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.

AMD isn’t the only one that dislikes Intel. Some Jewish persons don’t like Intel too..

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews have demonstrated at Intel Corp’s new electronic chip plant in Israel in protest against work taking place at the site on the Jewish sabbath.

The protesters said on Saturday it was a desecration of the Sabbath, which runs from Friday night to Saturday night.

They were dispersed by police and a company spokesman said the plant was operating within the law and would continue to do so.

Intel, the world’s biggest chip manufacturer, opened the west Jerusalem plant for installation work before its inauguration on Sunday.

Where these people don’t like Intel for religious reasons, some in Coralles, New Mexico think Intel is poisoning them.

Please understand that the new chemicals that are being used up there are causing illnesses as serious as we had in the 1990s. Vison is blurred, eyes are burning and skin is peeling off the eylids. One breath of the toxic air causes choking, coughing and in Patricia’s case gasping for air. The toxins collect in her west side patio and in her house. With me it settles all around my property and comes in the house. This morning my eyes were swollen shut and inflamed I could hardly see. Each day my vision seems to be getting worse

I should note that the State of New Mexico cleared Intel of making people sick in 2004 but that decision was very controversial.

• Pledge of Allegiance Upheld in New Mexico – As a response to this disappointing outcome, here are some reasons to abolish the Pledge:
  1.) Partially designed as a marketing scheme to sell flags.
  2.) Before 1942 the accompanying salute, the Bellamy, was suspiciously similar to that of the Nazis.
  3.) I'm told that "God" isn't supposed to be involved with the American government.
  4.) There is no liberty in being forced by a republic to swear loyalty to that republic.
  5.) Cultish.
• Qwest ends "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" perk – The Denver Post – Qwest has eliminated a perk in which top executives were given tens of thousands of dollars each year to cover unreported expenses, the company disclosed in a filing today. A shareholder slammed the perk at the company's annual meeting in May, calling it "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" compensation.
• Can the cocaine on dollar bills be used to track drug use around the country? – By Kim Gittleson – Slate Magazine – More than 90 percent of U.S. currency is contaminated with cocaine, according to a study presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. The study's lead author told reporters that the rate had been 67 percent two years ago and that the increase may be due to a rise in consumption of the drug spurred by the economic downturn. Can dirty money really be used to track cocaine use?
• The business of human smuggling in a Mexican border town. (1) – By Sacha Feinman – Slate Magazine – ALTAR, Mexico—I hadn't yet taken 10 steps off the bus when I made eye contact with someone for the first time. "Are you going north?" he hissed, walking quickly toward me. "Let's go. Let's go," he implored.
• Driving instructor charged with DWI – An Albuquerque driving instructor faces DWI charges after a Rio Rancho Police officer found him so intoxicated at a crash site that he couldn’t even stand without holding onto his car.
• www.KOB.com – Cops: Members of ‘Memphis Mob’ skipping town – In April, police arrested 45 members of the Memphis Mob—a criminal group that police say set up a drug pipeline that funneled crack cocaine from Albuquerque to Tennessee. Several members that were arrested on minor drug possession charges are now bonding out of jail, then leaving for Tennessee before more serious charges come their way, according to police.
• 92 markets caught in manufacturing slide – New Mexico Business Weekly: – According to the report, Albuquerque has lost 3,300 manufacturing jobs. Detroit is the market that has been hit hardest by the manufacturing slump, largely because of the difficulties currently besetting domestic automakers. The Detroit area has lost 118,600 manufacturing jobs during the half-decade, 39.4 percent of its June 2004 total of 301,200.
• www.KOB.com – Man indicted for simulated sex – with car – “Witnesses, including two children, told police that their attention was drawn to Brawner because his pants were around his ankles, he was swinging his arms in the air and shouting while he was ‘humping’ the trunk of his car,” Davis reports in a press release.
• Verizon adds cell site in Rio Rancho – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Verizon Wireless has added a new cell site to improve service to customers in Rio Rancho. The site expands 3G high-speed wireless coverage in northern Rio Rancho, including the city center, and in the Mariposa Ranch community.
• Mountain lion captured in eastern part of Denver metro area – The Denver Post – A Division of Wildlife officer tranquilized the animal, and it was relocated to the remote foothills on the west side of the metro region, where mountain lions more typically roam.

What’s good news for Albuquerque is bad news for Austin. New Mexico offered the Texas company Solar Array Ventures Inc. (SAVe)such good incentives that they are moving the whole company, headquarters and all, to New Mexico. They wont say exactly what New Mexico offered.

The City of Albuquerque website says the factory will be built on the west side on Cordero Mesa near I-40 on Paseo del Vulcan and could employ up to 1000 people in 5 years. Assuming Texas doesn’t pull a Tesla and manage to keep SAVe in Austin.

Oddly, not a single Albuquerque TV news site has an article on the company coming to Albuquerque that I can find.

There’s a giant sink hole on Paseo Del Norte, a major artery through the west side of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. The following comment was posted on the KOBTV’s article on the road closure.

Well, those crews had better get busy! I need to use that road to get to TD’s every day for my daily fix of skin and wiggles!

TD’s is a strip club in Albuquerque.

I’m for new cities near Albuquerque. A diversity of city management is a good thing. Looks like there’s a possibility of a new city west of Rio Rancho being built over the next 30 years. I hope the county addresses the issue of roads. Right now there are no freeways out that way and as far as I can tell, no plans for any.

An Arizona developer wants to build a new community in Sandoval County that eventually could have 70,000 residents.Recorp of Scottsdale wants to build the community about ten miles west of Rio Rancho.The community would be called Rio West.Recorp has submitted a master plan for about 12-thousand acres to the county.

Also looks like Albuquerque plans to add a chunk to the city the size of Rio Rancho, on the west side of course. Actually planning this development out ahead of time would be the ideal situation, since Albuquerque has done a really crappy job of this so far.

The guy who allegedly shot down the helicopter on the west side of Albuquerque has been arrested.

Authorities said they arrested Jason Kerns, 29, Monday night in the driveway of his home in the 9900 block of Columbus Circle in northwest Albuquerque — not far from where the crash happened Aug. 6.

As part of an arrest warrant released Tuesday, Kerns was said to be one of the first on the scene the night the chopper went down. Court documents indicate that Kerns came under suspicion almost from the get-go.

He stated hearing a gunshot and seeing the chopper fall, but police officials stated his story was misleading.

In a written statement, Kerns describes the chopper as disturbing his dog and said he was getting annoyed because it was there so long and flying so low.

Sheriff’s records released Tuesday showed that Jason Kerns told investigators it would be no problem for him to “make that shot.” He faces charges of assault with intent to commit a violent felony upon an officer, criminal damage to property and tampering with evidence in the Aug. 6 shooting.