//beconfused

Note that Fresh Comments 1.2.1 is out.

What is Fresh Comments 1.2?

Fresh Comments 1.1 is a WordPress widget that displays the latest approved comments submitted by your visitors and also gives you - the owner - better control on how your recent comments are displayed. Go straight to download Fresh Comments.

How to install Fresh Comments?

(Click on the icon to configure Fresh Comments.)

Easy. Just download Fresh Comments 1.1 and extract it to your hard disk. Then upload freshcomments.php into your wp-content/plugins folder and then activate the plugin through your admin interface. Finally, check it out in your admin interface at Presentation -> Sidebar Widgets to add or remove Fresh Comments widget by dragging around.

How to configure Fresh Comments?

(Above is the configuration screen of Fresh Comments 1.1. See how Fresh Comments 1.0 look like.)

Here are the configurable options:

• Title - Give the widget a name to be displayed in your blog.
• No. of comments - Number of comments to be displayed in descending chronological order for your fresh comments section. (Only takes a value of ‘1′ or more.)
• No. of words - Displays only the number of words you specify as a comment preview. (Only takes a value of ‘1′ or more.)
• Date/Time format - This allows you to set the format where the date and time would replace %comment_datetime%. Fresh Comments 1.1 uses the PHP date formatting parameters.
• Show trackbacks - Checking this option enables trackbacks to be displayed in Fresh Comments.
• Show pingbacks - Checking this option enables pingbacks to be displayed in Fresh Comments.
• Before - This is where you can insert HTML before all fresh comments are displayed. Recommended that you put
  here.
  • After - This is where you can insert HTML after all fresh comments are displayed. Recommended that you put

  here.

• Format - Allows you to specify how you want each line of fresh comment to be generated. You can click on ‘(reset)’ to go back to the default format. Read more about the formatting options below.

How to format Fresh Comments?

• %comment_author%
• %comment_author_url%
• %comment_content%
• %comment_preview% - Displays the first few words of the comments. The number of preview words is specified in the ‘No. of preview words’ option as mentioned above.
• %post_title%
• %comment_permalink% - This displays the URI of the comment in your post.
• %comment_datetime% - This displays the date and time according to the format that you set in ‘Date/Time format’.
• %post_permalink% - This displays the URI of your post.

Most of the tags are pretty much self explanatory. To add a tag, just click or highlight within the formatting textbox and then click on the tag you wish to insert.

Below are some examples of formats you can use:

Format:

<li><a href="%comment_permalink%">%comment_author% in %post_title%</a>: %comment_preview%</li>

Format to HTML:

<li><a href="http://beconfused.com/blog/2006/03/22/busy-week/#comment-9812">Mr. Dew in busy//week</a>: Well, it's okay. I don't think I can do much</li>

Displayed in browser:

<li><a href="http://beconfused.com/blog/2006/03/22/busy-week/#comment-9812">Mr. Dew in busy//week</a>: Well, it's okay. I don't think I can do much</li>

Other examples of formats:

<li><a TARGET="_blank" href="%comment_author_url%">%comment_author%</a> in <a href="%comment_permalink%">%post_title%</a>: <a href="%comment_permalink%">%comment_preview% [...]</a></li>

<li><a href="%comment_author_url%">%comment_author%</a> says, <a href="%comment_permalink%">"%comment_preview%..."</a></li>

(Using Fresh Comment widget in your sidebar.)

Additional notes

I followed CSS Drive’s tableless form structure but I used tables where necessary. This release wouldn’t be made possible without the suggestions and request that I have gotten from Herrmueller’s comment, Inkiness’s trackback and Babak’s comment.

If there are any things you spot that is not working, do give me a notice and I’ll fix it as soon as possible. I’m not an experience PHP coder so please forgive me if anythings goes wrong. I tested this on WordPress version 2.03 only but it should work in any version that Sidebar Widgets can support.

The browsers tested are Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and Mozilla Firefox 1.5. It didn’t work on Opera browser but I can’t do anything about it since WordPress Widgets don’t work there anyway.

Note that Fresh Comments 1.2.1 is out.

The source code for Fresh Comments 1.1 is distributed under GPL (General Public License), meaning that you can freely modify and distribute this source code.

Please do comment about my work.

Note that Fresh Comments 1.2.1 is out.

I’ve been slightly because this couple of weeks so you see my posts are lacking these days. I’ve been busy but the times are quite fun. I’ve been meeting and talking to quite a lot of people recently. Mostly are my pals in camp, I haven’t seen them for quite some time.

