WP 2.1

Posted on January 20, 2007 by Arthur

Right: I did a WP 2.1 update on a test site on one of my servers at home and, looking at all these superlative comments how WP 2.1 is going to change your life, I’m going to say it: I’m underwhelmed. The good news is that AHCommentCentral appears to be working quite OK, and I’ve updated the plug-in’s page accordingly.

  • WordPress 2.1 feels slow and bulkish.
  • The Dashboard page now appears to be loading the ‘WordPress RSS feeds’ after an ‘x’ amount of seconds, which is still not good enough and more or less makes this feature look like a 16-year old programmer’s trick. You either allow people to turn it off or (at least) allow them to set their own intervals.
  • Links is now called ‘Blogroll’.
  • You can now finally manage the individual uploads.
  • Some extra import and export functionality.
  • And some new plug-in development hooks, like for example the pseudo-cron.

That’s it. Nothing to really get excited about.

Posted in Wordpress | Comments Off on WP 2.1

A bug, you say?

Posted on January 18, 2007 by Arthur

There’s a silly bug in a C# method for the Calendar class, GetWeekOfYear: Its second parameter accepts a CalendarWeekRule enumeration with a choice of FirstDay, FirstFourDayWeek or FirstFullWeek. There’s a great example in the API/documentation, however, the samples don’t seem to reflect North American date standards, where Sunday is generally the first day of a week.

Confused? Let me try that again: Take for example the 31st of December of last year. That day fell on a Sunday and that day should be part of the first week of 2007 and not (as the method above consequently will return) part of week 53 of 2006. There’s no week 53 because our week starts with Sunday.

To get around this, you’ll end up filtering the last days of a year you want to be part of the new year. Easy but not the most pretty solution.

Posted in Programming | Comments Off on A bug, you say?

Wuther

Posted on January 18, 2007 by Arthur

I read Snowthat a huge storm has hit Europe, disrupting many public services and killing a couple of dozen people. That doesn’t really compare with the snowstorm that hit our province a couple of days ago. Did I mention the below -20 degrees Celsius temperatures? The good part is that the mercury will be crossing the 0 degrees later this week.

Posted in We-reflect-news | 1 Comment

What’s up?

Posted on January 14, 2007 by Arthur

The most interesting stories this weekend:

1. The substitute teacher, the spyware and the jail term: A 40-year old teacher faces up to 40 years of prison after being convicted of exposing her class to pornography. As mentioned by ms. Jardin in that link:

wow, 40 years in jail for using a lame browser? Insane. That’s more time than some convicted murderers get.

2. A lot of talk about the iPhone: Announced earlier this week and the talk of the web. Yes, I mean, first Cisco. Then all those rumours about it running something else than MacOSX. Flash? Who knows. Lock-in then, maybe?

3. Sir, you’re no Napoleon: The governing French (right-leaning) UMP party has chosen its candidate for the upcoming French presidential elections. Even after reading this article at BBC’s, I’m not sure where that Napoleon part comes in.

4. The little mosque on the prairie, which happens to be a new Canadian sitcom (comedy) about a moslim community in a little prairie town in Canada.

Posted in We-reflect-news | 5 Comments

How to convert you to metric

Posted on January 13, 2007 by Arthur

This week’s most interesting story goes to this Slashdot discussion: “How can we convert the US to the Metric system”. Most likely the question popped up, because of NASA’s recent announcement to go completely metric for their future mission(s) to Mars. NASA’s annoucement was well-received by 13 other space agencies. According to a NASA development lead:

“When we made the announcement at the meeting, the reps for the other space agencies all gave a little cheer.”

But back to that Slashdot thread, the question how to convince people always leads me to the classic sample that showcases the metric system perfectly: how many kilograms does a litre of water weigh? Another brilliant question is what this Slashdot user asks: “How many cubic inches makes up a gallon”. If you know the answer…

1. Earlier on xsamplex.

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I can do this too…

Posted on January 11, 2007 by Arthur

Yes, so I needed to get into an older site and I forgot the password, because, well, back in 2000, I used an FTP program (FTP Explorer) that (at that time) was pretty popular. So, late last year, I was transferring data from the oldest laptop (Proteus) which had a copy of that FTP program. Before wiping the drive (refurbish, refurbish!), I was smart enough to preserve the FTP program’s registry entries and save them for future reference, hoping I might be able to break the algorithm one day.

