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Friday, January 9th, 2009 08:54:47 GMT |
Well, obviously, I didn't manage to release my blog software before the end of 2008, despite working feverishly on it on the days leading up to Jan. 1st. And unfortunately, it's still not quite ready for release, after yet more days of miserable and reluctant (but nonetheless feverish) effort. Right now, I'm just making sure it still works right online, instead of only on my local copy of XAMPP.
I got some (though not all) glitches fixed. (Edit, 5:50 AM. Unfortunately, I keep finding and/or creating new ones). Also, I probably will get the RSS feed stuff done soon, I hope. I also finally thought of a name for my blog software. I can't wait to finally release it, I am so tired of the endless, tedious chore of working on it.
I hope no one gets their hopes up that this will be really great blog software. I almost bit off more than I can chew with this, and it's not even going to have comments, trackbacks, and pings. Plus, I'm not sure how easy it will be to expand upon and improve, because even I myself sometimes have a hard time following what the heck is going on in my own source code.
Hopefully the new navigation for my blog is convenient and not annoying.
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| RSS Feed Created |
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Sunday, January 11th, 2009 11:47:16 GMT |
I'm pleased to announce that my blog now has a functioning RSS feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/astroblahhhcom
(Edit, 1/23/2009, 7:55 PM: Previously located at http://feeds.feedburner.com/astroblahhhcom; however, I had to update the address because of FeedBurner moving stuff around.)
I created that FeedBurner feed at 4:05 AM EST. Even though I'm not going to analyze the astrological chart for that moment, here's an Astrolog 5.40 command line for when I created my FeedBurner feed anyway:
I suppose some astrologers would be dismayed to observe that I (inadvertently) created it about 6 hours after the beginning of Mercury retrograde. Here's a command line for when Mercury retrograde began:
Does the fact that Mercury is now retrograde bother me, however? Not really. Delaying the release of my blog software or creation of my RSS feed on the basis of superstition, on the other hand, would very much bother me.
I'll probably have WordsPlatz ready for release pretty soon. The only remaining glitches that I've noticed (so far) seem pretty harmless. (Sometimes pages are republished that don't really need to be; and if you only have a single post in your blog and that post is of a category that doesn't get added to the main archive, then, the Main Archive links will be broken.)
So, pretty much all that remains is for me to create some documentation and some pages on my website where people can read about and download WordsPlatz.
WordsPlatz will not be perfect, and for many people it will probably be a quite inadequate substitute for WordPress (especially for anyone who doesn't like to edit source code), but at least it will be free, open source, and public domain. I would be very pleased if other blog software packages would borrow ideas and/or code from WordsPlatz, because I think it would be great if all blogs would avoid making tons of database queries, and have archives in chronological order, tables of contents, and nice, quick navigation.-qa Jan 11 2009 9:05 GMT 80:34W 41:09N
Location: Hubbard, OH.-qa Jan 11 2009 2:56 GMT 80:34W 41:09N
If you read the source code of my blog's RSS feed, you might notice that I inadvertently revealed the name of my blog software there. So, I suppose I might as well announce my blog software's name officially - WordsPlatz. The name is a parody of WordPress.
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| WordsPlatz v1.0 |
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Thursday, January 15th, 2009 12:25:25 GMT |
Software Release |
Finally, I have released my free, open source, public domain blog software, WordsPlatz v1.0.
I first uploaded the WordsPlatz home page, manual and zip file at 4:59 AM, but I had to make a few changes, so, the last time I uploaded the manual was 5:09 AM and the last time I uploaded the zip file was 5:24 AM.
Here are some copy-and-pasteable Astrolog 5.40 command lines for the entertainment of any astrologers:
The official time of announcement of WordsPlatz is the time above this blog post. Here's a command line for that too:
I suppose I should be less pessimistic. OK, fine then. WordsPlatz will also make it easier than ever before for me to post things to my website, which will hopefully entertain, educate, be useful, improve people's lives, and encourage people to send me money and buy things from me.
