Stylehack

… Wherein I debunk the Theory of Evolution

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National Geographic, BBC, the local television station and sundry other news outlets are all reporting the discovery of the fossilized remains of a hobbit-sized “species of human” on an island in Indonesia (halfway between Australia and Asia). “Hobbit-sized” as in 1 meter (just over 3 feet) tall, or roughly the height of a three year old child. It’s a very entertaining story… apparently this group of small people has been “dated” to 12,000 yrs and shared their island home with a “a golden retriever-sized rat, giant tortoises and huge lizards - including Komodo dragons - and a pony-sized dwarf elephant called Stegodon” which they probably hunted. [Quoted from the BBC article.] So the “facts” as they have been reported:
  • A total of 7 skeletons have been found, along with tools and animal bones.

  • In addition to a small skeleton, they also had a small cranial space… meaning smaller brain.

  • They lived in caves on an island populated by giant rodents and lizards.

  • Local legend is peppered with stories of contact and interaction with these people — including the Dutch who explored the area in the last few hundred years — even though they apparently were dead for 12,000 years. (snickering from the sidelines)

  • Hypothetically the species became smaller due to environmental conditions, apparently a well-known evolutionary process. Conditions such as a limited food supply, few predators and few species competing for food result in smaller humans.

Sounds just like a “made-for-tv” movie, doesn’t it? Exciting and wild! And that’s where this whole evolution thing falls apart:
  • I live in an enclosed environment (my house).

  • There is a limited food supply, few predators (aka spiders) and only one species competing for food (my cat). Yet I have not gotten smaller at all!

  • … not to mention I think I interact almost daily with people with small cranial spaces, known as Rock people - perhaps because they live in caves?

Evolution debunked. It’s official. “-) I’d still like to see the movie though. Oh wait.. I did, all 3 parts. haha. The End. What’s that? You’re curious now, wondering where these people could have come from? Slashdot has the answer! Think “3-hour tour, weather started getting rough, tiny desert isle, 7 stranded castaways…” You get the drift. I love the quick humor on Slashdot. Always good for a daily laugh… but that’s another story.

Wordpress Tips :: Installing WP beneath the root of your domain

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Need some extra help installing Wordpress in a directory beneath public_html? Not sure what changes will be needed? Here’s a bit of additional info building on the official Wordpress tips to get you started. A typical Wordprress (WP) install assumes that you want to keep all the WP files in the root:
. public_html    . wp-contents    . wp-admin    index.php    wp-layout.css    wp-config.php
[These are not all the files and directories, just an example.] I wanted to keep it cleaner, as in all the WP stuff in it’s own directory… you never know when you’ll want to add something else or fiddle things a bit. But I still wanted the blog to be displayed when someone typed in www.stylehack.com, instead of www.stylehack.com/path/to/wordpress; in other words I wanted a Wordpress directory:
. public_html    . wordpress       . wp-contents       . wp-admin      index.php      wp-layout.css      wp-config.php
Ok, so what to do? Fiddle a bit! Solution, as supplied by the Wordpress Installation notes and repeated here so it’s easy to find: 1. Install and configure WP to run under the public_html/wordpress directory, then make a copy of index.php and place it in the root (public_html). Edit that copy and change the REQUIRE statement at the top of the file to include the Wordpress directory:
3a10 <  require('./wp-blog-header.php');
3a10 >  require('./wordpress/wp-blog-header.php');
[Note: 3a10 means Line 3 at character 10; < means 'was' and > means 'becomes'. All lines/characters are approx because you may have done something else with your files.] 2. Correct the path to your stylesheets:
15a68 < @import url( <?php echo get_settings('siteurl'); ?>/wp-layout.css );
15a68 > @import url( <?php echo get_settings('siteurl'); ?>/wordpress/wp-layout.css );
Repeat for any alternate stylesheets. 3. You need to duplicate your favicon in both the root and the Wordpress directory if you want it to show up consistently. 4. You end up with this structure:
. public_html   index.php   favicon.ico    . wordpress       . wp-contents       . wp-admin     index.php     favicon.ico     wp-layout.css     wp-config.php
Final thought: It’s also possible to use htaccess and rewrite directives to redirect things, but that would require more work on my part and I’m too lazy to do it that way… at least at this point in the development of Stylehack. Next installment: Understanding my-hacks.php

Wordpress Hack :: WP-Mail 0.2

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Something that became fairly apparent to me early on (think MT 2.x blog) was that I don’t like having to use a web interface to post an entry; it’s futzy and frustrating to me. So the developments in the last year+ in moblogging have been of great interest to me. I figure the more functionality for someone posting an entry via email on their cellphone, the better my options will be for plain old-fashioned (!) computer-based email posting. The ability to email in a post was one of the things that weighed in favor of Wordpress during my research. The fact that it is already built-in (as of version 1.2.1 at least) is nice! It’s not quite “there” though, in terms of every bell and whistle. [This is not to say it won't be, but I'm addressing the "now" and available solutions.] Overview Enter WP-MAIL 0.2… and it’s a HACK! Oh be still my beating heart! “-) The first thing you need to keep clear is the difference between a “hack” and a “plugin”:
hack    1. modification to a base WP script; 2. a modification (perhaps variables or a function) added to “my-hacks.php”. When you upgrade WP the new version will overwrite hacked scripts, so be sure to keep notes of what you are using and modifying! plugin    modular piece of PHP code that is written using the base WP system; managed via the Plugin admin function. Note: There are now two versions of plugins you might run into out there — the old form and the new form which are auto-updating.
Let me give you a piece of advice: Plugins and Hacks are not controlled by the WP development team so don’t assume that just because it is listed on the Wordpress Wiki that it is the latest and most stable version! Hopefully there will be a link to the author’s site where you can check for updates; if not, download the file and read the documentation or the credit section of the script and look for the author’s site link. I learned this the hard way. sigh.

One of my genius friends…

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… is listed on the cssvault: CafeLisa.com It’s a beautiful site she’s done, a super job of styling her Wordpress blog. If you haven’t seen it yet be sure to stop by! Congratulations to Lisa!

The Story Behind Mom-isms

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Mom-ism     [n., plural Mom-isms, from the root words: My Mom, circa 1996.] 1. An embarrassing gaffe, made publicly or privately (if you thereafter make it public), causing those around you to look at you with a mixture of pity, shame, horror and glee. All enveloped in gales of hysterical hooting and finger pointing. 2. Not to be confused with momism.
My family has been tracking Mom-isms for 28 years or more now, give or take a few years. That’s actively tracking… we also have a collection of some earlier Mom-isms from a time when we were too young to know what they were or to commit them ourselves. WHAT? Yep, that’s right — you don’t have to be Mom to commit them! In fact, you don’t even have to be female, just ask my Dad. “-) As the eldest child, it’s my duty (not to mention privilege) to act as the guardian of the Repository of Family Hoots — the first and foremost of which are Mom-isms. Still not sure what you will find here? Let me give you a quintessential example: Read the entire article »

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