stop Publishing." That's it. No broken windows. No damaged property.
And the moral? Not for nothing do they call publishing publishing -- to PUBLish is to make PUBLic. Now I see.
Flock is to Yahoo!, like cheese is to ...
There is something fishy about how close the two are, from the get go. Is Flock Yahoo!'s contraption, to sneak its agenda (profit crazed money hunt) hiding under the good name of Mozilla and open source community? Looks like it, at least if you wildly exaggerate. Why is yahoo the default search engine despite of its lackluster inferiority? All yahoo's web 2.0 acquisitions are all there, too, not to be missed. Flickr, del.icio.us (what a pain with the dots), that's about all. Does have blogger and pretty much all the major players, though. So maybe false alarm, but I am weary nevertheless. Come public, ye, Flock, and confess all your Yahoo! involvements once and for all. Then we'll talk. Maybe even Flock.*
*Judiciously compare this sentence with the last sentence of the previous post.
*Judiciously compare this sentence with the last sentence of the previous post.
Flock has some hatching to do
Flock is a neato concept and all but not quite ready for primetime blogging. Just not yet. Not on blogger beta. Firstly, the post authored through the Flock contraption just entirely vanished. Gone. Never published. No saved record anywhere in Flock internals. Just gone. But that's not the worst part. The worst part by far is that the tags are dead. On blogger tags neatly spring to life the minute you start typing the first letter. Not so with flock. Quite the opposite. And finally, if dead tags was the deal breaker, here comes hitman's control shot: editing a post is totally impossible. All the code spirits get summoned from their etherial graves, summarily appearing without a hint of invitation. There's MIME (how's it going? who are you?), Edit and Compose tabs, are wiped out by some formatting plague. Portions of the border are also snatched away, apparently by the same predator that stole the tabs.
Naturally, it's not at all Flock's fault - I just didn't turn off NoScript. But then again, no way to set default blog font? Wiped out hyperlinks when clicking "blog this" for an RSS entry? No - this ain't no picknick, sir, although the links aren't really wiped out. They just pretend this way, which is still not too picknicky for my taste. But hope conquers all. Perhaps even Flock.
Naturally, it's not at all Flock's fault - I just didn't turn off NoScript. But then again, no way to set default blog font? Wiped out hyperlinks when clicking "blog this" for an RSS entry? No - this ain't no picknick, sir, although the links aren't really wiped out. They just pretend this way, which is still not too picknicky for my taste. But hope conquers all. Perhaps even Flock.
There goes the numbering
We've patiently complained about the lack of formatting controls. Now it's the numbering's turns to bask in the sunlight of truth. The truth is - when you hit tab to get an outline going, expecting an (a) to magically appear at the exact indent you desire, you get something very different - nothing. But we can do better than nothing, can't we?
NicePlayer + Spaces workaround
NicePlayer 0.96.1 (573) doesn't play nice with Spaces in Leopard 10.5.1. Sometimes you call it up from the dock and it refuses to call up its designated space. In that case, just open another app that runs in NicePlayer's space (e.g. Flock) and call that app instead. It will bring up the desired space and if you have NP be on top of all windows, as it is by default, it will come up on top anyway. Granted, you still need to give it focus in order to apply any shortcutery, but at least you made it come up to you.
Now, a better way. Like with NeoOffice which also refuses to come up when called on... hmmm... the problem can be solved by having a second app window open. When this is the case, NP and NO come up like nothing ever happened. While with NO having a second window is easily accomplished by opening up a blank new document, with NP it is just as easily accomplished by selecting "About NicePlayer" from the menu bar. The about window opens unobtrusively somewhere in the background, and NP now behaves like it should. No second app launch required. What's even cooler is that when NP comes up, its window is in perfect focus, responsive to mouseovers, scrolling, etc. Just hit space and go.
Now, a better way. Like with NeoOffice which also refuses to come up when called on... hmmm... the problem can be solved by having a second app window open. When this is the case, NP and NO come up like nothing ever happened. While with NO having a second window is easily accomplished by opening up a blank new document, with NP it is just as easily accomplished by selecting "About NicePlayer" from the menu bar. The about window opens unobtrusively somewhere in the background, and NP now behaves like it should. No second app launch required. What's even cooler is that when NP comes up, its window is in perfect focus, responsive to mouseovers, scrolling, etc. Just hit space and go.