Not shortly after, I ran into some code that purportedly showed the algorithm to decrypt the FTP program’s entries and passwords, however, completely written in Perl (link to Google cache). Luckily, I have no problems understanding Perl and it only took a couple of minutes to rewrite it in C#.

So, there you have it: the C# sources you can find right here. Coding was done in SharpDevelop. Note that you need to compile and build the executable yourself and if you want, you can probably rewrite it in your other favourite programming language. Whatever.

That said, it was fun while it lasted. Ta-daa old website.

Posted in Programming | Tagged , | Comments Off on I can do this too…

Assorted thoughts (III)

Posted on January 9, 2007 by Arthur

My last installment of thoughts about my forth-and-back travels a week ago (earlier musings):

  • The grassSmile, you're on TV! was magnificent green in The Netherlands, which took me by surprise. Frost had not arrived yet.
  • Canadians should take over the idea of garbage bins for doggy poops. I think I’ve mentioned this before.
  • I considered taking up smoking again. At the end, I decided against it.
  • I was surprised to see the majority of family members smoking cigarettes, something I thought was quite ironic.
  • I did get a recipe to make tempeh, but so far, I have not found any (dry) soybeans in local stores. And yes, deepfried fermented soybeans stuff is pretty good. Hey, bread wouldn’t be bread without yeast…
  • ‘Plastic fantastic’ is actually a good lens.
  • I may have eaten my last Indonesian dish in The Netherlands. That is, unless the mister from the Indonesian import stuff (who I met last Friday in Sobeys) manages to convince earlier mentioned grocery store to keep carrying some Indonesian food mixes.
  • I did not watch TV in The Netherlands. OK, for less than half an hour.
  • Nowadays, subtitles confuse me.
  • In Dutch restaurants, coffee is still poured in little bite-sized cups and there’s no second refill, at all.
  • Railway stations charge 50 Euro cents for a washroom visit. You may just as well hold it up, jump in a train and do it for free (most washrooms on railway stations are coin-operated).
  • For over an hour, while waiting for Alfons, I was watching people during a stopover at Amersfoort railway station.
  • I don’t mind dining in an American Cuisine Restaurant.
  • Dutch humour is generally quite rude.
Posted in Truro NS | Comments Off on Assorted thoughts (III)

Can-cer

Posted on January 9, 2007 by Arthur

Earlier this morning, I was reading two (BBC) articles about cancer: ‘Spicy foods can kill cancers’ and ‘Hope over tumour fighting therapy’1.

The first article rings a bell: I think I read something about the magical effects of jalapeno peppers before. That was something about mice, if I recall correctly. At this stage, while the results of the research look promising, only cancers grown in labs have shown to be vulnerable to this specific ingredient2 in jalapeno peppers.

The second article discusses a total different approach in attacking tumours, using tiny nano-particles that target (and block) the ‘blood’ supply to cancerous cells. The results (on mice) look so promising that researchers think that these nano-particles should also be able to deliver chemotherapy-related drugs to tumours.

Not related, I prefer my nasi goreng extra hot (as in spicy).

1 That second article has a neat picture of cancer under attack by white bloodcells
2 Capsaicin, that is

Posted in Scientifically | Comments Off on Can-cer

Assorted thoughts (II)

Posted on January 8, 2007 by Arthur

More random picks from the grey matter cabinet (earlier picks):

  • Great Britain is Mailboxes Incorporated. culturally more diverse than The Netherlands. However, for some kind of reason, all British people love going to The Netherlands, or rather, Amsterdam.
  • Much to my surprise, I found out that you can ‘rent’ bikes in Amsterdam. I always thought bike rental projects in the Netherlands failed because it is actually easier to ‘borrow’ one.
  • Dutch public transportation is perfect for quick round-trips.
  • Life is generally expensive in The Netherlands. That said, you are still allowed to smoke in restaurants and bars.
  • Dutch people spend too much money on fireworks.
  • Hard-cover guitar cases go on the ‘outsize luggage’ trolley (Heathrow, Amsterdam Airport). Guitar cases never make it on the (luggage) conveyor belt, except for at Halifax airport. If you arrive at earlier mentioned airports (Heathrow/Amsterdam), keep an eye on the conveyor belt guys loading off the outsize luggage. You can’t miss them if they carry your guitar case.
  • The Air Canada check-in counters at Heathrow Airport are at Terminal 3, zone D. Prepare for a long walk. If you have to go through customs clearance first: after passport check, go through and past ‘Arrivals’, turn left and take the Heathrow Express to Terminal 1, 2 & 3. The Heathrow Express is free.
  • Both KLM and Air Canada use Electronic systems to print your boarding pass. You need to do this first before you can go check-in. This system works pretty good: before you start, you have a choice of 3 methods to get your boarding pass for the next flight (flight number, reservation number [e-ticket] or passport). The fact that these computer systems use passports to find your reservation should (at least) make you think.
Posted in Truro NS | Comments Off on Assorted thoughts (II)

