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So I'm thinking about writing a PHP script that will grab Disqus and FriendFeed comments via their respective API's and combine them into one set of comments for display on this blog. Has anyone done this yet, or is someone interested in combining efforts? I'm also planning to have a way to comment to either Disqus (via iframe, like their javascript "plugin" used on this blog) or FriendFeed (via API). To keep from using too much bandwidth, comments should probably be cached locally and refreshed when someone comments from the site or after a given length of time. Perhaps the refresh time should decay, since older posts tend to receive comments less frequently. Once I get some time and don't have to work 10+ hours a day, this should move forward.

Update: According to Daniel Ha, Disqus API does not have regular timestamps on comments, so merging them with Friendfeed comments is way too hard. I'm gonna wait until Disqus updates their API.

Update 2: I went ahead and made a script. Right now it just makes a very rough approximation of Disqus dates by turning the fuzzy date (e.g. 1 week ago) into a timestamp. It wasn't too hard, but it is not accurate by any means. It just allows comments to be roughly sorted by date. Basically the script combines friendffeed comments and likes and Disqus comments into a single numerically-indexed array of associative arrays with what I consider the necessary data for displaying the comments: comment id (but not for likes), author name, author url, body, and date. Also I included type (ff comment, ff like, disqus), indent (for Disqus threading), and a fuzzy date field (direct from API for disqus, generated for friendfeed), and an avatar url (not implemented for friendfeed yet).

The code is a little rough, and it hasn't been tested thoroughly, but contact me (twitter, whatever) if you want to take a look.

For some reason my left index finger is really sensitive tonight. I was playing guitar (which I haven't done much lately) and it almost felt like I cut the tip of my finger. Guess the callouses wear off fast. Anyway, I tried playing with my other three fingers, and was shocked at how unpracticed my little finger is. The simple open chords were a challenge without the first finger to lead the way. I think the song I wrote a couple months ago is hard on my index finger. It requires hammering on the 2nd (B) string at the first fret: lots of force and a narrow string. And of course that means an increase in the pressure on the skin, causing more damage. Oh my goodness, I cannot think of anything without attempting to translate it into scientific or mathematic terms. I wonder if that bothers people. Great! Now I want to take a survey of the people I know and talk with to see if it bothers them. What is wrong with my brain? I blame Kettering.

Time for some sleep. I'm starting to rant and rave without making sense. Why am I even posting this online? Maybe it's the 12 long days in a row with almost no breaks. In fact the only thing close to a break I had was church, and even there I work as much as relax. Maybe Sunday I can get some rest. That would be nice.

So, 73, and good night. KH2UY signing off.

I recently have begun using more social websites, including FriendFeed and Twitter, as well as a few lesser-known sites, like Plurk, Pownce, and Summize. I like Summize and Pownce more than Plurk. Plurk has kind of a quirky interface with a scrolling timeline. It's unique and clever, but not very attractive to me. Pownce is cool because you can post links, files and events. Summize is basically a "real-time" Twitter search that alerts you when someone twitters about what you searched for.

Well, my site still has a lot of work to do, like making it so I don't lose what I write if it takes me more than 15 minutes to write it. Sessions are still kind of clunky to me.

I've heard a lot of good things about Disqus, and I like the idea of comments being portable and not tied down to one particular site. And installing Disqus was simple: one line of html/javascript simple. Pretty handy. See the community page for this site on disqus.com for recent comments.

Characters

Mac: 20-something man dressed fashionably, but casually. Slightly overweight.

Win: 20-something man wearing a suit, perhaps glasses. May carry briefcase. Very overweight.

Linux's: 20-something women of varying appearance, some wearing casual clothing, others wearing business clothing. May carry various accessories. Optionally, have Linux-related logo clothing.

Ron Paul's newly released Economic Revitalization Plan outlines four major areas he feels the government needs to reform to bring stability and prosperity back to the American economy. Tax reform, Spending reform, Monetary Policy reform, and Regulatory reform are spelled out in more detail at his website and in this PDF.

So the people at Microsoft and the Web Standards group are all excited about a break-through new idea: Make web developers add an extra <meta> tag to get IE 8 to render according to W3 standards. Apparently, they don't realize that standards are supposed to be...how do you say...STANDARD! Apparently, writing good code is secondary to getting your page to look nice in Internet Explorer. And some people are defending this idea! I knew it was a questionable method as soon as I read the blog entry, and most people that posted there feel the same way. As for me, I want to know if I can use regular Ajax calls without having to work around ActiveX. Readers, please use Firefox or Opera or something that isn't Internet Explorer.

I have to say, this package phpMyID is very, very easy to use. It took me longer to read the README than to actually set it up. Pretty cool.

"Dude what's up? Where's the posts?"

I know, I've been slacking. Excuse #1: My hard drive failed. Excuse #2: I'm leaving for a 24 hour flight at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Excuse #3: Holidays, duh.

OK, enough of that. In other news, I heard a few days back about someone finding giant rats in Indonesion, and what's the first thought that popped into my head? R.O.U.S., of course.

That's right. At the moment I, er..., my computer is fetching the files needed to upgrade from Ubuntu 7.06 to 7.10, i.e. Gutsy Gibbon. What brought this on? The Christmas cheer? The long hours with nothing to do? Nope, it was Simcity.