Posted in 2007 …

Nov 09 2007
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Solving Feed List Plugin Encoding Issue

I started having encoding issues with Feed List plugin sometime between I installed it and maybe when I upgraded to WP 2.2. It took me a while to find this out because I don’t look at my blog’s homepage that often; I usually only see the admin area & individual post page for preview. Unless I had special character in my feed item, it wasn’t noticeable.

But anyways, I had been played around with the plugin and I finally fixed it. Since I saw many people asking about the same issue on the plugin author’s page & google group, I wanted to share what I did here.

For this WordPress 2.3.1 blog, these settings worked:

  • Feed source: del.icio.us RSS, converted using FeedBurner
  • Feed List Plugin Version: 2.2
  • My custom settings (everything else except RSS URL is default):
    • “num_items”=> 8
    • “show_description”=>false
    • “suppress_link”=>false

All special characters show up fine now, including Japanese characters.
Example: http://blog.detlog.org/ (See “My Recent Bookmarks” on the side)

The key (for me) was to just use FeedBurner RSS instead of original del.icio.us version.
So you might want to try either using original one or converted FeedBurner RSS.

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Nov 07 2007
1 Comment
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Three Attempts and You Are Out

I lived in Japan long enough that I am used to getting packages “delivered,” like, really delivered.

When you send a package through Kuroneko Yamato (private delivery service company, like FedEx/UPS) or other companies, they let you pick a preferred delivery date and time.

delivery truck making a pickup #3118

For example, Kuroneko Yamato has 6 delivery time zones: ranging from “Before noon” to “Between 8 p.m. & 9 p.m” — from noon to 8 p.m., they have one “zone” in 2-hour increments.

From kuronekoyamato.co.jp (Yamato Transport) website:

[Six Time-Zone Delivery Service (*No extra charge is necessary)]

You can select the time period in which you would like the package to be delivered. Should the receiver not be at home, upon request from the receiver, the package can be redelivered.

Yes, that’s right. The package can be redelivered. And you can tell them to come between 8-9 p.m. if you want. They deliver on weekends too.

But for some reason, it’s not the case for FedEx or UPS. They just keep trying to deliver it three times (pretty much the same time during day) then keep leaving a door tag with not much information on it.

How are you supposed to receive a package if you work away from home during day? Or you are out of town? The answer is… you can’t. You have to go to their pick-up location and sign a slip (btw FedEx pick-up place is not open on weekends, its address was not on the door tag nor delivery status website, and they don’t have public phone number).
Sure, you can have packages delivered to your office in the first place, but what about a large package like furniture or something – take a day off?

I guess it sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m just really puzzled with how inefficient the whole system is. Delivery is delivery, not “we’ll-try-to-deliver” service. Is there any reason for this?

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Oct 23 2007
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WordPress.com in Japanese

WordPress’ free hosted service “WordPress.com” is now available in Japanese interface.

WordPress.com in Japanese

When I started translating strings on translate.wordpress.com a while ago, I thought it’s a pretty cool system to get people involved in translation. It was only recently that I was able to spend more time at it – but once I got going, I did 1000′s in a few days, i was pretty busy!

After the number of translated strings reached above Italian (which already has localized interface), I contacted the support team. The process of actually getting the Japanese site up was pretty quick and smooth – pretty impressive.

Once you are logged in, you can chose your blog’s language through Options » Languages menu. Make sure to pick the one that matches with the language you use to write your blog entries.

This is only a first step for promoting WordPress.com to Japanese users. But it’s also a pretty big step toward getting people more interested in both WordPress.org/WordPress.com. The team & community’s effort toward intarnationalization/localiazation is one of the biggest reasons why I keep using their product. Good job and thank you to all who made this happen!

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Sep 05 2007
3 Comments
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"I know a lot of spammers"

This morning, I found this comment in the moderation queue.

hello , my name is [omitted] and I know you get a lot of spammy comments , I can help you with this problem .

I know a lot of spammers and I will ask them not to post on your site. It will reduce the volume of spam by 30-50% .In return Id like to ask you to put a link to my site on the index page of your site. The link will be small and your visitors will hardly notice it , its just done for higher rankings in search engines.

Contact me icq [omitted] or write me [omitted](at)yahoo.com , i will give you my site url and you will give me yours if you are interested. thank you

So, he knows up to half of the spammers that spam my site – besides himself. In exchange for his service, he wants me to participate in SEO spam. Hmm.

No thank you, I’m not interested, i will not give you my site url!

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Sep 01 2007
3 Comments
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An Event Apart Chicago 2007

As I was filling out a travel application form at work for An Event Apart Chicago, I still couldn’t believe that I was really going. I never posted that I was signed up either (here or in Japanese version of my blog or anywhere), probably to avoid disappointment in case something happened and I couldn’t go.

All my worries were wrong, and I actually got to go… and it was even better than I anticipated.

They covered a wide range of topics from hands-on session (with some code samples) to high-level inspirational/work ethic/life lesson-like talk. I enjoyed the variety and change in the pace. No session was very discussion-oriented (no panels. 5-10 minutes average Q&A time) but they were high-quality professional presentations (duh!).

The whole conference was interesting because it somehow “all made sense” in the end. Now, a few days after the event, everything they said on stage and conversations I had with other attendees are coming all together. If you are a front-end developer with interests in visual design like myself, I’m pretty sure you will find with all An Event Apart delivers. Even for others, I think an event like this can give you good understanding of what other members of development team are doing to make it all happen (which will help the whole team a great deal).

If I have to pick, my most favorite one was “Selling Design” by Jeffery Zeldman. Selling designs means understanding what’s the best for your clients, and knowing what it takes to make them agree with you. He talked about exactly how to make those happen. Design doesn’t mean just visual/cosmetic ‘design’. It’s everything from creative ideas, the architecture of the site, and other important decisions. As a front-end developer, it’s easy for me to get caught up in solving immediate technical challenges. Zeldman’s talk was a good reminder of how I should look at my work within a big picture.

Another one of my favorite session was “Best Practices For Form Design” by Luke Wroblewski. Luke said something like “I can talk about forms all day If you let me” – I seriously would love to hear that all day! :D Just as copy on the web is not paid enough attention, forms need a lot more attention than they get now. In real stores, you can make or break your impression by how you treat customers while receiving payment at register or collecting personal information (just chatting or asking for zip code). Placing a good form on your site is as important as having well-trained & friendly wait staff at a restaurant. During his presentation, Luke showed us great real-life examples of how we can achieve that.
I’m looking forward to his new book “Web Form Design Best Practices” – coming out early next year.

The success and quality of the event itself was a proof of that these guys (and ladies) know what they need to produce good results. I feel so lucky to have been able to experience it first hand.

Links:

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