Guilty Conscience Plugin (hello dolly mod)
July 27th, 2008I got bored tonight and decided to try my hand at modifying a simple but noticeable WordPress plugin. I made a copy of the Hello Dolly plugin and changed the lyrics from those of “Hello, Dolly” by Luis Armstrong to those of “Guilty Conscience” by Dr. Dre and Eminem (on the Chronic 2001 album).
Click on the following link to download the plugin: guilty conscience
**NOTE: Original credit for this plugin concept goes to Matt at Automattic**
**ALSO NOTE: Eminem, in case you live under a rock and have never heard of him, is known for using profanity and alarming subject matters in his music. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.**
Tags: eminem, hello dolly, plugin, WordPress
Posted in Blogging | Comments (1)
Finally
April 11th, 2008Today, I finally (after nearly two years of trying) reached the 50,000 point mark in Citrix Topic Area on Expert-Exchange. This adds a Citrix Master certification to my arsenal, along with my SharePoint and Networking Master certifications, as well as my FrontPage Guru certification. Obviously, I am not as proud about the FrontPage cert as I am about the others. Check out my expert profile on EE for more info.
Tags: Citrix, SharePoint
Posted in Working | Comments (1)
Lotus Notes and the Scroll Lock key
April 11th, 2008This new job I have taken has immersed me in the illustrious world of IBM technology. Before this position, I have always been a strictly Microsoft guy (in terms of workplace software). With IBM comes Lotus Notes - by far IBM’s most widespread Enterprise software.
Yesterday I was sent up to resolve a problem for the Executive VP, something with Lotus Notes is what I was told. When I get upstairs, his secretary and Executive Assistant are franitcally huddled around the boss’ PC, tapping keys and clicking the mouse trying to fix the issue.
Somehow, the VP locked his PC into a mode where using the directional keys in a new memo (up, down, left, right) moved the entire message up/down/left/right, rather than moving the cursor. I looked at the symptoms for a moment, then the lightbulb clicked on in my brain. I got a big smile on my face and pressed the Scroll Lock key, then *BANG* it worked like normal.
Talk about brownie points with the big guy, eh? I love my job.
Tags: IBM, work
Posted in Working | Comments (0)
As the web changes
April 6th, 2008Don’t get me twisted - I am all for the idea of improving something. What I do take offense to is when a change is made and things break. It wouldn’t even bother me so much that something was changed and not fully tested before its release, if it werent for the fact that these changes are always forced down my throat.
But alas, the web changes and I have no reproach, save adapting to the change. Firefox 3 Beta 5 was released in the Ubuntu repositories yesterday. As I opened the browser, I was greeted with a nice notification that my beloved plugin, AdBlock Plus, was not compatible with the version of Firefox I was running.
So here I am, trying to enjoy my Sunday morning and I am being continuously bomabarded with graphic diarrhea. Here’s to hoping the developers of that plugin are hard at work trying to update the most valuable addition to web browsing since the google.
Tags: Google, Ubuntu
Posted in Lifehacking | Comments (0)
Active Desktop Recovery mode
April 1st, 2008I solved an annoying issue that one of my users was having today at work, and thought I’d put the fix up here for ayone else who comes across this (or, in the event that I need to fix this again in a week, I know where to find it).
The issue: The user’s desktop was white with an error message in the top right corner reading “blah blah blah, Active Desktop Recovery blah blah blah.” There is a button that says something like “Click here to restore, but when you click it, you get another error message - but you shouldn’t be surprised given the fact that we’re talking about Microsoft here. There are a few ways to fix this, but depending on how security is setup in your network, you may not be able to try all three options.
- Right-click on the desktop, click properties. On the themes tab, change your theme to something else and click apply - this should change the theme and remove the error message. After you apply the change, you can switch back to your original theme.
- Navigate to the C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer folder. Click on Tools, the Options, then click the view tab. Uncheck the box for “Hide protected Operating System Files” and hit OK. You should now see a file in that folder called desktop.htt - delete this file and reboot your PC. Problem solved.
- Click on Start, then run, type in regedit and hit enter. Expand the HKEY_CurrentUser tree and navigate to the following key: Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\Desktop\SafeMode\Components\DeskHTMLVersion and change the dword value from 110 to 0. Close regedit and reboot. Problem solved.
If you have problems with this fix, let me know and I will do my best to assist.
