seanwillson.com

well apple finally did it, they released new ipods along with a new apple music service and a new version of itunes. we can’t take advantage of the music service or itunes until i get my macintosh but amy and i will be buying the new ipod when we return from our honeymoon. we’re technically getting them for each other as out wedding gifts but since they aren’t being released until friday we’re going to have to wait. friday is our wedding day after all and something tells me that we’re not going to want to play with an ipod that day.


the new ipod is way cool … it is slimmer than the old ipod coming in at 0.73” thick for the 30 gig versions. the 10 and 15 gig versions are a measly 0.62” thick. how’d dey do dat?


they added a few more games, a much needed feature of on-the-go play lists, a cool synch/charge cradle, auto-synch, alarm clock, customizeable menus, usb 2.0 support for windows users, aac support, and a cool new case. did i mention the cool new case? digging those curves!


look for an update when we pick them up, i’m excited already.

after playing around with my previous mod i decided to take it to the next level. i had originally wanted to do it this way but i ended up hacking it and getting it working. anyhow, this mod has a bit more code, though still not a ton. it gives the mt user a lot of additional control over how their indexes are being rebuilt. i could also envision adding this rebuild type to other templates as well if people thought it would be useful.


first and foremost i must tell people that these changes are not supported by six apart and i don’t take responsibility for their effect on your installation.


now i guess your wondering what this mod even is. i added the ability to specify the rebuild type of a index template. in the typical installation when you create a new index template you can specify whether or not you want an index to rebuild when other indexes are rebuilt. you don’t have any additional control over when this rebuild may occur. it usually occurs when you rebuild your site, when you rebuild that template, when you add a new entry, or when someone adds a new comment. what if that template has nothing to do with comments or entries? what if you want it to rebuild when a trackback occurs? in short, you can’t … until now.


i’ve changed the list template and edit template screens to now allow the site editor to specify exactly when a template should be rebuilt. here are the new “rebuild types” that i’ve created:

• never — excluding a forced rebuild do not ever rebuild this template.
• entry — only rebuild this template when a new entry is entered or an entry is edited.
• comment — only rebuild this template when a new comment is submitted.
• trackback — only rebuild this template when a trackback occurs.
• entry, comment * — rebuild this template when a new entry or a new comment is submitted. this is the typical rebuild type that ships with movable type and is the default rebuild type for all new templates.
• entry, trackback — rebuild this template when a new entry or a new trackback occurs.
• comment, trackback — rebuild this template when a new comment or a new trackback occurs.
• all — whenever any change (new comment, new trackback, new or edited entry) occurs then rebuild this template.

important note : i recommend you backup the original files before placing my mod files in your mt installation.


what version of mt is supported? — 2.63, 2.65


what was changed? — quite a few things behind the scenes and in the user interface.

1. the list templates screen now no longer has a rebuild? column. it has been replaced by a rebuild type column that specifies the type of rebuild for the associated index template.
2. the edit screen for index templates no longer has a checkbox for rebuild. it now has a selector that allows you to select one of the rebuild types defined above.
3. the default behaviour of trackbacks now rebuilds the associated entry, if it is an entry. in the past it never would rebuild an entry after it received a ping.
4. all of the calls to the rebuild_indexes method take a rebuild type now. this enables me to determine whether or not a given template should be rebuilt based on it’s specified rebuild type. because i needed to add a new attribute type to the mt::template object a database change will be needed for those of you not using dbm files.
5. as i said above, mt::template objects now have a rebuild_type attribute.

what did you do to integrate with mt blacklist? — i made the changes that they mentioned on their incompatibilities page and made those a part of my release. i don’t claim any credit for mt blacklist or the awesome job they have done with it. this is merely a convenience change for my users. any questions about mt blacklist should be directed to their website.


how do i install this mod? — it’s rather simple actually. first thing you need to do is backup the following files in your mt install:

• /mt/lib/mt.pm
• /mt/lib/mt/template.pm
• /mt/lib/mt/app/cms.pm
• /mt/lib/mt/app/comments.pm
• /mt/lib/mt/app/trackback.pm
• /mt/tmpl/cms/edit_template.tmpl
• /mt/tmpl/cms/list_template.tmpl

if your using mt blacklist you should back these files up:

