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Spam Karma open source or die die die

In case you missed the announcement, Dave who developed Spam Karma is no longer going to make changes or update the code. Instead he has released it as GPL v.2 and created a Google Code repository in hopes that some talented people will pickup where we he leaving off. I wonder if we Spam Karma users had actually donated money toward his efforts if he would have continued.

Spam Karma puts Akismet and other spam fighting tools to shame. I think in all the time I have been using Spam Karma, I have had only one false positive. I get false negatives on trackbacks but that is because it was only recently that I realized I could change the settings for how Spam Karma handles trackbacks so I’m still making adjustments.

I also found Dave’s comments on a WordPress replacement very interesting. Specifically he notes, "If you look at it, blog systems are over 10 year old now. Their UI have barely evolved since the first versions. … There is a bad need for a groundbreaking platform that would get rid of ten years of accumulated UI habits."

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Aardvark is compatible with Firefox 3!

Aardvark is a Firefox extension that I frequently use before resorting to MODIv2. Both of these tools outline elements in the browser and reveal the underlying CSS. When CSS is being mystical and you have keyboard shaped dents in your forehead, these tools can pull the man out from behind the curtain and help bring on that a-ha! moment which solve the problem. Aardvark needs to be installed from the developer’s site as its review for addition in the Mozilla Firefox Add-ons is not complete. I highly recommend Aardvark!

Oh, the Web Developer Toolbar also has similar functionality under Information->Display Element Information. (cntl+shift+f) The Web Developer Toolbar is the absolute most essential Firefox add-on for us Internet junkies!

Update: Like MODIv2, Aardvark now comes as a bookmarklet! That means Aardvark can be used with Internet Explorer and Safari also.

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Cutting a plugin loose – Goodbye WP-Project

I liked the concept of WP-Project. It’s a WordPress plugin which adds a tab in your dashboard for project management. It was inspired by Basecamp (collaboration piece for project management) and Harvest(er) (a timetracker). Conceptually we like to spend a lot of time in our dashboards so why not do our project management there too? I just didn’t find the plugin robust enough for my needs. And if it was robust enough, I’d be concerned that my database, which already has issues with Spam Karma eating its space, would fillup too quickly. (n.b. The database has a 100MB allocation.) For now, I’m going to try out Zoho’s project management.

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WordPress Support on IRC is on Freenode

For those looking, WordPress.com support on IRC is on the Freenode servers at #wordpress.com while WordPress.org support is on the Freenode servers at #wordpress. #wordpress.com is primarily WordPress.com developers/employees and staff of Automattic while #wordpress is the open source community.

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Video Comments Now Allowed

Thanks to the power of Seesmic, you can now comment on any Reality Me post by simply using your webcam. Below the regular comment box, you will find a link "add a video comment"
Video comment
If you have a Seesmic account, you can log in and post a video. I have also opened comments up for anonymous comments which means you don’t have to have a Seesmic account. Try it out! You will be prompted to allow the plug to use your webcam and nothing gets installed on your computer. I have heard that there may be a problem with the video commenting and WordPress 2.5.1 but I am sure that will be addressed rapidly.

Update: If you add Seesmic video comments to your blog, be sure to immediately add yourself to the wiki. It takes only seconds. I could have been within the first 100 but ended up being like 187 because I waited to look at the wiki.

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Import from iWeb to WordPress

I helped Chris the Carpenter and Kari the Herbalist set up YurtTrash and The Lifted Lorax Show recently. They were using iWeb and importing to WordPress did not look promising. Fortunately, they decided against importing so I ceased seeking out a solution or writing one myself. Melinda has asked about the solution for importing from iWeb to WordPress. Luckily, Dan of MaciVerse wrote an excellent guide on March 8, 2008 How To: Import your iWeb Blog to WordPress. Since MaciVerse is down right now, I am reproducing his entire post (minus pictures) for prosperity:

Update: Looks like MaciVerse is back up. I just caught caught it during Maciverse’s face lift.

Continue reading Import from iWeb to WordPress

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I lost my DOM plugin

In what has to be the dumbest thing I have seen all week, the DOM Inspector plugin is available on the Mozilla website only at its 2.0.0 version. The DOM Inspector 2.0.0 is only compatible with the unreleased Firefox 3. The current stable version of Firefox is 2.0.0.13. I was having trouble with Firebug not displaying styles and one troubleshooting step is to reinstall the DOM Inspector. Whoops. Not anymore! Guess I have to install the FF release candidate or just wait. I’m not a huge Firebug fan anyway. I can wait.

Update: To get the DOM Inspector working, follow these instructions:

I exited Firefox, edited the xpti.dat file and replaced the
line
223,inIDOMUtils,{ffffd059-13d1-4ef7-acb1-91188c6e31dd},2,-1,1
with
223,inIDOMUtils,{78fd16c2-bdfb-4b1d-8738-d536d0a8f430},0,-1,1

Started Firefox again [Source, Bugzilla, DOM Inspector "CSS Style Rules" panel suddenly does not display any selectors Comment #22]

Note: For me it was line 237 so make sure you are editing the actual line with inIDOMUtils.

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Performance Issues?

If there is one thing that Reality Me shouldn’t have is performance issues. I was told that today it saw 500 errors. Not as in the quantity five hundred but as in the server was having a problem. Reality Me is on a shared host which means that the one computer servers out web pages for many different people. In other words, the same box might have a very popular website unrelated to any of my websites and the server could have performance issues because of stuff they are doing. Of course, it could be me. I could be demanding too much of the machine with an inefficient WordPress plugin.

In short, I need to do troubleshooting which could take a lot of effort. If you notice problems with Reality Me or Domestic Psychology, please email me or Twitter me and let me know about the issue or error message. I am also going to try out the WP-Cache plugin so I would be interested in hearing about any odd behaviors (or improvements) it created. Thank you!

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WordPress 2.5 post by email broken

Yesterday when Comcast was down for scheduled maintenance I tried to blog it by sending an email from my phone to Reality Me via a secret email that WordPress checks once an hour. I actually sent two posts via email and neither were ever seen on the blog. I just found both the posts with a "pending review" status. This seems to be a new behavior in WordPress 2.5 and not a feature that I like. There does not appear to be a setting that allows me to change this behavior. Perhaps it is my turn to write a plugin.

I think having the ability to post by email when I cannot otherwise reach the blog is a powerful feature. Having the post hidden from publication by slapping it into a pending review status makes posting by email a bit useless, at least for my purposes.

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Cathy recognized by Alltop

Featured in AlltopI think Cathy’s writing is fantastic but I happen to be biased. I find Domestic Psychology a pleasure to read (again with the bias). I am tickled to announce that Cathy has been recognized by Guy Kawasaki and has joined the likes of Jack Lail in Alltop! Cathy is in the Alltop Life category along with some familiar blogs such as xkcd.com, indexed and Sarcomical. Congratulations to Cathy! (Does this mean I don’t have to program anymore?)

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WordPress Convert

Kari the Herbalist, of The Lifted Lorax Show fame, has moved from iweb to using WordPress! Head over to YurtTrash and check our her story and a very well designed blog.

As a reminder, my standard offer is that if you get yourself some inexpensive hosting, and want to setup a WordPress site, I will happily help you. If your site is personal, you can also find volunteers to help you install from install4free.

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