Geekery

Whatever I’m geeking out about at the time.

GarageBand is evil

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I’ve poked around with GarageBand a bit since I got it, but haven’t created anything major yet. However, it is way too much fun.

It’s also far too easy for me to put together something really, really stupid with it. This is dangerous. Fun — but dangerous.

And here’s the evidence: countrybounce — 71 seconds of banjo and drum loops.

I’m sure I can come up with something better than that given time. But for the moment, this stupid little ditty is it.

Enjoy.

Or don’t.

;)

iTunes: “Must I” by Lizette & from the album This Is (2003, 3:32).

Issue with my comments-only feed

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I have no idea if anyone other than myself is currently subscribing to my ‘comments only’ RSS feed, but I’ve noticed an odd issue with it that I haven’t been able to troubleshoot yet. I’ve asked for help on the TypePad User Group, but I wanted to mention it here too, in case anyone else has been noticing this or might be able to point out what I’m doing wrong.

What I’ve been finding is that each item in my comment-only feed is being given the date of the original post that the comment is appended to, rather than the date that the comment was added to my site. For instance, a comment added today to a post from August shows up in my newsreader with the August date instead of today’s.

Here’s the code I’m using for each item in the RSS feed template (the full template code can be found in this post from last week):

<MTComments lastn="20">
<MTCommentEntry> 
<item> 
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>#c<$MTCommentID$></link> 
<description><$MTCommentBody remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTCommentID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid> 
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<MTCommentAuthorLink show_email="0"> on 
<MTCommentDate format="%b %e, %Y %l:%M %p">: <$MTCommentBody$>]]></content:encoded> 
<dc:date><$MTCommentDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date> 
</item>
</MTCommentEntry>
</MTComments>

Now, it all looks right to me, and the same basic code seems to be working in all the rest of my templates (for instance, in the ‘full posts plus comments’ RSS feed, each comment begins with a header that lists the correct date). For some reason, though, it’s not working here.

Any ideas?

Update: The issue has been fixed. Turns out that you can’t use an <MTCommentDate> tag inside an <MTCommentEntry> container (much thanks to Jamie Jamison for pointing me to the explanation).

The solution was fairly easy (and the code in my ‘how-to’ post has been updated): I just removed the date display from the body of the RSS item, and moved the closing <MTCommentEntry> tag up a couple lines. Here’s the new version of the above code:

<MTComments lastn="20">
<item> 
<MTCommentEntry> 
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>#c<$MTCommentID$></link> 
<description><$MTCommentBody remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTCommentID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid> 
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<MTCommentAuthorLink show_email="0">: <$MTCommentBody$>]]></content:encoded>
</MTCommentEntry>
<dc:date><$MTCommentDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date> 
</item>
</MTComments>

This is so juvenile. I’m very sorry.

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My computer doesn’t like my Prick.

I wanted to get my Prick into my computer. It didn’t seem like such a difficult task, should be simple enough, right? So I took out my Prick and put it into the computer.

The computer pulled it in, sat for a moment, then pushed my Prick right back out again.

That’s odd, I thought. It’s certainly not what I was expecting.

So I tried again. In went my Prick — and out came my Prick.

Weird. I thought that maybe my Prick was dirty, so I took it, got a soft washcloth, and gently cleaned my Prick, taking care to stroke in straight lines and not use circular motions. Once that was done and my Prick looked nice and clean, I put it back into the computer.

And the computer pushed my Prick right back out.

Admittedly, I’ve had my Prick for a while now, and it is getting a bit old. Maybe that’s the problem.

I guess I’ll just have to go to a store and get a new Prick.

Geek backlash

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It was bound to happen eventually. It actually probably started happening a few years ago, but now it’s actually getting news stories — ‘geeks’ are tired of fixing people’s problems.

As MyDoom, the fastest-spreading virus ever, continues to clog e-mail in-boxes and disrupt business, the computer-savvy are becoming openly hostile toward the not-so-savvy who unwittingly play into the hands of virus writers.

The tension over the MyDoom virus underscores a growing friction between technophiles and what they see as a breed of technophobes who want to enjoy the benefits of digital technology without making the effort to use it responsibly.

The virus spreads when Internet users ignore a basic rule of Internet life: never click on an unknown e-mail attachment. Once someone does, MyDoom begins to send itself to the names in that person’s e-mail address book. If no one opened the attachment, the virus’s destructive power would never be unleashed.