An ode to a credit card
Use credit card. On any transaction. One cent, five cents, postage stamp. If they take it, swipe it. Earn rewards, earn good credit. Let every penny be accounted for. Allow an opportunity for a dispute in case of a fraud. Enjoy extended warranties and countless other perks. It's clean and fast. No germs of manhandled green. Nothing to count. No change to worry about. Just swipe it.
Title spellcheck
Title is up there in terms of textual importance, but curiously enough spellcheck in firefox doesn't work in the title field. Odd, you say? Yes, I say.
Master Card gift check mystery
They have a tiny cut out window behind the lush cover that informs potential user not to use until in the immediate vicinity of a cashier. What's the world coming to? Why is it so important that I sign it in cashier's presence?
Shower power
Perhaps the most fundamental question of all: Why do people across planet have the tendency to sing in the shower? Does that apply to other animals?
Saving changes in "Normal"
Word keeps asking before closing: Do you want to save changes in "Normal"? What's that all about?
Selective privacy
You are an open kinda guy but we can't let privacy die, so once in a while, it's good to check our senses by posting in private. Is there a way to make an individual post private rather than the whole blog? Is there a way to have a mystic collaborator blog co-author who posts anonymously? I didn't think so.
Frozen environmentalist
He came in, ringing and knocking. Frozen to the teeth, in the dark. He shuffled his feet and urged to sign and donate. He won't email unless you give money. I asked for the paper with a website address which he reluctantly released and refused to take back. So I kept it and locked the door.
Make it stick
There are sometimes some posts by some authors that are so profound that they deserve to always be readily accessible, perpetually lingering at the top rather than being swallowed up by the postceding material (preceding is a word, so relax). There should be a way to make them stick. And how!/?
"Untagged" as a default tag
You wrote your post proudly, but forgot to attach any tags. The post quietly goes to die in chaotic oblivion. If instead, though, every post was tagged as "untagged" by default, at least it would be easy to catch all the untagged culprits and set them straight at some point in the nefarious future. As of now, there is no way to find such lost orphaned souls, is there?
Colon: And ?
Suppose you have a colon in the middle of the sentence which is followed by an independent clause. E.g. a recent post which triggered this inquiry: "Here's the scenario: You have a single cable connection..." In cases like this, does the first letter of the independent clause in question get capitalized? That is, here, is it correct to have the first letter of "You" capitalized?
I personally prefer to capitalize, as you might have guessed. To me it clearly delineates the independence of the clause and avoids confusing it with a run of the mill list that (meaning lists, pluraly) usually start with the same kind of colon: one, two, three. An independent clause is no list and must be Respected.
I personally prefer to capitalize, as you might have guessed. To me it clearly delineates the independence of the clause and avoids confusing it with a run of the mill list that (meaning lists, pluraly) usually start with the same kind of colon: one, two, three. An independent clause is no list and must be Respected.
Random verification study
Here's the ever-expanding list of verification words I've encountered on blogger and elsewhere:
- yqkeb
- zplildu
- isirem
- knlwsxs
- mbzmxe
If you have false teeth
then wash your hands first, then take your teeth out. It's that simple. Not only will you be taking your teeth out with freshly cleaned hands, but you'll be wearing your teeth some precious moments longer while you are washing said hands, allowing your teeth do whatever it is they need to do. If you think ahead, everybody wins!
Multiple routers, single line
Here's the scenario: You have a single cable connection, but you want to use multiple routers - to increase the range, or perhaps you want to add a second router to be a FON guy without wanting to make FON slightly underspec'ed router your primary one. Can this be done? We find out right after this.
Blogger text formatting
So there we are again, no easy way to make headers or tails out of one's textual expressions. Sure, you can cleverly tag with h1 and all but so much for the wisywiginess of the "compose" mode.
Whitelist won't save you now
From this help article, descriptively titled: Why do I have word verification on my posting form?