There are surprises as I walk around my neighborhood too. I’ve been meeting long lost friends - okay, not that long - basically just secondary school friends and stuff.

Also has occupied me is my Fresh Comments plugin. I lost touch so fast. I don’t know what I coded already. I revisited my code a couple of days ago and just literally shut my text processor off to play Ragnarok Online. But this afternoon I really went on to try to understand my codes.

I’ve been listening and I implemented a couple of extras to the existing plugin, notably:

# Ability to display fresh comments from static and published pages.
# Allows you to include the date or time of the posted comment in whichever format you wish so long as it follows the PHP date format.
# It is also neater. Yes, it’s quite neat already, but it just got neater again. The whole HTML portion is rewritten from a scratch so the structures are prettier. I use tables when necessary.
# Also, you can select if you want pingbacks or trackbacks to be listed. Okay, I got to be honest - I haven’t coded that part fully. It’s half-written and I had to rush off to a friend’s birthday.

I am aware that some users request for these:

* Cached Fresh Comments.
* Show fresh comments in categories.
* Private post’s comments are not shown to people who logged in.

The above 3 features are not implemented in the coming release (version 1.1). Fresh comments in categories are kinda hard. I mean it’s not hard to code but it’s just not that worth the trouble. I have to query MySQL too much to get that done. I have yet to figure out how to do caching too. And private posts… Well, I haven’t figured that one out too.

I’ll be releasing the plugin after more tests. Probably coming Monday or Tuesday if possible.

It seems like my blog is badly hit by spam this week, with more than 100 spam per day. I don’t know what’s going on. Never has it been that bad. While spam filters are deployed in the comments section, spam may still sip through. I use Akismet as my spam filter and further moderate email address. Basically only email address that has been approved would appear.

Frankly, I don’t know how long this would last since spammers seem to be getting smarter.

I’ll be busy the coming week so I won’t be blogging as much already. If you have noticed, my blogging rate increased. I streamlined my blogging process a little by using more plugins. I’m still trying to improve the web design to make reading and organizing even easier.

I’m trying to write a program as part of learning. It’s something to resize my images and apply a watemark on them. I trying to write it with C# .NET. I just thought I should program something that may be useful for me when I learn. It sure beats silly jackpot programs, randomizers and Hello-worlds.

Sun’s Java is going open source. Sun has been a supporter of open source but we never did see Java become open source itself.

(Sun Java logo.)

Following through on a promise it made earlier this month, Sun confirmed at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco Tuesday that it would open the source code to Java, but said it needs the community’s help in getting it done to prevent fragmentation of the technology.

“The question is not whether we will open-source Java, the question is how,” Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said during his opening keynote. His statement followed a similar one by Rich Green, Sun’s executive vice president of software, but neither provided any specific timeline for the move.

Source: BetaNews

Finally, Java becomes open source. Frankly speaking, I don’t think this would cause much of an impact. Java is already popular and making it open source is perhaps just a movement to shut the critics up. Plus, some people actually thought Java is open source already.

Visual Studio 2005 Express editions are now free. If you’re a programmer, do check it out. Before this, Visual Studio 2005 Express editions are free for a limited one year usage. Now it’s totally free without a time limit.

These development tools are excellent if you code in Visual Basic, Visual C# or even Visual C++. The tools available in the express editions are:

• Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
• Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
• Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
• Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
• Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
• SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

You can read more at Dan Fernandez’s Blog.

Just when you thought the Hitachi one was geeky enough, you haven’t seen the Visual Studio one that Microsoft aims to attract Korean customers.

Microsoft Visual Studio is a suite of programming tools that helps you program in Visual Basic .NET, C#, C++ .NET, J# and a couple of stuff I can’t recall.

_(Visual Studio Team Systems 2005 Korean rap animation.)_

Check out the lyrics too while you listen. Geeky stuff. Good try though. This is the first Korean rap music that I heard. I think Korean rap sounds pretty good actually.

Watch and listen to Visual Studio Team System 2005.

