Status check
The jotsheet has become a tad too impersonal for my tastes, what with discussions of Perl scripts, Apache directory indexes, and other random geeky things. Time to take a step back and do a status check on the mundane life of Tom.
(more…)
HTML->MT via the magic of Perl
622 “new” entries. I tired of having my old jotsheet entries (pre-October 2003) in flat files, so I wrote a Perl script to parse the HTML (which was more or less predictable) and format it for Movable Type importing.
A couple of recommendations if you’re interested in a similar homebrew conversion from flat files to MT:
Bowling supastah
Bowling is a superb activity. You can be a big, fat-ass hick with a beer belly and PWN at bowling. You can be a horrible, uncoordinated dork who throws gutterballs constantly, but it’s still fun. And you can get drunk while you bowl; try doing that while playing ice hockey.
So last weekend, I went bowling with Deja and her posse. In the second game, I figured out how not to suck, and look at the results: 174, biznitch. I also kept score and honed my math skills. What a positively versatile game: math, beer, oiled wood, 12 lb. balls, and hicks. Bowling is certifiably underrated.
(Dubious) maps of my political beliefs
On a tip from Eric Meyer (of CSS fame), I took another one of those online tests of my political beliefs, and this one’s got me closer to Carol Mosley (sic) Braun than Dubya. Something’s screwy with the methodology of PoliticalCompass.org.
- Political Beliefs
- Economic Left/Right: 3.25
- Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.46
Meyer alerted me to the fact that some have questioned the results of Political Compass, however, so I took yet another quiz: Political Survey. This one (my results) likened me to Stalin. Uhh, great.
Apache Directory Indexes 201
After composing a cute little entry roughly 10 days ago describing how to sex up your Apache directory indexes, I came across some additional information this morning that doesn’t exactly invalidate my previous post but makes it seem amateurish. So I’ve renamed my previous guide to Apache indexes “101″ and called this new and improved primer (it slices, it dices!) the “201″ (advanced) version.
The big advantages of 201 over 101 include:
- Ability to set the <title>,
- Flexibility to have code in the <head>, and
- Most importantly: the ability to integrate indexes quickly with your existing template system.
So with a bit of luck and a bit of resolve, here’s what your directory listings can eventually look like: Indexes 201 example listing
Webgeek tidbits
I’m a big Webgeek™, and for the other Webgeeks out there, I figger I’ll letcha know the 4-1-1 on Tom’s Nerd Life.
Mozilla Firebird is now Mozilla Firefox, which sounds suspiciously to me like Starfox (of Super Nintendo fame). Now there was a game I blew at; at age 9, I’d go into the Service Merchandise next to my mom’s realty and just suck up the place big-time on their Super Nintendo demo. Man was I bad.
(more…)