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	<title>DiPot: Ice Tea tech &#187; Tips &amp; How-to</title>
	<atom:link href="http://dipot.com/category/tips-how-to/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://dipot.com</link>
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		<title>&#8220;Error 1330 Installing Java Runtime Environment&#8221; (JRE)</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2010/04/error-1330-installing-java-runtime-environment-jre/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2010/04/error-1330-installing-java-runtime-environment-jre/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:25:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Troubleshooting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[error]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fix]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[installation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Java]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JRE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=2560</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>This client&#8217;s PC running Windows XP kept refusing to install the latest Java Runtime Environment. It seems such a problem is not that rare&#8230;</p>
<p>To cut a long story short, I came across this RAC_Reaper&#8217;s post Re: Error 1330 (Invalid digital signature in data1.cab) installing 1.6.0_11, where he states:</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8230; I believe a regsvr32 initpki.dll is all [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This client&#8217;s PC running Windows XP kept refusing to install the <a href="http://jdl.sun.com/webapps/getjava/BrowserRedirect?locale=en&amp;host=java.com:80" target="_blank">latest Java Runtime Environment</a>. It seems such a problem is not that rare&#8230;</p>
<p>To cut a long story short, I came across this <a href="http://forums.sun.com/profile.jspa?userID=1165064">RAC_Reaper</a>&#8217;s post <strong><a href="http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10819649#10819649" target="_blank">Re: Error 1330 (Invalid digital signature in data1.cab) installing 1.6.0_11</a></strong>, where he states:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;&#8230; I believe a regsvr32 initpki.dll is all you need to run and the 1330 error will go away.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>What this means is:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open a command prompt (console) window with administrative rights</li>
<li>At the prompt type &#8220;regsvr32 initpki.dll&#8221; (without the quotes and hit &#8220;Enter&#8221;</li>
<li>Run the JRE installation again. It should now work</li>
</ol>
<p>It sure worked for me, thanks RAC_Reaper!</p>
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]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>&#8220;Restart Firefox to complete your changes&#8221; keeps appearing after add-on installation or update</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2010/03/restart-firefox-to-complete-your-changes-keeps-appearing-after-add-on-installation-or-update/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2010/03/restart-firefox-to-complete-your-changes-keeps-appearing-after-add-on-installation-or-update/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Mar 2010 23:34:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[add-on]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Firefox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mozilla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[offline files]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[profile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[restart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=2519</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Have you ever found yourselves in a situation with Firefox for Windows where you keep getting the message &#8220;Restart Firefox to complete your changes&#8221;, even after a restart? It happens if Windows has Offline Files enabled, the Firefox profile resides in an offline folder and you have installed or updated an add-on sensitive to the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Have you ever found yourselves in a situation with Firefox for Windows where you keep getting the message &#8220;Restart Firefox to complete your changes&#8221;, even after a restart? It happens if Windows has Offline Files enabled, the Firefox profile resides in an offline folder and you have installed or updated an add-on sensitive to the situation. </p>
<p>It turns out that certain add-ons require the profile folder to be online to install or update properly. Until this happens, they keep asking for a restart to successfully complete installation.</p>
<p>Luckily, the solution to this is simple: start Firefox when the profile folder is online and these add-ons will complete installation properly. If you need to, you can go offline again (preferably after closing Firefox while still online). On next start everything will keep working fine.</p>
<p>If this also happens under different circumstances, please let me know.</p>

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]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Ning Greek Localization Error in Translation</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2010/01/ning-greek-localization-error-in-translation/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2010/01/ning-greek-localization-error-in-translation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:26:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WishList]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greek language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[localization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social network]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[term]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[translation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=2070</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Localization is no easy task and translations can be tricky themselves. Four wrong Ning Forum's terms in greek are such victims of an honest [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I am a user of two <a title="Ning" href="http://www.ning.com/" target="_blank">Ning</a> networks and I think it&#8217;s a great product-service!</p>
<p>Localizing everything can some times be a waste of effort. In other cases, localization (ie. of an infrastructure) can be well worth its while. Ning is such a case. In terms of multilanguage support prolepsis, as english is a simpler language than greek and others, building localization mechanisms is no easy task and translation can be tricky&#8230;</p>
<p>The case in point is four terms in Ning Forum&#8217;s messages greek translation. When Forum conversations grow long, pagination is introduced at the bottom of the page with the english messages &#8220;First&#8221;, &#8220;Previous&#8221;, &#8220;Next&#8221;, &#8220;Last&#8221;. The greek terms used for these messages are &#8220;Όνομα&#8221; (&#8221;honoma&#8221;), &#8220;Προηγούμενο&#8221; (&#8221;proeghumeno&#8221;, in Ning notation, where &#8220;h&#8221; shows where the word is stressed), &#8220;Επόμενο&#8221; (&#8221;ephomeno&#8221;), &#8220;Επώνυμο&#8221; (&#8221;ephonymo&#8221;) respectively. However:</p>
<ul>
<li>&#8220;Όνομα&#8221; is greek for &#8220;First Name&#8221;, not &#8220;First Page&#8221;. The correct term would be &#8220;Πρώτη&#8221; (&#8221;prhoti&#8221;, &#8220;first in order&#8221;)</li>
<li>&#8220;Προηγούμενο&#8221; and &#8220;Επόμενο&#8221; are basically correct. In greek, however, adjectives have a gender. In this case the term refers to a page, which is &#8220;η σελίδα&#8221; in greek and has a she-gender. Therefore, the correct terms are &#8220;Προηγούμενη&#8221;  (&#8221;proeghumeni&#8221;) and &#8220;Επόμενη&#8221; (&#8221;ephomeni&#8221;) respectively</li>
<li>&#8220;Επώνυμο&#8221; is greek for &#8220;Last Name&#8221; (or &#8220;Surname&#8221;), not &#8220;Last Page&#8221;. The correct term would be &#8220;Τελευταία&#8221; (&#8221;telefthea&#8221;, &#8220;last in order&#8221;)</li>
</ul>
<div id="attachment_2071" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 242px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2071" title="Ning first-last translation error.en" src="http://dipot.com/dipot/wp-content/uploads/Ning-first-last-translation-error.en.jpg" alt="Ning first-last messages in english" width="232" height="34" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Ning first-last messages in english</p></div>
<div id="attachment_2072" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 330px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2072" title="Ning first-last translation error.el" src="http://dipot.com/dipot/wp-content/uploads/Ning-first-last-translation-error.el.jpg" alt="Ning first-last greek translation (error)" width="320" height="34" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Ning first-last messages in greek (translation error)</p></div>
<p>Thanks, Ning, for allowing us to built our own social networks. Please keep improving!</p>