Writing WordsPlatz was such an ordeal that I'm now unusually eager to take up the motto "follow your bliss", and, as much as possible, stop forcing myself to do things I don't really want to do, which stress me out and make me miserable. So, I'm not sure how much I'm actually going to be posting to this blog, since I think currently my bliss is to just withdraw into as much uncommunicative seclusion as possible, and focus on things I really enjoy instead of things I feel I "should" work on.-qa Jan 15 2009 4:59 EST 80:34W 41:09N
-qa Jan 15 2009 5:24 EST 80:34W 41:09N
Location: Hubbard, OH-qa Jan 15 2009 7:25 EST 80:34W 41:09N
I'm so glad to finally be done with WordsPlatz. WordsPlatz will make it easier than ever before for me to make a fool of myself, be misunderstood, and inadvertently offend people by posting things to the internet.
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Friday, January 23rd, 2009 23:13:00 GMT |
WordsPlatz |
Some especially minor, boring updates. I fixed some typos and changed some wording in the WordsPlatz home page and manual.
And, in WordsPlatz, I made some slight changes to how RSS feeds are output - now, the category and type of each post are put into two separate <category> fields instead of just one <category> field.
I decided to make this change when I noticed that in my MyBlogLog profile, the old way messed up the Topics list for some of my posts.
Edit, 6:44 PM: I also just fixed a problem where links in the RSS feed to posts of the category "Site Update" didn't work.
Edit, 1/24/2008, 2:29 PM: I forgot to mention that I also fixed a small, pretty harmless glitch in the tag system, in which, if you deleted all the tags of either tag type from a post, the tagmap table didn't have all the tags for that post deleted, only some of them.
The only two files of code in the WordsPlatz zip file I modified in the above slight ways were "blogconfig/lib-tags.php" and "blogconfig/lib-outputpagetext.php". The changes were so minor I didn't upgrade WordsPlatz's version number.
However, I just thought I should keep any WordsPlatz users informed, even though I don't know if there are any WordsPlatz users out there other than me. :-)
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| AMODB and WordsPlatz Updated |
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Saturday, February 28th, 2009 19:59:30 GMT |
Software Update |
Finally, I managed to overcome lethargy enough to make a few boring but necessary updates.
At 1:43-1:44 PM, I updated AMODB to v2.1, and updated the AMODB's home page and readme file. AMODB v2.1 repairs a couple glitches with the tag library.
At 1:59-2:01 PM, I updated WordsPlatz to v1.1, and updated WordsPlatz's home page and manual. WordsPlatz v1.1 repairs the very same glitches with the tag library.
Addition, 4:40 PM: Stupidly, I forgot to actually put the updated tag library file in the WordsPlatz zip file. If you downloaded it earlier, please download it again for the fixed version.
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| Astroblahhh Desktop v0.3 |
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Sunday, March 1st, 2009 22:40:37 GMT |
Software Release |
I have released Astroblahhh Desktop v0.3.
Currently, it contains only the Astroblahhh Links Organizer, a program which is basically like having your own (hopefully) private very enhanced Delicious on your hard drive, minus any social bookmarking features.
It is free, open source, and public domain, written in PHP/MySQL/JavaScript, and hopefully useable on any computer platform that can run a web server that can use PHP and a MySQL database.
Thinking everything was done, I first uploaded everything at 3:24 PM, but kept discovering little things I had to fix, so I reuploaded the readme file and zip file several times after that. The last little glitch I found was fixed at 4:15 PM, and the last time I uploaded the zip file was 4:18 PM.
I'm not going to bother analyzing the below astrological charts, but here are some copy-and-pasteable Astrolog 5.40 command lines for all you wonderful astrologers out there.
The official time of announcement is the time above this post.
The program is surprisingly small, considering how useful it is, and how long it took me to get it done - its zip file is a mere 56 KB. I first came up with the idea for the links organizer in Dec. 2007 (or maybe before). Since then, I worked on it very sporadically with long intervals of absolutely nothing being done to it.
It was useable as early as last June - but without the improved tag library I wrote in process of updating the Astrosorting Music Organization Database (AMODB), and the link-list script with all the handy filtering and ordering options, informative and aesthetically pleasing (at least to me) layout, and the AMODB-like search engine, it wasn't anywhere near as good as it is now. I did admittedly like it a lot more than Delicious even back then, but looking at it objectively, it couldn't really do much more than Delicious back then. So, y'all weren't missing much. The best features of the Astroblahhh Links Organizer didn't even exist until this past month.
