The Cricket Log

About a month ago Alex King discovered an “undocumented feature”¹ in Wordpress 2.6 that affects plugins like Cricket Moods.  The bug causes post metadata to be duplicated due to the addition of post revisions.  Basically, with every new revision you’ll get a duplicate set of moods.

I have hopefully fixed the issue in the 3.x branch of Cricket Moods.  I haven’t tagged a new 3.7 release of Cricket Moods because, frankly, I don’t know if these changes break anything.  I tested the changes on one Blog running WordPress 2.6.  So, before I tag and zip up a release, it’d be great if some folk² could test the new plugin.  Grab the file from the Subversion repository.

To fix any old duplicated moods, remove all moods from the affected post, save the post, add the moods again, and save the post.

1. A bug. [↩]
2. guinea pigs [↩]

The development of PostBits has stalled.  I apologize to anyone still holding their breath in anticipation.  I recommend exhaling.

As I mentioned in my previous post on the subject, the core functionality of the plugin is finished.  That’s all well and good if you like to hammer on your database by hand to get things done, but not so good for most people. Read the rest of this entry »

I was highly amused by this IM waiting for me after I arrived home from work:

Jeffrey: ive done some fact-checking
Keith <AUTO-REPLY>: It appears that I have not touched my computer in some time. Blame the British Nazis communists terrorists!
Jeffrey: and there are very few british nazi communist terrorists
Jeffrey: now that i see your away message in the chat window i see that many of those words are marked out, rendering my joke flat
Jeffrey: but when i moused-over you i didnt see the strike marks
Jeffrey: carry on

… will not be called “Cricket Moods.”

I always wanted the plugin to be something for more than just moods. Sure, you can set it up to let your readers know how the weather was on that day or gauge of how bad the traffic was on the way home from work, but you could only do one or the other. You should be able to do all three: moods, weather, and traffic!

Therefore, I have decided to refactor Cricket Moods into a new plugin. I have decided on the name PostBits. Each selectable option, like a mood (”Happy”) or a weather (”Overcast”), will be called a Bit. Bits can then be sorted into categories, like Moods or Current Weather. Each category can be set to independently AutoPrint, and can have independent HTML wrappings.

At the moment, I have about a third of the work done. The core functionality of installing the plugin and printing Bits is very nearly complete. It’s currently missing a UI and the UI logic. Once it’s done, it should be pretty powerful and, hopefully, easy to use.

Through extremely scientific double-blind testing¹, I have determined that motherboard-integrated audio devices still can’t measure up to the quality of my ancient Sound Blaster Audigy².

I recently purchased a new motherboard as part of a system upgrade. I figured I’d give the on-board HD audio chip a shot. I will admit that it has improved since I bought my last motherboard that still had an AC97 audio chip. If I were just listening to music through my speakers I’d probably have trouble telling the difference, but it’s easier to hear the quality difference when I use my headphones. When listening Float On by Modest Mouse through the Audigy, I can tell that the bass hits a little harder and the treble isn’t quite as shrill. When listening to some Penguin Cafe Orchestra through the motherboard, the strings sound hollow–they lack midrange.

In any case, I’m still not sure I’m comfortable having to use ALSA’s dmix software mixing plugin when playing audio from multiple applications. Hardware mixing FTW!

1. Complete bullshit. [↩]
2. I’m talkin’ ’bout the first generation [↩]

To anyone on Facebook I may be trying to find:

If you don’t use a picture that’s close enough to your face, I can’t tell that it’s you.

I’ve been sitting on Cricket Moods 3.7 since late October. I’ve had little motivation and even less time to test it. The biggest change in this upcoming release is some basic WPMU support. Most of the other changes are just minor back-end things that don’t really make an end-user difference.

There is, however, a new string that needs translation (help, tikurion!).

So, anyone that feels inclined to, please test the updated version. It particularly needs testing on WPMU installations. Thanks bunches!

Why do I have this blog, again?

I enjoy Mario Strikers Charged, despite the frustrations of cup play. I really do enjoy it.

I played online today for the first time since the week I bought the game. I played against three different opponents. As expected, I lost every game. I noticed something new this time, though. Not a singe one of them ever kicked the ball in an attempt to score a goal. Only one of them tried a megastrike, and only then at the last seconds of the game when he was already winning. How do you score goals without kicking the ball at the goal?

You walk it in.

They did the exact same thing every time they gained possession of the ball: they gave it to their fastest player, hugged the wall below the goal, “deked” right past the goalie, and walked the ball in. Every single time.

I suppose I could just be upset that I wasn’t able to develop an effective countermeasure to this attack. On the other hand, maybe I’m upset that I was unable to successfully perform this move myself.

Why would I want to perfect this move? Do I really want to win so badly that I would perform the same mind- and thumb-numbing move over and over again just to score goals? I don’t find that fun. I’d rather seek the challenge of performing a complicated passing maneuver ending with a fantastic slow motion attempt at a goal. That’s what I find fun: outsmarting or outreflexing my opponent.

I end with a non-rhetorical question, in case anyone reads this post. Is perfecting this technique the only way to win ranked games now, or was I just unlucky?