Nothing But Words

• Another Shashin bug fix – this one for Google auth servers outside the US – v2.6.2 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shashin/ #
• I did a makeshift conversion of my office desk to a standing desk, but this guy is really taking it to the next level http://bit.ly/bYzdf3 #
• http://twitpic.com/15r367 – For the first time in 11 years, my records are out of storage. Re-inaugurated my record player with Icicleworks! #
• I'm also impressed all my stereo equip still works. It's 20 yrs old and hasn't been used for 10. Now I just need to get some real speakers. #

• Updated documentation of Shashin for my release of v2.6 the other day http://www.toppa.com/shashin-wordpress-plugin/ #
• Feeling pleased with myself: after months of SEO tweaking, got my Dad's site to #2 on Google for Newport RI real estate http://bit.ly/aJ249f #
• "How to Teach Physics to Your Dog" has been all the rage on the economics blogs. Finally, a book about science economists can understand. #
• Just uploaded a Windows server bug fix for Shashin – v2.6.1 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shashin/ #
• Restored missing pictures in an old post about one of my favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo – Kichijoji http://www.toppa.com/ozag #
• More restored 2007 Japan pics: me and the Takanawa moms http://www.toppa.com/bya8 Sounds of the Gyoza Man http://www.toppa.com/fjdo #

The latest version of Shashin (v2.6), which is my plugin for using Picasa with WordPress, adds support for unlisted Picasa albums. Supporting unlisted albums is possible because 1. Picasa does not actually require any authentication to view the photos in unlisted albums if you know their URLs (they simply don’t show you links to view unlisted albums at Picasa, or view their RSS feeds, unless you’ve been authorized), and 2. the Google ClientLogin API is available.

The ClientLogin API documentation has really good prose, but precious little code. There is a freely available PHP library (fron Zend) for interacting with the Google APIs, but I didn’t want to bloat Shashin by several megabytes just so I could use the library’s authentication method (and there are enough interdependencies in the library that I couldn’t easily extract the authentication components).

Shashin uses ClientLogin instead of AuthSub because Shashin has an option for automatic scheduled synchronizing of Picasa albums, so the username and password needs to be saved. I can’t expect Shashin users to type in their Picasa username and password every time Shashin syncs its album data with Picasa.

Below I’ll explain how authenticate to Google services using ClientLogin, and then show a couple examples of interactions with Google services.

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• Here comes the double dip http://bit.ly/b0Vqcc see last 4 paragraphs for the punchline (the author is the former chief economist at the IMF) #
• @apgwoz sorry for the late reply – I have fallen far and fast: I didn't even know Caprica was on. #
• The Snowpacalypse II snow is, so far, half as deep as Snowpacalypse I, but twice as wet and heavy, so just as much work to shovel #
• Another winter I'm not at the Sapporo Snow Festival http://bit.ly/aAo7sp And here are my pics from the 07 festival http://toppa.com/c1u3 #

The boys enjoying planet Hoth

The boys enjoying planet Hoth07-Feb-2010 23:09SONY DSC-W55, 5.2, 18.9mm, 0.003125 sec, ISO 100

The new skill I acquired these past few days is how to participate in a snowball fight and shovel the driveway at the same time. After getting pelted mercilessly for several minutes, it finally dawned on me that I had a shovel full of snow (I can be a little slow sometimes).

With all the wind, we lost a 6 ft. long piece of metal flashing where the back wall of the house meets the flat roof. No sign of leakage so far. I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed while the snow melts.

The word is this is a once in a lifetime snow event for the Philadelphia area. As you can see in the pictures, the boys are making the most of it.

Eidan enjoying the snowpocalypse07-Feb-2010 04:37SONY DSC-W55, 10.0, 12.4mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 100

The wind created interesting drifts07-Feb-2010 05:14SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.0125 sec, ISO 100

If I hadn’t brushed up against the car and exposed a headlight, you could have mistaken it for a snow drift07-Feb-2010 04:47SONY DSC-W55, 7.1, 6.3mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 100

Shashin 2.6 is now available for download at wordpress.org. I figure the end of the world is a good time to release a new version. Here’s what’s new:

• Added support for unlisted Picasa albums (finally!). You must have the PHP curl extension installed to use this feature. I believe most PHP installations include curl, but some hosting providers may need you to ask them to enable it for your account.
• Added ability to group albums by Picasa user accounts when using the [salbumthumbs] tag.
• Bug fix: the EXIF support introduced in Shashin 2.4 caused an error when syncing albums in the Windows version of mySQL. Many thanks to MC for letting me debug this on his Windows server.
• Bug fix: Shashin’s automatic album syncing was interfering with scheduled jobs from other plugins in some circumstances. This is fixed. Note that you also need WordPress 2.9.1 or higher, as this was related to a wp-cron bug in WordPress 2.9.

Also, I’ve installed the Subscribe to Comments plugin, so if you have a support question, you can get an email notification when I reply, instead of having to remember to check back.

UPDATE: I’ve made a couple bug fixes: v2.6.1 fixed another bug related to Windows servers, and v2.6.2 fixed a bug related to Google servers outside the US (see this comment for details).

• Over 3,000 words about ramen in Tokyo. It all sounded so good, it almost made me cry http://bit.ly/bc7qUY #
• Scheduled a job on my web site 3200 times. Oops. WordPress stores all cron data in 1 db field as 1 big serialized array- was a pain to fix #
• Forgot to tweet this earlier: I'm giving a WordPress presentation at noon for Penn's CMS group – Huntsman Hall, F-50 – open to all #
• Good to know drawing a circle in the dirt around yourself protects you from sea bears *and* smoke monsters #spongebob #lost #
• Bet you didn't know I'm an expert on speed sailing http://bit.ly/9mL6tT It's actually my cousin's book- couldn't resist ordering a copy #
• Looks like the blink tag is still alive and well http://snowpocalypsepa.com/ (or, at least, a javascript version of it) #
• http://twitpic.com/11rv3j – Eidan enjoying the snowpacalypse #

While I’ve been sporadically tweeting, I haven’t blogged much for a while. I also haven’t made much progress recently with Shashin updates. The culprit is my new job. I’ve been at it a month now, and I’m enjoying it. But it’s exercising parts of my brain that are out of shape, so I haven’t had the mental energy for blogging when I get home. We’re also hiring for two open positions, which means I’ve been spending a lot of time in interviews, so I’ve been taking some of my other work home.

After the interviews are done, and we’re no longer short-staffed, and after I whip the flabby parts of my brain into shape, I’m hoping to return to my usual blogging.