No idea when I'm going to finish off the unfinished portions of Astroblahhh Desktop - the file organizer and the ideas/goals/things to do/random text scrap organizer. If only I could just snap my fingers and have them be done - but unfortunately, programming just doesn't work that way.
Thanks again to everyone who ever sent me donations of any size or kind. I hope I'm proving myself worthy and deserving of them.
-qa March 1 2009 15:24 EST 80:34W 41:09N
-qa March 1 2009 16:15 EST 80:34W 41:09N
-qa March 1 2009 16:18 EST 80:34W 41:09N
Location: Hubbard, OH-qa March 1 2009 17:40 EST 80:34W 41:09N
Addition, 6:46 PM. I forgot before to fix a small cosmetic problem in "list-links.php", which causes the link titles to be needlessly squished into a fraction of the available space. So, if you happened to download the zip file in the past few hours, you might want to download it again. The only file I updated is "list-links.php".
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| Astroblahhh Desktop slight problems fixed |
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Monday, March 2nd, 2009 20:33:02 GMT |
Software Update |
In my haste to finally be done with Astroblahhh Desktop, I neglected to improve the very basic login code so as to make it possible to easily change the cookie name and value.
I also forgot to add a few necessary instructions to the readme file on how to change your login user name and password and the cookie name and value. Plus, I stumbled across a few errors in the links organizer manual.
Now, all of that is fixed. I reuploaded the zip file at 3:15 PM and the readme file at 3:16 PM.
Sorry about that. Hopefully it's really done now and won't need any more slight fixes of stupid little annoying things.
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Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 05:37:28 GMT |
At 1:12 AM I updated the Donations page since it was out of date and I'm suddenly feeling especially uneasy about money.
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| Astroblahhh Desktop, AMODB, and WordsPlatz small updates |
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Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 01:12:11 GMT |
Software Updates |
At 8:56 PM, I finished uploading some small updates to Astroblahhh Desktop/the Astroblahhh Links Organizer, the Astrosorting Music Organization Database (AMODB), and WordsPlatz.
Actually, with all except Astroblahhh Desktop, the only important thing I changed was the readme file (or manual). I recently figured out there were a number of extra things that I and others ought to do for hopefully increased security, so I added some new security tips. I also at last realized I forgot to include instructions for turning off magic quotes in PHP.
To the Astroblahhh Links Organizer, I added a new form to make it possible to quickly input multiple URLs.
I'm still a little worried about money (I'm never truly unworried about it), but, I found out that things probably won't be as bad as I initially feared.
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| WordsPlatz small glitch fixed |
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Monday, March 30th, 2009 18:07:11 GMT |
WordsPlatz |
At 1:16 PM, I updated WordsPlatz to version 1.21, just to fix a minor problem I noticed today, where, in various places on my blog, February was erroneously replaced with March. Upon investigation I found this was the result of this annoying problem.
So, to fix that, in adminblog/publishnew.php, adminblog/publishall.php, and blogconfig/lib-outputpagetext.php, I added an extra argument to every use of the mktime function - a 1, to specify a default day number.
What a relief that the glitch wasn't the result of something worse. I was afraid it was an indication that I still had some really extensive glitches to fix. :-/
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| http://prosperity.astroblahhh.com/ |
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Thursday, April 9th, 2009 01:46:56 GMT |
At 2:55 PM on 4/7/2009, I finally put up a short, boring informational page at http://prosperity.astroblahhh.com/. (I didn't announce it until now because, due to technical difficulties, it wasn't working until today).
Originally I had that domain set up as a redirect to the former Donations & Microdonations for Individuals & Groups "pod" (the Gaia/Zaadz jargon for forum) on Gaia, since the pod itself contained pretty much all the news there even was that was related to the fate of the pod.
But, since the pod is under new management, is now known as the Microdonations pod, and will probably be undergoing significant changes in the future, it seemed like a good idea to finally put up a page of what little news there is that is related to the eventual, possible revival of the original group.