But even if there was such a link, whitelisting isn't all it cracked up to be. Reading on:
Potential SpamThe funny thing is that the link of this help article IS THE QUESTION MARK LINK. They are one and the same. Morning Star, Evening Star. That's some heavy self-referencing going on. Meaning, that they NEVER actually tell you the link where you can go in order to WHITELIST yourself clean of any suspicion.In this case, word verification is applied to certain potential spam blogs by an automated system. Because this is automated there will necessarily be some false positives, though we're continually working on improving our algorithms to avoid these. If your blog is one of the false positives, we apologize. Having the word verification on your posting form does not prevent you from publishing and does not mean that your blog will be deleted or otherwise punished if it is not actually in violation of our policies.
To avoid further inconveniences when publishing, click the "?" (question mark) icon next to the word verification on your posting form
But even if there was such a link, whitelisting isn't all it cracked up to be. Reading on:
High Posting RateSo the server is getting tired, I see. Poor server.If you make a large number of posts in a single day, you will be required to complete a word verification for each one, independent of whether your blog has been cleared as a potential spam or not. If this happens to you, simply complete the word verification for each post, or wait 24 hours, at which point it will be removed automatically.
This restriction is in place as much to control the load on our servers as to prevent explicit spam. Therefore, there is not a whitelisting review process to exempt individual blogs.
Blogger getting suspicious
Oh, isn't that sweet. Blogger wants me to verify my posts now. Poetically, at that:
Score!
Score!
Capitalism calling
What would it look like if Adsense got implemented? Would probably be amusing to see what material it finds relevant. Then it would just as probably get very annoying. How about a "Donate" button from PayPal? It's all golden, though. I like the old fashioned white and blue one much better.
Commitmentometer
How do you measure your commitment to a project? Here's a two-prong fool proof, fail safe commitmentometer at your service.
- Prong I: How much did you eat today?
- Prong II: When is the deadline?
Get your Web 2.0 on
Ok, but how? I've seen some posts touting a miriad of web 2.0 hookups in the footer of every post: digg, facebook, delicious, god knows what else. How do you put them in? Is that done on a post-by-post basis, or is it possible to "set it and forget it" for the whole blog? For all blogs under one's account?
"Delete Post" / "Manage Posts" buttons
Another layout kink to be ironed out. So, you've clicked on "Edit Post" pencil shortcut. Then what? There is no easy way to get to "Manage Posts" or "Delete Post." Why? Just put those buttons right in-between "Edit Posts" and "Moderate Comments" and you are good to go. No need to poke through "Dashboard." Speaking of Dashboard, since we are on the subject of missing buttons, where's the button for Dashboard when you are viewing your blog's front page? The only way to get at is click "New Post" and only then "Dashboard." Unless, of course, you are in the know, and click the bravely orange "B" on the left.
FON promo
Get a FON router for only 10 euros/dollars instead of the usual 49.95. But you have to be an intended recipient of FON's email to get the promotion code, so fonarize (join FON community, no payment required) yourself while there's still time. Promotion ends December 31, according to the email I got. The only downside to FON's router is that even its latest iteration isn't GIGABIT, and doesn't support any N-drafts. So there.
Animal contact
Does being in contact with certain animals (kittens and the rest) help alleviate ailments?
Modern shortenings
Notice how words get chopped off beyond any semantic recognition? "Popped corn," a term so clearly descriptive, is now weak and an ambiguous "pop corn." Same with "iced cream." Same with "iced tea." If that's how things are going, why not eliminate all past tense before it's too late?
Pizza drink
Iced tea is great with pizza. Sure, Coke and Bolthouse offerings have their charm, and rightly so, but when it comes to it, Nestea Lemon Iced Tea is the one.
Reader post times, refreshness
Reader (google reader, greader) sometimes displays retrieval time instead of the post time. That happens to this blog but also to learnology. What's up with that? Conviently enough, reader won't even acknowledge the existence of this post, no matter how emphatically I press "refresh."
Profile shinanigans
Hey, what's this now?
I distinctly remember being able to profile-hop back in the old days - 2004/05. If you went to a blogger's profile, you would get a meaningful profile number (most likely reflecting profile's actual numerical order) displayed in the URL. Then you'd simply increase or decrease the number by however much you wanted and you'd get the profile of somebody who registered earlier (if decreased) or later (if increased) than the original profile.
