Minh’s Notes

Source: AOL Canada

You might’ve noticed that I’ve been giving my website a bit more updating love than usual. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve resurrected my blog, upgraded the site’s blogging software to Movable Type 4.0 – which, by the way, is awesome – and updated Planet Xavier for the new school year. Now, as part of my ongoing, futile effort at garnering more comments from the blog-reading populace, my blog allows you to log in using your AIM or AOL screen name, meaning you no longer have to manually enter your name, e-mail address, and blog URL every time you post a comment here. At the bottom of any entry, click the “sign in” link, click the AIM tab, and this is what you’ll see:

This feature is made possible by AIM OpenID Login, my first Movable Type plugin. It’s based on a similar plugin that MT product manager Byrne Reese just released for WordPress.com, and just like Byrne’s plugin, mine uses the OpenID protocol: basically, when you log on using your AIM screen name, my website talks to AOL’s to verify that you are indeed LoLcAtLoVeR31415. (You are, aren’t you?)

Note that this login screen, used when submitting comments, is different from the main MT login screen, so you don’t have to worry about random AIM users posting blog entries or anything. It’s similar to the LiveJournal login feature I had enabled on this blog before upgrading to MT 4; now LiveJournal support is built-in, as are all of Six Apart’s properties.

Download

So if you’re a Movable Type user, you can add AIM support to your login screen by downloading this plugin:

System requirements

In order for this plugin to work, your website needs to have Movable Type version 4.0 or above installed. Although the Digest::SHA1 Perl module is considered optional for installing MT, you’ll need it for this plugin. Run mt-check.cgi for information on how to obtain it.

Installation

1. Download the tarball and unzip it.
2. Upload the contents of the mt-static folder to the mt-static directory on your server, making sure to preserve the folder’s structure. Unless you installed MT in a cgi-bin or cgi-local directory, mt-static should be directly within the mt directory.
3. Upload the contents of the plugins folder to the plugins directory on your server, making sure to preserve the folder’s structure. The plugins directory should also reside within your mt directory.

Setup

Once you’ve installed AIM OpenID Login, you’ll want to add the AIM tab to MT’s login screen. This is a per-blog setting, so go in MT, to a blog of yours and select the Blog Settings item under the Preferences menu. Under the Registration tab, there should be a checkbox labeled “AIM”. After checking that box and pressing Save Changes, you should be good to go – no rebuilding necessary. (If you’re running MT on FastCGI, however, you may have to wait awhile.)

Known issues

Though this plugin will provide AIM users with a customized login screen, they’ll be treated as ordinary OpenID users thereafter. This means:

• MT refers to the commenter by their OpenID URL, something like http://openid.aol.com/LoLcAtLoVeR31415.
• The user’s URL is accompanied by the OpenID logo, rather than the AIM Running Man logo.

Both issues affect comment listings within MT, as well as static comment listings on your blog. As far as I know, both issues are because MT treats LiveJournal, Vox, and TypeKey as “core” authentication services, whereas AIM is just an add-on.

License

I can’t claim credit for much of the code, since it’s mostly adapted from Byrne’s WordPress plugin. However, I did fix a few small details, like the Sign In button. As Byrne’s plugin is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2, mine is too. In the future, when I’m more familiar with Perl and MT’s APIs, I’ll be able to write plugins on my own and distribute them under a more permissive license, but the GPL won’t stop you from trying out this plugin, which is what matters.

The AIM “Running Man” logo is copyright and a trademark of AOL, so naturally, it’s not covered by the GPL. I’ve only bundled it with the plugin for your convenience, since most users won’t recognize anyone but this little yellow guy as AIM. I advise you to excise it from your computer with the utmost care and urgency, upon downloading this plugin. (Your users may not appreciate that, however.)

Entry №1144, posted by Minh Nguyễn at 3:05 PM | Edit | Permalink
Categories: Perl, Weblogging | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (2)

A sign at either end of the cordoned-off area reveals that the Intersection of Death will be getting a permanent makeover.

Earlier this summer, the roundabout in the former Intersection of Death was removed. Originally placed there by the Band to add some color to the otherwise-loathsome junction, the wooden platform had saved countless bikers from head-on collisions, and I was apprehensive about a looming school year without the roundabout in place.

Thankfully, the University had bigger plans. Sometime within the last few days, a fence was erected around a section of campus that encompasses the former roundabout and a less notorious – but still dangerous – interchange between it and White Plaza. A large white sign at either end of the cordoned-off area reads, “CAMPUS CENTER BIKE CIRCLES: Completed by September 2007.”

A dotted line marks the spot where a second roundabout will be installed.

