Archive for January, 2006

Plugins

Published by Yuletide on January 11, 2006 in Blogging and Thoughts. 0 Comments

Here are a few WordPress plugins I am either installing now, plan to install, or hope to install someday…

    “Live Comment Preview”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/LiveCommentPreview installed

  • “Live Post Preview”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/LivePostPreview

    • installed

  • “Jerome’s Keywords”:http://www.vapourtrails.ca/wp-keywords Not installed yet, but I want something like this eventually…
  • “PhoneBlogz”:http://www.phoneblogz.com/api/wordpress.php WOW! Post to your blog via phone! free! not that I’d actually ever do this, but cool anyways…
  • “WP-Shadows”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/WP-Shadows Another tagging plugin… hooks into “Shadows”:http://shadows.com which I don’t use… There are so many of these social bookmarking sites, how does one choose? It seems “del.icio.us”:http://del.icio.us always manages to float to the top, or at least show up a lot — and since it copies all its posts there, I use “Spurl”:http://www.spurl.net/ but dunno if there’s a plugin for that… and the bookmarklet has been annoying me lately…
  • “WP-Print”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/wp-print Creates a printable version of blog posts… The latest version works ONLY with WP2.0, and most of the plugins above also have versions for 2.0, nullifying any reason I had to avoid the upgrade out of anything but lazyness and maybe trepidation…Will wait to install this one til I upgrade…
  • “WP-Counter”:http://faked.org/blog/wp-onlinecounter/ keeps track of online visitors, the highest count of concurrent vistors and the total amount of visitors. Uses mysql tables… maybe someday? But who needs it… Especially since I don’t really have a user system… hehe. His blog has an interesting firefox evangelism device…
  • “WP-Email”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/wp-email “Email to a friend” links… Useful for remembering blog posts, I sometimes do this and archive the emails on a separate account for later reading (yeah right… later…)
  • “WP Lists”:http://www.navidazimi.com/projects/wp-lists Lets you centrally manage lists, sounds useful since I love making lists so much (”My Sweetwater Wishlist”:http://apoc.buildtolearn.net/wordpress/?p=166) Yikes, making all these links in “textile markup”:http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/ make me wonder what would happen if I ever stopped using it… wanted to use a different markup system, or if the plugin broke (sense any trepidation about updating? no…) ah, his website is sexy enough, and these links so damn easy to write that I’ll venture forth… oh and this plugin only works for WordPress 1.5.x at the moment
  • “Ultimate Tag Warrior”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/UltimateTagWarrior A tag plugin with a sense of humor. And a crapload of features…! Would love any suggestions from people regarding a good tagging plugin… or does WP2.0 handle them? I forget..
  • “Technorati Tagging”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/TechnoratiTagging …And another — This one is more technorati specific, which I see as a drawback since I more want tags for their own sake
  • “Tags”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/Tags This one is a local tag system exclusively… access your posts like this: http://blog/tags/tag1+tag2 like del.icio.us! (Only works with mod_rewrite installed, otherwise its index.php?tags=blah…) And I love that feature about it! Otherwise wouldn’t have made this list…
  • “Suggest”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/Suggest This is just cool: “This plugin enables a feature called “suggest”. Whenever you type a character in the search field of your blog site, your articles are being searched and suggestions are presented. You can select these suggestions and hit enter, to execute a search request. “
  • “Subscribe to Comments”:http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/SubscribeToComments Yes!!! Perfect! I’ve been yearning for this for ages! I hate opening up my email app… I’m an email-phobe, so anything that lets me reply to the peoply who have commented here is good in my book!
  • “GeoPlugin”http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/GeoPlugin Hey, I’m into geography… what can I say? This would be an instant install if it automatically guessed your lat and longitude based on IP address, and did it like that… so each post would follow where you’re posting from automatically, and same for commenters… Oooooh!