Now the profile number is absolutely outrageous: http://www.blogger.com/profile/12610653062803085900 (from permanentvacation). http://www.blogger.com/profile/03927744738999545249 (from educat). What are you supposed to do with that thing? What does it even mean? How does such a number get produced? Certainly there couldn't have been this many profiles in 2003/2004 when those were created.... Very shady.
I distinctly remember being able to profile-hop back in the old days - 2004/05. If you went to a blogger's profile, you would get a meaningful profile number (most likely reflecting profile's actual numerical order) displayed in the URL. Then you'd simply increase or decrease the number by however much you wanted and you'd get the profile of somebody who registered earlier (if decreased) or later (if increased) than the original profile.
Now the profile number is absolutely outrageous: http://www.blogger.com/profile/12610653062803085900 (from permanentvacation). http://www.blogger.com/profile/03927744738999545249 (from educat). What are you supposed to do with that thing? What does it even mean? How does such a number get produced? Certainly there couldn't have been this many profiles in 2003/2004 when those were created.... Very shady.
Blogger RSS limit
For some reason, google reader subscription to this very blog only comes up with 25 most recent posts. Period. There is no way to retrieve more by scrolling down. The strange thing is that I've had feeding enabled since the very beginning, before any post was posted. So why the barrier? Is this blogger in general, posts under this account, or only this blog in particular?
Ok, following THE METHOD, let me subscribe to educat which has been going on forever, and see what results I get with that. 88 posts fetched in total. Posts start / stop Dec. 21, 2006 and go on until the present. Funny, since the blog has posts dated back to October 2003. Again, why the barrier? But at least we know now that it's not that blogger only picks 25 most recent ones from blogger blogs.
Let's try permanentvacation now, from June 2004. Reader sees the only post, dated 6.04.2004. So why the barrier for educat? Why the barrier for me?
For the sake of fairness, let's find a post with more than 25 entries that goes beyond December 2006, shall we?
Ok, following THE METHOD, let me subscribe to educat which has been going on forever, and see what results I get with that. 88 posts fetched in total. Posts start / stop Dec. 21, 2006 and go on until the present. Funny, since the blog has posts dated back to October 2003. Again, why the barrier? But at least we know now that it's not that blogger only picks 25 most recent ones from blogger blogs.
Let's try permanentvacation now, from June 2004. Reader sees the only post, dated 6.04.2004. So why the barrier for educat? Why the barrier for me?
For the sake of fairness, let's find a post with more than 25 entries that goes beyond December 2006, shall we?
Polls, polls, polls
If poll, then poll! Is it possible to have more than one poll displayed in blogger sidebar? Is it possible to make a post-specific poll - poll that only appears in an individual post, not in the sidebar? Now, off to put up a poll as to whether such poll, in fact, possible.
SLM confusion
Small, large, medium - those are the breaks. That's what your images are going to be when uploaded to the venerable blogger. But what does that mean exactly? Are you describing to blogger the size of the image you are uploading? Certainly not. That would be silly - it can see for itself. After all, blogger is the one doing the uploading. So maybe SLM serve to describe how the picture will appear in the post. That's a fair guess. But does the size selection also affect the size of the image that gets displayed once it is clicked upon and is revealed in all its glory? Probably not, but due investigation is necessary.
Glovejoy
I realized I lost my glove, perhaps the left one although it's a tossup between the two. When I realized it and came back into the store. Mandatory floor inspection. A false hope with a cashier. And then, oh joy, the sales associate rode in (horse) and brought it back from the oblivion. Such an act of kindness and generosity. Even if the deeply discounted SDHC is faulty (I saw one being returned in an open container as I was waiting to pick mine up), I shall keep it as a favor for, and possibly, reminder about, this epic restoration of good.
Quote like you mean it
Changing the background/color/font of the quoted text. I know there's a CSS entry for that and I'm gonna find it, perhaps. While we are on the subject, can something be done about the overly prominent h1 or even h2 headers that appear in some quotes? Sure, I can demote them like a baby - just strip them of their html tags - but maybe there is a gentler CSS way to turn quoted headers less potent? It doesn't make a difference whether a header is quoted or not, right?
