It’s no secret that I like using MovableType. I’ve done quite a bit of complex templating, and always enjoy doing new things with MovableType. One of the things that has bugged me about it though is mt-search.cgi. Search is great, everyone is doing it, but in MovableType it has a nasty address:
http://www.site.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi
It’s fair enough to say that you don’t need /cgi-bin/ in some situations (like mine), but that’s still minimal. GET variables get added onto this address when you do a search:
http://www.site.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&
search=query
Ugly. It gets even worse if you operate multiple sites off a single MovableType install: they have to share a common domain name for search. Take a look at Gawker, Gizmodo, Wonkette and Fleshbot (all operated off a single MovableType install under the direction of Nick Denton). Here is the format for their search URLs:
http://www.gawker.com/moveabletype/mt-search.cgi?Template=
TEMPLATE&IncludeBlogs=ID&search=search
Not only is this ghetto, it’s insecure. By messing with the BLOG_ID, one can find interesting results (press cancel to bypass that .htaccess protection). Or you could even have a Gawker search in Gizmodo’s clothing. Top secret internal weblogs can be searched with a quick ID change in the URL. I’m sure this isn’t ideal. (Update: Looks like they have improved things and the previous links don’t work anymore. Before the change the links showed search results from Gawker Internal and Kinja’s dev blog).
Hopefully you now agree that things can be improved. I recently changed MovableType to make:
1) The URLs are nicer
2) Each site search use its own domain
3) No blogid/template ID changes take effect
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I make no bones about being a TypePad fan. Could I run MovableType on my own server? I already do. TypePad just has a different feel. It’s the best web service I’ve ever used. Well until Basecamp.
It’s project management 37 Signals style. Basically what that means is it’s better than any other project management tool you’ve used in the past. Here’s why:
1) It’s distributed. Bulletin boards don’t work if you don’t work in the same city as your client (or coworker).
2) It’s hot. Beautiful interface.
3) RSS / iCal syndication. RSS is a must, iCal is a plus.
4) Customizable with your colors, logos and doo dads. Makes a great impression on clients.
I’ve been looking for something like this for a while. The open source options all shout “open source” with their ugly UI’s, difficult navigation and slow backends. Any client side options were out (we’re a global marketplace). I’ve only done one local project.
You’ve most surely heard the story about the German cannibal who recently got sentanced. Well a UK publication ran some details on him, and using the Wayback Machine, I was able to come up with some of his original posts (for when he was looking for people to eat). Amazing. Most are in German, but here’s one in English:
“Hi, i am Franky from Germany, i will eat you. Please tell me your high and wight, also send me a Pic from you. Where you are from?”“
If you dare, here is the forum listing. It is now closed thanks to the trial/publicity, so the only way to get to it is the Wayback
Machine. There are a lot more cannibals out there than I thought.
I have so many little things that are unworthy of a full post. It’s the end of the month, and we all have quotas to meet. Ergo (yes, I stole that from the Matrix), they are listed below.
- True geeks don’t complain about politics, but about Google’s major updates. I’ve never even noticed an update by Google. Maybe I should track these things more carfeully. If you really want to be versed with the situation, check out WebmasterWorld’s posts on “Austin” [1, 2].
- iPods and some accessories are 10% off today and tomorrow. If you don’t have a local Apple Store, go to the online one.
- Kill Bill Volume 2 and Kill Bill Volume 1 DVD have been delayed until April. I vote they get renamed to Kill Quentin Tarantino.
- My love for Pepsi will pay off starting Monday.
- Norah Jones has a new CD coming out in a week and a half. Maybe I can save my caps to get it. The single is good times (already on the iTunes Music Store).
- Opportunity rolled off the platform and has all 6 wheels on soil.
- TypePad has better comment management. We’ll probably see similar features in MovableType 3.
- iTunes gets a press mention over 80 times a day according to Google News. BuyMusic.com doesn’t even get 2.
- People, I assume ex-frat members, are buying friends. Amazing what people will do when you make an invite-only service.
Is there anyone already on Orkut willing to toss me an invite? I have a bad habit of registering for these things. This is the one site that has the possibility of not being horribly slow. So, if you’re on Orkut–jon AT macmerc DOT com. I’ll be grateful.
Update: Thanks Tom! It’s like Match.com combined with Friendster on a fast server. About time. Should have been XHTML though.
Ben, Mena, Anil and company–please do something to stop/slow comment spam on TypePad. I have gotten dozens (currently 50 60 70 100 110 120 139) of spam comments today. All from different IP’s. All containing god-awful porno URLs. I know Matt from PVR blog has had some of the same spams, so a TypePad-wide filter would really help. We can’t install MT plug-ins, so there’s nothing I can do without your help.
In the span it took to write this, I have gotten 4 more spam comments… It’s like carpet bombing. Is there a way I can close comments on all past entries without having to manually go back and do it? That would help. Maybe it should be added along with a “close comments after X days” button.
