Ben.Stolovitz

WordPress 3.0 Havok

Ben — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 19:58:24 +0000

Just a quick update; my site has been flickering because of some permalink issues owing to WordPress 3.0.

What’s worse is that I upgraded my local copy of WordPress 3.0- and accidentally deleted every single file of my theme for this site, so I have to start over. Oh well, I guess its an excuse to build it better.

The smell of a new site is in the air!

Ben — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:25:46 +0000

The new Ben.Stolovitz.com is almost done!

Here’s a preview of what to come:

Click for bigger!

It's almost done!

What do you want to see in bsFunctions?

Ben — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:14:14 +0000

Hey, kids! bsFunctions hosts lots of features (1) but we are looking to program EVEN MORE! What do you want to have implemented in bsFunctions? Comment for new features!

WP_list_taxonomies

Ben — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:43:35 +0000

NOTE: Bad error fixed.
Current item used to be defined as tax_item_#current_item instead of tax_item_# current_item.
Bad CSS error; also modified the output from tax_item_# to display current taxonomy name, as well as added a new class with (taxonomy name)_item. Should make it easier to theme.

WordPress is very, very powerful, but there are a few things its lacking. Namely, listing the items of things other than pages & categories in nice little lists.

Now, I could wait until the guys at WordPress came and made a function, or I could program one myself… Which one do you think I did?

BSFunctions 1.1

This may or may not be the beginning of the BS WordPress collection, so download it and see!

To call this function, just type in

Please use this wherever, I want to see my work out!

Modify, modify, modify as well but PLEASE leave the author statement intact, add yourself as a second author if you want.

/**

* @author Ben Stolovitz

* @uses wp_parse_args

* @uses get_terms

* @uses get_bloginfo

* @param string $taxonomy Required. The taxonomy you want to list.

* @param array $args Optional. Override default arguments.

* @return string Returns an HTML list of items in a taxonomy.

function bs_list_taxonomies($taxonomy, $args=”) {

$defaults = array(

‘title_li’ => ucfirst($taxonomy),

‘echo’ => 1,

‘tack_on’ => 1,

‘no_value’ => ‘None’,

‘no_value_link’ => ”

);

$r = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );

$term = get_terms($taxonomy);

$output = ‘

‘ . $r['title_li'] . ‘

’;

if ( $r['tack_on'] ) {

foreach ($_GET as $key => $value) {

if ($key != “C” && $key != $taxonomy) { // We don’t want duplicates of our taxonomy

if ( $querystring ) $querystring .= ‘&’;

$querystring .= $key.”=”.$value;

}

if ( ! $_GET[$taxonomy] ) {$a = ‘current_item’;} else {$a = ”;}

if ( $querystring ) {

$output .= ‘

$output .= $r['no_value'] . ‘’;

foreach ($term as $current) {

if ( $_GET[$taxonomy] == $current ) {$a = ‘ current_item’;} else {$a = ”;}

if ( $querystring ) {$b = ‘&’; } else {$b = ”;}

$output .= ‘

name . ‘” href=”‘ . get_bloginfo(url) . ‘/?’ . $querystring . $b . $current->taxonomy . ‘=’ . $current->slug . ‘”>’;

$output .= $current->name;

$output .= ‘’;

}

$output .= ‘’;

// $output=apply_filters( whatever_you_want, $output);

if ( $r['echo'] ) {

echo $output;

} else {

return $output;

}

Last Sunlight (on DeviantART)

Ben — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:57:36 +0000

Here‘s a wee little pencil drawing that I made and posted on DeviantART

Delays, Delays, and a Site in a Week

Ben — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:09:40 +0000

Ugggh…

I just switched to a new computer, just got a notification that PerfectPonchos is due in a week, and – in short- will not be able to finish Ben.Stolovitz.com for a few weeks….

Ben.Stolovitz.com

Ben — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:28:43 +0000

Why is my site in the title? Hmm…
I know! I like to self reference! – no.

Actually, I’m announcing that in (hopefully) about a week or two, you will be looking at the new… improved… Ben.Stolovitz.com!!!

