This plugin allows you to display a flickr style badge (for a tag, user, user tag or group pool) on your WordPress site. It uses MagpieRSS to parse the RSS feed and display the images. The plugin can also cache the images locally and display image title tags. The plugin is configurable via an Options panel.
Voodoo Knife Rack
Store your knives in somebody. ¶
A Vernacular Web - a different world
"In todays web blogs compensate for over precise search engines by delivering a constant stream of surprise links. It's an interesting evolutionary paradox when you remember that old-school link collections were created to compensate, through human intervention, for the rough search engine results." ¶
A Scanner Darkly trailer is out
The new movie by Richard Linklater uses the same technique he used for Waking Life and is based on a novel by Phillip K. Dick. ¶
Gay outrage over penguin sex test
"The males have been observed trying to mate with each other and trying to hatch offspring out of stones." ¶
Ajax: a new approach to web applications
"The name is shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML, and it represents a fundamental shift in what’s possible on the Web." ¶
Woz comes out swinging for Tiger pirate
Among other mac software notables, the Apple founder came out in support of the Canadian student who put a developer copy of Tiger online. ¶
Ever heard of Steel Battallion for Xbox? No? Probably has something to do with the $199 price-tag. Tavis found a copy of it for cheap at Toys R’ Us. The game has such a high cost because it comes with a massive 2-joystick, 40-button controller , complete with an eject button that has a flip-up lid. I will need to see it with my own eyes.
Shotgun Golf with Bill Murray
The last article by Hunter S. Thompson. ¶
Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005)
Apparently, he committed suicide at his compound. ¶
Watch this sketch evolve from skeleton to fully-clothed woman
It's pretty cool to watch, and a good use of flash. ¶
Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant, explains how he answer complex math questions
"When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think." ¶
Just in-case you’re a WordPress user and have been living under a rock for the last few days and happen to be reading my site before any other, WordPress 1.5 “Strayhorn” has been released. I think it’s great, then again I’ve only been using the 1.5 nightlies and never used an earlier version.
In other WordPress news, I bring you plugins. Visit the hacks section at Asymptomatic and grab BAStats and ezStatic. The former gives you all sorts of nice statistical goodies about your weblog, the latter allows for easy inclusion of static pages. While you’re there, you should take a look at the wealth of plugins that he has available.
Microsoft guide to the 1337
Our big friend from Redmond swoops down and reminds us once again of the dangers that software piracy poses to our children. ¶
The NHL cancelled the remainder of the season today
It's too bad. The market in the US is going to die, and they haven't realized that Canadians don't really care and just like to watch hockey in general. ¶
English Cut
The weblog of a bespoke saville row tailor. ¶
Check out TypeDrawing
An amazing Flash app that uses type as the drawing tool. ¶
Dropkick the Faint
It's kind of like Yeti vs. Penguin, but with The Faint. ¶
I did a remix of the last image in the first series for the flickr group.
If you want to remix this one, feel free to join the group and give it a shot.
Want to integrate a Flickr tag, user or group pool feed into your site? This PHP script will use MagpieRSS to grab the the RSS feed for the photo pool and pull the images out of it. Download flickrrss0.5.txt, edit the preferences and then change the extension to php. Also, make sure that you install Magpie (and tell the script where it’s installed).
- Can show photos from group pool, user id or tag
- Choose number of photos to display
- The script should now cache the images locally (you can turn this off)
- There’s an option to use small or medium sized images.
- Links to /in/pool-$groupname/ now, allows easier access to group photos Flickr does this now but it uses the ugly group name.
- Delete old cached images
- Fix junk feed problem if Flickr goes down (images are cached, but Magpie fetches the junk script and can’t parse it)
I switched from small images to medium, but they’re still small.
You’ll need to remove all the old images from the cache manually, then you should be fine.
0.5 - choose group, tag or user id, turn of image cache
0.4 - - fixed broken image link
0.3 - cache images locally, small/medium images
0.1 - initial release
Update: I’m focusing more on the WordPress plugin these days, here’s a similar script that may see more development.
Hmm, my script on the Conform Project site that integrates the Flickr group feed makes the site look ugly if Flickr is down for maintenance. Which means I’ll have to test the feed to see it’s live and do something if it’s not. Or cache the feed. I thought Magpie was caching the feed but I’m not really sure.
This year's Oscar Nominees
And the date they were leaked on the internet. ¶
The 401 is actually named the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway
Didn't know that one. ¶
4 gigapixel camera
Wired article on a huge camera that uses old cold-war tech. ¶
Do you belong to a special group at Flickr? Want to display that group’s photos on your website? Well now you can! For four easy payments of $4.44 you can own a GPL’d string of characters that plays nicely with PHP and integrates a feed of your group pool into your website.
First thing you need to do is grab MagpieRSS, you could probably do it with lastRSS too. Then you want to grab flickrgroup.php (a slightly modified version of this tag script). Change the grouptag and num_items variables to suit your needs. You’ll probably also want to hack up how the html is displayed too.
I used this to integrate the group pool into the Conform Project site. Although, I still have a bit of tweaking to do, because I don’t think the spacing will be right between the images (there’s only one in the pool right now).
Update: The script has been updated to support local caching of the images.
Treasure Box is an online game/piece of artwork. It’s also part logic puzzle game, but of the variety that are solvable by waving your mouse around (or trackpad for a frustrating experience).
Dreamhost says they keep regular backups of your files, but I always assumed that it meant there was some mythical backup temple that tech support could get at. Hidden away in their Knowledge Base is this little piece of information: there’s a .snapshot folder in your home directory. They don’t really advertise it.
Even if you think it’s not there (ls -a), it is. Go to that directory and you shall find hourly, daily and weekly snapshots of your files, for backupy goodness. I wish I had known this a few weeks ago.
The Future of Money
An article by Paul Hartzog. ¶
An interview with a link spammer
Provides some insight into the world of comment spamming. ¶
Millenium Falcon X-box Mod
I'm at a loss for words. ¶
A state senator from Texas wants to send Body Mass Index information home on student report cards. Senator Van dePutte is proposing a state law requiring schools to weigh students, compute their body mass index, and send that information home on their report cards.
Sounds like it would do wonders for the kids. We have this stereotypical vision of Texans, courtesy of television, the movies and the president but I honsestly can’t see parents being so dumb they don’t realize their kid is fat.
But, it can’t hurt to look at a potential scenario one year from now:
Billy Ray Jr: Lookee pa, it says I’ma passin the fourth grade!
Billy Ray Sr: Holdup son, this number here says you’re fat.
Billy Ray Sr: Move o’er in the light here a bit.
Billy Ray Jr: But Ma says I’s justa little husky.
Billy Ray Sr: Sweet Lord in Heaven boy, you’re big as a prime steer!
Billy Ray Sr: You’re a goin’ on the Atkins.
Honestly, do they need to give the teacher’s something else to do? Can someone tell me that there aren’t other areas in education that woud benefit from the time spent weighing each child in the class, computing a bmi and adding it to the child’s permanent records?
©1998–2008 dave kellam