Update: Here’s a post by Ben saying that they’re working to make comment-life easy. Thanks!
Late tonight we’ll be landing the second half of the latest Mars mission onto the red planet. At about 12:05AM, Opportunity will be landing in an area called Meridiani Planum that we believe was once covered with water. Check NASA TV for updates.
Also, for those following the Spirit software glitch, the rover sent some 73 megabits of data back to Earth yesterday. A good sign.
If you want to follow things like a true geek, check out Mars24. It will give you the time (and daylight!) on Mars.
Update: Wow, that was something. I listened to the play-by-play on NASA TV. They were so excited, I can only imagine what it would feel like being there (mission control, not Mars). The landing was another success.
On impact, the system only recorded 2 G’s, which is nearly a miracle. It is rated for 40 G’s (meaning 40 x the pull of gravity). If the ship was a car, the bumper would have taken the impact without setting off the air bags.
The landing site looks amazing. Much different from other sites, not nearly as rocky. It has dunes and exposed bedrock. In the word’s of Dr. Steve Squyres, “I’m flabbergasted. I’m astonished. I’m blown away.”
Use this space to comment on iPodLand. Evidently a few people have a problem with it, and have been spamming this blog and other spaces to get my attention. All that did was get you banned. Say what you want about me and my demon tactics here.
For those that don’t know what this posts means, I registered a domain name (ipodland.com) and in the process upset a whole host of geeks. It was publicly available. First come first serve. Welcome to America.
Update: If you posted a comment in the last day or so, it probably got deleted. I’ve been getting tons of spam comments, and have been blitzing the “last 5” without reading the comments. The attack seems to have stopped, so you’re welcome to try again.
But, if you leave fake information and or a personal attack, your comment will be deleted and you will be banned from ever posting another. Why? It puts some honesty in the discussion. I’ve noticed several people commenting under different names to make it seem that there are others that agree with them. This is sophomoric and will not be tolerated.
Most of the Apple die-hard have GarageBand by now, and Steve wasn’t lying–it’s easy. While watching the so-called “longest demo on Earth”, the crowd at the store was really impressed with the export to iTunes function. Personally, I was waiting for this feature for about 39 minutes. What I want to see is “Sell in iTunes Music Store” right on the same menu. Right now you’re probably thinking this would be chaotic. Probably. Here’s how to make it work:
1) The songs that have been chosen to be sold on the iTMS don’t go mainstream at first, instead they go into a public song pool. Songs here are free, but you can only stream them (probably X times). After listening, you are asked to validate the genre, and rate the song based on production quality.
2) Only songs that get a decent mean rating from a reasonably large sample get moved into a private song pool. Here they go into the iTMS editors playlist. Before moving the song into the real store, an editor must agree with the public and check to make sure the publisher is not a yahoo trying to skirt copyright law. Nothing they don’t do with songs from private labels now.
3) Once the songs get approved, they go into the real store like any other music. Users that originally approved the songs see the newly released music in a section of the store. They are allowed to download the material for free.
4) Sales go into an account that gets paid whenever the monthly total is over amount X ($100 for instance, like Google AdSense). As a plus, you can use this money to purchase anything from the iTMS or Apple Store, maybe even at a discount.
Apple could become the world’s largest “record label” quickly. With electronic distro rights only, most of the costs associated with running a label are diminished. The bands do all the mastering. R&D is done pro-bono by people who want to get new music for free. This makes music almost a democracy.
Another tweak that could improve this is past history… Artists that have had previous music approved get higher karma and are able to get more music on faster. If you got rejected on your previous attempt to get a song published, your song goes directly to some special editors before it makes it into the public pool.
SpyMac has always annoyed me–it’s a very snobby bunch. I have always been biased because they launched with a lie, and have had no shame about it. However, with this new version of the site, they take themselves even more seriously. It’s cute. Here’s an example:
“Just as the Mac OS X dock communicates application events visually, the navigational elements in Spymac are smart enough to detect important occurrences, such as the arrival of a new e-mail to a member’s Spymac Mail account or the start of a new Auction.”
So you mean that like almost any forum, you can see when you have new stuff? Get out of town. Ever used PMs before?
“Spymac determines time-appropriate events, images, text, and everything in between by automatically syncing with each visitor’s system clock.”
Woo. A JavaScript deal combined with what Dunstan did. Cool, but not so useful. Especially for a site as visually busy as SpyMac (I like it a lot over at Dunstan’s site).
“Spymac is powered by an integrated collection of applications (developed in-house) that together form “Spymac WOS”. Spymac WOS is an intelligent environment featuring patent-pending technology that allows for the creation of an immersive and visually-stunning Web experience.”
Patent Pending? Christ. It’s a collection of PHP scripts that does nothing really new. And the fact they claim it’s all running on 42 dual CPU servers is shady. That would cost a fortune, and there never have been many ads on the site.
Update: I closed comments because of nonsense. If you want to comment, email them to jon AT macmerc dot com.