2.0.6

Posted on January 7, 2007 by Arthur

I just upgraded to the latest recommended WP version and I’m currently sorting the open issues regarding the (installed) plug-ins.

For future reference: ‘How to install your online WordPress locally’. (As a reference, my thoughts on upgrading your WordPress the right way) (earlier).

Posted in Wordpress | Comments Off on 2.0.6

Assorted thoughts

Posted on January 7, 2007 by Arthur

Some (not so related) thoughts from the last couple of days:

  • There Heatrow take-offare a lot of people around with Toshiba laptops, particularly ones coming from North America. On my flight back home, I saw at least one lady use the same model of laptop I have. I thought that was funny and I wondered if everybody rushed out at Christmas to buy a new (Toshiba) laptop at Staples or Futureshop.
  • On my flight to Europe, I was allowed to take my main suitcase as carry-on luggage into the plane because of concerns I might be missing my connecting flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam. As you may remember, right around that time, Heathrow was at a standstill because of fog problems.
  • After landing at Heathrow airport, there was so much confusion about the connecting KLM flight that I (in a rush to get to the Netherlands) almost forgot to get clearance from British Customs. Hence the rush up and down the stairs.
  • After landing at Amsterdam airport, I missed a train because I mistook a footnote for a platform number. Therefore I arrived one and half hour later than planned. I had not been able to contact my wife in Canada since leaving Halifax, which added concerns to my whereabouts in Europe.
  • I was annoyed to find out that you pay ‘transaction costs’ when you buy a train ticket at the Dutch Railways counter.
  • In the Netherlands, taxi drivers use GPS devices extensively.
  • I’m not used to long walks. Maybe now I do, but I definitely didn’t before. I was used to walking when I lived in Europe, so maybe that’s telling.
Posted in Truro NS | Comments Off on Assorted thoughts

Tom-ti-tom

Posted on January 6, 2007 by Arthur

That’s the sound of jet-lag.

I arrived back Clouds above Englandhome a couple of days ago after spending the traditional hours of running up and down stairs at Heathrow airport. There were many security checks, of course, but spending too many minutes unpacking stuff and having officials tell you ‘you’re only allowed one bag’ so frequently; well, it gets tiresome. The other thing was that I was pretty much ‘fully’ loaded, because I decided to bring home one of my guitars. Even Canadian customs officers were surprised about the beauty of my SE 400. Note to Alfons: I didn’t know that the hardcover case had an extra ‘hidden’ compartment, obviously for spare strings and guitar picks. Next time remind me to thoroughly investigate new purchases. An extra note to customs officers: my guitar case was ‘security checked and cleared’ by Dutch authorities, which means that they most likely opened and inspected the case and contents too. But yes, it’s your job to be thorough, and I appreciate that.

So, that leaves me with the note that I was glad to be back home. There are other precious thoughts about my country of birth, the recent ad-hoc meetings and conversations with friends and others, but these thoughts I’ll probably share another day at another time. For the ones that I actually met-up with, or the ones I could not meet for whatever personal reason, once again, have a great and safe 2007.

Posted in Truro NS | Comments Off on Tom-ti-tom

Dreaded – rain

Posted on January 1, 2007 by Arthur

Earlier, Watertorenwe decided to head out with camera gear and walk towards a place we call ‘the deer park’. We struck up a brief conversation with a lady, kids and their grandfather, who were astonished to see that a (majestic) older tree had been cut up, apparently just recently. ‘I don’t remember any trees here’, I said, ‘but then I’ve not been around here for a while’. The conversation ended with a warning that I’d be in for a surprise if I saw the deer park.

I thought I recognized a passer-by too, but that may have been my imagination: if you’re gone for a while and you’re sentimental, everybody looks the same. While I reminisced about the thought of having missed an opportunity, bad luck struck and rain started to pour down in buckets, cutting short our intentions for a long walk.

Maybe it’ll be a better day tomorrow.

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