tech updates and glitches

quick notes:

1. i have installed a plugin that makes the search function also search comments for the specified keywords. earlier a search for a keyword would only yield results if it was contained in a top-level post. that is to say, if a film or actress was mentioned only in comments it would not show up in a search for those names. now they will; however, if the keyword is in a comment the search page will still display the top-level post–you’ll have to view its comments to find the word itself. hope that makes sense.

2. wordpress 2.0 (the latest version of the blog software we use) is out. i haven’t yet checked out what features etc. it has but the urge to upgrade is strong. however, i’ll probably wait till 2.1 which is likely when bugs will have been ironed out.

128 thoughts on “tech updates and glitches”

  1. i am not a fan of opening new windows for links. just right click the link and choose “open in new window” if that’s what you’d like to do.

  2. oh, thank you. i didn’t know that. why aren’t you a fan of new windows? what can possibly be bad about that? it seems the most obviously good thing.

  3. forcing functionality on everyone (as would happen if all links automatically opened in new windows) as opposed to leaving it to them to choose how they want it to work (via right click in this case) is just bad protocol.

  4. aren’t your messages already in code?

    there’s nothing disingenuous about what i said. making one event happen for all by clicking a link is different than leaving the option of different events depending on whether you click or right-click on a link. the web in general has moved away from opening unnecessary windows and popping things up on people.

  5. i was baiting you. you took the bait. hahahahahahah!

    i didn’t know the web was moving away from opening windows. i don’t know there’s anything i use that doesn’t open new windows with links. you must be the wave of the future.

  6. Arnab, how about associating one of those little favicons (a tiny movie camera?) with this site so that it shows up distinctively on a list of bookmarks? I’m assuming, of course, that you have nothing better to do with your time…

  7. chris, since i do in fact have nothing better to do i have added one. however, while it is showing up for me in mozilla it is not displaying in firefox (my primary browswer–i have not tried explorer. is it working for you?

    edit: it is actually working in firefox as well–i just needed to clear my cache.

  8. so fucking near, arnab. also, i want to be able to quote other poeple’s comments with a little vertical bar like you do. but that picture, wow, it’s great.

  9. “so fucking near”?

    to place quotes in block quotes (the little vertical bar) do the following:

    {blockquote} cut and paste in the sentences you want to quote {/blockquote}

    except replace the curly brackets with angled ones

  10. I have this option right now of going in and “editing” everyone’s recent comments

    do you really?

    I do. Beats me how.

  11. (which should link to my name but doesn’t. why doesn’t it, ‘nab?)

    because you haven’t set it in your “profile”.

  12. does anyone else? i can’t replicate this with my test account (which has the same user-level status as the rest of you–reynolds included). when did you notice this, mike? do you get this ability from the “login” screen? or is it via an edit link in the comments chain for a given discussion on the site itself?

  13. well no wonder so many of my posts come out as incoherent messes. Mike is going in to edit them after I post. One wonders why he didn’t edit out my plea that he say more about ‘Oldboy’ if he had no intention of responding.

  14. This happens to me occasionally but not always. I have never attempted to “edit” someone else’s posting but I know that I could (cause I clicked once on someone’s post to find out how to create a hyperlink). There is no regularity to it. To complicate matters, sometimes when I click to edit my own post I’ll get the simple white box at the bottom (the one I’m typing in right now) and sometimes I’ll get the more complex box that I use if I want to start a thread (does that make sense). So there are irregularities.

  15. I can’t remember when I first noticed. I changed a couple posts some time ago–one for Mauer, I recall–thinking I was incredibly clever, but no one noticed. So then I ignored it.

    But I think it has to do with me posting, then going to view site, then being able to. Like I acquire superpowers, after being dosed with radiation.

    Chris, I do apologize. I should have edited our your request.

    Tee hee! Actually, I plumb forgot. I am too busy right now, but–I promise to get my dvd out and watch it again; I’m actually really jazzed up for his Lady Vengeance, which’ll probably get here in July 2009, so I’ll have to make do. Have you seen Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance?

