Michael Gracie

This has been kicking me for the last 12 hours, and based on various help sections and forums which shall not be named, it seems to be causing a bit of trouble for others as well.

I’m working with a modified version of OpenAds. Yes I modified it, but before you say “crap, Gracie modified something…no wonder it’s broken” I’ll just advise you to put a lid on it - the project still works. I’m playing with delivering ads using the remote Javascript, but I’ve got a hitch. Each page I’m trying to deliver a text ad to is a search result that has a keyword associated with it. I’ve passed that keyword onto the page using the variable $tagString - it’s url encoded. I can print that keyword by placing {$tagString} anywhere in the template code. So I know the variable is there.

Now I’m trying to pass $tagString into the chunk of Javascript, and it just isn’t working. I’ve tried different notations such as %24tagString etc., and tried adding things like var tagstring = $tagString at the top, but the Javascript ad code just doesn’t see the variable. In addition, I replaced the variable with an actually keyword string and it returned the correct result so I’m certain it isn’t a server side issue. The ad code is below, and if anyone has any bright ideas they can pass along I would forever be in your debt gladly take you out for a beer someday. I’ll certainly pass this on to the OpenAds community if someone can figure it out. Note: XXX denotes the spot where the variable $tagString is supposed to go.

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Gain-on-sale accounting rules are a mess, but I wouldn’t blame them for all the sub-prime mortgage woes. Around here, unchecked greed combined with the floating consensus that if you don’t have 5,000 square feet and granite countertops (even if they’re the low-end tiled kind) you just aren’t human, comes to mind first.

Nevertheless, I loved the headline: Subprime Mess Fueled by Crack Cocaine Accounting.

Maybe it’s all a ruse to make people think accounting is a thrilling, risky, gang-in-streets profession?

Not a $5,000 bounty - without sponsors like this we’d run out of dog food around here.

Will Norris was kind (and smart) enough to assemble the WP-OpenID+ plug-in for Wordpress users. Built on previous work, this plug-in was created around v2.1 of the Wordpress platform. I had previously installed it, and found it fantastic; unfortunately by the time I got around to cleaning up archives and taking this weblog live, I had already moved up to Wordpress 2.2. I’ve since had problems with it, and I’ve noticed several folks across the web have had some issues with the combination as well. In addition, Will himself noted several flaws with his own work, the most important of which I believe is the need to honor the “anyone can register” component (that which can prevent account creation for everyone who comments on your blog).

I’m keen to start allowing OpenID access here, and would love to see this plug-in updated. Mr. Norris is very busy nowadays (he is getting married - offer congratulations!), and I think he’s done enough work already (as has Alan Castonguay, who built the previous version and deserves much credit as well). As my collie dog has shown more prowess at hacking code than his owner (although who owns who is the subject of much debate around here), I was thinking about paying him to do it. We agreed that a pound of ground top sirloin would suffice, but I remain concerned about his cholesterol intake. Your diet I’m not going to fret over, and I suspect someone can do a better job than he anyway.

Therefore, I am starting a little bounty to clean up this plug-in. Requirements are simple: 1) fix all the bugs listed in the plug-in directory and note it (however that happens is beyond me); 2) deliver a zip file of the updated plug-in to myself and the Wordpress community for testing (on the latter part, again clueless as to how that happens) deliver the changes directly to either Will or Alan (who will have them committed); and 3) have a Paypal account ready so I can pay you. I’m committing $25, and if anyone else wants to make a contribution, note that and the amount in the comments. In addition, it wouldn’t be very cost efficient to rack up duplicative Paypal charges for the purpose of consolidating payment though me, so please be prepared to pay up directly - I know there is honor among open source developers, and there sure as hell better be among those that use their fine work.

That’s it, and thanks in advance.

NOTE: This bounty is in no way affiliated with the OpenID code bounty, nor do I wish to infer that it is. There has been some discussion about including OpenID in the Wordpress core, but for now it seems it will remain a plug-in. The intention here is to help ensure those plug-ins are ready and available for all Wordpress users.

RUNNING UPDATE: The bounty is up to $50.

UPDATE: See comments for additional information.

Duncan Riley of TechCrunch called privacy “the new black.”

I’ll just call it “about time”; and while everyone is distracted building sing-a-long, graffiti, and zombie apps for it, I’ll reiterate that privacy is one of Facebook’s greatest strengths (while everyone is complaining about “skip this step” disappearing).

PS: that last bit…it’s just a bug.

I’m obviously not fishing this morning, and I’m still blaming a Friday afternoon meeting…

RSS’s daddy, Dave Winer, voiced some concerns with Google’s FeedBurner acquisition. Fred Wilson responded by noting how easy FeedBurner makes it to leave. What Wilson is talking about is FeedBurner’s redirect service - you can delete a feed and FeedBurner will redirect requests back to the original RSS source. In a perfect world, your subscribers continue to get the crappy content you create, and by the time the FeedBurner feed dies they’ve hopefully changed their subscribed URL back to the base feed. We don’t live in a perfect world, and the “if you don’t like it, leave” argument has some holes…

I agree - services that make it easy to leave are often an attraction, but that’s not the main reason I use the service; FeedBurner sold me on their great attitude. Google bought the company, and they can do as they please with it.

I just hope that pigeon-holing folks into a single point of consumption isn’t one of them.

A side note: There are probably some neat things that could be done with FeedBurner and Google Reader…things that might entice me to OPML-up my subscriptions and move there. In particular, I rarely bother looking at stats, tinkering with FeedFlares, etc., but if I could do this all within Google Reader I might pay more attention. Claim my feeds within and do the manipulation from there - I’d be combining my feed management and feed consumption - one less stop. Allowing me to compile a list of FeedFlares that would be available for all Google Reader users to play with, without me having to embed them in the feeds themselves, would also be nice. And last but not least…I have no intention of putting any ads in my feeds because I believe feed ads are aggravating and discourage both consumption and re-distribution. But I’d consider putting ads (linked to a proprietary Adsense or FeedBurner account) in feeds if they were only available to Google Reader users (since Google users in generally are so used to seeing ads on just about everything Google anyway).

UPDATE: Day 2 - “The most common rebuttal was the user’s ability to opt out. If you don’t like it you don’t have to use Feedburner. But that’s not any kind of a rebuttal.”

UPDATE 2: “One of the things I’ve heard over and over from non-technical users who have the same concerns now that Feedburner is owned by Google, is where do we go if we want to switch? Ahh. There is no place to go.” Where have I heard that before?