Greg In The Desert

I started this blog in the summer of 2003 using iBlog for Mac and hosting using .mac. Eventually iBlog used Haloscan for comments and eventually iBlog died (technically it’s still available but it’s been at version 2.0 release candidate 3 for years). I have since moved this blog to Blosxom, RapidWeaver and finally Wordpress and changed the name three times.

I was able to transfer all of the posts generated from the other blogging systems into Wordpress through (mostly) automated methods. Using Applescript I was able to parse the contents of the rendered HTML files and exported to a text file that Wordpress could import.

I evaluated the various formats that Wordpress supports, including the wordpress WXR format but found the Movable Type Import Format the easiest to work with.

Getting the 1,100 plus comments from Haloscan proved to be more difficult. Haloscan does offer a XML export of comments, which required an inexpensive paid membership to access. Wordpress does not offer a Haloscan XML importer so I converted the XML file to the Movable Type Import Format using applescript.

Applescript has a XML parser built in but I found the XML parser to have difficulties working with the Haloscan XML file. Adding to the problem is that I started working on this about three operating systems ago in which Applescript has seen several changes. I stuck with a sort of brute force method of looping and parsing through each line of the content.

The script loops through each entry and outputs a dummy thread with no contents expect the title and includes the comment thread at the end. The Movable Type Import Format includes a NO ENTRY: 1 switch to signifiy this, but I’m not sure if Wordpress really needs it.

TITLE: AMREP Has Record Quarter
NO ENTRY: 1
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Johnny
EMAIL: XXXXXXX
URL: xxxxxxx
IP: xxxxxx
DATE: 09/14/2006 6:56:06 PM
It will slow eventually.  Everything in CA and AZ is plummeting and the west side is already over built and under occupied.
-----
--------

When Wordpress imports the Movable Type Import Format it looks for a matching post title that already exists. If Wordpress finds a matching post it adds the comments to the entry. If it doesn’t exist then Wordpress creates a new entry as a draft with the comments attached.

To make matters worse iBlog identified comment threads using a serial number like E554707186, Blossom identified comments using the title of the post with underscores and punctuation removed and rapid weaver used identified comment threads using a unique identifier like rw_unique_entry_id_403_page0. Most of my comments had post titles like these, except for a few that were generated by Bloxsom. I also had the added difficulty of my Haloscan XML file containing comments for two blogs.

I had considered writing a Applescript that could deterimne the real post title by reading through my website archives. That was going to take even more time so I decided to just import into Wordpress the way it was and manually move comments around from the newly created “dummy posts”.

Wordpress doesn’t have a built in capability to move comments to another post. For that I used the Restore Post Id plug in so I could identify post ids, WP Move Comments plugin to move individual comments and Simple Move Comments plugin to move all comments under a single post at once. I disabled the Subscribe To Comments plugin to avoid spamming the comments every time I moved a comment, but I’m not sure if that would have happened.

It was a good process for me as I got to delete comments that didn’t have any relevance and it allowed me to clean up and delete some posts. For one or two comments it was easier to move them one at a time, for posts with more comments I used the Simple Move Comments plugin which moved them all at once.

It’s a good time for users of Haloscan to consider doing something with their comments. Haloscan is discontinuing their free service and replacing it with a paid Echo service. For those that don’t upgrade, their comments will be deleted. The good news is Haloscan comments can be exported for free. On 14 December I received the following email from Haloscan

Exciting news, as we’ve mentioned on our blog, Haloscan, the legacy comment system that JS-Kit acquired last year, is getting upgraded to the new Echo platform.

You are receiving this email because, according to our records, you are (or have been) a Haloscan user.

This transition will happen in batches of users over the course of a couple of months. You are in the current batch!

We encourage you to log into your Haloscan admin dashboard right away. You will be presented with 2 options.

Upgrade to Echo for $9.95/year – all your comment data will be transitioned over automatically.
Export your Haloscan comment data for free and turn off their service
Please make sure you make a selection within the next two weeks to ensure uninterrupted service.