• /mt/extlib/jayallen/mtblping.pm
• /mt/extlib/jayallen/mtblpost.pm

then just copy the files from the zip file (bottom of this entry) into the same location as the files you just backed up.


if you are using dbm files for your mt storage then your done installing the changes. if you aren’t using dbm and are instead using mysql or some other database your going to need to update your database scheme. i’ve added a new attribute to all mt::template objects so your going to need to add a rebuild_type column to the mt_template table. the sql update would look something like this:


alter table mt_template add column template_rebuild_type text


are patch files available? — you can download a patch for each file here:

• 2.63
  • mt.pm.patch
  • template.pm.patch
  • cms.pm.patch
  • comments.pm.patch
  • trackback.pm.patch
  • edit_template.pm.patch
  • list_template.pm.patch
• 2.65
  • coming soon

what should the changes looks like? — i made 2 simple screen shots of what the user interface should look like. you can see the changes to the list templates and edit template views.


how do i test the changes? — if you goto the list templates view you should see a rebuild type column for each index template. if you select a template and goto the edit template view you should see a selector in place of the original checkbox in the user interface. from this selector you can choose the rebuild type for this template. once selected, save the change like you would any other change to a template. when you return to the list templates view you should now see the rebuild type you selected reflected in the interface.


how can i see what you changed — do a search on “sean willson” in the files, there are copious comments. you can also look at the patch files specified above.


are there any caveats to making these changes? — there are a few things i should caution you to. the first would be that these changes are not supported, but i already said that didn’t i? the second would be that you need to realize that any time anyone pings your entries they will get rebuilt. so, if you get those annoying 4-5 pings to one posting like some people do, it will update each time. you’ll likely then want to go back and remove those excess pings and then rebuild the entry. since most people don’t do that though, it’s not a big deal to me. i thought it appropriate to warn you ahead of time though.


finally, download the changes

• 2.63
  • mt-2.63-mod-2-sean.zip (57 k)
• 2.65
  • without mt blacklist — mt-2.65-mod-2-sean.zip (59 k)
  • with mt blacklist v1.62 — mt-2.65-mod-2-mt-bl-1.62-sean.zip (66 k)

release history:

• 0.1 — 2003/04/27 — initial release
• 0.2 — 2003/12/30 — upgrade changes for movabletype v2.65 release
• 0.25 — 2003/12/30 — add support for the movabletype blacklist module v1.62

i made a few simple movable type customization’s that i wanted to share with people. after consulting the folks in the mt support forum they informed me that it was ok to release the changes. i do however have to warn people that these changes are not supported by six apart and i don’t take responsibility for their effect on your installation. they are all rather simple changes but i recommend you backup the original files before placing these files in your mt installation.


what version of mt is supported? — 2.63


what was changed? — after installing the simplecomments plugin i found it annoying that the individual entry was not updating after a trackback occurred. to fix this i added some code to their trackback perl module. while i was in there i noticed that my rss feeds and other feeds were being updated when a comment or a trackback was posted. since i don’t provide a comment rss feed and i wanted these updates to be as fast as possible i obviously wanted to stop that from occuring. another thing i’ve noticed recently is that my new posts and updates have been publishing a lot slower. i’m not sure if this is due to the mtincludes i’m using now or the feeds i added. anyhow, if you don’t want to incorporate this update change, but want the trackback change, then just replace the trackback.pm file that’s included in the zip with the one in your installation and ignore the other two changes.


how do yes install it? — it’s rather simple actually. first thing you need to do is backup the following files in your mt install:

• /mt/lib/mt.pm
• /mt/lib/mt/app/comments.pm
• /mt/lib/mt/app/trackback.pm

then just copy the files from the zip file into the same location as the files you just backed up. that’s it!


how do i test the changes? — create a new posting that is a trackback to another posting. you should notice, if your using simplecomments, that the entry is now updated. in the past this didn’t happen when a ping occurred. you should also notice (if you installed all of the changes) that your rss feeds did not update. this is by design and if you don’t want this behavior revert the changes to the comments.pm and mt.pm files.


how can i see what you changed — do a search on “sean willson” in the files, there are copious comments. be forewarned, i didn’t change much so don’t expect all kinds of weird hacks.


are there any caveats to making these changes? — there are a few things i should caution you to. the first would be that these changes are not supported, but i already said that didn’t i? the second would be that you need to realize that any time anyone pings your entry it will get updated. so if you get those annoying 4-5 pings to one posting like some people do, it will update each time. you’ll likely then want to go back and remove those excess pings and then rebuild the entry. since most people don’t do that though, it’s not a big deal to me. i thought it appropriate to warn you ahead of time though.


are diff files available? — i didn’t initially think of this but since the first comment asked for it i threw it together.