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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Twitter: Unable to follow more people (following 2000 limit)</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2009/11/twitter-unable-to-follow-more-people-following-2000-limit/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2009/11/twitter-unable-to-follow-more-people-following-2000-limit/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:47:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[following]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[limit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[microblogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[unfollow]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=1788</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Twitter has never been my favorite, especially compared to FriendFeed, but I can&#8217;t overlook the valuable community built around it. Lists have just made it much better, but there&#8217;s still no decent way to manage them that I know of and they come with limitations of their own.</p>
<p class="wp-caption-text">Twitter: You are unable to follow more [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://twitter.com" target="_blank">Twitter</a> has never been my favorite, especially compared to <a href="http://friendfeed.com" target="_blank">FriendFeed</a>, but I can&#8217;t overlook the valuable community built around it. Lists have just made it much better, but there&#8217;s still no decent way to manage them that I know of and they come with limitations of their own.</p>
<div id="attachment_1789" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 575px"><a href="http://help.twitter.com/forums/10713/entries/66885"><img class="size-full wp-image-1789" title="Twitter unable to follow more people" src="http://dipot.com/dipot/wp-content/uploads/Twitter-unable-to-follow-more-people.jpg" alt="Twitter unable to follow more people" width="565" height="52" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Twitter: You are unable to follow more people at this time. Learn more here.</p></div>
<p>Plus, I have just ran into the inexplicable &#8220;You are unable to follow more people at this time. Learn more here.&#8221; pop-up, only to discover there is a 2000  follows limit! From <a href="http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/68916" target="_blank">http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/68916</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;&#8230;</p>
<h1>What are the limits?</h1>
<p>We don’t limit the number of followers you can have. However, we do monitor how aggressively users follow other users. We try to make sure that none of our limits restrain reasonable usage, and will not affect most Twitter users.</p>
<p>We monitor all accounts for aggressive following and follow churn (repeatedly following and un-following large numbers of other users). You can read more about these below, but if you don’t follow or un-follow hundreds of users in a single day, and you aren’t using automated methods of following users, you should be fine. Please note that the only automated following behavior that Twitter allows is auto-follow-back (following a user after they have followed you). Automated un-following is also not permitted. Please review our <a title="Automation Rules and Best Practices" href="http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/76915">Automation Rules &amp; Best Practices</a> for more information on automating your account.</p>
<p>&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Additional limits if you are following 2000 or more people:</strong><br />
The rules about aggressive following and follow churn still apply. In addition, every user can follow 2000 people total. Once you’ve followed 2000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow: this limit is different for every user and is based on your ratio of followers to following. When you hit this limit, we’ll tell you by showing an error message in your browser. You’ll need to wait until you have more followers in order to follow more users—basically, you can&#8217;t follow 10,000 people if only 100 people follow you. When you reach a daily or total limit and we show you an error message, you&#8217;ve hit a technical limit imposed to limit egregious behavior by spam accounts and to prevent strain on the site. These are just the technical limits for your account; in addition, you are prohibited from aggressive following behaviors. These behaviors may result in account suspension, regardless of your account&#8217;s technical ratio.</p>
<p>Limits improve site performance by ensuring that when we send a person&#8217;s message to all of their followers, the sending of that message is meaningful. Follow limits cannot be lifted by Twitter, and everyone is subject to them, including verified and developer accounts. Based on current behavior in the Twitter community, we&#8217;ve concluded that this is both fair and reasonable.</p>
<p>&#8230;&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>For the record, my behavior has never fallen into anything described in Twitter&#8217;s <a href="http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/68916" target="_blank">Following Limits and Best Practices</a> page, except for trying to cross the 2000 limit. It turns out that &#8220;&#8230; this limit is different for every user and is based on your ratio of followers to following &#8230;&#8221;. It seems this ratio is a big secret, although online sources like <a href="http://twitter.com/JanSimpson" target="_blank">@JanSimpson</a> and &#8220;<a href="http://www.using-twitter.com/blog/twitters-2000-follower-limit/" target="_blank">Using Twitter</a>&#8221; give it a value around 1.1. Limits seem to be the approach of choice for Twitter to keep their service running. They have another one: you can only have up to 20 Lists, which, of course, you discover only when you try to create the 21st!</p>
<p>I am not happy with adhoc limits, particularly undocumented ones. The 2000 limit is both hidden and its mechanism undocumented by Twitter. Look it up and find that &#8220;basically, you can&#8217;t follow 10,000 people if only 100 people follow you&#8221;; hardly indicative of the ~1.1 actual ratio. Why? They claim this is to prevent spam and overload! Spam, though, can be measured with any number of real (and, preferably, documented) criteria&#8230;</p>
<p>I say, Twitter just can&#8217;t handle the volume. Arbitrary limits may give easy short-term solutions. Then, what? In the mean time, I have to decide weather to start unfollowing good people, try to &#8220;Get More Followers Fast&#8221; (oops, this is against the rules), try to get more followers slow (wait, &#8220;Remember, Twitter isn’t a race to get the most followers&#8221;), leave it be, or quit Twitter and concentrate on FriendFeed. Or put new people in an &#8220;over 2000&#8243; List&#8230;</p>
<p>Did I mention how disappointed I am and how alienated I feel?</p>