Tags: Windows, work
Posted in Power User | Comments (0)
WordPress 2.5
March 30th, 2008WordPress 2.5 was released yesterday. I spent all day backing up my sites today and upgrading my base install to the new version. I was already running version 2.4-bleeding (the development version), but there were a couple of minor tweaks in the release that improved the admin interface, so I acted quick to get the upgrade completed on my sites.
If you have already registered for my site, you probably won’t notice the difference, but thought I’d post an update in the spirit of full disclosure.
Tags: WordPress
Posted in Site News | Comments (0)
Fat chicks
March 10th, 2008Not to toot my own horn, but I have generally dated hot chicks in my life. But yesterday I experienced a few firsts, none of which am I very proud of. First of all, I hooked up with a fat chick. Let me preface that with these facts:
- This happened immediately following the South Side Irish Parade, as such I was annihilated (read: very very very drunk)
- The fat chick paid for all my drinks, so in my drunk mind I felt I owed her something
- It had been several months since the last time I got laid
- The chick I spent the previous month trying to bang totally blew me off (in the bad way) that day
Long story short, I did my thing and then left. I puked for about 6 hours when I got home, both because I was so heavily intoxicated but also because, as I sobered up and thought about what I had just done, I was sick to my stomach. Needless to say I haven’t called her since, making that the other first I experienced that weekend: my first one-night stand.
Tags: drinking, women
Posted in Lifehacking | Comments (0)
You’re hired….kinda
March 3rd, 2008Today marks a momentous event - I secured (temporary) employment with a (fairly) awesome company. I was “hired” for a six month contract - to hire position as a (what else) IT Consultant with The Million Dollar Roundtable - more commonly referred to in the industry as MDRT. If you want to know more about MDRT, check out their website.
My duties will include the usual - network support and administration. From my initial interviews and talks with the IT Manager, it appears that I will be doing some significant “Proof of Concept” projects. Some of the major projects (among many smaller ones) include: creating a functional SharePoint DMS and reporting engine, upgrading the 75-plus workstations to Vista (boooo), implementing Active Directory and designing a systemwide Group Policy.
As I get settled into my new role, I will be taking a break from blogging/etc. But I will be back and better than ever in due time.
Tags: SharePoint, Vista, work
Posted in Working | Comments (0)
Goodbye ZenPhoto, hello…WordPress?
February 26th, 2008That’s right - it has been only a few weeks of tinkering with my site I have come to the realization that I bet on the wrong horse. As my friend Dan kindly reminded me tonight, this happens often. Admittedly, I do get excited about a new method I stumble across on the web, as a result I often dive head first into a project without considering every aspect of the task.
For example, I started this blog with a clear mission, consisting of two key objectives. First, to setup a personal website and second to discuss the methods I use to build my site. The first task I aimed to tackle was integrating ZenPhoto into WordPress. I was able to do so and was pleased with the look I achieved after hours of CSS tweaking. All was well, or so I thought.
Once my site was looking and acting how I wanted it to, I decided to check out Google stats and see what issues I had to deal with in my sitemap. The biggest problem was that Google couldnt index my ZenPhoto installation. WordPress was kicking back 404 errors when crawling my site, since WordPress was unaware of the ZenPhoto installation running beneath it.
Another issue that bothered me was the search function. There was simply no feasible way to integrate the WordPress search with the ZenPoto installation. Even though I installed both in the same database, the search query could not return the values I needed within the WordPress loop.
The final issue I had with my ZenPhoto-WordPress mashup was that the comments, users, tags etc were all independent of the WordPress installation as well. After an immense amount of searching, I came to the conclusion that ZenPhoto and WordPress were not a match made in heaven after all. Also in that search, I determined that my next endeavor towards WordPress photo gallery awesomeness would have to be plugin based.
Tags: photo management, WordPress, ZenPhoto
Posted in Blogging | Comments (2)
What net nutrality means to me
February 4th, 2008My favorite time to work on the Internet is at night. The reasons for this are many, from the peace and quiet to the low level of obtruding sunlight. But above all, my Comcast cable broadband connection screams between the hours of 10PM and 6AM. When all of the teenagers are asleep and the businesses are closed, the pipe is a whole lot wider. Downloads finish faster, pages load like lightning, and I don’t get timeouts on Entrecard.
I always chuckle when I see a Comcast ad boasting their incredibly fast speeds - don’t believe the hype.
Tags: Comcast, Entrecard
Posted in Lifehacking | Comments (0)