• mt.pm.diff
• comments.pm.diff
• trackback.pm.diff

finally, download the changes — mt-2.63-mod-1-sean.zip (18 k)

i know everyone else is covering this, but since it interests me as well i wanted to put a blurb up about it. six apart yesterday announced typepad. from the various articles i’ve read it sounds like it’s shaping up to be an amazing solution.


the basic idea behind textpad sounds like six aparts attempt to produce a blogger killer. the solution will be hosted, though it hasn’t yet been mentioned if they will host your domain as well or just the cms itself. i left blogger because it didn’t give me the flexibility i wanted with my blog and the system was always having problems that prevented me from posting. i’m sure that six apart is going to have similar growing pains, lets just hope they get through it unscathed. the feature set of textpad looks amazing; built-in photo album creation tool, built-in blogroll, lists of books and music you are reading and listening to, better templates, more plugins, real-time statistics, posting by email, and automatic creation of foaf data just to name a few.


i don’t think that i’d purchase this product as a hosted solution but based on the feature set it’s definitely something i would pay for. i would just rather host with the hosting provider of my choosing with me as the technical support, not someone else. there was a mention of a movable type pro version. i’m not sure if this is going to be some incarnation of textpad but it’s definitely something i’ll be looking for. you can sign up over at the typepad site to get on the email notification and beta list if your interested.

most people when they first see the price of a macintosh instantly think it’s expensive. little do they know what their getting for their money, but that’s not their fault. the wintel monopoly has people convinced that they need this huge machine that once purchased has to be immediatly expand with all sorts of add on devices to get the features they initially want. if people knew more about apple or their offerings, maybe then they would get it. better yet someone should do a side-by-side comparison between them. i’ve always been attracted to the apple platform by the sheer number of features that their machines have right out of the box. this article attempts to look show this by doing comparison of the dell line of laptops against the various apple laptop offerings. yet another good reason to buy an apple, take note amy.

they’re now releasing a mars picture of the day taken from the mars global surveyor. you can look at older pictures by looking at the image release by date page. it looks like they’ve been doing this for a few weeks now. worth checking out along with the astronomy picture of the day and earth science picture of the day.

i’m feeling a lot better since i was sick last week. i’ve been back to work a few days, my energy is back to normal, and the only thing i’m battling now is my blasted allergies. luckily the visit to the dr. last week for my cold landed me a script for allegra-d, which i’ve never used before but i’ve heard great things. anyhow, i got back into working out yesterday after a little over a week off. i’m behind in this challenge but if i can maintain my losses from last week i’ll be happy. i have a mental pre-wedding goal of being below 340. the last time i was there was december of 2000 and that was also the point where i was at my lowest weight since 1994. needless to say i’m really pushing myself to have a great week.


amy and i had a solid upper body workout this morning and cardio yesterday. we’re following a new routine of exercises that we both like, but they take a bit longer. almost every set now has an exercise that is on the free motion machines. the machines are cable weighted and you typically work out one body part at a time. so for shoulders you would do right arm up, then down, left arm up, then down for a single repetition; repeat that 12 times for a set. needless to say since we’re working out each chest, shoulder, back and bicep muscle independently the routine takes longer than normal. all in all i think it took us a little over 60 minutes to do upper body today.


chris didn’t make it to the gym again this morning. that makes one day in about 3 weeks now that he actully went. the one day was yesterday … hhehehhe. anyhow, after talking to him this morning it seems that he may soon be shutting his membership down. he didn’t say when, just that they were trying to save some money. i was a bit bummed, but now that i have amy to work out with i’ll be fine. not that i can’t work out alone, because i can. it’s just easier to get up with someone than going at it alone. amy starts school in june and i’m not sure if she’ll be into getting up early for the gym either. i guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. till then keep reaching for those 10’s !!