“It takes affirmative action on the part of the clueless user to become infected,” wrote Scott Bowling, president of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium, expressing frustration on the group’s discussion forum. “How to beat this into these people’s heads?”

I’ve always counted myself somewhat lucky in this regard. I owe a lot of my geek leanings towards my parents (specifically, my mom, in a somewhat unusual reversal of sterotype), and while I’ve surpassed them in my knowledge base, I can generally rest assured that they’re quite competent enough to avoid many of the more obvious “duh” issues on their own. If they run into something that they can’t solve on their own, while they’re not above tossing a quick question my way to see if it’s something I can solve quickly, they also don’t mind if it’s something that they need to seek “official” assistance with.

The majority of my friends tend to either be at least as computer-literate as I am (if not more so), or at the other extreme, avoiding those infernal machines at all costs. Those few that are in the middle ground — well, if they’re friends with me, they’re likely friends with a lot of other ‘puter geeks at the same time, and will rapidly discover that they have no excuse for incompetence. ;)

That said, though, I’ve certainly seen the backlash coming. One of the big benefits I’ve found to being a Mac user is ducking tech support issues. While I know that I know my way around Windows, when I do get the occasional “why won’t this work?” question from acquaintances or co-workers, it’s very easy to just assume a befuddled expression, mumble something about being a smug virus-free mac-using bastard, toss in a few pointed comments about Windows stability, and go on my merry little way.

(via Jacqueline)

iTunes: “Blue Nun, The” by Beastie Boys, The from the album Check Your Head (1992, 0:32).

Marcel Marceau’s Greatest Hits!

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As The Apple Turns points out some of the amusing things that happen on the iTunes Music Store:

Yesterday we mentioned in passing that faithful viewer djsteve had purchased a track that cost him the “best 99 cents [he’d] ever spent.” The joke, of course, was that it was the second track from The Whitey Album by Ciccone Youth, which consists of a minute and three seconds’ worth of silence. To tell you the truth, while we’re amused by the fact that Apple is charging 99 cents for a song full o’ nothing, we’re even more amused by the fact that said track contains the usual digital rights management code to prevent you from playing it on any unauthorized systems. And the most amusing thing of all, of course, is that the song has a thirty-second preview.

Well, as it turns out, the Ciccone Youth track is by no means the only all-silent untune for sale at the iTMS; faithful viewers ben, Scott Levin, and Michael Wyszomierski contributed their own suggestions, too. And you know how Apple recently added a bunch of “iTunes Essentials” playlists to the store, such as “Cover Songs” and “’70s AM Radio Classics”? Well, we’ve compiled all the silent tracks we managed to scrape together into the first AtAT Essentials playlist, “To Be Played At Maximum Volume.”

Turn it up! Turn it up!!!!!

iTunes: “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” by Kickshaw from the album Superstar (1999, 6:45).

RSS Templates for TypePad Pro/MovableType

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I just had someone ask how I was able to create the four RSS feeds for my site. Here’s a quick rundown, along with the templates themselves, should anyone else want to do the same thing. All the templates are RSS 2.0, and have been checked with the RSS Feed Validator.

TypePad users will need a Pro account, and will also need to be using an Advanced Template set, as you’ll need to create a new template for each RSS feed you want to add. I give each template a name that’s fairly indicative of which feed it is for, and I make sure that the output file is also named similarly.

Here are the templates I use:

####Default feed: Full text, no comments####

Template Name: RSS 2.0 Full
Output File: index.rdf

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <rss version="2.0"      xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"     xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"     xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"     xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"     xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"> 

<channel> 
<title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTBlogURL$></link> 
<description><$MTBlogDescription remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<dc:language>en-us</dc:language> 
<dc:creator><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries></dc:creator> 
<dc:rights>Copyright <$MTDate format="%Y"></dc:rights> 
<dc:date><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></MTEntries></dc:date> 
<admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$>" /> 
<admin:errorReportsTo rdf:resource="mailto:<MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries>"/> 
<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> 
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> 
<sy:updateBase>2000-01-01T12:00+00:00</sy:updateBase> 