Inventory here, inventory there
What's the best way to go about inventorying? Is it even at all necessary? How to do it right? Software? Somehow mirror on blogger / docs? Tags are necessary, and quite possibly, sufficient for the whole enterprise.
Homeotheatricity
You've decided to get all cultural and are setting up a home theater for change. What are you doing? How? Do tell.
Waters run deep, noisy
For quite some time now, there is a perpetual gulf stream forming in people's venerable toilets. Why the cruelty?
Cross-blogging
I have a review here, let's say. And I also have a review blog elsewhere, let's say that too. Now I want for this review post to be published in both blogs. Save for copy-pasting, how? I think I saw some info on this somewhere hazily. Did I?
Networkaholic
With plenty of free time on one's hands, one may be able to network an MBP, a D620, and Work Centre XD100 (??) across floors, space and time. If that goes well, throw in a Zd8000, Inspiron 7000 (circa '98), Powerbook 5300c, C610, and an MFC-7220 and network some more. But how exactly?
Snow lightning
Lighting. Thunder. They are everywhere. And yet, somehow, not at all when it snows. To quote Robot Chicken:
What a twist!I remember reading a story where a man said he explained to his child why this was so, but the actual explanation was cleverly omitted.
Behold the double cursor
Just had a cursor blinking in BOTH "Title" and "Body" fields. By the time I realized the significance of this monumental, verboten, event and snapped a video screenshot, it was too late and I messed it up. Now the cursor doubles, no doubt, but only one is blinking.
Continuous numbering, HTML
Ok, an HTML illiterate here. I started a numbered list in blogger, then inserted some meaninglessness (also a word), then went on numbering. EXCEPT it started all over again. How can I make it stop (restarting) and continue (continuing).
Blog export / import
Sometimes you might want to lay down and marinate for a while. Maybe even delete a blog for change. Then start it right back up again with all your posts and setting intact, just as they were a nano-second before you deleted it. How can I back up? How can I restore? Some eternal questions we are talking here.
RSS and blog updates
What happens to my blog's RSS when I update an older entry? Lay it on me, gentle sir.
I'm laying it all myself, thank you. Just subscribed to this with google reader, let's see if it catches this very update.
Nope, no such luck. So it doesn't update. That's fine. Be that way.
I'm laying it all myself, thank you. Just subscribed to this with google reader, let's see if it catches this very update.
Nope, no such luck. So it doesn't update. That's fine. Be that way.
Tracking changes. Permanently.
Google docs tracks changes. Know it and accept it. Every ?? seconds it takes a snapshot and saves it in its infinite memory. You can go back to an infinite ?? number of such incremental snapshots of your writing and amuse yourself by looking at its meager progress. But blogger, although snapshotting just as frequently (snapshotting is a word, it turns out), does not keep copies of incremental snapshots. Or at least not any copies that one can access via "History" mode or some such thing. Why not?
Yes, you can post your docs to blog in a click, but what if I like blogger's interface better for blogging? So, yes, in the name of consistency and world peace, let's put history to good use.
Yes, you can post your docs to blog in a click, but what if I like blogger's interface better for blogging? So, yes, in the name of consistency and world peace, let's put history to good use.
Font for sore eyes
Which one? VERDANA appears to be the most unequivocal, hence another change in appearance. But any suggestions are welcome; they shall be entertained in the order in which they are received.
By the way, "verdana" is a word; "unequivocable" is not.
By the way, "verdana" is a word; "unequivocable" is not.
Tag systemology
There are three metaphysical stages of progression for any statement ever uttered on Earth or elsewhere:
More to follow. Things like
Question and Request: Separated at Birth
Also, question is not just a question. Questions can be active (how do I do X?) and passive (what does X mean? where is X from? why is X here? how does X work?). By "active question," I mean a question about action. An answer to such a question is an algorithm. Any other question is a passive question.
And surely, sometimes you merely wish to inform. You've discovered something without a prior question or conjecture and you are burning to share with the world? What should that be, when not a howto? A tip, perhaps? What's the difference between the two?