  16. This happens to me occasionally but not always. I have never attempted to “edit” someone else’s posting but I know that I could (cause I clicked once on someone’s post to find out how to create a hyperlink). There is no regularity to it. To complicate matters, sometimes when I click to edit my own post I’ll get the simple white box at the bottom (the one I’m typing in right now) and sometimes I’ll get the more complex box that I use if I want to start a thread (does that make sense). So there are irregularities.

    when you and mike say “posts” here you mean comments, right? i think you get the full edit box if you’re logged in and the simple edit screen if you’re not. but that’s just conjecture. well, if the new version of wordpress has fixed these edit anomalies for group blogs that may just be my impetus to upgrade.

  17. Yes, I’ve always had the ability to edit everyone else’s comments on my posts. In fact, on more than one occasion I’ve considered asking someone to edit a comment that I left on his or her post (if the “edit” feature disappeared after I found something I wanted to change). But I never bothered.

    And though I’ve never edited someone else’s comments, and never would, I have used the feature as a way of going back to see how others have been using basic html (which I’ve yet to learn by heart).

  18. Arnab, our names are supposed to link to our websites, right? But only Mauer’s link seems to be working. For you and Gio, I keep getting “The URL is invalid and cannot be loaded”

  19. “our websites?” the only way you get to my site, baby, is by signing up for 19.95/month. Then it’s nothing but raw pedagogical action. barely legal Russian teens combing through the postings at HigherEducationJobs.com. get laid now hovercraftdynamoobsoletehamandcheese.

  20. you Americans, with your who edits what and when. Ha! put aside your bourgeois nickel and diming and come wallow in the viscous stew of true freedom where everyone edits everything always.

  21. Yes. But Arnab, you can edit everything, right?

    yes, but then i can also delete the blog. just trying to figure out why things aren’t working the way they’re supposed to. i am glad to discover, however, that this glitch is somewhat contained. it would be very bad if merely commenting gave someone access to editing other comments in a discussion–since you don’t have to be a member of the blog to comment in it.

  22. john, others: you can set a website in your profile, and all posts made while logged in after that will link to that site through your displayed username. posts you made before will not. for example, your most recent comment in this discussion links to your snazzy flash site from your name.

  23. Arnab, my link works now, and Mark’s link works fine. But not yours, nor Gio’s. I click your name or Gio’s, and I get “The URL is invalid and cannot be loaded.”

    Sorry…maybe this should be sent via email. Perhaps we can clean this post up a bit after all becomes clear to all?

  24. john, the link in my name doesn’t work because i have no url set. gio has set a url now, but she hasn’t made any comments since. it doesn’t retroactively get attached to all past comments. make sense?

  25. Until you set a website to your profile and then post a comment, your name does not appear highlighted as a link. Arnab, I assumed you had a website in your profile, since your name is highlighted (whereas reynolds’s name is not highlighted, because he has not set a wesbite to his profile because he has no website, though he has a son named Max who is the highlight of his life but is not allowed to see him naked). Setting a website to your profile alone does not make your name appear as a highlight. Until you post a comment, your name appears like reynolds’s does. No highlight. I was confused because Gio’s name is highlighted, though she’s not posted a comment since she set her website in her profile (I’m assuming she has set her website in her profile…maybe she hasn’t). Your name is highlighted, Arnab, but you have no website set.

  26. Now, logged in, I choose to “view site” while firmly in character as Floyd, the barber from “The Andy Griffith Show,” and, voila, I can edit everyone. I think, for you computing illiterates, the key is a deep method-reverie as a character from “T.A.G.S.” Read your manual, people!

  27. i’m fascinated by this discussion. under the semblance of technical clarifications, it is really about anxieties of control, attitudes to power, the role of comedy, the definitions (and functions) of clarity, and, of course, class, gender, race, and sexuality. interesting that it should come on the heels of mike’s post on jeff and arnab’s “tension,” and the comments that follow it (or should i say that were posted under it? nah. we need to find a new verb for comments. “posting” is ambiguous. how about affixing a comment?). you’ve got to hand it to this group: it is not afraid to examine its own dynamics. always a sign of health.

    i can’t edit anyone’s comments, whether i’m logged in or off, whether i posted or not. i can only edit mine, for 15 mins. in that tiny window of opportunity, i edit as much as i can. i go back and forth relentlessly. i have yet to ascertain (i never dared to) whether the 15 mins start anew with each new edit. if they did, i think i’d feel compelled to edit and edit. i’d skip meals and forgo personal hygiene. it would be a personal tragedy.

    on a different note, check out michael’s post on today’s nonny mouse. very, very good. (i created this hyperlink from the “write post” window. cumbersome, but i refuse to memorize all that stuff. i do, however, type my own html for italics. i haven’t yet managed to do it all without having to back-key, but i’m working on it).

    don’t bother me for the next 15 mins. i need to edit this comment.

