Diary of a Network Geek

Okay, so it occurred to me that I might have lost some subscribers.
That's why there was a bit of finagling to get to this page for some of you. See, a whole bunch of folks who read this blog use aggregators, of one kind or another, and not all of them may have corrected for the format change. Well, that only occurred to me last night while I was futzing around with other stuff. So, I hurried about and made some changes that should not only let everyone know that I've changed things here, but how to get to the "new" site. At least, that's the idea. In a couple of days, or weeks, I'll get rid of the index.html page that redirects folks to the main blog. Before that, though, I'll get rid of all the other faux indexes (indexii ?) which should let all my faithful readers find their way to my new home. (You know who you are!)

Actually, that brings up a point. How many readers do I have here? I have no idea. I average somewhere between 2500 and 3000 hits per day, depending on the measurement tool used, but I only show two subscribers via Bloglines. Now, I know my future-ex-wife watches this blog, even though she seems to have dropped her subscription to it via Bloglines, so that makes three of you. And, allowing for the fact that I probably only have 250 to 300 "unique" visitors per month, according to another reporting tool, that leaves somewhere in the neighborhood of 247 readers, of some kind, unaccounted for running around out there. (See, I not only managed mathmatics, but I didn't end the sentence with a preposition!) So, where are you all? What are you all doing here? What brought you here? Why do you come back? Inquiring minds want to know! And, I do, too.

I know I should be headed for bed, but...
But, damn, I've been having fun with plugins again! Okay, so you've noticed that I have fancy-schmancy titles, right? That's the Title Images 2 plugin by Chris Cogburn. The nifty "posted at blah-blah-blah" thing is the Time of Day plugin. The GoogleAds are served up by the Moose Candy plugin. (You'll have to go read up on the plugin to see why it's called that!) And, behind the scenes, we have the Auto Shutoff Comments plugin, obviously, closing comments over a certain age. (I'll let the spammers try and figure out how far back I go!)

I've also been working on my own plugins. Notably the Full Moon plugin, the Chinese Zodiac plugin and the Forgotten Realms Date plugin. These three aren't quite ready for production, yet, but they will be soon! The Full Moon plugin is already running on this site, as you can see. (I tried to get it working for b2evolution, but their documentation just isn't as clear as WordPress' is. Oh, well...) Trust me, when these bad boys are ready for public consumption, I'll post about them here.

Of WordPress, that is.
I can't tell you how much I love this new blogging system. Well, okay, not new, but new to me. Not only is the interface much cleaner than MovableType, but I don't need to do anything special or funky to make posts happen in the future! Yea! Also, developing for WP has seemed easier than it was for MT. (For instance, I did the nifty MoonPhase dealie that tells you what phase the moon is in for each posting. Not to mention the moon over in the margin.) And, it seems like there are more people developing cooler things for WP. Take the way cool titles, for instance. Notice how they look all OCR-like? That's a plugin!
Also, I like being able to directly edit posts. That way, when I find a misspelling, which I often do, I can quickly correct it without too much fuss.
But, by far the best thing, to me, is the comment moderation system. This is the coolest thing since sliced bread. Why? Because when some naughty person, or bot, posts something I find objectionable, it doesn't automatically hit the blog! It has to be approved before it gets posted. So, I can look at it, think about it and approve it, if I want. Or, delete it, if that's my choice. Or, even save it for later when I'm bored and need a quick pick-me-up.

Could this be a viable business?
Okay, first, get your mind out of the gutter. I'm not talking about prostitution! See, I've been sick the past couple of days and it would have been nice to have someone to make me soup and worry about me a bit. You know, someone to baby me the way a significant other is supposed to do. (Not that they do all the time, but, you know, in theory.) Maybe someone to help you clean up while you're sick, too. Short term only, mind. Nothing longer than, say, a month.
Oh, and it would be perfect for that gay friend who's family just won't accept them as gay, or wouldn't understand, or whatever. You could rent them a girlfriend for the holidays and spread a little faux Christmas cheer.

