Yet Another test of the MacGyver Syndication Network

This test will confirm that the filters I set up to forward incoming posts from Feedburner to the unique ‘secret addresses’ given to me by WordPress.com and Opera.com are operational.

If this post ends up on the two ‘mirror’ sites then I can only assume that syntax in the headers of the Feedburner messages themselves is causing them to be trashed by WordPress.com/Opera.com.

…And I guess I won’t know for sure until tomorrow, since Feedburner only sends out material once a day, and I don’t know what time of day it is.

MacGyver Syndication

Not that anyone has noticed, but I’ve been making ‘test’ posts here recently in an attempt to set up a ‘mirror site’. Not that anyone ever even looks at this one, but I wanted to experiment with WordPress.com just to familiarize myself with it. It might make a good solution for a client some time.

Well, one of the first things I realized was that a WordPress.com hosted blog comes with considerable limitations as compared to hosting it elsewhere yourself. Namely, a limited number of themes to choose from – which makes customizing the page difficult – and the complete omission of plugins.

Anyway, this isn’t another comparison of wordpress.org vs wordpress.com (there are lots of those already) so I’ll cut to the chase. I thought if I could make my WordPress.com site be a mirror of my main one then my little experiment wouldn’t be such a complete waste of bandwidth. But after seeing that there were no plugins at wordpress.com, I thought I’d hit a brick wall.

Then I remembered the ‘post by email’ feature. With one free third-party service (from Google) called Feedburner – I came up with a solution (or so I thought – I’ve yet to see any results).

Theoretically this should work though: I set up a feed at http://feedburner.google.com by entering my main site’s RSS url. Then I subscribed to it using a unique email address @ rickey-rat.com, which is filtered to forward all mail it receives to the secret email address I got from wordpress.com.

I’m not sure what the problem is, though it may just be my own impatience; there seems to be a delay on Feedburner’s end as to when they acknowledge a new ‘subscriber’, and I’m not sure how often they send the emails out. It may be once a day. This has made it difficult to test what I’m doing.

GIMME SOME MONEY!

I have made it possible for people to purchase collections of posters from my gallery of recent work. After you make your selections, enter their product codes (found in brackets at the end of their descriptions, for example [VC032704]) into the form HERE.

A pack of 5 signed 11X17 color prints is just $20; or get an even better deal by selecting 10 for $30. Shipping is included (in continental US only).

OR, if you’re just feeling generous and want to support my shtick by donating any amount, click HERE to see the Donations page.

Welcome again!!!

I’ve been doing some updating around here. One thing you’ll notice is the new color scheme. The old one was a bit of a departure from my usual ‘man-in-black’ shtick, and just wasn’t quite as cool looking, so it’s gone.

Another thing I’ve been working on is a way to let people leave comments here without having to ‘join’. But I don’t want to host a forum for every anonymous asshole who comes along wanting to vent their ignorance at me and the rest of the world either.

One of the most common mistakes I make is allowing my eyes to wander down the page of a news item or Youtube video only to be reminded of the painfully extreme idiocy the comments section will undoubtedly have to offer.

So now, thanks to Gigya.com’s social-authentication plugin/widget for WordPress, I can allow and even invite folks to interact here. The usefulness and popularity of personal websites were on a steady decline until coders started coming up with ways to integrate the features of existing social networks, and in my opinion, this is one of the best ones yet.

HOW IT WORKS:

The developers of your favorite networks know the above better than anyone, so they’ve all created a means of interacting with other sites at varying levels. They all allow their users to add ‘applications’, and that’s what Gigya has made – an app that takes your login-data and profile info and feeds it into the WordPress authentication platform. So instead of filling out the native WordPress authentication form (and giving your email address to yet ANOTHER website) you simply allow the Gigya App to share some of the info from your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc accounts with third-party sites.

For instance, the user’s password stays hidden from me. Also the log-in process for certain networks will ask for permissions for access to specific items.

SO GIVE IT A TRY! If you’re already logged in to Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Google, Yahoo or lots of others then all you have to do is grant permission by clicking the icon in the upper-left section of these pages. If not, just log in using the proper username/password combo for that site.

Don’t forget to say hello by leaving a comment here or on another post!

This one's sure to offend someone

Click on the image to see it at 1154X1600.

Absolute Fucking Saints – Sodom And Gomorrah

This is the result of my first experiment with Milkdrop, which is a Winamp visualization plugin, and FRAPS, which is a screen capturing utility.

I’m going to assume that anyone here who isn’t familiar with Milkdrop is probably not a Winamp user. For the sake of the uninformed, Winamp is a free alternative to “Windows Media Player”. Milkdrop is bundled with it. It is similar to other ‘eye-candy’ features that you’re used to seeing on all kinds of media players and mobile devices, but vastly superior. I digress, since this is not a ‘review’ of any software program. Let me just say that it’s the most amazing real-time generator of fractal psychedelia that I’ve ever seen.

One of it’s features is that the visuals are totally customizable. Using a text file you can tweak all kinds of variables to get different effects. The package comes with about 500 ‘presets’. The program randomly cycles through the presets in its folder while your music plays. The audio data from your song (usually the rhythmic highs and lows) is fed into the variables in the preset, and the colors ‘dance’.
Another feature is the ability to introduce ‘sprites’ into the action. These are bitmaps (you can use jpegs) that follow a few rules regarding their behavior on screen. I haven’t experimented with this much. I merely copied an existing sprite’s script and replaced its jpeg with those of the cartoon monkey versions of my band and the title graphics. All of which just appear on the right and sort of float/bounce to the left.
You cycle through the presets randomly at timed intervals, or you can cue it with the keyboard. The sprites are the same way. You can have up to 100 at any time, launched by typing their two-digit ID while the visualization is running.

I didn’t do anything with the presets in this – aside from the cues they’re just random. I like how the sprites interact with some of them but others, not so much. In future projects, I’ll choose a specific set of presets for the song and maybe try to establish a color scheme. I also hope to learn more about sprite behavior, so I can use my own graphics more like ‘puppets’. For instance, many of the presets have a ‘zooming in’ effect. If I could make my sprites follow a ‘whizzing past’ motion to fit into that, I could make a cool video just by introducing sprites that correspond to the song parts.
Stay Tuned!

Natt Spil Rock Night – Mondays in March – 211 King St., Madison, WI