Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

First Night Alone
December 04, 2005

Berta is on a work trip in Ireland until Friday, so I have the kids to myself all week. But before I get into that, let me mention the travel issues today.

We packed up the kids to take their mom to the airport for her trip. Why her work doesn’t supply her transportation for this, I’m not sure. Probably they’d pay for mileage and parking, and by the time she was done filling out all the forms to get her expenses back it wouldn’t be worth the hassle.

Also an annoyance is that Septa doesn’t run trains to Downingtown on Sunday. What’s that about? They’ll run to Malvern, but not two more stops out? That stinks.

Anyway, we went on out to the airport. There was snow/ice on the ground from last night, so we left a tad early, but the roads weren’t too bad. We stopped at Arby’s for lunch, since the kids would be screaming for food if we waited until I got them home to feed them. That set us back a little bit, which didn’t help for what events were then to pass.

How to Patch WordPress
December 03, 2005

With the looming release of WordPress 2.0, there are a bunch of folks that are submitting bug fixes that say things like, “I would submit this to Trac, but I don’t know how.”

I think even more people are suggesting that writing to the mailing list with their bugs to “confirm” them is better than submitting them directly to Trac. I suppose if you’re not sure something is a bug, it might be worthwhile to ask someone else (I would ask on IRC at #wordpress on irc.freenode.net) but it really is better to have a formal record of an issue, even if it turns out that what you’re experiencing is expected behavior. If you really fear that it’s something to do specifically with your installation, check on IRC or maybe try a fresh install.

Nevertheless, it might be useful to folks to learn how I do it. I’m not saying my method is correct, just that it seems to get the job done with few complaints from the devs who commit my patches. It’s also a good method to use on Windows. (Sorry, someone else can document command-line Subversion use - not that I don’t know it, I’m just lazy.) Here we go…

10 Geeky Christmas Gift Ideas
December 02, 2005

You know I’m not going to give you the same washed-out “Buy an iPod Accessory” crap that you’re getting from all the sales sites. I’m a pedigreed gadget-hunter. I’ve been meaning to write more about some of the crazy junk I have around the house, but I’m too busy messing with them and opening the UPS deliveries of new gadgets to bother!

Do you have a geek in your life? Maybe a blogger that would like to go pro? If so, then I’ve got a few gift ideas for you. If you know my tastes, you’ll not be surprised by the gadgety for-kids-but-cool toys on the list, but also be aware that some of these prices aren’t stocking-stuffer-sized.

And if you’re buying for me - Yes, I want everything listed here.

Item #1 - Neuros MPEG4 recorder
This device hooks to any standard RCA a/v output, like that from your VCR or cable box, and allows you to record the video and audio directly to Memory Stick (yes, the video format used plays back on the PSP) or Compact Flash.

Oh, but that’s just the first…

Black Rocks
December 02, 2005

At breakfast this morning Abby was goofing around, as usual. She takes her dear old time eating her cereal, then she runs around the kitchen table doinking Riley on the head in his highchair as she passes by, and usually ends up making Mom and Dad late for work.

This usually happens in spite of anything we say to quell the behavior, and if you were a fly on the wall of our kitchen weekday mornings, you’d hear a repeated two-tone cacophony of “Abby, are you done breakfast? Then go use the potty.”

This morning, I employed a different tactic as Abby slid herself about linoleum on her full-body footy PJs.

“You know that Santa keeps a list of good and bad kids, right?”