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- They're Under Staters Orders
- Blogged on Saturday 27th November 2004 at 2:17:29 AM by David
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Let the race begin. Over hare at quiterude.com there is a race on between me and the weekend. I'm going to try and write new blog software completely from scratch by Monday morning.
Let's take a nostalgic look back at how Ass Plug has developed over time.
Originally it was located here and only had a short life-span as it was soon replaced by version 2. I can't remember how long it took me to write, but from the look of it you'd have to say not long.
The only thing that admins could do was create new blogs, there weren't even separate admin accounts though. To edit or delete comments meant a trip to the database to do it manually, very impractical I'm sure you agree.Version 2 arrived on the scene back in July. Things were different this time round, we had a .com! However the software was rushed into use before it was properly completed so we could move over to our new host and domain. Therefore when it first went into use it was not that much better than the old version and there were some bugs.
There were a few extra perks though, editing/deleting of blog comments for admins as well as admin accounts were nice additions. At first the next and previous page links didn't work because they had not been tested, but I fixed them along with a couple of other minor things and the software gradually improved over time.
Then most recently there have been other upgrades such as the recent comments page and proper page numbers instead of just "next" and "previous". Many upgrades have been made to this version and unfortunately I didn't keep the code as tidy as perhaps I should have, therefore it is getting harder and harder to upgrade.Therefore it is neccesary for a new version of Ass Plug (which still needs a new name by the way), one with all of the features mentioned so far built into it. It will be a complete from-the-ground-up rewrite and very little of the old code will be recycled. The aim is to create a very user and admin friendly blog site with easy to maintain and upgrade code.
The database will also be improved because in the near future I plan to bring in the ability for separate blogs on the same web-site, each with different admins. So the blog will be approaching something close to a forum by the time I am finished with it.
The subroutines that are used to display comments and blog entries will be completely changed to allow for more flexibilty within the blog system and lessen the server load (although for a site this small perhaps that doesn't matter as much).
There are other features that I plan to include in version 3 that didn't quite make it into version 2 because it would have been too difficult. These include sending email notifications to people subscribed to the blog (but only to users who request to be notified). I was also thinking of including RSS and Atom feeds so that all you lazy people with readers don't have to bother coming down here every day to check for updates.So hopefully this will all work out and by Monday we'll have a completely new version of the blog software and Phil will be like, "wtf???"
If I was to put odds on me finishing this by Monday I'd say maybe 5:1, not totally out of the question but by no means certain of happening. Wish me luck.
- 16 Comments
- Last updated on Wednesday 6th April 2005 at 1:20:17 AM
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- Homeward Bound 2
- Blogged on Friday 19th November 2004 at 0:38:15 AM by David
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Yes it's true. I'm returning home again. Hopefully these are the good things that will all turn out nicely over the next couple of days:
- My mobo will arrive at my house early(ish) tomorrow morning.
- I will attend and do well in a Matlab programming test from 2-3PM (pfft, Matlab is so easy).
- I will catch the 15:55 train to Nuneaton and then onto Manchester.
- I will awake on Saturday (morning?) to go and see a film with Byroz which we will have planned in advance (since he doesn't know I'm returning home yet it is yet to be planned and will most likely fall through).
Here are some good things that have already happened:
- My water cooling kit arrived today (just in the nick of time
) and it looks totally schweet. Had to bend a few drive rails out of the way to fit it in my case (takes up 2 5.25" drive bays) but I care little about that. 
- I have ordered NFSU, NFSU 2 and Juiced all for PC from Amazon, expensive but worth it I think. "Why order the original NFSU" you ask? My answer to you, "meh".
- I'm getting better at engineering drawing and free hand sketching, I can now draw aeroplanes, helicopters and cars! This is good because I used to suck at drawing these things, since I'm on an Aero course that was a bit of a disadvantage.
- I have discovered Yahoo Launch radio and have created my own station, I can also watch 300Kbit/s music vid's as well. Only works in IE but I can live with that I suppose. The music is sooo cool because it picks out songs based on how I rated their genre's so I generally like them all.
- My LCD monitor cable has been fixed by someone of the name "Soldering Iron", oh yeah some other guy called "Jonathon Clarke" helped aswell I think.