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		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Outlook crashes when switching keyboard language? Check Outlook Connector!</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2009/10/outlook-crashes-when-switching-keyboard-language-check-outlook-connector/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2009/10/outlook-crashes-when-switching-keyboard-language-check-outlook-connector/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:21:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[keyboard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outlook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Outlook Connector]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=1427</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Does your Microsoft Outlook crash lately? A client of mine&#8217;s kept crashing for the better part of two consecutive mornings.</p>
<p>To cut a long story short, each time he tried to switch the keyboard to EL (Greek), it would hung with no exception. Several times it even crashed by itself while (re)starting. Repairing the .pst file [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Does your Microsoft <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/default.aspx" target="_blank">Outlook</a> crash lately? A client of mine&#8217;s kept crashing for the better part of two consecutive mornings.</p>
<p>To cut a long story short, each time he tried to switch the keyboard to EL (Greek), it would hung with no exception. Several times it even crashed by itself while (re)starting. Repairing the .pst file did not help. After realizing it was switching the keyboard that did this, I googled the issue and found the thread &#8220;<a href="http://office-outlook.com/outlook-forum/index.php/m/264965/" target="_blank">Outlook 2007 crash when I typing Thai language</a>&#8220;. Result: No solution or workaround (yet), but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Outlook_Connector" target="_blank">Outlook Connector</a> was to blame.</p>
<p>Well, not any more, it&#8217;s gone now and we all are back in business. I was very reluctant to recommend <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Outlook_Connector" target="_blank">Outlook Connector</a> to begin with, but there were no issues with it for weeks. What can I say? Can&#8217;t tie the issue to an update, either.</p>
<p>Sorry for not troubleshooting this further, MS, we both had real work to get done&#8230;</p>

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</ul>

]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://dipot.com/2009/10/outlook-crashes-when-switching-keyboard-language-check-outlook-connector/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>WordPress: External RSS Feeds Optimization with KB Advanced RSS</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2009/04/wordpress-external-rss-feeds-optimization-with-kb-advanced-rss/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2009/04/wordpress-external-rss-feeds-optimization-with-kb-advanced-rss/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Advanced RSS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atahualpa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Digital Pot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feeds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ice Tea tech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KB Advanced RSS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[netWire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PHP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RSS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RSS feeds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[server]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart RSS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Standards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Troubleshooting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vicki Kolovou]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wesley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=1224</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Apart from its own Ice Tea tech blog, Dipot.com also displays two external feeds relating to Optimization and Standards. I needed to optimize the post titles of these two feeds by getting rid of their long suffixes, both for better looks and for more content within the same space.</p>
<p>The feeds were served by the standard [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Apart from its own <a title="DiPot: Ice Tea tech blog" href="http://dipot.com" target="_blank">Ice Tea tech blog</a>, <a title="DiPot, the Digital Pot" href="http://dipot.com" target="_blank">Dipot.com</a> also displays two external feeds relating to Optimization and Standards. I needed to optimize the post titles of these two feeds by getting rid of their long suffixes, both for better looks and for more content within the same space.</p>
<p>The feeds were served by the standard RSS <a title="WordPress blogging CMS" href="http://wordpress.org/" target="_blank">WordPress</a> 2.7.1 widget, which is fine, except it does not support much customization. After some search, I found <a title="Advanced RSS WordPress Plugin" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advanced-rss/" target="_blank">Advanced RSS 1.0.1 WordPress plugin</a> and <a title="KB Advanced RSS WordPress Plugin" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/kb-advanced-rss-widget/" target="_blank">KB Advanced RSS 2.1.3 WordPress plugin</a>. Smart RSS only works until WP 2.7.0 and I didn&#8217;t want to tweak with that. Advanced RSS  only works until WP 2.6.2 and requires PHP5, DOM and XSL extensions loaded on the server and I don&#8217;t want to depend on those if I don&#8217;t need to, so the choice was easy.</p>
<p>Installation of KB Advanced RSS worked flawlessly right from within wp-admin. Then, on my first attempt to configure it, I came across a problem which could very well had been a show stopper: for some reason, except for the feed&#8217;s URL and Title, the widget would not commit any of the other parameters to the &#8220;Options&#8221; table of the database. Troubleshooting this issue, I ended up reading all the users&#8217; comments on the plugin&#8217;s site. As usual, I was not alone; this is a common issue. Thankfully, <a title="Wesley of http://www.improvingtheweb.com" href="http://www.improvingtheweb.com" target="_blank">Wesley of  http://www.improvingtheweb.com</a> had already posted the <a title="solution to PHP4 not committing widget field changes in WordPress" href="http://adambrown.info/b/widgets/2008/01/28/released-today-kb-advanced-rss-21/#comment-3812" target="_blank">solution to PHP4 not committing widget field changes in WordPress</a>. The solution worked like a charm. And, as expected, when I later upgraded to PHP5 the problem wasn&#8217;t even there to begin with.</p>
<p>KB Advanced RSS is well thought-out, very straight forward with good documentation and examples. It supports all the features of the standard widget (including multiple instances) plus formatting and full support of all the feed&#8217;s fields to display or not (including the debugging tool to show which these fields are)! It further supports two modifiers to optionally manipulate the string before display, by taking out a number of characters from the start (ltrim) and/or trimming it to a specific length (trim).</p>
<p>Alas, what I actually needed was to take out a number of characters from the end of the string. Fortunately, as it turned out, KB Advanced RSS&#8217;s code is pretty straight-forward and extending it with my own modifier (rtrim) to do just that was only a matter of 3 lines of PHP code added to the version of the plugin that runs by my version of Wordpress; there&#8217;s one for versions up to 2.7 (pre-wp-2-7.php) and one for versions after that (post-wp-2-7.php). Here is the PHP code from the modified post-wp-2-7.php (my rtrim extension is in blue):</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>///////////////////////////////// CUSTOMIZATIONS /////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// If you want to write customizations, put them here. The variable to modify is $text. See the FAQ.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

