Don't Back Down

I mentioned a couple weeks ago how I've been ripping my music. I've also previously mentioned one way that I've been playing my music. I've recently decided to do some more exploring on this front.

While I like the ability to stream a particular playlist easily, and even do it over the internet if I so desire, I found that the playlist information - song title and such - was lacking when I used software with the Slim Server software. This seemed to be the case whether I was using their Soft Squeeze software, iTunes or even Windows Media Player. So I started hunting again.

For the moment, I've settled on trusty old Winamp, though the lite software doesn't seem to handle AAC playing, even though it says that it should. No problem, however, as I've found an MP4 Input Plugin for Winamp, which handles everything I need. Back in business!

A man convicted in 1970 to life in prison for stealing a $140 black-and-white television was recently released, after serving 35 years for his crime. My first instinct is to say "that's ridiculous". My second instinct, shortly after the first, is to say "no way I'm stealing a TV". Probably the exact message intended.

So where is the problem? I think it's in several places.

Read "Is it any wonder?" »

About three-and-a-half years ago, Denise and I availed ourselves of a section of the Yadkin Valley Wine Trail. About two years ago, I added that piece to my blog. Though I doubt that it is solely related to our visit, and my subsequent publishing of the event, the area seems to be picking up steam.

Read "More Yadkin Valley Wine" »

Until recently, I depended solely on the most excellent FilterCategories plugin to, well, filter my category list. For instance, where I might present a subset of my entire category list. The latest hurdle in a static-to-dynamic conversion is dealing with the problem that this plugin doesn't work in a dynamic publishing environment.

Read "Smarty Category Filtering" »

I know. Movable Type isn't designed to be a completely dynamic publishing system. If you use dynamic publishing, you risk your site going down because it takes more resources or MySQL isn't running. While valid, I'm less concerned about that last point, as a part of the site that I enjoy is the commenting process. Without MySQL, comments won't happen either. Plus, I love what I can do with Smarty.

Read "Dynamic Publishing Rocks" »

I took Nathan, our oldest son, to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith the other day. All in all, the movie was decent. Though I had heard ominous things about a couple of scenes, I can't say that it was too bad. Though only 10, I think he handled it fine. Not sure it's okay for our 7-year-old, though.

Anyway, the thing that jumped out at me most is the length. Episode III clocked in at around 140 minutes, or 10-20 minutes longer than the first three movies. That's just a little too long.

Beyond the length, it was okay. But there were many inconsistencies in the movie. Here's my list of just a few (mini-spoilers ahead)...

Read "A Series of Inconsithtencies" »

While I understand that a lot of people don't bother updating old content on their sites, I generally make an effort to keep things at least reasonably-well oiled. Specifically in regards to usability. While I might occasionally remove something, I'll try to at least direct the person accessing that page to another that might have something useful.

And I'll also check out old links from time-to-time. Elise reminded me that it was time for that chore again. Since I hadn't used it before, I gave Alexa's Site Report a shot. Sure enough, it returned a list of dead links - but stopped at 50 (their limit).

Read "Dead Linkage" »

I was working with a client today when I ran into an issue where the computer just would not make a connection to any other devices on the network. I couldn't even run a NET USE command for a resource on the same computer, a sure sign of trouble. The problem is that I didn't know what to do.

Read "Windows 2000 Sharing Issues" »

I received an advertisement in the mail (the real mail, no less!) for an Internet Phone Company. Interesting approach, as I would be surprised if there was a large broadband penetration among the folks who read the value-pack of coupons that come in the mail. But I did, so who knows?

Anyway, SunRocket Internet Phone service is priced at a reasonable $24.95 per month (including a total of two phone numbers, an add-on from many providers) or an annual plan priced at $199 - that's just $16.58 per month. Of course, the service might stink - but I think it's interesting to see such a development. Anyone using SunRocket yet?

I've finished (at least temporarily) with the updates to the site. One difference you will notice is that you can now comment from many pages within the site. The comment link will create a pop-up window over whatever page you are on when you click it (assuming Javascript is enabled in your browser). When you submit your comment, the pop-up window will be closed and you will be returned to the location where you started the comment process.

Because of the comments being paginated when they reach a certain size, I figured that this would make more sense than trying to fit a comment form on each and every page of the comments section.

I know that some of you don't like pop-up windows at all, and I'm sorry if this bothers you. But I think it's a pretty clean implementation. And if you really don't like them, turn off Javascript and you will get an inline comment form instead.

Personally, I don't much care for pop-ups either. But as it allows a quick comment, then closes neatly, while allowing you to keep your focus in the other window all the while, I think I'm going to stick with it for a while. Let me know your thoughts.

While I'd noticed the Use Current Pages button previously, I had never paid attention in order to set up multiple start pages manually. Now I know how to do it. Pipes are your friend.