Back home with lots of pictures

by

I made it back in last night safe and sound, and immediately crawled into bed and crashed out. While it was a wonderful trip, it was fairly mile-a-minute for much of it, and sleep was a very good thing when I got in.

I’ve managed to get my photos of the trip uploaded, though for some reason the software doesn’t seem to be sorting them correctly, even after I’ve told it (twice) to sort by the timestamp on the pictures. Ah, well. Feel free to take a look, just realize that many of the shots are out of sequence. I’ll work on rearranging them after I get home from work tonight.

Also, as I’m a bear of very little brain, there are a lot of people pictured who I couldn’t remember the names of. If any family members who are able to could add comments to the photos with the names of the people in question, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Wanted: advice concerning Wikis

by

I’ve got a project running around in my head that I believe a Wiki would be a good solution for, but I’ve not done much to play with/experiment with Wikis in the past. I’d like to start playing around with this project soon after I get home, so if there’s anyone out there who might be able to give some advice or recommendations, I’d appreciate some “expert assistance”…

For a while now, I’ve been hosting The Hanscom Family Website. While the original intention was for it to be a collaborative weblog for the entire Hanscom family, so far it’s been acting primarily as my dad’s weblog (and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that!). Hopefully we’ll be gaining more authors soon, though, as I’ll be sending a “how to” tutorial to Susan, Eric, and possibly Doug and Pam also once I’m home.

One of the original ideas I wanted to include on the website (and actually was started on an earlier incarnation, but lost in a server mishap) was a genealogical record of the family. As I don’t know of a really good way to do a web-based family tree, my idea was for each person to have a single page listing important dates (birth, death, marriage, etc.), contact info (if desired), and biographical information. Each page would also have a set of links to immediate family members (parents, children, siblings) that would allow the user to navigate their way through the family tree. We could then, over time, create a genealogical database (of sorts) of the family.

One of the big reasons I’ve wanted to do this (and this was brought up in a major way during a conversation with my mom last night) was the number of stories that are scattered among all the various family members — some written, but many only currently locked in the vaults of memory.

The difficulty I had in the first implementation was that each person’s page was just a static HTML page, and if there were to be any changes to it, they’d have to be done myself. I’d need to have information and stories sent to me, at which point I’d make the changes to the static pages and save them to the server. It’d work, but it would be slow and somewhat kludgy, especially as it would rely on my own time constraints in order to get any additions actually incorporated into the pages.

Last night as mom and I were talking, though, it occurred to me that a Wiki could be a perfect solution to this problem. The page structure and layout would be essentially the same, but it would allow any of our family members to click an “Edit This Page” link on any one of the pages and add whatever they wanted, be it more biographical information about themselves, memories of other relatives, stories that have been passed down in family lore about ancestors, or other such things. In theory, at the very least, this could work very well.

My limitations (and worries) are simply that I’m by far the most technologically- and web-literate of my family members, and I need to do everything I can to make sure that the interface is as simple and easy to use as possible. I also want to ensure that the site is not publicly editable, so there would need to be some sort of account registration system so that I could grant global edit rights to family members, but prevent random passers-by from making unwelcome changes. I also want to have the system be as resource-friendly as possible, as it will be running on a 350Mhz G3 that is already hosting three websites, two of which use the MovableType weblogging system (which I love, but I also realize that Perl can be a major resource hog as sites grow, and my webserver only has so much firepower at the moment).

I did a quick web search and found the Wiki Wiki Web’s list of Wiki engines, but truth to tell, it’s a little daunting, as there are so many different engines available. Even if I narrow it down to the two languages that I’m sure my system can easily run (Perl and PHP) there are still a large number of possible choices, and I’m not entirely sure which scripting language would be the better choice as far as conserving system resources and ensuring that response time for serving/editing/saving pages is fairly reasonable.