<span style="color: #333399;">// right trimming
// cuts $rtrim characters from the right
// by ageor, April 9, 2009</span><span style="color: #333399;">
$rtrim = (is_numeric($rtrim) &amp;&amp; 0&lt;$rtrim) ? (int) $rtrim : null;
if (is_int($rtrim))
$text = substr( $text, 0, strlen($string)-$rtrim );</span>

// left trimming:
$ltrim = (is_numeric($ltrim) &amp;&amp; 0&lt;$ltrim) ? (int) $ltrim : null;
if (is_int($ltrim))
$text = substr( $text, $ltrim );

// length trimming (do after left trimming)
$trim = (is_numeric($trim) &amp;&amp; 0&lt;$trim) ? (int) $trim : null;
if (is_int($trim))
$text = substr( $text, 0, $trim );

return $text;</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>The way this is written, the string in question can undergo any mix of all three trimming types necessary.</p>
<p>All setting up and troubleshooting took place by adding one instance of the widget and configuring it, then a second instance. When all was done and I had what I wanted, I removed the original two instances of the original RSS widget, positioned the new ones on top and saved, certain I was done. However, as the resulting &#8220;Widgets&#8221; Wordpress admin page suggested after saving, something was very wrorg. It displayed the message &#8216;You are using 3 widgets in the &#8220;Left Sidebar&#8221; sidebar&#8217; but not the widgets themselves, nor the &#8220;Save Changes&#8221; button. Sure enough, I ended up with an unworkable site, as these where the first 2 widgets on the left column of Ice Tea tech and the page that appeared ended with the title banner. Disaster!</p>
<p>To cut a long story short, plenty of &#8220;trial and error&#8221;s later and with the help of <a title="Vicki Kolovou of netWire on FriendFeed" href="http://friendfeed.com/talos" target="_blank">Vicki</a> of <a title="neTWire: Thinking Wide" href="http://netwire.gr" target="_blank">neTWire</a>, here is my conclusion: For KB Advanced RSS widget to work with WP 2.7.1 and the <a title="Atahualpa fluid configurable WordPress Theme" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/atahualpa" target="_blank">Atahualpa WordPress theme</a>, the WordPress RSS widget needs to be activated and positioned above it. That&#8217;s how I temporarily solved my problem, until (if ever) I have the time to look deeper into the code involved or newer versions of  the theme and/or the plugin solve it for good.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, none of the problems and troubleshooting it took to solve them can be traced back ato KB Advanced RSS alone. Atahualpa is a great but complex theme and it is their combination that turned out to be problematic. It&#8217;s not the first example of a bad mix and it won&#8217;t be the last. On the flip side, with each such incident we get to learn something new that will potentially save others and ourselves some frusrtation and time in the future.</p>

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	<li><a href="http://dipot.com/2009/04/feeds-to-content-categories-optimization-in-wordpress/" title="Feeds to Content &#038; Categories Optimization in WordPress (01/04/2009)">Feeds to Content &#038; Categories Optimization in WordPress</a> (1)</li>
	<li><a href="http://dipot.com/2009/02/apologies-for-last-days-posts-flood/" title="<!--:en-->Apologies for last days&#8217; posts flood<!--:--> (25/02/2009)"><!--:en-->Apologies for last days&#8217; posts flood<!--:--></a> (0)</li>
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</ul>

]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://dipot.com/2009/04/wordpress-external-rss-feeds-optimization-with-kb-advanced-rss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Feeds to Content &amp; Categories Optimization in WordPress</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2009/04/feeds-to-content-categories-optimization-in-wordpress/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2009/04/feeds-to-content-categories-optimization-in-wordpress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:26:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Advanced Category Excluder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bookmarks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Delicious]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feeds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ice Tea tech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RSS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yet Another Autoblogger]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=1180</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>At some point I added the category &#8220;Bookmarks&#8221; in Ice Tea tech. Thanks to the &#8220;YAAB&#8221; (short for Yet Another Auto Blogger) WordPress plugin, this category automatically gets its content directly from my Delicious feed. This way I get my own copy of what I put up there and my blog gets some added value [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>At some point I added the category &#8220;<a href="http://dipot.com/category/bookmarks/" target="_blank">Bookmarks</a>&#8221; in <a href="http://dipot.com" target="_blank">Ice Tea tech</a>. Thanks to the &#8220;<a href="http://scribido.com/yaab/yaab-autoblogger/" target="_blank">YAAB</a>&#8221; (short for Yet Another Auto Blogger) <a href="http://wordpress.org" target="_blank">WordPress</a> plugin, this category automatically gets its content directly from <a href="http://delicious.com/ageorg" target="_blank">my Delicious</a> <a href="http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/ageorg" target="_blank">feed</a>. This way I get my own copy of what I put up there and my blog gets some added value in one move.</p>
<p>YAAB has an unusual but effective interface that allows adding content to any category of a WordPress blog from any number of feeds, even offering its own scheduler, if needed. It sure works as advertized.</p>
<p>Ever since then, I meant to further optimize the blog by separating the bookmarks from my other posts. This is just what I did, with the help of the &#8220;<a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advanced-category-excluder/" target="_blank">ACE</a>&#8221; (short for Advanced Category Excluder) WordPress plugin. From now on, bookmark posts won&#8217;t appear in the main feed, like they don&#8217;t appear in the home page. For those interested, the Bookmarks feed is at <a href="http://dipot.com/category/bookmarks/feed" target="_blank">http://dipot.com/category/bookmarks/feed</a> (or find everything I post in <a href="http://friendfeed.com/ageor" target="_blank">my FriendFeed stream</a>).</p>
<p>ACE gives a WordPress blogger full control over which Categories are hidden in any of 6 sections of their blog: Archive page, Home page, RSS feed for Posts, RSS feed for Comments, Search results &amp; robots&#8217; crawls. It is very straight forward, has a clean interface and works as advertized.</p>
<p>I consider both plugins to be great assets to WordPress blogs. Which are your favorite plugins? What functionality do you put/expect in a blog?</p>