I have been patiently awaiting the arrival the the new Quicken for Mac product. The Unofficial Apple Web Log says the Quicken Essentials for Mac (formally Quicken Financial Life for Mac, formally Quicken for Mac) is actually, finally available for pre order. It will be released February 2010. Yet, It cannot do the one single thing that I need it to do.

3. Can I pay my bills within Quicken?
While you cannot pay bills within the product itself (“direct bill pay”), you can track your bills and make sure you have enough cash to pay them when they’re due. A few alternatives available include using Quicken Mac 2007 or using the bill pay functionality on Quicken Bill Pay.

Downloading transactions from my bank is a huge time saver, but paying them directly within a single application, using several banks, is a even bigger time saver. So much more that I’m wiling to suffer using a crappy three year old application to do so. As far as I can tell, iBank doesn’t do this.

It does every thing every other financial app on the mac does, just not as good and doesn’t include the feature that I use Quicken for the most. I wonder if I will have to wait another three years for this to get added back into the product.

Costco has La Crosse Technologies weather center that appears to be the same as the La Crosse Weather Pro Center WS-2810. I couldn’t find any markings on the package at the Costco in Albuquerque other than Costco Specific.

The WS-2810 is has PC compatibility using a wireless USB dongle. I’m interested to know if it’s Mac compatible. La Crosse only supplies PC software but I’m using WeatherTracker by After Ten Software with a similar wired model I picked up last year. This wireless model looks to be improved over the wired model I have now.

Costco’s price was around $80 and the La Crosse website lists the WS-2810 at $249.99. I did not see a simialr model on Amazon’s La Crosse Technology Professional Weather Center page (Update: There are 2810’s on Amazon
, they are not labeled as such are there are currently none available).

The description from La Crosse’s website.

WS-2810
Weather Pro Center:
Wind • Rain • Weather •
PC Software
$249.99

• Included PC Interface
• Wind Chill, Direction and Speed
• Solar Powered Wind Sensor
• Rain Data
• Forecast w/ Tendency
• IN/OUT Temp
• IN/OUT Humidity
• Weather Alarms w/ Storm Warning

Dimensions:
Receiver: 4.59" x 0.94" x 7.01"
Thermo-hygro:3.13" x 3.54" x 7.45"
Rain Sensor: 5.18" dia. x 7.19"
Wind Sensor:9.84" x 5.74" x 11.11"

My next option would be the Vantage Vue wireless weather station for about $300 at Amazon which is considerably more expensive.

KOB recently did an interesting article on a group of independent iPhone developers in Albuquerque who work at a coffee shop and call themselves the Cocoa Conspiracy. The group includes Andrew Stone of Stone Design who has a number of both Mac and iPhone applications.

Apparently Stone Design’s Twittelator Pro is doing well. The article also talks about a very cool sounding hot air balloon and chase crew app.

“It can actually overlay the chase group’s position and the balloon’s location and speed over a map live. That way people can plan their routes to get to the balloon and where it’s going to land,”

That’s an awesome idea, I wish I would have thought of it. Albuquerque has “Largest balloon convention in the world” according to Wikipedia so it’s fitting that a app like this should be developed in Albuquerque.

I want to hook up with these guys perhaps they can give me some help in developing my own apps. The article fails to mention what coffee shop the “The Cocoa Conspiracy” hang out at.

I’m glad Brent Simmons posted an updated on NetNewsWire for Mac and iPhone, my RSS reader of choice, on his blog at inessential.com. I was getting ready to post a pithy comment on the Newsgator forums about the lack of progress.

Brent says that NetNewsWire 3.2 for mac and NetNewsWire 2.0 for iPhone are in competition for release. Although he does not give a time frame for either. He describes NetNewsWire 3.2 for Mac as not a major upgrade except for the Google Reader synchronization options and NetNewsWire 2.0 for iPhone as a huge upgrade.