<MTEntries lastn="15"> 
<item> 
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTEntryLink encode_xml="1"$></link> 
<description><$MTEntryExcerpt remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTEntryID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid> 
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<$MTEntryBody$><MTEntryIfExtended><p><a href="<$MTEntryLink$>" title="Continue Reading: <$MTEntryTitle$>">Continue reading <$MTEntryTitle$>...</a></p></MTEntryIfExtended>]]></content:encoded> 
<dc:subject><MTEntryCategories glue=" | "><$MTCategoryLabel remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></MTEntryCategories></dc:subject> 
<dc:date><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date> 
</item> 
</MTEntries> 

</channel> 
</rss>

####Enhanced Feed: Full posts with comments####

Template Name: RSS 2.0 full plus comments
Output File: fullposts.rdf

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <rss version="2.0"      xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"     xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"     xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"     xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"     xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"> 

<channel> 
<title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$>: With Comments</title> 
<link><$MTBlogURL$></link> 
<description><$MTBlogDescription remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<dc:language>en-us</dc:language> 
<dc:creator><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries></dc:creator> 
<dc:rights>Copyright <$MTDate format="%Y"></dc:rights> 
<dc:date><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></MTEntries></dc:date> 
<admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$>" /> 
<admin:errorReportsTo rdf:resource="mailto:<MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries>"/> 
<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> 
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> 
<sy:updateBase>2000-01-01T12:00+00:00</sy:updateBase> 

<MTEntries lastn="15"> 
<item> 
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTEntryLink encode_xml="1"$></link> 
<description><$MTEntryExcerpt remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTEntryID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid> 
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<$MTEntryBody$><MTEntryIfExtended><p><a href="<$MTEntryLink$>" title="Continue Reading: <$MTEntryTitle$>">Continue reading <$MTEntryTitle$>...</a></p></MTEntryIfExtended><MTEntryIfAllowComments><p>Comments on this Entry:</p><MTComments><h4><MTCommentAuthorLink show_email="0"> on 
<MTCommentDate format="%b %e, %Y %l:%M %p">:</h4><MTCommentBody></MTComments></MTEntryIfAllowComments>]]></content:encoded> 
<dc:subject><MTEntryCategories glue=" | "><$MTCategoryLabel remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></MTEntryCategories></dc:subject> 
<dc:date><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date> 
</item> 
</MTEntries> 

</channel> 
</rss>

####Short Feed: Excerpts Only####

Template Name: RSS 2.0 Excerpts
Output File: excerpts.rdf

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <rss version="2.0"      xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"     xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"     xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"     xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"     xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"> 

<channel> 
<title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$>: Excerpts</title> 
<link><$MTBlogURL$></link> 
<description><$MTBlogDescription remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<dc:language>en-us</dc:language> 
<dc:creator><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries></dc:creator> 
<dc:rights>Copyright <$MTDate format="%Y"></dc:rights> 
<dc:date><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></MTEntries></dc:date> 
<admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$>" /> 
<admin:errorReportsTo rdf:resource="mailto:<MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries>"/> 
<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> 
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> 
<sy:updateBase>2000-01-01T12:00+00:00</sy:updateBase> 

<MTEntries lastn="15"> 
<item> 
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTEntryLink encode_xml="1"$></link> 
<description><$MTEntryExcerpt remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTEntryID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid> 
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<$MTEntryExcerpt$>]]></content:encoded> 
<dc:subject><MTEntryCategories glue=" | "><$MTCategoryLabel remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></MTEntryCategories></dc:subject> 
<dc:date><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date> 
</item> 
</MTEntries> 

</channel> 
</rss>

####Comments only feed####

Template Name: RSS 2.0 Comments
Output File: comments.rdf

Update: The code here has been slightly altered since the original posting to account for an issue with incorrect dates.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <rss version="2.0"      xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"     xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"     xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"     xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"     xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"> 

<channel> 
<title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$>: Comments</title> 
<link><$MTBlogURL$></link> 
<description><$MTBlogDescription remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<dc:language>en-us</dc:language> 
<dc:creator><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries></dc:creator> 
<dc:rights>Copyright <$MTDate format="%Y"></dc:rights> 
<dc:date><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></MTEntries></dc:date> 
<admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$>" /> 
<admin:errorReportsTo rdf:resource="mailto:<MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries>"/> 
<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> 
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> 
<sy:updateBase>2000-01-01T12:00+00:00</sy:updateBase> 

<MTComments lastn="20">
<item> 
<MTCommentEntry> 
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>#c<$MTCommentID$></link> 
<description><$MTCommentBody remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTCommentID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid> 
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<MTCommentAuthorLink show_email="0">: <$MTCommentBody$>]]></content:encoded> 
</MTCommentEntry>
<dc:date><$MTCommentDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date> 
</item>
</MTComments> 

</channel> 
</rss>

The MS Mac BU

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Last Friday, the Seattle P-I ran a nice story on the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft, which included a photo of some of the Mac BU staffers seated in front of racks of Mac computers. I read it and appreciated it, but at the time, I didn’t give it much more thought.