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</ul>

]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://dipot.com/2009/04/feeds-to-content-categories-optimization-in-wordpress/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>WordPress Optimization: Compatibility between Themes &amp; Plugins</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2009/03/wordpress-optimization-compatibility-between-themes-plugins/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2009/03/wordpress-optimization-compatibility-between-themes-plugins/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:28:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atahualpa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ice Tea tech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ikarus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joomla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[netWire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PHP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Translate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Troubleshooting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vicki Kolovou]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=1166</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The first incarnation of  Ice Tea tech was in Joomla 1.5. I admit I can&#8217;t resist the temptation to tweak my own blog and never got to understand the Joomla philosophy well enough to do it extensively. So, with neTWire&#8217;s help (they set it up for me and successfully imported Joomla days&#8217; posts), I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The first incarnation of  <a href="http://dipot.com/" target="_blank">Ice Tea tech</a> was in <a href="http://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank">Joomla</a> 1.5. I admit I can&#8217;t resist the temptation to tweak my own blog and never got to understand the Joomla philosophy well enough to do it extensively. So, with <a href="http://netwire.gr/" target="_blank">neTWire</a>&#8217;s help (they set it up for me and successfully imported Joomla days&#8217; posts), I decided to give <a href="http://wordpress.org/" target="_blank">WordPress</a> (currently 2.7.1) a try, therefore I am a newbee with it. The WordPress environment is very clean, straightforword and promising. From this point on, to me, blog optimization means to choose a Theme, drop in all the plugins necessary to provide the functionality I want and get going issue-free.</p>
<p>After extensive search I found <a href="http://www.bytesforall.com/" target="_blank">Bytes for All</a>&#8217;s <a href="http://wordpress.bytesforall.com/?cat=15" target="_blank">Atahualpa</a>, a WordPress theme that is customizable enough so I wouldn&#8217;t need to dive deep into <a href="http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/" target="_blank">CSS</a> just yet. It supports a dynamically resizing main column plus 2 sidebars and lots of user definable parameters. Being a novice, I also installed, among others, the <a href="http://www.qianqin.de/qtranslate/" target="_blank">qTranslate</a> plugin to support multiple languages in Ice Tea tech, in case I need it in the future.</p>
<p>To my surprise, as I&#8217;m afraid some of you noticed, post dates did not appear correctly. The date format was correct, but the date itself was wrong. To cut a long story short, in theory, WordPress supports any PHP function for date formatting, qTranslate supports the PHP &#8220;<a href="http://gr2.php.net/date" target="_blank">date</a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="http://gr2.php.net/strftime" target="_blank">strftime</a>&#8221; functions and Atahualpa, due to its highly configurable setting, seems to have the PHP &#8220;date&#8221; function hardwired in some places.</p>
<p>After some trial and error and with the valuable help of neTWire&#8217;s <a href="http://friendfeed.com/talos" target="_blank">Vicki Kolovou</a> it turns out that, actually, qTranslate only works correctly with the &#8220;strftime&#8221; type of date formatting. So, there is no way it can coexist with Atahualpa or <a href="http://ikarus.wpthemespress.com/" target="_blank">Ikarus</a>, another highly customizable theme I  tried.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t have that much troubleshooting time for myself and Ice Tea tech<a href="http://dipot.com/" target="_blank"></a>&#8217;s environment is currently only in English. So, I&#8217;m sorry to report qTranslate had to go, at least for now. I hear it causes other issues, too. It&#8217;s a pity, as it otherwise really is a very well thought-out plugin&#8230;</p>
<p>It seems such issues are still commonplace. After this experience, my new definition for blog optimization is &#8220;the most functionality that actually works as it is supposed to&#8221;&#8230;</p>

