Don't Back Down

Perhaps the coolest illusion ever. Thanks Rod!

In working with a client, it became apparent that something was amiss with their server. Anytime we tried to set the offset in an MTEntries container, we would get an error. Please note, this was while using dynamic publishing. Static publishing should be fine. And also, as with most hosts, I'm sure that the folks at Media Template have a variety of installations.

Read "Dynamic Publishing on Media Template" »

I really, really wanted to do a search and replace in MySQL, but I just couldn't find it. Then I did.

      update tablename set field = replace(field,'search','replace');

Read "MySQL Search and Replace" »

While I am very fond of our new HP Officejet 7410, the software is horrible. Specifically, the software update. Today, I was prompted to install their updates, much as I would be for Windows or something. That alone isn't bad.

But during the (rather lengthy) process, it appears to have completely re-installed the HP Image Zone Express software not once, but twice. That makes no sense. Surely someone could figure out "if we have two updates, and there's a complete installation each time, let's just keep the second". Is it really too much to ask?

What is perhaps worse is that the update process asks for your feedback. The options on this web-based form ask if your "problem was solved" by the update process. Like phone menus, I'm left wondering what happens if you don't fit into their preconceived notions? In this case, my problem was caused by the update service. Where's the option to specify that on their little feedback form?

It seems that for 2005, the North Carolina state fair has decided to get healthy. Keep in mind, however, that "healthy" is something of a relative designation. In place of (or, more likely, in addition to) all the deep-fried food that's bad for you, such as candy bars, Oreos and even Twinkies, now you can score some downright heart-conscious alternatives.

Read "Deep Frying the Fruit" »

In an interesting move, Bank of America has implemented a new program for debit card holders, dubbed Keep the Change, where you can "round up" debit card purchases, and this rounded portion goes into your savings account.

Since I've seen many people who have jars and jars of spare change (mostly pennies) sitting around their house, you have to think that this program will make some sense to some people. But as a savings vehicle? That's probably pushing it just a bit.

I've released a new Movable Type plugin, MT-GadaBe version 1.0.0.

Read "MT-GadaBe 1.0.0" »

For the second time in as many days, I find myself going around and around with a telephone menu that's run by voice recognition software, and unable to get anywhere. I'm all for making improvements, and the telephone menu is a great place to start - but those who set up these voice menus apparently think they can address every single problem, and for some strange reason I seem completely unable to find anything - even more so than the typical "press 1 for..." type of menu.

What's worse is that the actual recognition stinks. It can't even recognize "yes" and "no", much less more complex phrases. While most thinks show incremental improvements and become worthy over time (look at cell phones), this sort of thing has absolutely no promise at this point. I've had problems with Cingular, PayPal and Sprint PCS.

I understand they don't want to talk to people. I understand that some people get tired and hang up, so they don't have to deal with it. I understand that such a system could be used to funnel callers to the right department. But it doesn't work! Most of the time these menus either take you to a general mailbox, or they collect all sorts of information, which the operator then has to collect again. Is it any wonder that I don't like the telephone?

This humorously-titled article appeared in the local paper today, saying that the city is rethinking their stance on traffic. The humor, of course, comes from the fact that they never really thought about it before. How can they possibly re-think it?

In any case, it might be a good thing. The article tells us that the City Council will vote on the recommendations in the future. Frankly, I think with the way that the City Council panders to developers, this plan stands no chance of being enacted, since those developers will balk at nearly every provision, but especially those that they have to deal with directly.

Site5 is offering a special MultiSite Express plan for a limited time (until next Saturday, the 15th of October). This is a smaller version of their awesome MultiSite plan, offered at a drastically reduced rate.

During this limited promotion, you can get a hosting plan that offers you five True MultiSite™ Websites (each with unlimited domain pointers), 6GB of storage and 75GB of bandwidth, for just $97 per year. That's only $8.08 per month (you do have to pay yearly). At the time of signup, you can add a second year for another $50, dropping the monthly price to just over $6!

As a bonus for me, if you use my affiliate link (up there at the top of this entry or in the footer of any page) to sign up for this account, and if I get 15 of these signups in the next week, I'll score a free 2GB iPod Nano. With Site5 offering this great plan at such a great price, and their unconditional 60-day money-back guarantee, how can you lose?

A note to other affiliates: There is a new format for your affiliate link. Change it by next Saturday or you could lose referral credits.

Version 1.6.0 of the Bloglines Toolkit is now available for download. The toolkit currently supports 8 languages out-of-the-box (contact me if you want to add more) and has been configured to be compatible with the 1.5 beta version of Firefox. Those of you with automatic update checking should be getting an update notice in the near future. Enjoy.

So I'm trying the new Google Reader, and I'll say that it seems to have promise. Unfortunately, that's about it, as it's really slow. What I can say is that the interface seems nice and simple, the reading speed is good, and there are some nice keyboard shortcuts too. The problem as of this writing is that it takes impossibly long to load anything, most items don't offer any response (Peter says that importing is running slowly and you don't have a status bar) and there are a large number of server errors - either the little message kind within a larger page or the big message kind that takes up the whole page.

What I do like: It looks like you can add "labels" to feeds, and then select by label what you want to read, similar to tagging at other services. That's cool. The actual feed-reading interface is pretty nice and clean looking. There are integrated actions with both your Gmail account and your Blogger account. The sort actions for both feeds and items within the feeds seems good too. I'm not sure about the whole read and unread concept, as I need to wait for the Reader to pick up some new feeds so I can see what it looks like. More later.