- My graphics card could kick your graphics cards arse.
That's about it for now, I might add more stuff to the list if I feel that you are not quite 100% envious of my life.
- 12 Comments
- Last updated on Tuesday 23rd November 2004 at 1:31:30 PM
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- Blog Code Updated!
- Blogged on Sunday 14th November 2004 at 1:54:00 AM by David
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Yes it's true, I've done a bit more work on the blog code, despite STILL not having my own PC to work with (I am beginning to hate PCW-CC).
"What have you done?" I hear you ask. Well, I'll tell you.
Previously there were many-an-error to do with the paging system for user comments which prevented it from being used. I wrote the paging system way back when but I never got around to testing it. I decided a few days ago that the blog "Once Upon A Time ..." was getting too long and needed splitting into multiple pages. However, when I turned on paging it fooked right up (technical term
).
Well for the past two and a half hours or so I have been weeding out the errors and fixing them and I believe I have finally finished.
I have set the number of comments per page at 50 but that may vary depending on what user feedback I get. I can't see many objections arising except perhaps, "I have amazingly slow dial-up at 0.02KB/s and it's takes 13 hours to load your page!"
If that sounds like you then just hang yourself now because I care THAT little about your opinion.
No offense intended.
Edit: I've just fixed another bug over the past 40 mins or so. A blog entry was appearing twice, once on page 3 and once on page 4. Turns out that the script wasn't properly skipping over a deleted blog. It's kinda complicated, I ain't gonna explain.
Another edit: OK, I've done a shit load more work on the blog and I caused several errors while I was working. If you tried to access the site during this time then I hope I confused you.
Seriously though, I have ploughed my way through some old code and have re-formatted the way page numbers are displayed. I have also given me and Phil an easy way to log in via a link in the side-bar. I may have created some bugs in the site but as of yet there are none that I am aware of, if you find one of them let me know will ya. (Of course you'll let me know, all you bloody do is complain you insolent swines.)
- 19 Comments
- Last updated on Friday 19th November 2004 at 9:06:07 PM
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- Re-write
- Blogged on Friday 5th November 2004 at 7:22:35 PM by David
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I was looking to add a couple of features to the blog software just now. A page to display the most recent comments and something to keep track of when visitors last came to the site so they could see if there were any new comments/blogs.
Unfortunately I decided that I couldn't add these features for three reasons:
1) To create the recent comments page I intended to modify the subroutine that writes the comments on the blog pages. However, that subroutine has become so complicated with the stuff I've added to it already that it's practically impossible.
This subroutine needs to be re-written and simplified and I have plans already drawn up in my head for that.2) The cookie thing to keep track of when visitors were last here would need to be tied into the subroutine that writes the blogs. Unfortunately that subroutine is in a somewhat similar state to the comment subroutine. That subroutine does a great many different things (some of which I can't even remember) and meddling now would cause severe breakage.
3) I need my own PC to code, it's a fact. I simply cannot work on these Uni PC's, I cannot code on someone else's computer either (no matter if it's a good one or not). It HAS to be my machine. Therefore I have to wait for my new motherboard to arrive (which should be soon
).
Just so you can see how bad these two subroutines have become I have uploaded the ASP file that they are both in.
This is the whole file without any modifications made to it, they are the only two subroutines in it because they are soooo bad. Believe me, they started off nice and simple, but now they are ... not.Edit: Oh yeah, you can use the code but not sell it, creative commons license etc. etc.
- 24 Comments
- Last updated on Thursday 18th November 2004 at 9:12:01 PM
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- Homeward Bound
- Blogged on Friday 29th October 2004 at 1:06:55 AM by David
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Hey there all you lesser people. I thought that I would inform you all that I am returning home for the first time in almost a month.
I will be doing such things as; playing PC games, mindlessly watching TV, going to the cinema to watch gratuitous violence (AVP) and sleeping in my own bed for the first time since see above.
This may not seem like a big deal to you, but I remind you, it's a big deal to me and I'm more important than you, therefore it's a big deal for you too.
(I should work in a way to disable comments on certain blogs, I have a bad feeling about the replies I'll get for this entry.)
- 22 Comments
- Last updated on Friday 19th November 2004 at 9:02:33 PM
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