He goes into some detail about iPhone performance and NetNewsWire 4.0 for mac so if your interested I would read his post.

iHome Remote brings an 3rd party Indigo interface to your phone as a stand alone application. That’s interesting because there is a iPhone application available from developer of Indigo, Perceptive Automation, for free.

Why purchase iHome Remote? The official free app only works with 4.0, if you don’t want to pay the upgrade fee from 3.0 to 4.0, iHome Remote will work with 3.0. iHome Remote doesn’t have access to action groups but it does have access to Scenes which the official app does not. iHome Remote is $8.99 from the iTunes App Store.

Have you ever wondered if you left the lights on at home? Do you want to have everything just so before arriving home?

Used in conjunction with Indigo on your Mac, iHome will allow you to control your home lighting (Insteon and X10) using your iPhone or iPod Touch from anywhere.

** This app requires the Indigo Control Server from Perceptive Automation to be running on your Mac to work and is compatible with either version 3 or the soon to be released version 4 of Indigo.

FEATURES:
- View the status of your home lights and appliances
- Control lights and their dim level
- Turn appliances on and off
- Execute Scenes/Action Groups
- Access your home from anywhere
- Insteon and X10 control

Both Insteon and X10 allow you to add automation to your home without any rewiring required.

Insteon is a new standard in home control, which features true bidirectional communication to ensure that your iPhone knows the status of what you are controlling.

With iHome and Indigo, you can have full remote control of your home!

I whined and bitched about my dam crappy MacBook Pro and how it wouldn’t operate on battery. I always had to keep it plugged in. Multiple calls and visits to Apple resulted in them saying my out of warrantee laptop would need a expensive motherboard replacement.

I installed Battery Update 1.3, rebooted and unplugged my power connector. I expected an immediate power off, that’s what usually happens. Nope, the computer stayed powered on.

I only left unplugged for a minute but it never ran on battery that long before. A longer term test will be next.

Update 10/07/07 12:09PM: I’ve been using it on and off battery power for several days and it’s been working just like a laptop should. I noticed it wont charge to 100% a few times. I’ve reset the SMC to see if that will help. I’m happy but perplexed. Perplexed that it was fixed in this manner.

I have a actual domain name for the site now, http://www.greginthedesert.net. For The H*ll Of It was never meant to be the permanant name of the site, but I wanted to wait till I had a domain name before I changed it. I think this one is a little more personal. It’s taken a longer than I expected, but thanks to .mac now having domain name support I’m able to do this.

If your reading this via the RSS feed, you shouldn’t need to do anything. The site is in a new directory now so I will have to generate redirect pages in the old location.

MacNN: Apple’s 30% sales growth outpaces HP, Dell. Resitance is futile…

Sales of Macs largely kept pace with significant growth in overall PC shipments during the first quarter of 2007, two market research firms concur, yielding Apple the title of fastest growing manufacturer with regard to U.S. computer sales. Both Gartner and IDC issued statements today indicating that while the shipment of Microsoft’s Windows Vista was help drive increased PC sales in the first quarter of 2007, Apple was able to match the market with stronger portable sales and an increase in units moved through retail channels, despite stagnant Mac growth predictions from Gartner earlier this year.

Lifehacker compares Vista’s BitLocker vs. FileVault. They like BitLocker better.

OS Encryption Showdown: Vista’s BitLocker vs. Mac’s FileVault – Lifehacker

FileVault encrypts the users’s home directory and all the files in it. As you read and write files to your home directory, in the background, FileVault encrypts and decrypts those files on the fly. Only the user’s login password can decrypt and mount this drive image, so at login the home directory becomes available as usual – its icon, however, looks like a lock. To other users on the same Mac, however, all files in the user’s home directory cannot be accessed.

BitLocker doesn’t just encrypt the user’s files, it encryptes the entire operating system partition, including Windows files, all your software applications as well as all the users’ data stored on the drive. You create a USB key with the password on it and plug it into your PC in order to start it (like a key for your car.) BitLocker uses a small boot partition to check for the right password, and only boots up if it’s present. If not, the hard drive is completely inaccessible.