So, to sum up, here’s what I’m looking for:

  • A Wiki (or similar) engine to allow for collaborative decentralized editing of a set of web pages.
  • User accounts or some form of access control and management.
  • As simple and ‘idiot-proof’ of an editing interface as possible.
  • Low (or as low as possible) system resource overhead.
  • The host webserver is a 350Mhz G3-based Mac running OS X 10.2 (i.e., the Apache webserver, Perl and PHP supported, UNIX-based).

Any ideas? Recommendations? Questions, comments, words of wisdom? Any and all would be appreciated!

Preparing to head home

by

Well, the deed is done — there are now three sets of ‘Mr. and Mrs. Hanscom’ in our branch of the Hanscom family.

The wedding was yesterday at the Memphis Botanic Garden, and went off very nicely. Dad and Aunt Susan were the officiates for the ceremony, Kev’s friend Stu and I were groomsmen (and I was best man), Em’s sister Elizabeth and friend Heather were the bridesmaids, and music was provided by mom and dad. Very nice, short, and sweet. There was a good laugh when Susan got names slightly confused and directed Em to place the ring onto Michael’s finger rather than Kevin’s — I didn’t realize that I was coming to Memphis to get married! Em knew which hand to aim for, though, and aside from being able to gently tease Susan about it, it didn’t cause a fuss at all.

Lots of pictures were taken, of course. Dad and I will be posting ours in the Hanscom Family photo gallery as soon as we get home, we should be getting Susan and Eric’s pictures added after they’re developed and sent to us, and there may be more after that. Quite likely only of any real interest to close family and friends, but still, they’ll be there.

Right now mom and dad are visiting with Em’s parents, and I’ll be getting shuttled off to the airport in about three hours or so. A short hop from Memphis to Cincinatti, and then from Cincinatti to Seattle, and I’ll be back home.

It’s been a wonderful weekend, though. I got to spend some time getting to know my cousins better — one of the downsides to being up in Alaska for much of my life was that I haven’t had as many chances to meet many of my relatives as often as I might have otherwise. Big family get-togethers such as weddings are good for rectifying such situations, though, which was a lot of fun. Mom, Eric and I spent a fun few hours debating politics last night (Susan and Eric form one of the few bastions of Republicanism in our immediate family), and Doug, Pam, Kayt, and Hannah came by our hotel room to visit for a while yesterday, which gave me some time to visit with Kayt (and give her a demo of my iPod that ended with her gently reminding her parents that she’s got a birthday coming up, and the iPod mini‘s are only \$250…).

Anyway, this is coming out all jumbled — I’m still a little out of it (hotel fold-out beds are not comfortable and do not promote a good night’s sleep), and there’s been so much going on this weekend that my brain’s still processing a fair amount of it. Not a bad thing in the least, but I’m sure that it doesn’t necessarily lead to the most coherent narratives. :) So on that note, I think I’m out until I get home.

Too many people!

by

Well, no, not really “too many.” One hell of a lot, though.

We had our big dinner tonight at Rendevouz, a barbecue joint in downtown Memphis. I walked in, and was amazed — and ended up remarking to mom at one point how much I liked “small weddings.” Final count was forty people. I suppose that doesn’t really sound like all that much, but it was definitely something of a surprise (albeit a pleasant one).

Afterwards Kev and I wandered around Beale Street, apparently the main nightlife district here. Looked like fun, but between lots of people holed up for Valentines day and a chilly, rainy evening, it was apparently much slower than usual. Still, it was at least worth a lot.

I’m going to be crashing out with Em’s family for the night, but at the moment Kev, Wes and I are heading out to a local bar for Kev’s last night out as a bachelor — I’m not sure it’s going to be much of a “bachelor party,” but it’s at least more than just coming straight home and crashing out.

Besides — my little brother’s going to be married in another fourteen hours. I owe him a drink. :)

The day before

by

I’m sitting at the house that Kevin and Emily have been staying at, taking advantage of a momentary lull in the activities of the day to check in for a few minutes.