  28. this is all rivetting stuff. this is how i think it works. if you’ve explicitly logged into the site before commenting your name will show up as a link whether you have a website set or not. i am always logged in and i don’t have a website set in my profile–this is why my name is always a link that doesn’t work (there’s a metaphor in there). setting up a website in your profile doesn’t replace the link retroactively on all old comments; only in new ones made while logged in.

    if you comment without being logged in–that is, you fill in the comment box and don’t add a url there, your name will show up without a link despite what may be set in your profile. michael, for instance, is rarely logged in when he comments–this is why his name is variously displayed as frisoli, michaelfrisoli, michael, notlaughingschmucko! etc.

  29. i can’t edit anyone’s comments, whether i’m logged in or off, whether i posted or not.

    check if this is true of comments made in response to a top-level post by you.

  30. For Jeff: Basic image source code tag is as follows:

    img SRC=”http://www.subcin.com/spyclown.JPG” width=450

    Be sure to put those brackets around the line of code and the image will magically show up. They’re the things above the comma and period.

    I included the width=450 b/c it was a large image, and that keeps it from being too big for the page. If it’s a smaller image, you can ignore that part.

  31. not a technical update or a glitch, but this is good news for jeff: we will soon have a new contributor to the blog, my colleague kelly hurley. kelly has discriminating tastes–which means she likes weird science-fiction, horror and action films and hates romantic comedies; more importantly, she will fill the victorianist void in the blog since pete’s mysterious disappearance.

  32. filling the victornianist void? what is this, some kind of gutter talk? in my day, we didn’t have to work blue.

  33. arnab, john, mark, whoever: could you be so kind as to give me the code for those nice colored bands on either side of the blog proper? i can insert the color all by my own self.

    did jeff ever ask for a “basic image source code tag?” i just read the whole darn thread and i didn’t see any such request from him. and why didn’t kelly hurley ever materialize as a contributor to this blog?

  34. gio, if i could understand your question i would gladly help you. what is it you are trying to do? are you asking about how the pages on the blog are laid out?

    not sure whatever became of kelly. last time i saw her she was planning to get active once the semester ended. which happened 4 weeks ago.

  35. arnab. now, here, look at this page. it’s white. except, on the sides, it’s not white. it’s maroon. now look at this page. it’s pink. except, on the sides, it’s white. i want to change the color on the sides, but i don’t know how. many blogs have different colors on the sides. what should i look for in the code? am i making more sense?

    jeff, i have no idea what a basic image source code tag is. i can only guess that it is a way of adding images to a post. not what i’m worried about now!

  36. i’m an idiot. in the picketline blog the sides are as pink as the rest of the blog. i want to change their color. what i really want to do is make the sides pink and the blog white. or at least try. i’m getting protests over the pink, though both simon and i like it.

  37. okay, some clarity: so, you’re trying to build/customize a blog. i’m not sure how much you can customize a blog on blogspot but assuming you have full access this is one thing you can do:

    set the background colour for the background of the entire page. then specify a block within that page and give it another background colour and whatever width you want. this second box is your main content box and since it takes up most of the room in the window it makes it seem like there are bands of colour to the left and right–actually that’s the background colour of the page. if you could imagine lifting this off-white box off the window somehow it would be maroon beneath it as well.

    this layout is controlled by a css file–the link to it is in the source. if you know css you should be able to figure out what i’ve done by looking at the file.

    (by the way, gio, this blog runs on the wordpress platform. blogger/blogspot is far inferior in features and customizability. not everything you may like about this blog is available on the blogspot platform. my advice to you if you are starting out with a new blog is to use wordpress.com; if you have webspace of your own you should install the free wordpress platform and customize to your heart’s content–it will also import all content from a blogspot blog if you want to move an existing blog over. you can get webspace for as low as $5-10/month these days. let me know if you want more information.)