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| Second Life shop moved |
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Monday, April 27th, 2009 03:04:01 GMT |
I moved my tiny shop in Second Life today. The (free) MagnaMural, the Huge 32m x 24m Movie Screen (not free because it's more of a luxury than a useful tool), and the box people can pay to donate to me, can now be found at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Highflyer/74/229/761.
I didn't really want to move my shop, but, once I found out my neighbor really needed the land for something, I didn't want to inconvenience my neighbor for no really good reason by refusing to sell my land, so, I sold it. At least I got to move to a sim with a nicer name than Oddjob. :-) That name had bothered me for a while, actually, but that wasn't a good enough reason by itself to bother to move my shop.
Moments after I sold my old land, I bought the new land at exactly 15:11:06, according to my Second Life L$ transaction history. (That's in Second Life time, better known as Pacific time). No, I didn't attempt any electional astrology.
Here's an Astrolog 5.40 command line for any curious astrologers:
-qa Apr 26 2009 18:11:06 EDT 80:34W 41:09N
I'm almost ready to release an update of Astroblahhh Desktop. The organizer for ideas/goals/to-do list items/other random text scraps is almost done. Hopefully I'll release that sometime in the next couple weeks.
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| Astroblahhh Desktop v0.55 |
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Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 11:14:14 GMT |
Software Release |
You can now get Astroblahhh Desktop v0.55. It has not only the Astroblahhh Links Organizer, but the new Astroblahhh Idea Organizer.
I last uploaded its zip file at 6:39 AM EDT. As usual, here's a copy-and-pasteable Astrolog 5.40 command line for any curious astrologers.
The time above this blog post is the time at which I announced Astroblahhh Desktop v0.55's release:
I might have released it days earlier if I hadn't gotten a cold.
The last thing I need to complete before Astroblahhh Desktop will be version 1.0 is the file organizer part of it. No idea how long that will take. I'm not even sure I'm going to focus primarily on that next.
In any case, I'd rather not talk about my future plans, because I don't want to feel obligated to carry them out, nor do I want to disappoint anyone by taking a wretchedly long time to get them done. I'd rather just surprise you all every so often.-qa May 13 2009 6:39 EDT 80:34W 41:09N
Location: Hubbard, OH.
-qa May 13 2009 7:14 EDT 80:34W 41:09N
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| Astroblahhh Desktop v1.0 |
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Thursday, September 10th, 2009 01:08:46 GMT |
Software Release |
Finally, I have released Astroblahhh Desktop v1.0. Now, in addition to the Astroblahhh Links Organizer and Astroblahhh Idea Organizer, it contains the new Astroblahhh File Organizer.
So, now, I can much more easily find things, and add search tags, ratings, notes, and other info to those things' records in the database, so I can easily tell what everything is for without having to guess.
The Astroblahhh File Organizer also gives me a way to literally melt my hard drive. Yes, really. Having 255,000 file records in a single database and then adding/removing 20 indexes (each taking about 28-40 seconds to add or remove) is not a good idea.
Fortunately, my hard drive still works, but, it was pretty scary accidentally having it reach 69° Celsius, the highest temperature I've ever known it to reach (I didn't think it could get higher than 66°), and actually smelling the melted plastic. 69° Celsius = 156.2° Fahrenheit. :-O
Here's a picture of my hard drive. Unless I'm mistaken, the plastic on it is supposed to all be smooth, not rough in spots like it is now. (Click the picture for a larger version).
So, in light of my experience, it's probably best to use the Astroblahhh File Organizer for multiple small databases, instead of packing way too many file records into a single database. How many is too many? I don't know. :-)
So, please only use Astroblahhh Desktop at your own risk. The other organizers' databases could conceivably have the same problem if they had too many records in them, but, compared to file records, it's harder to add a ton of idea or link records, so it's less likely that your ideas or links DB will end up being dangerously huge. Nonetheless, be careful with them too.