\\That’s all for now… SH**T it got LATE on me! Time to go STUDY CHINESE!!! AIIIIIIII
Had a test today btw… Yeah…

Though I’ll probably just upgrade to 2.0 when I have the time… (”Why not?”:http://asymptomatic.net/2005/12/30/2188/not-installing-wordpress-20-why/) In which case I’ll have to make sure the update doesn’t “break my plugins”:http://asymptomatic.net/2005/12/19/2171/whats-not-gonna-work-in-wordpress-20/

Btw for anyone interested in wordpress “this”:http://asymptomatic.net/ is a blog worth reading!

p.s. I’m starting to really hate the way this blog markup stuff works. not the textile, but the wordpress handling of the formatting… this post is UGGGGLLLLLYYYYYY :-(

p.p.s. Hm.. my shiny new live post preview is NOT ugly… but it is also much wider. Interesting that the blog itself is not as wide as the blog POSTING window… What? Maybe I can just go and straight-hack the theme just a ‘lil bit (lyric reference). I’d write you yidian’r but then REALLY no-one would laugh… cept for yinianji de xuesheng…

Wordpress v2.0

Published by Yuletide on January 11, 2006 in Blogging and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

“What’s not gonna work in WordPress 2.0″:http://asymptomatic.net/2005/12/19/2171/whats-not-gonna-work-in-wordpress-20/

Hehe… Guess I missed the boat on the whole “v2.0 being available” thing…

Alas, this post was very reassuring, and I’ll rest easy for now without the upgrade. Except now that you can sign up for a free wordpress.org hosted blog, which I assume is using v2.0 (cept it seems to be much more limited, and leave not so much room for customization) it’s tempting to just use one of those, or at least play with one. In fact, might it be a good way to try out 2.0 to see how it feels?

Anyways, thanks for the writeup!

Micro Persuasion: Ten Blogging Hacks

Published by Yuletide on January 8, 2006 in Asides, Blogging and Links. 0 Comments

Micro Persuasion: Ten Blogging Hacks

Wired News: Your Right to Be an Idiot

Published by Yuletide on January 8, 2006 in Interest, Software, Tech and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Wired News: Your Right to Be an Idiot

Sweetwater Wish List

Published by Yuletide on January 8, 2006 in Me, Music and Software. 0 Comments

Just ordered a bunch of stuff from Sweetwater, so exciting! For use with my new keyboard of course…

Edirol UM-1EX 39.97
Hosa YPP136 4.25
Hosa GPM-103 1.90
Hosa GPR-101 2.40

First item is a USB MIDI interface, the other three are various connectors and adapters for hooking up the audio jacks of the keyboard (1/4″ TS x2) to my computer’s Line In (1/8″ Stereo TRS, Powerbook G4). And a few adapters for 1/4″ TS to RCA just in case. Oh, and I threw in a 1/8″ TRS (F) to 1/4″ TRS (M) adapter just in case I loose the one I have, it seemed cheap….

Anyways, here are a bunch of more fantasy things I’d love to have from this wonderful store, posted here because their website doesn’t have a permanent wishlist — it forgets everything!
(Don’t buy me any of this without asking first…)
Also, a few words on the software… note that 99% of this I either have already downloaded, or could download if I wanted in pirated form– but I still will purchase when/if I am ever inclined to really use it (ie. not just use it to screw around). I rationalize this by saying that were such copies not available, I still wouldn’t be shelling out the big bucks just to play with the stuff, I’d just be without the software entirely — and the chances of me buying it when/if I had the disposable income would then be much less… I digress.

“Digidesign M-Box 2″:http://sweetwater.com/store/detail/MBox2/
It’s rather amusing, since I really don’t have anything worth recording but I still want the gear ;-)
“Presonus FireBox”:http://sweetwater.com/store/detail/FireBox/ Firewire Audio Interface

Software
“Apple Logic Pro”:http://sweetwater.com/store/detail/LogicPro/
“Ableton Live 5″:http://sweetwater.com/store/detail/LiveEdu/ (Educational Version)
“Steinberg Nuendo 3″:http://sweetwater.com/store/detail/NuendoEdu/ (Educational Hybrid)
“Propellerheads Reason 3″:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ReasonSoft/