  38. thanks, arnab. this really helps. i have been able to customize quite a bit on blogspot, actually, but i think my knowledge of code is too limited to venture with wordpress at this point, and i don’t want to pay for what i’ll end up not using (though i do keep borrowing other people’s webspace for this or that, and then linking to my files placed there).

    am i correct in assuming that i don’t have access to the source of *this* blog?

    john, you are reading this because you cannot control yourself.

  39. gio, you can view the source of this blog, but i don’t know if you can replicate it all in blogspot. the recently commented posts thing, for example, is a wordpress feature.

    wordpress.com
    is free, by the way–it is the wordpress version of blogspot.com. that’s the best way for someone who doesn’t have paid webspace to go (wordpress itself is free even if you are installing it yourself on your paid webspace).

  40. if i use wordpress without webspace of my own, can i still customize?

    how do i see the source of this blog? i could just copy it wholesale and then customize it a bit… would you mind, if it’s different enough? (different colors, titles, logos, dimensions)

  41. i believe you should be able to customize a blog on wordpress.com. but why ask me? click on the damn link and see what they have to say.

    to see the source code of this blog click “view>page source” in firefox. don’t remember what the menu options are in explorer. what you want to look for in the source is the link to the css file that controls the layout. oh, okay just click on this. if you don’t know css i am not going to explain. it would take too long.

  42. just a warning. i’m finally getting around to updating our install of wordpress to the latest and best. so, some things may look different (at least to begin with) and some functionality may change. do not panic.

  43. okay, we are back. everything seems to be fine–though, for me at least, the site seems to be running a little slower. i’ll get around to replacing the “archives” function–though i don’t know if anyone was using that. the “user online” and “statistics” functions are now a lot better. from the latter you can actually open up pages for all comments by particular posters.

    a potential biggie: the way in which users and their permissions (that is, what they can do on the blog) is set up is different in this version. as the admin nothing has changed for me, but things may have changed for you. please let me know if you are finding yourselves locked out of things you could do before. and also if you’re having trouble with the edit function (for comments and posts).

  44. “author” is the user level assigned to regular members of the blog–those who can post and comment. there are lower levels–those who can post, but need someone else to approve their posts, those who can only comment.

    beats me why your name is not showing up in the “authors” list in the stats–you’re the missing one with 51 posts. it is showing up in the “comments” list. strange.

  45. gio, for whatever reason, wordpress doesn’t come with the functionality that allows users to edit their own comments whenever they want. as admin i can edit all comments so if you have any edits you want to make particularly urgently after the edit window has passed, just email me.

  46. has anyone else experienced difficulty with the search function since the update? some posts come up more than once, and not all the posts that come up even contain the search words.

    also, it is a bit slower, as you said, arnab, but that’s not a biggie.

    i would also, like mauer, be able to see the stats…

    finally, the copyright royalty board is shutting down internet radio, so, even if you don’t care about university janitors enough to sign *my* petition, maybe you’ll sign this:

    http://action.freepress.net/campaign/internetradio/i7nubs7r0t5jmki?

  47. oh, I’ve been meaning to sign your petition, Gio. I will get to it. I am wondering when there will be similar efforts for the academic proletariat–those who spent thousands and years on their education and now get paltry flat fees for teaching (“part-time” though it’s often more than the “full-time” faculty teaches) courses at universities with billion dollar endowments. Not to mention hugely moneyed schools which offer three-year temp contracts at under 40,000/year. But I digress.