*Visual Studio Team System 2005*

í??� ì?¶ì?´ï¿½?� 미ë¤?ë??�?� ê°?ë°?�?� ë§?ì??ì§?
(I have lots of stuff I put off, even though I wanted to complete)

ì?¬í??�? ì½?ë?©ï¿½?�ë?? ë??�?� ì?°ï¿½?� ê°?ë¡?ë§?ì??ì§?
(However, the damn “coding” stopped me from doing it)

í?¼ï¿½? ì?¼ê·¼ � ë?? �?�?�ë?? 배� í??,
(The hunger that I tormented me while working nights)

ì?´ï¿½ � � 린 ì½?ë?© ë??�? ì??�? 무ë?? ê°?ê±°í??
(The desperation that I got after knowing I lost all the coding work that I put in)

í??ì§?ë§? �?�� �ë?? ë?¬ï¿½?�
(Now, things have changed)

ë?´ �?�?�? � ê°?를 ë?¬ì??주ë?? ë©?ì§? 기í??를 ì?¡ì??
(Take the opportunity for taking my idea to fly high)

ë?¤ì?? í??ì?´ë?? VS 2005
(The VS 2005 is finally reborn)

�?� 를 ê¿?꾸ë?? ê°?ë°?�?�?� �?�� �í??
(As the beacon for software developers dreaming freedom)

�?� �?��? ��?��?�� �르��
(You do not call me a coder any more for god’s sake)

ë³´ë?¤ ë??�?� 무ë??를 í?¥í?´ ì?¨ ì?¬ë??ê¹?
(Because we keep striving to be part of a larger world)

ì??ë¡?ì?´ ì?¤ê³?ê°? ë?´ ì??ì?¼ë¡? ë?¤ì?´ì??ì?¼ë??
(Since I have a brand-new design right here in my hand)

�?�� � 미ë??를 ì?¨ 몸ì?¼ë¡? ê»´ì??ì?¼ë¦¬
(I can now embrace the whole future, using my whole body)

ë°?ë¡? ë??ì?? � ì??í?´ (ë??ì?? � ì??í?´)
(For you and me)

ë°?ë¡? ë??ì?? � ì??í?´ (ë??ì?? � ì??í?´)
(For you and me)

ì?¸ï¿½?�?� �?��?�ì?´ê°?� ì??ì?±í??ë?? ê°?ë°?�?
(We are proud of being developers leading this world. )

�?�� � �?��?�?� ê½?�?� í?¼ì?? �?� í??�?!
(And We will take the flowers of hope to fruition, even bigger than ever before)

*Bridge*

Visual / Studio / Team / System

*Outro*

“ì?¤ �?� ë²?�?� ë§?쳤ë??? ê°?�?� 맥주 í?? ì?? í??ì§??”
(”Are you done for the day? Then, how about have some beer?”)

“�?�ë²? ê±° ë??무 ê´?찮�?��?�, �?�걸ë¡? ê°?ì§? �?�?
(”This looks fantastic! Why don’t we stick with this?)

â??� ë°°ë??�?� ì?´ë?¤ í??ë¡?ê·¸ë?¨ ì?°ì?¸ì???�?
(”Which program do you use, sir?”)

Visual / Studio / Team / System

Full lyrics at Microsoft Korea

Oh man, I feel so geeky now. You can download Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions for free now by the way. I’ve tried it and love the improvement they made to the whole IDE (integrated development environment).

I am feeling down for about an hour. My industrial training program (ITP) is ending. I am not sad for that, nor am I happy. It’s okay that it is ending.

I need to submit a report at the end of this ITP. I have been working on lipoprotein metabolism. I don’t understand most parts of it. I am doing the manual work type of things. Basically, I’ll take the values and play around until the model predicts the right result.

It seemed like an easy job. But it takes a lot of time. My only regret through this project is that I made poor use of time. I have a lot of extra time. I use it on the wrong things. I have read many articles. I could have selected them better.

Let me give you an example.

As you know, I am working on lipoprotein. I use FORTRAN to aid in the testing of the models. Instead of reading more about lipoprotein, I spend time learning FORTRAN and reading articles related to FORTRAN. And I over-read it. That is unnecessary and I suffer with the problem that I don’t know much things about the relations of high density lipoprotein with - say - insulin resistance now.

What I am supposed to do a to tweak the variables and attempt to archieve a better fit for the lipoprotein subfractions HDL3, HDL2, VLDL1, VLDL2, LDL-I and LCL-III that can correspond to that of a normal human being. After archieving that, I am to tweak specific variables that I don’t remember to archieve a good fit that represents an insulin-resistance patient.

My problem is with the report. I don’t know how to start it. At the end of the first half of the day, I typed less than five hundred words. I look at the monitor and the monitor just stares back into my tired eyes.

It’s just not working out right. I need to do the report badly. I have no idea how to start.

[By the way, this is not a secret project or anything and I have consulted my supervisor regarding this. I can speak to anyone regarding what I do for this project. No IP involved.]