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]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://dipot.com/2009/03/wordpress-optimization-compatibility-between-themes-plugins/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Optimize Firefox with 9+1 Must Have Add-ons </title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2009/01/optimize-firefox-with-91-must-have-add-ons/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2009/01/optimize-firefox-with-91-must-have-add-ons/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:27:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Adblock]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[add-ons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bookmarks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[browser]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Delicious]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Download]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[downloader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DownThemAll]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[favorites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feeds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[filters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Firefox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FireFTP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FTP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google Reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GReader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Greasemonkey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet Explorer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mozilla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[networks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[optimization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PDA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PDF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PlainOldFavorites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shareaholic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Split]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toolbar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://dipot.com/?p=98</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>
</p>
<p>During my early days as an IT support person (well before USB flash drives, external hard disks and recordable CDs), I picked up the habit to not be dependent on anything not included in Windows (v. 3.0, at the time) if I could help it. So I got used to working on the setups my [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><!--:el-->
</p>
<p><!--:--><!--:en-->During my early days as an IT support person (well before USB flash drives, external hard disks and recordable CDs), I picked up the habit to not be dependent on anything not included in Windows (v. 3.0, at the time) if I could help it. So I got used to working on the setups my clients did.</p>
<p>I rarely support people this way any more. Although old habits die hard, I increasingly get used to my own, optimized setup. I am a Windows person wishing for a Linux future, so, I keep trying to use software also available for it in an effort to prepare for the switch at some point. I also prefer portable applications, ones that can run fully configured from a flash disk. Firefox is my browserfits these specs plus there is a plethora of great, value-adding add-ons to optimize it.</p>
<p>This is the list of the Add-ons I can&#8217;t live without (in alphabetical order):</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6424" target="_blank">Better GReader</a></li>
<p>As the name implies, Better GReader is a collection of scripts (also available for GreaseMonkey) that improve the Google Reader experience. I use the ones that bypass the GReader-iGoogle choice, color-code the list items, massively mark the items above the current one as read, show the feeds&#8217; favicons and make better use of the window real estate to fit more items in each page. Among other choices, there&#8217;s also the preview item within GReader choice I know people like, but I don&#8217;t use it. Better GReader does not require GreaseMonkey to work.</p>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201" target="_blank">DownThemAll!</a></li>
<p>&#8220;The mass downloader for Fireox&#8221;. GetRight is better, but it&#8217;s not free. The only item in my wishlish for DownThemAll is ability to change the saved name of the document.</p>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684" target="_blank">FireFTP</a></li>
<p>Not everyone uses FTP any more. If you do, FireFTP covers all the bascis: local and remote &#8220;explorer&#8221; windows, permissions change, synchronization, initial folders after logon etc.</p>
<li><a href="http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT3/intl/en/" target="_blank">Google Toolbar for Firefox</a></li>
<p>Firefox does support several search engines out of the box and a lot more by customization. The Google Toolbar is very versatile and Google is my search engine of choice. I don&#8217;t use all of its features but those I do use save me a lot of clicks and data entry.</p>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419" target="_blank">IE Tab</a></li>
<p>IE Tab is still one of the first add-ons I install, as it allows use of Internet Explorer&#8217;s rendering engine within a Firefox Tab. Furthermore it can remember IE-specific sites and kick-in automatically. I would prefer such sites did not exist (and they do tend to become extinct) but if you are a web developer, you need it anyway.</p>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/636" target="_blank">PDF Download</a></li>
<p>Earlier versions of Firefox did not work very well with acrobat documents. I think both Firefox and the acrobat plug-in have now improved but I&#8217;m still used to choosing whether to save or to just view a .pdf up front.</p>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/668" target="_blank">PlainOldFavorites</a></li>
<p>Windows and IE Favorites are not as compact as Firefox Bookmarks. I don&#8217;t like importing them, though; I prefer using PlainOldFavorites that adds a &#8220;Favorites&#8221; menu entry that works almost exactly like (Internet) Explorer&#8217;s. If only Shift Organize worked the same, it would be perfect! This is a must-have for people whose primary browser is IE.</p>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5457" target="_blank">Shareaholic</a></li>
<p>If you like to post sites you visit on an extensive list of supported services (including my favorites Delicious, Facebook, FriendFeed, Google Reader, Twitter and many more), this is the tool of choice. Many sites use widgets for that but why not be prepared?</p>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4287" target="_blank">Split Browser</a></li>
<p>I can live without Split Browser, except when I can&#8217;t. Like on US election day and Obama&#8217;s inauguration, when I had a tab split into 3 or 4 panes to follow several video etc. streams at once. If you need it, you need it.</ol>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865" target="_blank">Adblock Plus</a></li>
<p>Due to the debate whether blocking ads is hurting the Internet, I scruple about such add-0ns. Having said that, I asked about the most valuable Firefox add-on in Twitter and FriendFeed and the answer I got was Adblock. I am presenting Adblock Plus, which knows how to block many ads and is easily further configurable. Additionaly, four expansions, <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4042">Adblock Plus Filter Uploader</a>, <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1136">Adblock Filterset.G Updater</a>, <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4364"> Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper</a> and <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7037">Adblock Plus Watcher</a> help share our filters, update them automatically, hide text ads and debug Adblock Plus for even better results.</ul>
<p>There go my most valuable of around 35 Firefox add-ons I use. Which browser do you use and how do you optimize it? Please do share!<!--:--></p>

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	<li><a href="http://dipot.com/2009/01/news-reading-thoughts/" title="News Reading Thoughts (13/01/2009)">News Reading Thoughts</a> (2)</li>
	<li><a href="http://dipot.com/2009/02/friendfeed-optimization-feature-requests/" title="<!--:en-->FriendFeed Optimization Feature Requests<!--:--> (02/02/2009)"><!--:en-->FriendFeed Optimization Feature Requests<!--:--></a> (0)</li>
	<li><a href="http://dipot.com/2009/03/clipmarks-firefox-add-ons/" title="Clipmarks :: Firefox Add-ons (21/03/2009)">Clipmarks :: Firefox Add-ons</a> (0)</li>
	<li><a href="http://dipot.com/2009/01/7-favorite-value-adding-friendfeed-applications/" title="<!--:en-->7 Favorite, Value Adding FriendFeed Applications<!--:--> (22/01/2009)"><!--:en-->7 Favorite, Value Adding FriendFeed Applications<!--:--></a> (0)</li>
</ul>