    Shutting down whatever freedoms the Internet still possesses will be the next stage of corporate domination, done under the heading of “intellectual property,” “copyright” and the like. I’m sure Bush-appointed judges will only be too happy to do the bidding of major companies at the expense of little radio stations, individual creators, etc. The FCC will slap you with a half million dollar fine for saying “fuck” on the radio but corporate ownership of most stations in the same region or outrageous pricing for the use of music, programming, etc., is just fine with them. one film-related story: Charles Burnett, director of “Killer of Sheep” a classic independent film about black life in South Central cannot release or screen his movie because the songs used on the soundtrack have not been licensed; therefore the film languishes, because those fees would be in the hundreds of thousands (as they were for the film Tarnation, whose director managed to scrounge up the funds for the licensing, with the help of bigwigs like Gus Van Sant–the film itself reportedly cost under a thousand to make, but its budget for licensing ran to half a million). It is now commonplace for companies to flood our reality with their “product,” so that, say, a song becomes a main feature of everyday life—but, let you make a film about said everyday life and put the song in your film and you’ll have to pay through the nose for your little piece of reality. And the notion of “hurting the artist,” while it may possess a grain of truth, is mainly a smokescreen for keeping up the same practices of corporate control–the companies yell “Artist!” to protect their own interests, as they don’t show any sign of turning over control to those very artists, do they? Let a million pirates flourish, if it brings down these increasingly arrogant conglomerates. They long ago got their wish–the complete interdependence of normal life with mass media–but now they get sullen because people are making too much of their own use of “their property.” Haven’t the secret police already cracked down on the (gasp) practice of making copies for classes? What next, I’ll be arrested for the home-made copy of Sin City I made to use in my classroom? Media forms proliferate, while actual freedom of participation lessens. Let’s start our own pirate radio station! Free the airwaves!

  48. barbara ehrenreich has founded a union for exploited professionals, included adjunct faculty. the wesbite is http://www.unitedprofessionals.org. check out this article. i have been vaguely thinking about working on organizing the adjunct faculty around here, but who am i kidding? in miami? it would be a titanic job, with obstacles on all directions, and i just don’t have it. i wish i did. i really do.

  49. gio, you couldn’t find your ass with a team of bloodhounds, google earth, and a giant mirror.

    by which i mean, at some point i’ll get around to seeing if there is an updated version of the plugin i’d installed on the old software to make search check comments as well as posts. if something is anomalous now it probably means that old plugin is behaving strangely.

  50. search should be fine now. still looking into why things are running so slowly since the upgrade.

    gio, you know words like “blogroll”? i’m so proud of you.

  51. there is a possibility that the slowdown since the upgrade is related to the plugin i’d installed for the older version that enables the “recent comments” functionality. this plugin has not yet been updated for wordpress 2.1. i’m going to see if i can replace it with something that is optimized for 2.1, so don’t panic if you see it suddenly disappear.

  52. okay, i switched to a different plugin for generating the list of posts with recent comments. it works differently, in that it doesn’t let me set it to display x posts with comments, but instead the last y comments (and the posts they’re in). that is to say, if i set it to display the last 60 comments, and 59 of them are in a particularly active topic then you’ll only see 2 topics listed there. but that’s unlikely to happen. it also doesn’t link directly to the latest comment, but to the top of the discussion. this is actually not a bad thing. a clear plus is it allows me to set it to display the name of the most recent commenter, so i can avoid gio more completely.

    the important question though is whether the site is running any faster as a result. can you people tell me if you notice any difference? i’ve also reduced the default number of posts displayed on the front page from 20 to 5–which also reduces the amount of information called from the database each time the front page is loaded.

  53. Arnab, after I edited a comment I got this message:

    WordPress database error: [You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ” at line 1]
    SELECT comment_content, comment_author_IP, comment_date_gmt FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_ID =

    You aren’t allowed to edit this comment, either because you didn’t write it or you passed the 20 minute time limit.

    Are we allowed to edit a comment only once? Even within the alloted 20 minutes? (In this case, I didn’t need to edit the comment a second time–it gave me this message anyway)

  54. not sure, john. i haven’t encountered this. i’m not sure i understand the circumstances though: had 20 minutes passed since you made the original comment?

    but you shouldn’t be getting mysql errors regardless. this “edit comments” plugin too may need to be upgraded for the new version of the software. i’ll look into it this weekend.

  55. it is gone. i’ll try and put it back, and fix the edit issue too as soon as i get a chance. maybe this weekend. end of semester crush, you see.

  56. can someone check to see if the fix i just applied for the comment editing glitch actually worked? since i have super admin access i can’t replicate the problem.

  57. Hey Arnab-

    Are comments open to anyone? I occasionally pop on, see that some of the “users online” have actual names (I think Anita was on earlier today, or some A name), and I’m wondering–if they post a comment, it goes into moderation, do you ever actually review (or moderate)? Would it be worth examining them to see if potential interested parties are being silenced?