There should also be an explanation to get everybody onto the proverbial playing field. Naturally, hyperlinks, especially those linking to wikipedia, are a godsent for the "what is" part of the explanation. But what about the "why is" part? Why care? That's where the keyboard cable needs to last a little longer.
It also makes sense to list any relevant inventories so that we know what we have to work with.
- Question (What's going on?)
- Conjecture (I suspect that's X.)
- Answer (Nope, that's Y.)
- Desire (I want X)
- Request (Would please maybe think about considering offering me a possibility to begin obtaining X?)
- Command (Give me X)
- Broken (X can and did at some point work how I want it to but not anymore)
- Fixed (X can and did at some point work how I want it to, then it didn't, and now it does again)
- C'est la vie (X cannot and does not work how I want it to, not now, not ever in the past, and it's not likely it will ever work in the future)
More to follow. Things like
Question and Request: Separated at Birth
Also, question is not just a question. Questions can be active (how do I do X?) and passive (what does X mean? where is X from? why is X here? how does X work?). By "active question," I mean a question about action. An answer to such a question is an algorithm. Any other question is a passive question.
And surely, sometimes you merely wish to inform. You've discovered something without a prior question or conjecture and you are burning to share with the world? What should that be, when not a howto? A tip, perhaps? What's the difference between the two?
There should also be an explanation to get everybody onto the proverbial playing field. Naturally, hyperlinks, especially those linking to wikipedia, are a godsent for the "what is" part of the explanation. But what about the "why is" part? Why care? That's where the keyboard cable needs to last a little longer.
It also makes sense to list any relevant inventories so that we know what we have to work with.
Storage gets physical
What am I to do about all the records piled up in the garage? The whole bay where a car could fit is exclusively them. Where ought they go? PODS will break them or worse. But they can't stay like this forever, can they?
In other news
Shall this be a place for anything or just for the web-sci-tech? Shall it be split into a separate blogio of its own or keep it all here and crank up the tags? For now: keep it and tag it, mr. man. Well, that's a command. So, to make this a conjecture (as of the original writing of this post there was only one other tagged "conjecture" and it was feeling lonely): "keep it and tag it, mr. man" is an approach that is best suited to the current situation. There.
PEM - Perpetual Edit Mode
There's gotta be an easier way to edit your posts. So, sure, if you enable the dubious pencil you can get to editing by
- clicking on it and ...waiting...... and then
- clicking again to post, and then
- clicking again to view blog.
Screenshot escapism
Finally, how would one escape from the cmd-shift-4 induced screenshot mode, short of downing / drowning the power button?
Answer: Just press "Esc" for the love of god. Next. I don't know why I thought that the simplest answer wouldn't be the right one. It usually is.
Answer: Just press "Esc" for the love of god. Next. I don't know why I thought that the simplest answer wouldn't be the right one. It usually is.
Screenshot meta
Speaking of screenshots, how would one go about taking a screenshot of the Command+Shift+4 crosshairs?
Screenshot tolerance
What's the screenshot tolerance for Command+Shift+4? Why won't it copy a single pixel? Is it not worthy enough? But 2 x 1 is ok, I see. Downright communism.
Picture mongering
Not sure what mongering means, but I am sure that it could be done better in blogger's picture upload thingy. Why can't pictures be inserted at the cursor position? If there are lots, how can one humanly rearrange them in text-only approach of the blog post window. Seriously: how can one humanly work with images in a window this size:
?
?
Google verification poetry
Ever noticed how poetic gmail's random verification words are? But somehow with blogger, they have taken a decidedly less poetic turn. Is that just a blogger thing? Let's check.
Here's gmail:
So beautiful...
Compare to blogger's:
Yeah, so much for you, Mr. Muudi.
Note however, that blogger's words above are from blog verification (verification that comes up when you want to open a new blog), NOT post verification (word verification to allow you to publish a post). Post verification poetry sounds very similar to gmail's.
Here's gmail:
So beautiful...Compare to blogger's:
Yeah, so much for you, Mr. Muudi.
Note however, that blogger's words above are from blog verification (verification that comes up when you want to open a new blog), NOT post verification (word verification to allow you to publish a post). Post verification poetry sounds very similar to gmail's.
Blogger widgets
How do I go about adding widgets? Is that something the enigmatic "classical" mode cannot do?