So far, things have been fairly expectedly hectic. I arrived in Memphis yesterday evening about 7:30pm local time, and Kevin met me at the airport. Mom and Dad were arriving just an hour later, so Kev and I just hung out there for a while, gathered mom and dad when they came off of their plane, and we all found our way back to our hotel.

A late dinner followed at a local restaurant, where the four of us met up with Emily and her parents, Ted and Sally. Lots of good conversation there, as everyone got to know each other (since mom, dad and I had yet to meet any of the rest of Em’s family), until travel caught up with us all and we headed back to the hotel.

Today started really early, with a 9:30am breakfast gathering at Em’s grandparents farm just across the border in Mississippi (so I’m actually adding two states to my “where I’ve been” list than just one on this trip). Lots of people there that I’m having a hard time keeping them all seperate in my head. Myself, mom, dad, Kev, Em, Em’s brothers Ted and Wes and her sister Elizabeth, her parents Ted and Sally, her grandparents, a friend of Em’s from the Peace Corps, and a few other assorted cousins (?) and other relations that I’m losing track of.

More people are coming in over the course of the day today, including my dad’s sister Susan and her son Eric; dad’s brother Doug and his wife Pam, and their daughters Kayt and Hannah; my great-uncle (?) Bob Wills and possibly some of his clan; another of Em’s friends from Peace Corps just showed up; Kev’s currently off attempting to rescue his friend Stuart and his wife Sara from a hotel that apparently overbooked and left them without a room; and I’m sure there are more appearing (or already here) that I’ve forgotten. Considering that Kev and Em were originally just going to “elope” until Em’s aunt convinced them to have a “small wedding” here, the list of names and people involved just seems to get longer and longer every time I turn around!

Right now, with Kev off playing the gallant hero, mom and dad resting at the hotel, much of Em’s family invovled in prearations for tonight’s barbecue gathering (and possibly mini-rehearsal, though we keep being assured that a rehearsal hasn’t been planned), and Em holed up in a room here with her sister and friends working on her dress (or hair, or something…I’m male, I’m not expected to know what’s going on, I think), I’ve ended up without any responsibilities for a few minutes.

And so I’m here.

Now there’s a surprise. ;)

Kev just showed up with Sara (though Stu is still missing in action), so I think I’m expected to interact with people again…

Goin’ to the chapel and they’re gonna get married…

by

I’m off to the airport — my brother Kevin and his fiancee Emily are getting married on Sunday in Memphis, Tennessee, and I’m heading down to be best man at the wedding!

I have absolutely no clue if I’ll have any sort of computer access while I’m gone, so posting may be infrequent to nonexistent until sometime late Monday or Tuesday, as will replies to any e-mail.

While I’m gone, have fun, be good, and try not to burn the place down.

And no parties.

I mean it.

Atom feed now available

by

Seeing as how an Atom-enabled beta of NetNewsWire just hit the ‘net, I took a few moments to get an Atom newsfeed up and running for Eclecticism.

While TypePad has supported Atom for a while now, Atom feeds were only automatically included on sites using any of the Basic or Plus level auto-generated template sets. Those of us using custom coded Advanced template sets (especially those created before TypePad added Atom support) need to manually add the Atom template to our template sets.

The template code for my Atom feed is in the rest of this entry. It’s almost exactly the same as the template provided by TypePad — the only change I’ve made is to substitute AtomEnabled for the “more info” link rather than www.example.com. Posting this is just a convenience — while finding the template code wasn’t really difficult it did involve a few steps (creating a new advanced template set from one of the default system-provided template sets and go into the template editor to find the code), and posting it here will make it a bit easier if I need to track it down again in the future.