Somehow, I know this would backfire, but, yesterday, in my cold-medicine-induced surreality, it seemed like a good idea. We now return you to your regularly scheduled internet insanity.

Yes, that's right, Jim has left the building.
It's pretty rare that I get so sick I go home early or miss work, but after staring at my screen for the fourth or fifth time and not being able to remember what I was doing, I decided today was one of those days.

Now, I'm going to go take more medicine and have a nap.

I've changed over to using WordPress, now, too. I'm still trying to work out some of the "bugs" on the new version of the blog, but I'm getting there!

for the New Year.

Okay, so I've made a few changes to the blog here. First off, you should notice a few changes to the categories. I'll let you, Faithful Readers, figure out which was what all on your own. Hey, that's half the fun, right?
So, why the changes? Well, I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and, based on that, decided that I needed jazzier, more "fun" category titles. So, in the blink of an electron gun, I have new category titles. I'll leave it to you to decide if they're more fun.
Also, I've added one: Advice from your Uncle Jim. (That's me, BTW. My name is Jim, in case you hadn't caught that already.) Every once in a while, I have some generic advice that I think you might be able to use, like, "When in doubt, talk to your lawyer" and "Don't cheat on your taxes. The IRS likes to fine idiots who do that and get caught", and I like to share that with you. So, new categories for the new year.

It's gonna' be a bigun'!

I got this from an old list I'm on.

Over the years, I've subscribed to a whole lot of e-mail lists and I often don't always get unsubscribed. So, when I'm done with them, I send their contents right to the trash without reading them, thanks to Mozilla's rules. Well, I've been reading a lot of my e-mail on the web lately, for a number of reasons, and I came across this little piece of wisdom. Read it, and cherish it...

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see... in the final analysis,
it is between you and your own Conscience
It is never between you and them anyway.

Have a good year.

Just in time for Christmas!

Er, well, maybe I missed it already, but candy and Christmas go together, so, whatever... Anyhow, the folks who make M&Ms have a webpage where you can order custom M&Ms. By that I mean, you can order M&Ms printed with your own custom message. Now, there's a limit to how many characters you can put on and, of course, there are content restrictions:
"While we encourage your creativity, Masterfoods USA will not honor a request to print any "objectionable" language, acronyms, symbols, pictures, or any other graphic representation. "Objectionable" means, among other things, anything that (i) is libelous, defamatory, pornographic, sexually explicit, unlawful, racially or ethnically offensive, (ii) infringes on someone else's patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret or other property right, (iii) is something people would consider harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, profane, obscene, or violent, (iv) would breach a person's privacy or publicity rights, (v) is a misrepresentation of facts, (vi) hate speech, (vii) encourages others to break the law in any way, or (viii) is otherwise inappropriate.

Masterfoods USA must and does reserve the absolute right to decline orders that in its sole judgment and discretion contain subject matter that may be considered inappropriate or offensive, including, without limitation, inappropriate, offensive words, acronyms, symbols or other content. "

Hmm, so much for say it with candy. (Or, was that flowers?)

In any case, it can be legitimate fun, if you keep it clean. How about, "Have fun"? Or, "Happy New Year"? Maybe, even, "Be Well"... Well, it could be fun and romantic when I'm ready to date again. In the mean time, though, it's Friday, even if it's New Year's Eve, so check out the link! Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve celebration everyone!!

So, this is Christmas...

Well, I won't be alone today, which is very nice. Though, I have to admit, it will be a very bachelor Christmas. Actually, that's pretty nice, too.
Aw, who am I to complain? At least I'm here, at home, for Christmas. It could be worse. I could be with the military and stationed over-seas where people are shooting at me. You know, no matter how you feel about our presence in the Middle East, you can at least support our troops. They're doing a tough job at a tough time of year.
Here's something a friend sent me, as a reminder of what those brave men and women are dealing with this season: Until Then.

So, hug your family, count your blessings, and have a very Merry Christmas.