Category Archive: Other
Today I released Tweet This 1.7, the first update to my WordPress plugin in nearly a year. This version adds OAuth support, and it is an important upgrade because Twitter will be disabling basic authentication tomorrow, Aug. 31, 2010. I’ve also added support for the Bit.ly API and fixed many bugs, including problems with automatic tweeting.
Tweet This 1.7 is also available on the WordPress plugin repository and it has been downloaded 100 times since I released it an hour ago. Twitter requires each user of Tweet This to fill out a lengthy and complex application registration form and then copy and paste four API keys to the Tweet This settings, all of which long and confusing, like “5151540-ADGJeaa-dgaiojt-3ugeaei-ghq75gj-dwerty.” Even Alex King, creator of Twitter Tools, has complained about it. Unfortunately, it’s my only option, so I’ve included detailed instructions on the Tweet This options page.
Please leave me feedback and bug reports, as I will be actively developing Tweet This over the coming months.
I’m launching two new websites today: Thripp Photography 2010 and iseeafish.com. Thripp 2010 reuses what used to be the Thripp.com development blog, and iseeafish.com is an online comic about dating and relationships.
From now on I will only post photos from 2009 or earlier on Thripp Photography and all photos from 2010 or later will go on Thripp.com.
For the next 20 weeks I will post one pre-2010 photo per weekday on Thripp Photography, one 2010 photo per weekday on Thripp.com, one musical composition per weekday on ComposersJourney.com, and one comic per day on iseeafish.com. I already have 8 weeks of photos prepared in advanced and 4 weeks of comics. Composing music will be the hardest part. It takes 10 times as long to write a piece of music as it does to prepare a photograph or write a comic. I have nothing planned for the weekends, but I may write something from time to time.
In all I will post 200 photos, 100 compositions, and 100 comics from 2010-08-16 through 2010-12-31. I’m calling this project “Thripp 2010.” I am also planning on releasing four albums on ComposersJourney.com. Today I …
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On my new site ComposersJourney.com I post my musical compositions like this:
Ode to Ted Kennedy MP3, 1:52, 1.35MB
Ode to Ted Kennedy MIDI, 7.69KB
Ode to Ted Kennedy PDF, 25.47KB
Ode to Ted Kennedy Score (Sibelius 6), 40.85KB
I upload each file through WordPress to the /files/ directory with subdirectories for years and months enabled. The filename is the title of the musical composition followed by my initials and the date of posting, and I use hyphens as spacers. I use a modded version of WPaudio to turn MP3 links into JavaScript-based music players.
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could automate the creation of these links instead of having to type the filenames four times, the title four times, the size of each file, and the length of the MP3?
The first step was to download and enable Exec-PHP so I could use PHP code in posts. Then I checked “Disable the visual editor when writing” in my profile and under Settings > Writing I unchecked “WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically.” Next, I wrote this function and added it to my theme’s functions.php file:
function flnk($e = ‘mp3′, $t = ‘MP3′, $a = ”, …
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I changed the WordPress permalink structure for this blog from “/%postname%-%post_id%” to “/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/”, after nearly three years with the old URLs. This is what most WordPress blogs use, and I understand the wisdom of using a trailing slash which indicates directory status with non-virtual URLs, implies the end of the URL, and is expected by most users. Including the post ID was a stupid mistake. I was copying what deviantART does in its post URLs, but the month and date are far better than a meaningless number.
This also matches what I did on my new blog, Composer’s Journey.
The hard part was redirecting all the old URLs to the new URLs. I ended up changing the core file /wp-admin/includes/post.php: where it says “posts_per_page=15″ I substituted “posts_per_page=500″. Then I opened a copy of my Manage Posts screen with the old URLs, changed permalink structures to the new URLs, opened a new tab with the Manage Post screen, changed back to the old permalinks, and started copying and pasting the permalinks into a CSV file which I imported into the Redirection plugin. I redirected the original posts and the printable version links, but I was not able to get the …
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I met Lauren at Daytona State College in the fall of 2008 at one of my math classes. She’s a dedicated blogger and archeology student who is attending DSC with the goal of becoming a Doctor of Archeology. In fact, she is so sure she will accomplish this that she’s calling herself a doctor already! That is misleading, but I admire her dedication and I hear she makes a good income through freelance writing.
You can see all of her articles on her Triond profile page. I like her article, Did Christianity Cause the Fall of the Roman Empire?, where she concludes in layman’s terms that the Roman Empire fell because of mismanagement, not a change in religion. It’s much like how the United States is going to fall by completely ruining the U.S. dollar over the next few years (buy gold, silver, firearms, and canned goods quick!).
Here’s her main blog, which has some interesting links and information:
She also wrote a short post about me and my photo, Bongos for Peace.
If you’re studying to be a journalist, an archeologist, a psychologist, a photographer, or whatever, one of the best …
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If you typed in my web address from a print I gave you at Daytona State College, make yourself known by leaving a comment here.
I’ve been giving out a lot of prints I had made in 2007 when it was very cheap. These are the ones I backprinted in the same year, with my old and very long web address, richardxthripp.richardxthripp.com, which now forwards here. At the time other family members had other subdomains and the home page was a portal, but now I have thripp.com and I’m the only one left blogging.
If you come here again, type rxthripp.com instead which I use in all new print advertisements.
Have a look around at my photos and personal development articles. Feel free to comment on anything you see with the link at the end of each post; I read and respond to everything.
The photos I’ve given out so far are Leafy Droplets on Monday, Symmetry today (Wednesday), and on Friday I’ll be giving Ketchup and Ketchup 2 out as a set. This is on the Daytona State College main campus between 10 A.M. and 2 P.M.
If you need me to take photos for you, I …
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A comedy skit I wrote:
Did I tell you that I’m going to be staying in North Virginia this summer? Every time I go there, my mother KILLS me! She says I don’t visit enough.
Oh, you mean North Virginia as in *North* Virginia?
SOUTHERN North Virginia.
Do you really mean to tell me, that, that you’ll be staying in SOUTHERN North Virginia?
Well yeah, of course. Why is that such a surprise to you?
And, and your mother will be staying there too?
I hope so.
Why would you wish such a thing on her?
It’s where she lives! What are you stupid? All the great Smiths retire to Southern North Virginia. A few of them even like it better in South Virginia.
South Virginia? No way! I hear it’s too hot there.
It ain’t that bad, try Florida if you want hot.
I had no idea that, that you and your family were such bad people.
Now why would you say a thing like that about my family?
Most of the good people I know… well, they go to North Virginia.
Some of the really good ones go to NORTH North Virginia.
I knew a bank robber once, and he went to South Virginia.
Another guy was a rapist, and he went to SOUTH South …
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Hello folks. I haven’t been doing much of anything recently. I’ve been working on a summer course in computer programming and doing photography on and off.
My spring project was an open-source integrated library system (ILS) in PHP called Bookley. It allows you to manage patrons, items, check-ins and check-outs, renewals, fines, records, cover scans, and more. Try it out if you want to set up your own public or private library. It’s over 4000 lines of code and took 120 hours to program.
Th8.us has been going down a lot lately, but I fixed this today by removing lists of URLs and hit counters (resource hogs). This site and Th8.us will be rock-solid now.
I will be blogging, Twittering, commenting, and posting photos regularly again. In fact, I think I have more than ever to blog about.
If you haven’t heard, there is a lot of evidence that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built by aliens. Mainly, it consists of two million stones weighing 5000 pounds each quarried five miles away. The theory is they rolled them on logs to transport them, but the logs would be worn after each stone and would likely get bogged down in …
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