(this is) durkin.org

I’ve been working on a site for a friend but ran into some trouble with the image slider.  So I searched for an answer via Google.  And searched.  And clicked.  And searched.  And read.  And read.

And ran into dead end after dead end.

Eventually I noticed there was a recurring comment regarding problems with the Photoria theme’s slider, perhaps the timthumb.php file is bad. ¹  So I searched again for a solution to this more specific problem.  On Google.  And searched.  And clicked.  And, well you get the drift.

I finally stopped and thought for just a second about the problem I was trying to solve: the slider in a WordPress site wasn’t working, and it might have something to do with timthumb.php.  Hey, I thought, maybe there’s a WordPress-specific answer in their forums?  What a great idea; I’ll look there.

Viola: Timthumb Vulnerability Scanner

It’s a beautiful little plugin – if it finds a vulnerability², it offers to automatically upgrade the code.  Piece of cake.  30 minutes later.

1. I mean, of course! [↩]
2. Which, in this case, it did. [↩]

I have nothing against either of these acts¹, but really?

1. In fact, I am a HUGE Van Halen fan [↩]

I took time out to write to my old friend
I walked across that burning bridge
Mailed my letter off to Dallas, but
Her reply came from Anchorage, Alaska

And she said: Hey [John], it’s about time you wrote…

 

It has been years.  Years.  Much has changed, even more has not.  But I think it’s time for an overhaul.  A reboot.

Now.

Read more about this..

I think it’s every human’s job to inspire others, to feed one another’s senses. Inspiration begets inspiration times infinity. Imagine if the person that was inspired to create the phonograph didn’t share it with the world.

Jay-Z.  (via)

I just can’t let it go, apparently.  Almost two years ago I mentioned a funny conversation I had with the CIO of my then-company about automatic flushers.  I’ll spare you the re-hash of the details, but not the photo of the male urinal above.

I walked into the restroom the other day and saw that the lid was off and the battery apparatus was exposed.  I took a picture and laughed and laughed¹.

1. Both about the subject matter in general, and about the fact that I had just taken a photo in a men’s room. [↩]

Just a test of the WordPress Blackberry app (http://bit.ly/HieFj)… Waiting outside Moe’s to pick up dinner for the boys.

So, since the car-break-in-incident-of-2009, and the reduction of iPods in our household by 1 (to 1), I tried out running with my Blackberry (Curve, if you are interested) as media player.  Happy to say I am pleased with the performance.  I think the media player interface could be easier to manage (but not sure exactly how) – it was  a bit awkward changing songs and such… and I think that will only get more difficult once I get a handy-dandy armband in which to carry it while I run.  I hate carrying stuff in my hands.

Today’s treadmill playlist:

Young Adult Friction – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (site/via)
Italian Leather Sofa - Cake
Photograph - Camper Van Beethoven
Hopeless - The Wrens
Call Me Blue – A House
Dancing with Myself – Billy Idol
From Russia with Love – Girlfriend Voice
Show Me Mary – Catherine Wheel
Hold on Tight – ELO
You Were Always the One – the Cribs

So, Blackberry as media player worked out, I did 4 miles faster than I have ever done them before¹ (37 minutes, thankyouverymuch), and so on.

1. But not, alas, at my goal time – which is 36 minutes. [↩]