Here’s the template to use:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<feed version="0.3" xmlns="http://purl.org/atom/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
  <title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
  <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="<$MTBlogURL encode_xml="1"$>" />
  <id>tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-<$MTBlogID$></id>
  <link rel="service.post" type="application/x.atom+xml" href="<$MTCGIPath$>atom/weblog/blog_id=<$MTBlogID$>" title="<$MTBlogName encode_html="1"$>" />
  <modified><MTEntries lastn="1"><$MTEntryDate timezone="UTC" format_name="W3CDTF"$></MTEntries></modified>
<MTBlogIfDescription>
  <tagline><$MTBlogDescription remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></tagline>
</MTBlogIfDescription>
  <generator url="http://www.typepad.com/" version="<$MTVersion$>">TypePad</generator>
  <info type="application/xhtml+xml">
  <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This is an Atom formatted XML site feed. It is intended to be viewed in a Newsreader or syndicated to another site. Please visit <a href="http://www.atomenabled.org/">AtomEnabled</a> for more info.</div>
  </info>
<MTEntries lastn="15">
  <entry>
    <title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="<$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/x.atom+xml" href="<$MTCGIPath$>atom/weblog/blog_id=<$MTBlogID$>/entry_id=<$MTEntryID$>" title="<$MTEntryTitle encode_html="1"$>" />
    <id>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-<$MTEntryID$></id>
    <issued><$MTEntryDate format_name="W3CDTF"$></issued>
    <modified><$MTEntryDateModified timezone="UTC" format_name="W3CDTF"$></modified>
    <created><$MTEntryDate timezone="UTC" format_name="W3CDTF"$></created>
    <summary><$MTEntryExcerpt remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></summary>
    <author>
      <name><$MTEntryAuthor encode_xml="1"$></name>
    </author>
<MTEntryCategories>
    <dc:subject><$MTCategoryLabel encode_xml="1"$></dc:subject>
</MTEntryCategories>
<MTWeblogIfFullRSSContent>
    <$MTEntryAtomContent$>
</MTWeblogIfFullRSSContent>
  </entry>
</MTEntries>
</feed>

iTunes: “Steamroller (Skatenigs)” by Pigface from the album Industrial Mix Machine (1996, 3:29).

Biggest breakup of the year

by

Ben who?

J-Lo who?

Get your priorities straight, folks. That gossip mill is so yesterday.

I’m talking a breakup of real importance here — one that will be inspiring headlines in all the rags, sending the talk-show hosts into a flurry, and prompting a whole slew of rabid fan sites lamenting the passing of such a long-adored perfect couple.

I’m talking Ken and Barbie.

After 43 years as one of the world’s prettiest pairs, the perfect plastic couple is breaking up. The couple’s “business manager,” Russell Arons, vice president of marketing at Mattel, said that Barbie and Ken “feel it’s time to spend some quality time — apart.”

“Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end,” said Arons, who quickly added that the duo “will remain friends.”

[…]

Arons hinted Wednesday that the separation may be partially due to Ken’s reluctance to getting married. All those bridal Barbie dolls in toy chests around the globe are really just examples of Barbie’s wishful thinking, she explained.

The single most mindblowing piece of information in that article, though…

…CNN revealed Barbie’s full maiden name. I guess they figured that since she’s still without a ring, there’s not much point in hiding it anymore: Barbie Millicent Roberts (and incidentally, take a look at the cover photo for that book — why, I do think that Barbie has had a facelift at some point! What is this world coming to, that even Barbie is getting plastic surgery…um…wait…).

Personally, though, I’ve got to give full props to Ken.

Not many guys could duck the altar and still keep their girlfriend for a full forty-plus years.

(via Prairie)

iTunes: “Resurrection Hex (Giganto)” by Love and Rockets from the album Resurrection Hex (1998, 5:53).

The Grey Album

by

Vocal tracks from Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” + samples from The Beatles’ “The White Album” = Danger Mouse’s “The Grey Album“.

Interesting project, which I’d heard about, but have not yet heard. However, as Danger Mouse (the DJ who constructed this project) has been served with a cease-and-desist order, Waxy.org is hosting the .mp3 files.

I’m downloading them now…

(via Mike)

iTunes: “TNT” by Sister Machine Gun from the album Covered in Black (1997, 3:47).