]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>News Reading Thoughts</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2009/01/news-reading-thoughts/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2009/01/news-reading-thoughts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:46:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blogbridge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Delicious]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[duplicates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feeds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[filtering]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[filters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Firefox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google Reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Greasemonkey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mozilla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Naftemporiki]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[readers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Robert Scoble]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RSS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>I never have enough of a good thing. The first time I read the online edition of a magazine I immediately wished for a filtered edition which would only contain the articles of my choice. When Greek Naftemporiki newspaper&#8217;s online-edition provided filtered, personalized content, I immediately wished for a method to push the content to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><!--:el--></p>
<p><!--:--><!--:en--></p>
<p>I never have enough of a good thing. The first time I read the online edition of a magazine I immediately wished for a filtered edition which would only contain the articles of my choice. When Greek Naftemporiki newspaper&#8217;s online-edition provided filtered, personalized content, I immediately wished for a method to push the content to me, instead of going around the sites and soon after that RSS appeared (what I like about technology; it always catches up).</p>
<p>Now RSS is commonplace. Filters increase, but the implementations are still early and immature. For example, except for Google and similar sites, filters usually apply to a single site; that of the content source (like <a href="http://naftemporiki.gr/">http://naftemporiki.gr</a> -only in greek). RSS makes it easy to gather information from multiple sources to the feed reader of choice, but by itself provides no filtering in the source, except in the form of multiple feeds. So, where should filtering apply?</p>
<p>The tools have been expanding and improving. From the days of raw content we now have search, filtering, RSS and a multitude of clients to put them to good use. I tried the very good <a href="http://www.blogbridge.com/" target="_blank">BlogBridge</a> for a while for its keyword-based virtual feeds (thanks, <a href="http://friendfeed.com/karagos" target="_blank">karagos</a>, for suggesting it). It being offline and other problems I had (bad greek support and hitting the 600 feeds limit of the free edition while not convinced to buy yet) made me return to <a href="http://www.google.com/reader" target="_blank">Google Reader</a>. Regardless of reader, my everyday struggle to get and keep informed about the news and my interests has been getting very time-consuming, mainly due to increasing volume (never have enough of a good thing, remember?).</p>
<p>How many sources and how many pieces of news and info am I talking about? A quick count showed around 2800 items from my (ever expanding collection of) ~750 subscriptions in Google Reader in the last 12 hours. This includes my ~450 <a href="http://friendfeed.com" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0000ff;">FriendFeed</span></span></a> subcriptions feed, but not my ~900 people Twitter feed (strangely, only a small count of the tweets I follow make it to the RSS feed). Thankfully, a good portion of the tweets make it to FFd as well (although I fear not all FFd posts make it to the RSS feed, either). At this rate of incomings, it takes me 10-20&#8242;/h to browse everything, read and microblog about whatever catches my eye.</p>
<p>This is way too much time. In practice, I browse some of the titles when there&#8217;s time and only read the interesting items among them. I do use the <a href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/23671" target="_blank">Google Reader Filter</a> <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748" target="_blank">GreaseMonkey</a> script to highlight items containing an increasing number (~100, so far) of keywords and it is helpfull. But the real problem is with the multiple sharing of the same (great) URLs in FriendFeed, which in turn produce multiple different (as they come from different users) items in Google Reader. Those are not caught by the script&#8217;s &#8220;hide duplicates&#8221; option.</p>
<p>So, for the time being, I consider avoiding duplication my #1 goal for increasing my news-reading productivity. I hope Friendfeed will listen and convert duplicate link posts to likes or comments of the first such post. This would also result in a major added benefit: aggregating all the relevant discussions in one thread, <a href="http://friendfeed.com/e/b142c711-7501-4280-a6df-8c850986375a/Sharing-or-resharing-equals-liking-Friendfeed/" target="_blank">as discussed here</a>. I find it so important, I even requested <a href="http://friendfeed.com/scobleizer" target="_blank">Robert Scoble</a> to lobby for this <a href="http://friendfeed.com/e/afab4367-f3b1-49fa-85a4-a8844424a107/Sharing-or-resharing-equals-liking-Friendfeed/" target="_blank">here</a> (I guess it&#8217;s impossible to read everything, even for him)!</p>
<p>#2 goal is to reduce sources that produce similar content, like press releases etc. <a href="http://www.google.com/news" target="_blank">Google News</a> does well about it but doesn&#8217;t track all the sites I do. Mechanisms of bookmarking sites like <a href="http://delicious.com/" target="_blank">Delicious</a> might also help, as they keep URL scoring. While I work on a plan, I&#8217;ll stick to goal #1. Please join!</p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p><br class="spacer_" /></p>
<p><!--:--></p>

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]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Which Service should a Post go to?</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2009/01/how-i-post/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2009/01/how-i-post/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:21:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Delicious]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[feed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Flickr]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flowchart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FriendFeed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google Reader]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ice Tea tech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[microblogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[On Anything and Everything]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SlideShare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[YouTube]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p></p>
<p>I have been trying to organize/visualize the way I post, be it blogging, a comment on FriendFeed, an interesting link a came across etc. During the time it took me to complete the flowchart, more services were added as sources or carriers of my posts. As a result, the chart got more complex than originally [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><!--:el--></p>
<p><!--:--><!--:en-->I have been trying to organize/visualize the way I post, be it blogging, a comment on FriendFeed, an interesting link a came across etc. During the time it took me to complete the flowchart, more services were added as sources or carriers of my posts. As a result, the chart got more complex than originally anticipated. Interestingly enough, there is a pattern and the flowchart works for me most of the time.</p>
<p>Also <a href="http://dipot.com/docs/posting_flowchart.dia" target="_blank">get the Posting Flowchart as built in Dia</a> (hence the crudeness), for your own use. So, there it is:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<div id="attachment_65" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 632px"><a href="http://dipot.com/docs/posting_flowchart.dia"><img class=" " title="Posting Flowchart" src="http://dipot.com/docs/posting_flowchart.png" alt="" width="622" height="355" /><br />
</a><p class="wp-caption-text">Posting Flowchart</p></div>
<p>Please do comment. Is posting a one-way street for you? Are there any general rules or do you post on a case by case basis?<!--:--></p>

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]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Music on Hold</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2008/05/music-on-hold/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2008/05/music-on-hold/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 14 May 2008 09:01:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Creative]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MP3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MPIO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[music on hold]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PBX]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PDA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[player]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WinAmp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I am in search of a simple &#8220;music on hold&#8221; (and background music) system for the office PBX.</p>
<p>I have already tried a CD player and WinAmp on a PC. The CD is short in duration and eventually wears out. WinAmp is better, but it requires a PC with a dedicated sound card (or every other [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><!--:en-->I am in search of a simple &#8220;music on hold&#8221; (and background music) system for the office PBX.</p>
<p>I have already tried a CD player and WinAmp on a PC. The CD is short in duration and eventually wears out. WinAmp is better, but it requires a PC with a dedicated sound card (or every other sound source disabled), it doesn&#8217;t run as a service out of the box and it does occasionally stop playing for no apparent reason.</p>
<p>All these were happening before the portable MP3 players days. So, the obvious today&#8217;s choice would be an MP3 player with enough memory, set to shuffle and repeat. Using an AC to USB adapter should solve the power problem, as batteries don&#8217;t last for ever, right? Unfortunately, most USB-powered MP3 players switch to data mode when connected, even if connected to power-only USB. And when in data mode, they just won&#8217;t play songs! Experiments with several players and asking various salespersons confirmed that fact.</p>
<p>So, how can it be done? I got a suggestion to find a player powered from a non-USB source. Not an easy task, these days. The last such device I remember was an MPIO MP3 player (yes, it still works, but it&#8217;s not mine). Although this was before USB totally dominated the peripherals market, I always held using a non-USB power adapter against it. Little did I know&#8230;</p>
<p>Then I accidentally came across the Creative MuVo V100. Its design is exactly such that it distinguishes connection to data USB vs power only USB and acts accordingly, that is play MP3s even when powered! Perfect, at least in theory. Preliminary tests show that, while it works as advertised, it, too (like WinAmp), occasionally stops playback for no apparent reason.</p>
<p>While tests continue, it seems I am still searching&#8230;</p>
<p>Update: Creative is in the clear. Apparently, MuVo works fine. When I tried another USB power supply all problems disappeared. It turns out even a simple device like that can be faulty enough to work at random! I am finally happy with my music on hold.</p>
<p><!--:--></p>