Crews have already gotten to work on a makeover for this area: the requisite incomprehensible markings have appeared on every square foot of the pavement. Circle #1, at the intersection of Lasuen and Escondido Malls, aka Intersection of Death, sports a new etching that outlines the University’s plans for the spot. Roughly three times the diameter of the old roundabout platform, it seems slightly oversized for even this grand intersection, so I figure they’re marking up some kind of decorative element, like the brick or cobblestone rings you often see around public fountains. Circle #2, at the intersection of Lasuen and Panama Malls, is approximately the same size, but it is currently represented only by a dotted paint line and a nail in the center.

A stern sign greets non-pedestrians at every turn in the Main Quad.

More important than the roundabouts, however, will be the signage. The University is generally good about putting up signs. For instance, there’s a sign at every entrance to the Inner Quad – and on every trash can in said quad – that sternly reminds non-pedestrians they’re not wanted anywhere near the premises. These metal signs are reinforced by walking human signs who often holler down the arcade to let you know you’re still not wanted.

In order for these roundabouts to work, the University has to make it clear that you go counterclockwise around the circle, rather than clockwise. If there were ever any accidents near the old roundabout, they were most likely caused by bikers wanting to take a shortcut ’round the other way. Like most any traffic law, the counterclockwise rule can’t be eschewed by the vast majority of bikers, or we’ll have problems during rush hour. And at Stanford, rush hour occurs at the top of every hour.

Best of luck to the University with this project. Let’s hope the Class of 2011 won’t have to fear the Intersection of Death every time they climb onto their bikes. As for the rest of us, we’re probably scarred for life.

Entry №1112, posted by Minh Nguyễn at 11:55 AM | Edit | Permalink
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Southwest Ohio is full of creepy stories about ghosts and other strange encounters along the roadside. There’s a whole series of books on them. But if the subjects of these tales call any area road home, the one that begins in Historic Downtown Loveland is probably that road.

Head down W. Loveland Ave. and take a left onto Second St. (SR 48). After a couple blocks, turn right onto an unnamed road. Now this road is interesting: it’s clearly drawn as a trunk road on Google Maps, but it has no label. If you try hard enough, Google Maps will give you directions that take you down this road, and thanks to Google’s new “customize your route” feature, you can even force Maps to confess that it’s an “Unknown road”.

But why am I making such a big deal about an unnamed road? After all, there are gazillions of those out in Texas. Here’s why: it’s a virtually straight, seven-mile-long road that cuts diagonally across many acres of farmland, right over a few ponds, and straight through a dozen homes. It’s not just an unnamed road; it’s a phantom road. It doesn’t exist. And yet it stretches for seven miles along the Clermont-Warren county line, according to not only Google Maps, but also Google Earth, Yahoo! Maps, and Live Search Maps.

Turns out the explanation is simple: someone (or some computer) at NAVTEQ apparently misread the county line for a navigable road. Interestingly, both Yahoo! and Microsoft superimpose county lines on their maps, so you can clearly see how the line wound up there of all places.

Anyhow, if you happen to pass through Loveland, be sure not to take the path never traveled. Even if you’re looking for the illustrious Loveland Frog, you’ll probably just end up with a totaled car and a mouthful of corn husks.

Google finally removed the phantom road, a few years after I first noticed it. Luckily I took a screenshot of the road in Google Earth before it was removed. The screenshot I’ve added above shows one of several spots where the road trampled right over someone’s house. As of December 7^th, 2007, both Google and Microsoft have updated their data, removing the road, but Yahoo! still displays it.

Entry №1110, posted by Minh Nguyễn at 10:08 AM | Edit | Permalink
Categories: Computing, Humor | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The New York Times Magazine is running a story on Clearview, the typeface (font) that’s very slowly replacing “Highway Gothic” as the standard for U.S. highway signs:

What started as a project to organize information for tourist routes in Oregon would soon turn into an all-consuming quest, and one that marked the first time in the nation’s history that anyone attempted to apply systematically the principles of graphic design to the American highway.

The article takes an in-depth look at the steps it took to begin replacing the incumbent typeface, as well as what makes highway typefaces so important.

As a bit of a roadgeek myself, I’ve come to like the existing typeface. I know it’s cliché to say that a font has “personality”, but the way the ascenders on b’s, h’s, and l’s are lopped off at an angle certainly gives the typeface a crude look that blends in well with both urban and rural streetscapes. In contrast, the curled l’s of Clearview smack of Trebuchet MS, which is what I initially mistook it for, and the rest of this typeface smacks of suburbia in all its blandness. But I’ll be happy as long as Clearview’s presence dissuades states from using the 2000 revision of Highway Gothic, with its hideous clipped g-descender. (I’m looking at you, Georgia.)

And yes, I’m fully aware that this blog’s design ironically uses Trebuchet MS. What can I say: it was Movable Type’s default. I’ll do something about that soon.

Thanks to John Gruber for the scoop.

Entry №1109, posted by Minh Nguyễn at 7:06 PM | Edit | Permalink
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