  58. comments are open to anyone–which is why simon and the pony can weigh in–i don’t moderate anything (which is why jeff and gio’s posts make it through). if they’re not being posted it is because they are being caught by the spam filters. i check them from time to time to make sure nothing that should get through is being zapped. you’d be astounded by the amount of spam that gets removed every day by the filters. so far nothing has been filtered that shouldn’t have been.

  59. Well, what if I post, from my prime viewing spot in Hell? I love, love, love your site. If I wasn’t doubled over in pain from the liver-gnawing rats buried face-deep in my gut, I’d stand up and applaud.

  60. And now this, again as a test–

    You prats should all be scorching your niblets here in Hell! My moustache writes better f-ing reviews.

  61. I don’t think so, man. I just did two test posts, one with a false name and a real email other than my own, and one with a false name and my real email, and neither has posted. (One says awaiting moderation. The other is gone into the ether.) And now I’ll post this, post-haste, without a problem.

  62. hmmm. i wonder if the defaults changed when i switched the software version. lemme check.

    have simon or the pony not posted since the last upgrade?

  63. a-ha! there was a box checked to require all commenters to have previously approved comments (presumably does not apply to members). perhaps it came default checked in the new version, perhaps i checked it by mistake–but everyone should now be able to comment, subject to the whims of the spam filters. but to be safe i also went and scanned the last 100 odd comments in the moderation/spam queue and they’re all offers for either better insurance or a better penis.

  64. simon posted a couple of times lately from his computer and didn’t get through. one of these two times, he reposted from mine and got in. dunno about li’l pony. maybe the filter does an IP check?

  65. okay, i’m going to re-check that box. if anyone knows of someone trying to post a real comment tell them to alert you so you can alert me to approve it.

  66. arnab, you don’t need to deal with daniel so drastically that now only members can comment. wordpress has a blacklist function under “options,” then “discussion.”

  67. “daniel” is smarter than you, gio. i’m not going to spend my time adding every new ip address he posts from, and every url he peddles, to the blacklist. it’s not like the world was beating down our doors to comment on the blog. people who want to comment can let me know and i’ll create accounts for them with the ability to post comments.

  68. It may be a coincidence, but around the same time I was stupid enough to click on Daniel’s name, a virus infected my computer which McAfee was unable to stop and Dell now claims that I require a clean reinstall. I’d remind others that curiosity killed the cat.

  69. maybe you can blacklist some of daniel’s consistent mannerisms? or the name daniel? not that we have many daniels commenting here or anything.

    oh, whatever, i’ll tell the pony and the simon to ask for their very own login.

  70. Chris, I stupidly did the same thing but turned off my computer before the virus did anything. Then I ran a few checks (Spy-Bot, Ad-Aware, PC-cillin Internet Security) and it seems as if I managed to stave off whatever Daniel was unleashing.

  71. Every time I get a new computer I think of switching to a Mac, but it never seems the right time to incur the startup costs (like having half a book already written using WordPerfect). Anyway, several hours on the phone to Dell and McAfee and I think I have managed the problem. Good thing I don’t have a real job.

  72. WordPerfect? Jeezum crow, Chris! Let me guess, do you have an amber monitor as well? I keed.

    Actually, I think the new MacBook Pro with Intel core duo should make the switch easy. Does that sound too much like spam?

  73. Hey Arnab, how come when you lived in Colorado, the blog existed in Mountain Time but now that you live in Minnesota the blog exists in Eastern Standard Time? Did the software not account for daylight savings or do you have a problem with Central Time?

  74. following on from john’s cool thread about favourite shots: would people like the blog to be a little more attractive visually? i just pulled this vanilla design out of my ass when i was first setting it up and never did anything to improve it since. if you have any ideas or thoughts for re-design or simply for elements/colours you’d like to see, please post here.

  75. we are now on the latest version of wordpress. i haven’t played around with it much but at first glance the obvious improvements are a) better search and b) the edit window is fancier.

  76. Arnab – with the wordpress update, I can see that there are a few people who are writing comments that are not spam that are not getting approved, including one person who seems to know Gio and another who appears to be Joel Siegel burning in hell.

    Just sayin’

Leave a Reply