Posted in November 2007 …

Nov 09 2007
Post

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
Post

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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