Author: david

nofollow, php, and Jaguar

Posted on by david

Google, Yahoo and MSN have the blogsphere abuzz with the news that they will ignore links containing rel=”nofollow” when calculating page ranks. The hope is that (when used on links in blog comments) this will diminish the incentive for comment spam. I’m not terribly optimistic, but it is worth a shot.

New WordPress plugin – old PHP

Clint Ecker dissected the MovableType plugin and re-implemented it as a WordPress plugin. I downloaded it, activated it and received this error:

Warning: Wrong parameter count for preg_grep() in /srv/www/siriux.net/html-data/wp-content/plugins/wpNofollow.php on line 29<br />
Warning: Bad arguments to join() in /srv/www/siriux.net/html-data/wp-content/plugins/wpNofollow.php on line 30

It turns out that the plugin requires PHP 4.2 or greater, unfortunately the box that hosts this blog is running Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2.x) and it’s version of PHP is hopelessly obsolete. I’ve been meaning to update but haven’t quite got around to it, this seemed like as good a time as any.

Upgrading is easy! 😐

I found clear instructions for upgrading PHP to 4.3 here. I grabbed the PHP 4.3.10 archive from php.net and commenced with the install. Sadly, make died on the Zend/zend_strtod.c file. A little searching showed that PHP 4.3.10 cannot be built on OS X, instead I had to grab the latest stable snapshot from the CVS.

Still needs tweaking…

I’ve tested the WordPress plugin, and it seems to work, but it will only recognize URL’s in the body of the comment (without hacking the wp-comment file) and only if the link is fully formated: <a href=”www.url.domain”>like this<a> and it ignores unadorned links: http://www.url.domain or www.url.domain. Though, I’m sure the last issue will be addressed soon.

Update:

Clint posts: “Hey I just found out the solution, I think I can lower the priority of the filter so that it gets applied last. A priority of 10 should accomplish that.”

So, change the last two lines in wpNofollow.php to:

add_filter('comment_text', 'nofollowfy', 10);
add_filter('comment_excerpt', 'nofollowfy',10);

We be loons! crazies! and IT journalists!?

Posted on by david

This is just a peach! This article pulls out all of the old saws (you know, “Apple computers are too expensive”, “it’s marketshare is slipping into oblivion”, etc. etc.) without giving any justifications (of course) and then finishes with this:

Finally, it [Apple] needs to acquire some stable, well-adjusted customers, and not the loons, crazies and IT journalists that make up its current user base.

Well isn’t that nice.

Wraith

Posted on by david

In keeping with the toys theme for today:

Owning a motorcycle in Toronto makes about as much sense as owning snow shoes in Los Angeles, but if I could I’d love one of these:

wraith.jpg

The Wraith and it’s sister the Hellcat are made by Confederate Motorcycles in New Orleans and both push the envelope on motorcycle materials, technologies, and manufacturing techniques. Now if only they came with snow tires, and could protect you from the -30˚ wind-chill while you drove…

image via: RobReport Motorcycling

nao design

Posted on by david

There have been a number of links to these guys talking about the “JL421 Badonkadonk” a strange StarWars-esque mini personnel transport.

aphaenogaster.jpg

Personally I prefer the “Aphenogaster” pictured above, or perhaps the “Digigrade Stilts” found in their Product catalog. I built something like the Aphenogaster when I was a kid. Mine had 4 wheels, you steered it with your feet, and you sat on the 1/3 hp AC motor (which was mounted on a hinged plank) putting pressure on it so the pully on it’s shaft would rub on the tire of one of the rear wheels. It worked great if the rider was light enough. That and until it ran out of extension cord…

Yup they sure get to make some cool toys. I wonder if they’re hiring. 🙂

via Gizmodo