Today, Todd Bishop points out that a few other readers drew some amusingly suspicious conclusions based on the fact that the computers in the photo were older model G3’s, and not new G5’s…

One person who e-mailed raised the issue of the Microsoft contract worker who was fired after posting a photo of new PowerMac G5s arriving on campus. The e-mailer put that situation together with the newspaper photo and theorized that Microsoft was trying to hide the fact that it had bought new G5s. He asked if the company prevented the P-I from taking the photo in front of any G5s.

Amusing as this is…sorry, folks, nothing so dastardly!

I hate to dispel a good conspiracy theory, but in fact, we were given a full tour of the test lab — which includes PowerMac G5s and basically every other Mac ever made, as I described in this post last week. P-I photographer Phil Webber could have taken the photo wherever he wanted, but the G3s provided a more colorful background than the metallic G5s would have.

I was always a little bummed that I never did find a way to wander my way through the Mac BU during my time on the MS campus. Microsoft or no Microsoft, just being around that much Mac history (both computers and software — remember, much as we love to hate them, Microsoft has been a major Mac supporter and software supplier since the Mac’s introduction) and Mac fans could have been a lot of fun, even if it were just for a tour or walkthrough.

It may be a bit late for me to peek in their doors now, though. ;)

Todd also mentioned something else that gave me a laugh — when Slashdot posted a link to the Seattle P-I’s article, a couple commenters decided to exercise their funny…

Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit: An anonymous reader writes “Today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an interesting piece on the folks who work at the Mac Business Unit for Microsoft.”

andih8u: They make software for macs and have a mac business unit. I hope someone can get some shots of macs being unloaded from a truck.

wed128: Nah…that might reveal the location of one of microsoft’s unloading platforms…any employee would be fired for an offense so great…

Only Just Beginning

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Only Just Beginning

Jason Webley has a new CD coming out.

There once was a boy who remembered that his heart did not ever really belong to him.

So he tried to give it back to the sky.

The CD will be in stores May 11th, with a CD release party April 30th kicking off this summer’s round of touring.

(via Mike [See you at the release party?])

RSS feeds updated

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I’ve updated, rearranged, and cleaned up the RSS feeds for Eclecticism. Hopefully I haven’t just screwed things up too horribly for those of you who subscribe to one feed or another.

Until tonight, the default RSS feed was the ‘full posts plus comments’ feed. This may have been a bad choice, as the default feed is the most likely to be subscribed to by the casual user, and they may not want to automatically get an update every time someone replies to something I’ve posted. Because of this, I’ve swapped the ‘full posts’ and the ‘full posts plus comments’ feeds around.

I’ve also added a fourth RSS feed that is only recent comments. This can come in handy for following discussions on a particular posts, especially after it ages enough that it’s no longer included in any of the primary RSS feeds.

All of the feeds have received some slight tweaks to improve readability, including line and paragraph breaks for comments in the ‘full posts plus comments’ feed (I’m not sure why I had those turned off in the first place), more legible separation of comments in the ‘full posts plus comments’ feed, and more descriptive titles for each of the feeds (‘eclecticism: Excerpts’ and ‘eclecticism: Comments’, for example, rather than four feeds each simply titled ‘eclecticism’).

The feeds page has been updated to reflect the changes and additions, and has also had subscription information for LiveJournal users added.

iTunes: “Temporary Phase” by Sausage from the album Riddles are Abound Tonight (1994, 5:59).

New category, design tweaks

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Following up on my thought process, I’ve added a 15Minutes archive category that collects all posts related to my experiences with blogging my way out of a job.

I’ve also made some other slight design tweaks. I’m now including a list of categories for each post in the metadata on the front page between the post date and the comment/trackback links, and I’ve linked the post date on individual archives to the monthly archive pages.

Nothing really major, but I’ve found myself wishing I had these at various times in the past, and finally decided to implement them.

iTunes: “Somebody Screams” by Galaxy 2 from the album Techno-Trax Vol. 2 (1991, 5:51).