One of the things that bothered me about the switch to dynamic archives is that I had to stop using the Compare plugin, since it doesn't support dynamic publishing (or didn't, at any rate). With the use of Smarty, you can very easily reproduce this functionality, and though I haven't done any benchmarks or anything, I suspect that the performance gains are dramatic.
As mentioned previously, using Smarty for pagination isn't difficult. Of course, the simple example already given doesn't really do much - your users would still need to know about it, and manually construct the URL. That wouldn't be much fun. Using Smarty, we can do the work for them!
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm now using Smarty to provide pagination in my category archives. The code is inserted directly into the template, and (apparently) when it rebuilds the template it parses that code prior to rendering the page. It's actually quite impressive. Thanks again to Brad, not only for giving me some sample code with which to play, but for showing me it is possible in the first place - I had no idea!
As mentioned recently, I've been trying Scuttle, and I'm quite happy with it thus far. However, I'm using it as a personal online bookmarks repository, not a directory of the web. Put simply, I don't use that many bookmarks, but the ones I do have I'd like to be able to access, no matter which computer or device I'm using. Scuttle gives me that option, plus it's on my server so I have the data where I can get to it, back it up, change it, tweak it or whatever.
While I like the tagging feature of del.icio.us, I don't like that the service isn't available many times when I need it, and there's not an easy way to update/backup/restore the information.
But what I really don't get is the "social" aspect of services such as del.icio.us. I have perhaps once or twice gone browsing tags to see what other people have in their bookmarks, but let's face it, without a standardized tagging structure, it really isn't that useful. I might tag something with mt, while someone else might use Movable Type, a third person will use MovableType and a fourth Moveable Type (sic). The variations are literally endless.
So I end up searching for things where I need an answer, and more often than not, that isn't in my bookmarks. My bookmarks contain things that I'll need to look up because they sounded interesting when I came across them, and I haven't been able to go back as yet. Recipes for instance. Places that I'd like to visit. Pages accessed with some frequency (the school calendar is an example of this one).
In the end, I'm not making an index of the web - I'm making a repository of information that I'll use. Want to use it too? Help yourself - but I don't frequently find myself looking for a reason to go look at other people's repositories. If I want to find something specific, I'll search. I haven't truly "browsed" in years, so perhaps, as with so many other things, I just don't get it.
It's recently come to my attention that comment notifications are broken in recent versions of Movable Type. I never noticed this because it never affected me (more on why in a minute). After looking into this, it appears that the change was introduced in version 3.14159, when Six Apart made a change to Comments.pm to address the efficiency of comment posting - namely to keep certain processes from executing unless the comment was visible (approved). This change also affects version 3.15 of the software.
With all the recent talk about reforming Social Security, it is only natural that the plans of three Texas counties will come into the spotlight. I've talked about them before. Over a year ago. Guess that makes me a progressive thinker or something. Regardless, this article has some good points when looking at those plans as a model.
First and foremost, if you withdraw money, you will have less when you retire. Does anyone really need to be told this basic fact? One retiree on one of these plans currently receives far less from the local plan than she would have if she was in Social Security. But that's because she took some money out of the plan while she was still working. Apparently the plan no longer allows withdrawals.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Social Security is designed as a safety net. It's not designed to handle any and every bill you encounter as a retiree, and pay for you to continue life in the way to which you've grown accustomed. If you want to do that, try saving some money on your own to supplement Social Security.
The word is security, folks. That means that you can be secure that you'll have something. It doesn't say that you'll be well off, or be able to pay the mortgage on your McMansion, but instead that you'll have a lifeline from which to draw.
Frankly, I think the reform is looking in the wrong direction. Too many people have come to feel that Social Security is indeed a source of income for later years, and that couldn't be more wrong. To change this perception, let the government build standard housing for seniors, where they can have their housing and food needs met, and where they can even receive medical care. Then drop Social Security entirely.
If people are unable to save for themselves, give them something. I'm all for that. I'm a giving person. But why give them everything?
In their infinite wisdom, the Charlotte City Council has decided that two-way streets are more pedestrian friendly, so they hope to remake some of the streets uptown in this fashion.
I just have one question: Have these people never been to a large city, such as New York, that has a huge number of one-way streets? The smaller, one-way streets are almost without exception more pedestrian friendly than the larger two-way versions.
After a wild weekend, the Final Four is set, with Illinois set to face Louisville and Michigan State squaring off against North Carolina. Unfortunately, my bracket suffered some more, and Illinois is the only team I still have fighting. I've picked them to end up in the final, but not to win it all, meaning those are the last points I have possible.
Unfortunately, Patrick also has Illinois going to the final, meaning that I cannot gain any points on him from here on in. With a slim 8-point lead, if Patrick's other remaining pick, North Carolina, should even make it to the finals, I'm done. If they win it all, as he has them picked to do, I'll be squashed. Let's go, Michigan State!
Hmm. I don't know that I'd really call it a showdown, but increasingly that seems to be what it is. Or at least what it is that the press would like us to think it is (accurately or not). I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it. I just don't know.
On one hand, Terry Schiavo is a living being. Removing her feeding tube is roughly akin to neglecting to feed your children, who are unable to fend for themselves. Of course, the children could eat grass in the yard or drink toilet water or something, an option that Ms. Schiavo doesn't have.
This woman has been brain-damaged for 15 years. I believe that the proper term is that she is in a persistent vegetative state. As I understand it, this means that her body functions - it sleeps, it wakes, it breathes, that sort of thing. But there are no higher brain functions. According to that link, someone can recover from such a state, but I have to believe that after 15 years, it's increasingly unlikely that she will recover to anything resembling a normal life.
Which leads to the other hand. While I believe that there is a certain amount of mercy being shown, there is also a time when difficult decisions need to be made. Many people will only encounter this sort of experience with a dog or other pet, who simply isn't enjoying a quality of life that they probably should. At that time, it becomes an issue of whether they should be put to sleep or not. And while comparing a pet to a person may not be the most apt comparison, it's the most likely comparison that many of us will be able to recognize.
Personally, mostly because I have not been in such a situation, I cannot imagine having a family member in such a state for 15 years. I don't know if I could handle it. But still, I think that life is sacred. So much so that sometimes the best thing to do may very well be to end it. To go back to my earlier, inaccurate, illustration - I have previously determined that a pet's quality of life is no longer there and decided to end it. That was one of the hardest decisions that I've ever had to make.
When I made the decision, I did so only after I had seen for myself that the spark of life was no longer there. So without seeing that same thing for myself, I can't say that it's time to end Ms. Schiavo's life. Equally, I can't say that it isn't time. Only someone exposed to her can do that. And rightly or wrongly, it seems to me that the person justified to do so (her husband) has made that decision. I think that someone has to make the call, and in our society, I believe he is the person entitled to do so.
Recently I have received a number of comments about how MT-Notifier appears to be working fine, and then suddenly stops functioning. The most often factor in this change is a larger number of subscribers. That is to say, things are working fine with a few subscribers, but as that number increases to hundreds, so to do the apparent failures of the system.
Let me say that I don't know what causes this. I haven't seen the problem personally, and I know of at least one installation that has a very large number of subscriptions that continues to work fine. This would lead me to believe that it's a resource issue. Specifically, I think that much of it may have to do with the use of the PluginData table.