Here's an Astrolog 5.40 command line for any curious astrologers:
(Edit, 9:13 PM. Drat! My computer's clock said 9:09 PM, but maybe it was a little fast, since my blog post is actually dated 01:08:46 GMT (9:08:46 EDT). Oh, well. Since I uploaded the file before I posted the blog post, that might mean I actually uploaded it at 9:08 PM, Sept. 9, 2009.
Oh, well, at least I was early instead of late. Then again, maybe I was on time. I have no idea which clock is more accurate, my computer's or my website's.)
Yes, Mercury is retrograde, and because of the technical and communications snafus many astrologers associate with Mercury retrograde, many astrologers would probably advise me not to release this now. I don't care, though. It's just too good to hold back for three weeks just because of astrology.
Besides, Mercury retrograde is actually rather appropriate for a program with such a major problem as the ability to overheat and melt your hard drive if you add/remove a lot of indexes of a huge 255,000-record database. :-)
But, there are still some more things that I'm going to have to complete before I'll feel like it's really done. (Or at least, as done as I can make it for the time being, until I become a better database programmer).
Since it took a long time for me to add 255,000 file records to my personal file DB, I don't want to just discard it. So, I'm going to have to write yet more scripts so I can split up my DB into smaller portions. I'd also like to make it easy to switch between multiple databases without having to edit source code.
I'm so tired of working on Astroblahhh Desktop, though, I don't know when I'm going to get around to that. So, I just thought I ought to release what I already have so far, since it might be months before I get the rest done.
Edit, 11:24 PM. Too bad I didn't even think of naming it Astroblahhh Desktop v0.99 until just now. Oh, well - too late now. :-) It would have been cute - Astroblahhh Desktop v0.99, released on 9/9/09 at 9:09 (or 9:08) PM. :-)
Edit, 12:04 AM, 9/11/2009: As usual, I had to reupload the zip file numerous times after the initial upload, since I kept noticing minor problems, typos, etc. that needed to be fixed. The last upload was at 11:58 PM EDT, 9/10/2009. If I change it again, I'll update this post again.
I tried to both upload the zip file and post this post at 9:09 PM, simply so I could say I released Astroblahhh Desktop v1.0 on 9/9/09 at 9:09 PM. :-) (I was too tired to do it at 9:09 AM).
-qa Sept 9 2009 21:09 EDT 80:34W 41:09N
Location: Hubbard, OH.
-qa Sept 9 2009 21:08 EDT 80:34W 41:09N
The program is actually useable as-is, and I'm guessing it probably won't melt your hard drive unless you do what I described above, or something else which is incredibly taxing for it. (Nonetheless - again, please only use this program at your own risk).
-qa Sept 10 2009 23:58 EDT 80:34W 41:09N
| Astroblahhh Desktop v1.12 |
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Saturday, December 5th, 2009 17:41:35 GMT |
Software Release |
I have released Astroblahhh Desktop v1.12. What a long and horrible ordeal it was, but at least now I finally have an adequate solution for my disorganization.
The most notable things about this update are probably:
At least two things got broken (the export scripts for links DBs and idea DBs), and assorted other useful things have not yet been made, and who knows what giltches I (or maybe others) might stumble across and have to repair. So, there will probably be updates in the future.
However, this is still the best and most complete version yet.
I uploaded its zip file at 12:42 PM, and I announced Astroblahhh Desktop's release at the time above this blog post. Here's an Astrolog 5.40 command line:
(Edit, 12:43 PM. Well, 12:42 PM according to my computer. Once again, it seems my website and computer are not in agreement about what time it actually is.
Writing it wasn't too fun, so I guess I can't exactly call it a labor of love, but I do love having it, at least. Being able to much more quickly and easily find things has granted me surprisingly large amounts of peace of mind, already saved me a lot of time, and removed a lot of needless stress from my life. It was definitely worth all the time I spent writing it.-qa Dec 5 2009 12:42 EST 80:34W 41:09N
Location: Hubbard, OH.
-qa Dec 5 2009 12:41:35 EST 80:34W 41:09N
The time above this blog post.)
Anyhow, I hope Astroblahhh Desktop will be useful to you. Despite all its flaws and possible dangers, it is quite possibly the best, most useful thing I've ever created.