Virtual Instruments:
“East West Quantum Leap RA”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/QLRA/ 14 Gigabyte Virtual Instrument Covering Ethnic Sounds from Six Areas of the World
“Korg Legacy Collection - Digital Edition”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KLCDE/
“Native Instruments Komplete Care 2006″:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KompleteCare06/ Not sure exactly the nature of this one, but it sounds cool :-)
“Native Instruments Komplete 3″:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Komplete3/
“Native Instruments Komplete Sound Bundle”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KompleteSound/ Sounds for Komplete
“Steinberg Virtual Instruments Collection”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VIColl/
“Arturia Vintage Collection”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/VintageCollA/ Classic Soft-Synth Bundle Including Arturia’s Modular V, CS-80V, minimoog V, and Arp 2600V
“Native Instruments NI Essentials”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NIEssentials/ Virtual Instrument Bundle with BATTERY, PRO-53, KOMPAKT, and ABSYNTH - Mac/PC
“Native Instruments REAKTOR 5″:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Reaktor/ Modular Software Synth/Sampler/FX Studio - Mac/PC (Standalone and Plug-In)
“Zero-G Pro Pack for GarageBand”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ProPackGB/ Massive Collection of 11,000+ Drum, Instrument, Vocal and Effects Loops in Apple Loop and AIFF Formats Now this one I’d actually buy, since GarageBand is so userfriendly, I actually do use it. And loop-based music creation is so much fun!
“Bomb Factory SansAmp PSA-1″:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BombPSA1/ Pro Tools Plug-In Amp and Cabinet Simulator - TDM Almost bought the hardware version of this tube-modeler back when I was hacking it at guitar…
“Arturia Moog Modular V 2.0″:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ModularV/
“Steinberg The Grand”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TheGrand/ Virtual Concert Grand Piano VST Plug-In
“Applied Acoustics Lounge Lizard EP-2″:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LoungeLizard/ Electric Piano Modeling Software - Mac/PC (Standalone and Plug-In)
“Arturia minimoog V”:http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/minimoogV/ Virtual minimoog Software Synthesizer - Mac/PC I have tried this one out– they have a demo version that is quite fun!

p.s. Bravo to sweetwater for using intelligent URL’s and not some crazy PHP random ID crap like all those other big sites… may take a human to write out each slug, but it is worth it! I’m really starting to like these guys/girls.

What else?

Published by Yuletide on January 8, 2006 in Thoughts. 0 Comments

Sunday 4:41AM EST

When everything sucks, what do you do?
When you don’t believe in yourself, what else is there to believe in?
What is there left to do?
When the taste of self-pity stings your mouth like bile, yet doesn’t go away.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Song sites face legal crackdown

Published by Yuletide on January 7, 2006 in Keyboard, Metal, News and Web Applications. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Song sites face legal crackdown
Legal crackdown on Guitar Tablature and Lyrics sites.
This is bad. Very bad.
Seems the US Music Publishers’ Association (MPA) is HORRIBLY out of touch with reality.
Ugh….

I was thinking about starting up a website with keyboard scores, actual PDF files of stuff, but this makes it harder to do that. Though I suppose my site would not face the pressures that a large automated site like mxtabs does. Also, I could most likely contact the bands themselves and get permission to put the files up. Hm… I just need to find some decent webspace, and figure out a way to set up the site. I was running a mini-tab site using the Tabfu system for a little while (php) but scrapped it to host this Wordpress blog instead.

At any rate, school is taking precedent at the moment, but we’ll see what happens. Please leave your comments/suggestions below if you have any thoughts! Thanks again for all of those who commented on my Synth Oblivion post! Metal Keyboard tabs and scores will live to see the light of day! (Though I don’t really see the point of keyboard tabs, I guess they’re good for people who don’t read music)

Psychiatric Times: Computer Addiction: What Is It?

Published by Yuletide on January 7, 2006 in Interest and Tech. 0 Comments

Psychiatric Times: Computer Addiction: What Is It? by Maressa Hecht Orzack, Ph.D.

Psychiatric Times August 1998 Vol. XV Issue 8

Symptoms of Computer Addiction

Tolerance, withdrawal and compulsive use are requisites for any diagnosis of dependency (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Psychological tolerance is indicated by the need to spend increasing amounts of time on computer activities such as playing games, arranging files or participating in online discussion groups. Even though computer users are aware of problem behavior, they continue to use the computer compulsively. They often blame others for the problem. Withdrawal symptoms are indicated by an increase in irritability and anxiety when a person is unable to access a computer. Even though one investigator (Anderson, 1998) used a three-day abstinence as an indicator of problems, at least one patient has said that it is a matter of only hours before he starts to feel irritable, depressed or anxious.

For the Web surfer, satisfaction must come early, or the user will leave the site. Web pages are aptly named because of the many links attracting the computer user to new experiences, causing him or her to lose track of time. Patient D, who complained about the amount of time she spent online, said she could not leave the Web because the next connection might be just what she was looking for.

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