Some of the good ones would be:
Some of the good ones would be:
- Dictionary
- Wikipedia
- That's it for now.
"Previous Posts" massacre
Blogger, what's gotten into you? First you cripple the HTML editing capabilities, such as the "Posted by" access. And now I notice - there is NO WAY to add the tried and true "Previous Posts" to the sidebar. Do I have to return to "Classic" (whatever this means, have not tried that yet) to get all those goodies back? Very troublesome. It starts with small things, then gets to be downright Korolenkian.
Donate to wikipedia
if you are donat-able. That probably means you should possess some capital first. They should make it easier to donate unliquified but liquifiable assets such as old furniture.
By the way, what exactly is the procedure for getting a tax deduction?
By the way, what exactly is the procedure for getting a tax deduction?
"Next Blog" not so next
Why are the blogs displayed when clicking "next blog" so spammy? And why do the same ones keep coming back again and again? I remember the glory days in 2004/5 when I actually discovered something useful, including the incredible, yet so short lived, artist one. Well, not anymore.
Taming the archives
So how would you tame the archive boundaries? If in hierarchical mode, it seems no matter how long the title is, it will be forced to display as a single line, no word wrap for you. Even if I manually insert a in the title, makes no difference. So, what's left? A hike into blogger's CSS overcoat? Yes, but until then, I truncated the title, ending it with a saturated comma,
Link tagging / aggregation
Ok, so you have lots of links you interperse (not a word) throughout your blog, if that's the kind of blog that does that. Shouldn't there be a way to aggregate all the links in one place? Maybe have some button: "Link Index" or something that takes you to the complete list of links. The links would be tagged with tags from the blogs in which they appeared, so there is a glimpse of order in the whole thing. Furthermore, that "Links" section you can add to your blog (I will, I will, all in due time) - should get some tag treatment in its own right. Have a way to parse links out categorically? E.g. here are my medicine links... and here are the carwash links... stuff like that.
Cable outage
Cable got outed again. Not even five minutes ago. Almost a month and a half since that last happened, I believe. Who is behind this? The powerboys? The weather? Or the man himself? We'll see if the issue begins resurfacing more frequently, then it's definitely the router, as per many amazon reviews. The consensus is that this router gets rather funky after 6 months or so.
Meanwhile, fixed with a reset.
Here are the steps for those following at home:
Meanwhile, fixed with a reset.
Here are the steps for those following at home:
- Pull the plug on the router (Netgear blah blah)
- Pull the plug on the modem (Motorola blah blah)
- Replug the modem
- Wait for all the greenable lights to turn green again (namely light 1, light 2, light 3, and even light 4)
- Replug the router
- Abandon the basement (optional)
Customizing blogger icons
So what if I want to change how they look? Maybe instead of the proverbial white envelope with an arrow I want to have a red "M" akin to that on Moe's pomo bar. Is there any remote possibility of asserting my existential authenticity in this age of dasain conformity?
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Dashboard weather
Where does apple's weather widget get its data? Can I choose alternative weather providers?
Ultra II 4GB SDHC
Called, said they had 33 in stock. Promotion until Dec. 8th. Meanwhile, M. said that the weather after and including tomorrow is going to be all gloom. Weather.com confirms, dashboard doesn't. Why, sir? If .com is right, it's better go today.
Extreme III 4GB SDHC
So, yes, adorama has it with $30 discount, but not in stock. If ship AND tax, then totally ridiculous. The only sane way is to get it person but they might never have it in stock at the store before the offer expires.
How much difference will its 20mbs read/write speed will make on a g9 compared to 4gb ultra II's 10mbs? How much difference does it make on a D80 (the other little wonder which captivates me, albeit for different reasons)? How much difference does it make on other cameras?
How much difference will its 20mbs read/write speed will make on a g9 compared to 4gb ultra II's 10mbs? How much difference does it make on a D80 (the other little wonder which captivates me, albeit for different reasons)? How much difference does it make on other cameras?
Mac|Life worthy?
Is it worth subscribing to? Is the price really exclusive? Considering the material is all online anyway - no. But the discount looks so large and compelling. But is it even real?
