WordPress 2.5 is not compatible with older versions of K2. You’ll know if you have this problem because this error message appears:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp_register_sidebar_widget() in /blog/wp-admin/includes/dashboard.php on line 31
I had this problem, and found a solution in the WordPress Forums. I wonder why it happens and how the K2 people fixed it. Continue reading ‘Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp_register_sidebar_widget() in /blog/wp-admin/includes/dashboard.php on line 31′
I am clumsy. I attempted to bring some delicious food to school in a tupperware, but it spilled in the trunk of my car. As I see it, about four things went wrong which caused this to happen. First, the food container itself was completely stuffed. This would be okay by itself. It was sealed shut, after all. Second, the container was put into a plastic bag, but I didn’t tie the bag closed. So there was nothing holding it into the grocery bag. Third, we were almost going to put the bag into a box, but I decided at the last minute to just put the bag in my trunk, assuming that the bag would be unnecessary. Fourth, I drove roughly, and I can imagine a couple of turns during which the food might have spilled.
So, if only one of those four factors were changed, things would be different. I believe that’s how most accidents happen. I read about a plane crash once. It wasn’t just one thing that caused it. It was a combination of factors; safety checks missed, unlucky equipment failures, and/or the wrong kind of weather. Thus it was with my spilled chicken, tomato, and mushroom dish. Oh well. I need to remember to tie all bags closed. Continue reading ‘Walmart’s Hours and a Lesson Learned’
Read about the book, check the ranking, and pre-order one today for an extra 5% off. The Rebelution
Have you heard “Bubbly”?
Chances are - you have. Here it is on YouTube. I’ve heard it often, and it was only today that I Googled it to find out the name of the song and the name of the artist. Here’s the main section of the lyrics:
I’ve been awake for a while now
You got me feelin’ like a child now
‘Cause every time I see your bubbly face
I get the tinglies in a silly place
It starts in my toes
And I crinkle my nose
Wherever it goes, I always know
That you make me smile
Please stay for a while now
Just take your time, wherever you go Continue reading ‘Colbie Caillat - Bubbly at Age 21′
I used to highly respect Apple. I bought an iBook, a few iPods, an iMac, and an iPhone. I’ve purchased several songs on iTunes, and I’ve used the Safari beta. They’re trying to remove DRM from iTunes music. They were a good company.
But as of today, I’ve lost all respect for them. Let me explain.
Today, Apple realized Microsoft’s success, and decided to follow them as a role model. They forced their Safari web browser on Windows users of iTunes, QuickTime, or Bonjour.
Sneakily, the Apple Software Updater will run and pop-up automatically on the screens of Windows users who have iTunes installed. This is fine. The problem is that it now has Safari, and it’s checked to install by default.
Even if you have never installed Safari before. Continue reading ‘Today, I Lose All Respect For Apple: Software “Updater” Installs Safari’
Signing up for the Payment Protector is very easy. When activating my new card, the phone rep asked if he could sign me up for it, insisting that I’ll be send info in the mail which needs to be signed before it takes effect. I said No. He asked again. I said No. He re-explained the benefits of the plan and emphasized that it could be canceled within 30 days for a full refund, no need to make a decision now, you’ll be sent the agreement in the mail which you’ll need to sign and return. Again, I said No. He re-explained and asked again. Gosh, these people are persistent. I wonder if this is how AOL made all their money. I wonder if Chase could survive without doing this. (I want to hope the answer is yes, and that they would actually be even more successful without these hard selling tactics. But that’s probably not the case.)
I muttered, Uh, okay.
And that was it, I was enrolled. I never saw anything in the mail, I never agreed to anything else. I never said the word “yes” and never gave any other confirmations. Not to mention the confusing fact that it actually charges you based on your statement balance every month, regardless of whether you carry the balance. That means if you use your card at all, you will always be charged the 89 cents per $100. Fortunately, that’s less than the rewards amount, which ranges from 1% to 3%, depending on the purchase. But there are limits and restrictions on the rewards. And 89 cents (0.89%) is not much less than 1%, which is what I get for all payments to USC, such as at the bookstore for textbooks, tuition, etc. Continue reading ‘Canceling the Chase Payment Protector’
Vote for Liushuo Wan. Right now, he’s losing, 305 votes to 559. But you can reverse that. He’s on the right side. Go vote now, it only takes a second. Here’s that link again:
Zinch March Madness - vote Liushuo Wan.
Here’s why:
- He has USC listed under his Shout Outs.
- He’ll do anything to win this scholarship, but even if he doesn’t, he’ll “tip his hat out to the winner.”
- He has done many things to shape his community, such as volunteering his time to tutor elementary school children.
- He currently tutors a person with a mental disability, hoping to have a positive impact on the person’s life.
- He has realized the need to grow up and mature.
- He knows the importance of world-awareness and that he has the ability to leave a positive legacy for his peers.
- Not only does he realize this, but he lives it out, too.
- He cares about world issues and problems with society.
Now, I’m not fully convinced by those points. For instance, what really makes him unique, and what has he accomplished? But the ease of voting for him means that you can do it in literally 2 clicks, so give him your vote. I know him in real life, so I know he’ll appreciate it 
Here’s the story: Continue reading ‘Liushuo Wan (Randy) Needs Your Vote’
I’m very proud of myself tonight. You see, I’m a programmer at heart. Yet it has been a long time since I just programmed something for fun. Not a contest, not a class. Just out of pure usefulness and interest. Here’s the story.
I setup a webcam to watch my room for the day, and some software that uploads the webcam’s image to my server via FTP, 6 times per minute. The software is Active Webcam, and I just used the free evaluation version. Over the course of the day, it generated 6,522 images - way too many to view at once. So I decided to script something to make looking at the images more interesting.
The first obvious problem is that most of the images look exactly the same. Nothing happened during the day, so the images have no easily visible distinction. Yet they are not the same in terms of bits: the brightness has slight variations, the JPEG compression differed, etc. So doing an md5 comparison (which will be the same for files which are the same) doesn’t cut it. I need to actually look at the image data.
Fortunately, PHP has a great built-in image library known as gd. You have to have PHP compiled with it, but my host does, so I suspect most others do, too. After much trial and error, I managed to do the following: Continue reading ‘Comparing Images and Measuring their Similarity in PHP’
Chinese company Lenovo, which acquired IBM’s computing division in 2005, today is throwing around the word “perfection.” And I think this could very well be the closest a laptop has ever come. They have released the ThinkPad X300, a 2.9 lb. wonder. Far less than an inch thick, it’s the lightest and thinnest ThinkPad ever made. Amazingly, it has not only a TrackPoint, but a TouchPad as well - which is the signature ThinkPad “UltraNav.”
Naturally, when thinking of extremely thin laptops, the recently-released MacBook Air comes to mind. Here’s a head-to-head comparison, which shows clear ways in which the X300 wins out:
Continue reading ‘Lenovo ThinkPad X300 vs Apple MacBook Air’
How to Install Bad Behavior on WordPress
I’m still getting spam comments and trackbacks on this blog, despite using both Akismet and Spam Karma 2. So today I installed Bad Behavior. It’s a standard WordPress plugin, and should work automatically. Simply upload the Bad-Behavior directory (with the bad-behavior folder inside), activate it on the Plugins page, and you’re good to go. These are the best kinds of plugins.
Continue reading ‘How to Install Bad Behavior on WordPress’