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</ul>

]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Your home on camera, live</title>
		<link>http://dipot.com/2007/12/your-home-on-camera-live/</link>
		<comments>http://dipot.com/2007/12/your-home-on-camera-live/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:06:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ageor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips & How-to]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ADSL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AVM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[browser]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[camera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DiPot.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PDA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[server]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[surveillance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vivotek]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Two weeks ago I was asked again to install a couple of cameras to watch a newborn baby at home (with the sitter&#8230;).</p>
<p>Provided there is an ADSL in the premises, the task is trivial, tech-wise. In this case, the heart of the system is an AVM Fritz ADSL modem, 4 port switch, wireless Access Point [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><!--:en-->Two weeks ago I was asked again to install a couple of cameras to watch a newborn baby at home (with the sitter&#8230;).</p>
<p>Provided there is an ADSL in the premises, the task is trivial, tech-wise. In this case, the heart of the system is an <a href="http://www.avm.de/en/Produkte/index.html">AVM Fritz</a> ADSL modem, 4 port switch, wireless Access Point with SIP, complemented by 2 <a href="http://www.vivotek.com/products_pt7137.htm" target="_blank">VIVOTEK PT7137</a> wifi IP pan-tilt (but not zoom) VGA cameras.</p>
<p>The first problem in serving content from a non-static (dynamic) IP address is how to hit the correct IP, which is a moving target (I recently came across the fact that, in Greece, ISP OTEnet actually disconnects dynamic ADSL connections every 54 hours, just to change IP address!). The solution to this is dynamic DNS, in this case in the form of the free service <a title="DynDNS -- Dynamic DNS, E-Mail Delivery and Other Services" href="http://www.dyndns.org" target="_blank">DynDNS</a> (other such services also exist). What dynamic DNS does is have a client program automatically update the current IP address of an ADSL connection to a host of the form &lt;myhost&gt;.dyndns.org. In this case (lucky me), both the router and the cameras have dyndns.org support built-in. If this wasn&#8217;t the case, I could set up a dyndns.org client in a windows or linux pc to do the job. I could, alternatively, buy a static IP address, which I do not prefer for security and cost reasons. More than one dynamic DNS client can be set up for redundancy, if needed.</p>
<p>The other problem in serving content this way is that the Internet IP one&#8217;s router uses is different from the local IP address of this same router and each of his local network devices (yes, it&#8217;s too technical). The router takes care of back-and-forth IP translation for the outgoing connections (browsing, email reception &amp; transmission, Instant Messaging etc.) automatically (using NAPT, Network Address Port Translation). However, when a local server needs to listen to Internet incoming traffic, this must be routed to it in a way that cannot be automated (not until UPnP, anyway, which is another story), so port translation must be manually programmed to the router and the method is called &#8220;port forwarding&#8221;. What this does is tell the router what to do with any incoming traffic, depending on the Port it uses: drop it or forward it to a different internal IP and Port, where a server is standing by.</p>
<p>When similar content is served by more than one servers (in this case all the IP cameras transmit audio &amp; video using the http protocol which by default &#8220;listens&#8221; and &#8220;transmits&#8221; on port 80), we have the third problem: We need to reference two (or more) different servers serving the same service (http) using the same single external IP address.</p>
<p>The solution here is in the way protocol calls are made: when our browser shows it connects to http://blog.dipot.com, it is actually connecting to http://blog.dipot.com:80, where 80 represents the connection&#8217;s port number (which has possible values from 1 to 65535). The port value of 80 is implied, because it is the standard port number for the http protocol (other protocols by default, but not necessarily, connect to other ports). This essentially means that we can reference ~65000 different services (protocols) on the same IP address. So, what we do is agree between ourselves and the router to use these two (or more) addresses to call our two (or more) IP cameras (the &#8220;http://&#8221; prefix is important, because the specified ports are not usually intended for this protocol):<br />
Camera 1: http://&lt;myhost&gt;.dyndns.org:12001<br />
Camera 2: http://&lt;myhost&gt;.dyndns.org:12002<br />
Camera n: http://&lt;myhost&gt;.dyndns.org:1200n</p>
<p>So, assuming the cameras addresses are 192.168.1.21, 192.168.1.22 (&amp; 192.168.1.2n) and all transmit to port 80 (the default) we program the router to forward calls to ports 12001, 12002 (&amp; 1200n) to 192.168.1.21:80, 192.168.1.22:80 (&amp; 192.168.1.2n:80). It is important for the cameras IP addresses to be static, so we don&#8217;t have another moving target to cope with.</p>
<p>In case the router didn&#8217;t support forwarding to a different port than the incoming, we should then program the cameras to listen and transmit to ports 12001, 12002, &#8230; 1200n, which is perfectly possible, if not simpler.</p>
<p>This came out larger and more technical than intended. All these, however, can be implemented in about 30&#8242; and are applicable to other services as well.</p>
<p>For router-specific instructions to program port forwarding, refer to the excellent guide &#8220;<a href="http://portforward.com/guides.htm" target="_blank">Free Help Setting up</a><a href="http://portforward.com/guides.htm" target="_blank"> Your Router or Firewall</a>&#8220;.</p>
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