Fake BestBuy ?
I suspect the card sent was fake. Hence, the return. Has Sandisk officially modify their wavy logo on their extreme II CF cards? I didn't think so.
Although, if you look carefully elsewhere on the site, there is an indication to the contrary:
This card design look exactly like the one on the quasi fake 2GB CF from BestBuy. So, maybe it was legit after all - just too modern for its time. The prophet of the new age was coldly rejected by the unimaginative skeptics. Sigh.
Although, if you look carefully elsewhere on the site, there is an indication to the contrary:
This card design look exactly like the one on the quasi fake 2GB CF from BestBuy. So, maybe it was legit after all - just too modern for its time. The prophet of the new age was coldly rejected by the unimaginative skeptics. Sigh.
KAMARA - YES*!
*BUT in RAW mode ONLY
Here's why:
At %100 magnification, it is apparent that even when darker, RAW images have MUCH less noise than Superfine Large JPEGs. Also, JPEGs are excessively sharpened to the point of making everything look "plastic-like." Default sharpness setting for RAW files is much better, as the above crops show. But more importantly, in RAW format sharpness can be FULLY adjusted - WOW-!
The downside - 15mb files v. 5mb ones.
Here's why:
At %100 magnification, it is apparent that even when darker, RAW images have MUCH less noise than Superfine Large JPEGs. Also, JPEGs are excessively sharpened to the point of making everything look "plastic-like." Default sharpness setting for RAW files is much better, as the above crops show. But more importantly, in RAW format sharpness can be FULLY adjusted - WOW-!
The downside - 15mb files v. 5mb ones.
Create v. update sorting
Is it possible to sort blog posts based on update date, not the create date? Have both options available to the blog reader?
Tag split / merge / meta
Is it possible to merge / split tags? Turn all "question" tags into "?" and "cheese" tags. Or the reverse.
Is it possible to have a meta tag, such as "google" which would automatically imply "blogger, reader, docs, gmail" tags.
Is it possible to have a meta tag, such as "google" which would automatically imply "blogger, reader, docs, gmail" tags.
Tag rename
In blogger, gmail, docs, reader, or even in general - is tag renaming possible? E.g. turn all "question" tags into "?" tags.
Boolean tag display
Display posts that satisfy two or more tags? E.g. show me only posts with both: "blogger" and "question." Posts that have satisfy one or the other tag? Show me all posts that have "mac" or "question." Or what if I want to exclude? E.g. see all "question" posts excluding those tagged "mac os"?
Boolean tag display, why won't you show yourself.
Boolean tag display, why won't you show yourself.
"Open" file rename
So, I wanted to add the snapshot I took of the blogger problem. I desire renaming but the window won't let me rename the file. Blazes. Is there any way to get the renaming through? Is that you, Terminal?
Blogger unable
Here's the message, straight from the heart:
We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:
- Describe what you were doing when you got this error.
- Provide the following error code and additional information.
bX-h59pthAdditional information
blogID: 1160245901288925035host: www.blogger.comuri: /post-create.doThis information will help us to track down your specific problem and fix it! We apologize for the inconvenience.
Although unquoted, cannot get out of this. Oh boy. Another doozie.
Anyway, here's the pic:
Here's another one, some days later, from Dec.8, bx-qto82q this time:
Keyboard blackouts
4000 ergonomic has served us well but now it periodically blacks out. It appears that the wire attachment, the simplest thing of them all, is faulty - at the keyboard end. When you give it a gentle tug, it generally reforms and resumes work.
New blogger template
Where is the "posted by" field in the new blogger template?
In the old-school version it was there, in the new one it's not. When I tried replacing the new template with the old (simple copy and paste), get a message about XML being improperly parsed.
I want to:
In the old-school version it was there, in the new one it's not. When I tried replacing the new template with the old (simple copy and paste), get a message about XML being improperly parsed.
I want to:
- change the ugly new "Posted by" to the old "#posted" or "said" or remove it altogether
- change "Labels" to "tags"
- move "subscribe to feeds" to the right sidebar, right above the archives, or again, remove it altogether (e.g. if I chose not to broadcast any feeds, having such a sign would be tantamount to the quintessence of deception and deceit)
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