Firewall (Out)

MovableType 3.2 wants to make outbound calls for displaying MovableType News and for going out to get styles with StyleCatcher. Neither work because, according to Brad Choate, the server needs to be able to make outbound http calls. I’m guessing the firewall is preventing it. Need to figure out how to open up outbound calls. Everything in the Mac OS X Sharing system preferences seems to be about in bound.

Article.

MovableType 3.2 and Comment Spam

Since I put in the spam password on comments a while back, MovableType has developed some sophisticated anti-spam features. Upgrading to version 3.2 basically wiped out the spam password technique, which I thought I would have to figure out how to put back in. But in looking at the new features, I’m not sure we need the password.

MovableType is rating comments as junk or not. And it is learning what we all think is junk. So it may be that we do not need a password. For example, Mom just posted a comment that got rated +1 (plus is good minus is bad. I don’t know how or low the numbers go.) It decided +1 because of this:

Final Feedback Rating: +1

Test Score Results

SpamLookup Link Filter +1.0 No links are present in feedback

SpamLookup Email Memory +1.0 E-mail was previously published (comment id 18).

Since I’ve allowed comments with her e-mail before, that is considered positive. I can turn on auto-publish for comments that have a positive rating.

More testing needed, but it would be good to not have to have passwords. Then well-intended acquaintances can add comments. What do you think? Leave a comment. 🙂

Badlands – A Tribute

I’ve run into several songs from the album Badlands – A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and as a collection I’ve enjoyed the songs as much as I’ve always enjoyed the original album. So I bought it. Finishing the first listen, I can tell it will be one of my favorites. Much like the Elton John / Bernie Taupin tribute album Two Rooms, the variety of artists makes for a great listen.

I don’t know why Nebraska has always been one of my favorite albums. It is as much a demo record in that Springsteen recorded the songs in 4 track for what he intended to be a full band album, but he liked the raw sound enough that he published the songs mostly recorded in his home.

The Badlands tribute, at Springsteen’s request, were also recorded in 4 track. I particularly like Crooked Fingers’ Mansion On The Hill, Dar Williams’ Highway Patrolman, Deana Carter’s State Trooper, Ani DiFranco’s Used Cars, and Aimee Mann & Michael Penn’s Reason To Believe. Ben Harper’s My Father’s House is probably my favorite.

There’s not a bad song or artist rendition on the album.

Now playing: My Father’s House by Ben Harper

Chat, Sleep, Time Zones, and Math

I was surprised to see Danny on line early one morning when I was at work. I floated the mouse over his name and the information shown here (click to zoom in) showed up. Anyone care to do the math and take into account Central vs. Eastern time and figure out when he got in and when he went to bed?

Certainly he was snoozing when I took this snapshot.

Letter From $chool

(A chain e-mail worth posting.)

Dear Dad,

$chool i$ really great. I am making lot$ of friend$ and

$tudying very hard. With all my $tuff, I $imply can’t think of

anything I need, $o if you would like, you can ju$t $end me a card,

a$ I would love to hear from you.

Love,

Your $on.

Reply from dad…

Dear Son,

I kNOw that astroNOmy, ecoNOmics, and oceaNOgraphy are

eNOugh to keep even an hoNOr student busy. Do NOt forget

that the pursuit of kNOwledge is a NOble task, and you can

never study eNOugh.

Love,

Dad

———————-

Support the victims of Hurricane Katrina

www.redcross.org/donate

Rebuilding and Refreshing Templates

After upgrading to 3.2, some key system templates were missing from several of the older blogs that caused errors, specifically ‘Site Javascript’ and ‘Comment Pending Template’. These older blogs never had these templates, and choosing to refresh them at the individual blog level did not add them. And now you can’t add System templates manually as you once could.

Found the answer here. Refreshing templates in the System Overview will create new templates as needed.

Refreshing all templates on a weblog

Go to the Weblog listing screen in the System Overview. Select a weblog and choose “Refresh Template(s)” from the action bar dropdown. All of the templates in that weblog that match default templates will be copied to backups and refreshed with the new code and settings.

This is the preferred way to execute the plugin because it is the only way currently to refresh System plugins and will add crucial templates which did NOT exist in previous versions (e.g. the Site Javascript templates).

This log from refreshing Ted’s Blog shows the templates being created:

Processing templates for weblog ‘Ted’s Blog’

Refreshing template ‘Main Index’.

Refreshing template ‘Dynamic Site Bootstrapper’.

Refreshing template ‘RSD’.

Created template ‘Atom Index’. <——–

Created template 'RSS 2.0 Index'. <———

Refreshing template 'Master Archive Index'.

Refreshing template 'Comment Preview Template'.

Created template 'Comment Pending Template'. <——-

Refreshing template 'Comment Error Template'.

Refreshing template 'Uploaded Image Popup Template'.

Refreshing template 'Comment Listing Template'.

Refreshing template 'Dynamic Pages Error Template'.

Refreshing template 'Stylesheet'.

Refreshing template 'Date-Based Archive'.

Refreshing template 'Category Archive'.

Refreshing (with backup) template 'Individual Entry Archive'.

Refreshing template 'TrackBack Listing Template'.

Created template 'Site JavaScript'. <———

Mirch Masala

The best Indian food in Atlanta, per Danny’s old boss at La Scoop. The cook is from England, where the best cooks live. He doesn’t work on Thursdays, so don’t go then.

Mirch Masala

1713 Church Street

Decatur, GA 30033

Map

Oz is QuickSilver

Note to self. Oz is a PowerMac G4 867 QS Tower. That is QS (QuickSilver) as opposed to MDD (Mirrored Drive Doors) which means he is older which means he has an Ultra ATA/66 bus instead of ATA/100 which means the 200 GB drive I picked up for $99 at Sam’s will only end up acting like a 137 MB drive.

Also, Oz has an extra video card and when you forget that and plug into it, you end up seeing blank desktop (or extended desktop) and you think something is wrong. Tip: Plug the video cable higher.