Ben.Stolovitz.com is being converted to mirror more what I do- it will be a portfolio site with a blog attachment (this blog). However, for you die-hard readers out there (sarcasm):

1. A cookie can be embedded on your site to automatically load the blog page instead of the portfolio page.

2. NEW! Asides will be posted when I have a teeny bit to say

3. NEW! Link to my social networking

4. NEW! On every site of the blog there will be a “recent posts” pane.

5. I will still posts things on my blog, just for you guys!

Michelle Piano

Ben — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:09:16 +0000

Ignoring the annoying hiss and the slight cutoff of loud noises, its actually a mildly decent recording of Michelle by The Beatles.

It is a study of the rule of distribution for piano (as you know the real song has no piano).

Listen now!

Michelle (Piano ver. of Beatles song _Michelle_)

The Underappreciated Winner: In Praise of Humble Windows

Ben — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:33:31 +0000

Windows XP came out in 2001, to much of the same criticisms as Windows Vista. Its “new and revolutionary” interface was criticized as being clutterful and having LUA (Least User Access) bugs. Windows XP was loathed when it came out. It was hated for being too different from the norm, for forcing users to change how they looked at a computer, for simplifying the desktop. But there is a strange familiarity that echoes through the “horrible” OS whenever I boot it up, just as there is for most people. There are reasons that I will never completely leave Windows for Mac or Ubuntu.

A while back, I installed Ubuntu on my dad’s 7-year-old Compaq laptop that I had repurposed for myself. Before Ubuntu, the computer took around 5 minutes to become fully usable; afterward it booted up to a completely usable interface in around 1 and a half minutes. Over the course of a couple of months, I skimmed and shaved features from the ailing old computer to achieve the quickest boot-up possible and the fastest computer I could on 256MB of RAM. I ended up installing Fluxbox as an X11 Window Manager in lieu of the default GNOME interface, a Windows XP-like desktop that slowed down my computer to the point of running Flash games at around 10 FPS. Fluxbox was the most minimal of minimal desktops. The interface was a blank color with a bar at the bottom showing my open programs. No desktop icons, no start menu, no helpful little icons should I get lost. In fact, to start up any program, I would have to right click on the blank color and a menu would appear with every single possible option I could ever want. To open Firefox, for example:

Right Click>Applications>Web Browsing>Firefox

to open a Gnome-Terminal window:

Right Click>Applications> Accessories>System Tools>Gnome-Terminal

It was extremely hard to use and I put up with it for several months because it made my computer nice and zippy. But the little things started driving me nuts: No desktop or file manager- that means no Windows Explorer. I had to use Terminal to browse files, that’s like using DOS on Windows XP. In fact, to even get the sound working, I had to open terminal, open a program within terminal, adjust around a dozen different sliders manually, play a test sound, raise the volume, play a sound again… Pain in the arse.

About 2 weeks ago I gave up on the whole Fluxbox concept- it made me forget every reason why I switched to Linux. I switched back to GNOME. Yes, Flash runs at 10FPS, but sound works out of the box, Wi-Fi is simple as hell, everything just makes me happy.

But this whole experience taught me something. It made me appreciate every detail of Windows XP even more than I had before. Drivers that work just by double clicking on them? Integrated file searching? Amazing games? I realize that I have taken XP for granted. Windows is amazing.

Windows works so much better than Fluxbox ever was. All of my programs are in an easy to read Start menu! I have ICONS on my DESKTOP! I have drivers that make my devices work when I plug ‘em in! I can browse the internet almost immediately after plugging the computer in! I can install programs without having to download the uncompiled source code, compiling it, ./make-ing it and ./configur-ing it – wait. I don’t have libstupidinstall-0.0.2.01.44 installed? NO! I can install programs by double clicking a wee-little .exe file that I download. Windows just works.

Sure, the UI could use some unification, sure, driver installation could be easier, but if you suggest switching to iMac, I will laugh at you. The only reason that Mac is “better” than PC is because Apple limits the hardware difference. The main faults of Windows are there because Microsoft encourages a free market for their OS. If Windows released a “Windows” computer filled with proprietary software, hardware, and drivers, there would be no problems with driver installation. But if Microsoft did that, there would be no system modding community, no Dell, no Intel, no NVIDIA, nothing. There would be no innovation in the market, and we would be held back in progress several years. So DOWN, I say, with Apple and their proprietary systems. DOWN with iMacs and iThis and iThat. Stick that iStuff where the sun don’t shine and appreciate the innovation that Windows fosters.

Windows is a hell of a lot better than Mac will ever be, in more ways than one. iSurely will never iDitch my Windows.

Pueblo Goldens Flash Header

Ben — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:20:58 +0000

I have updated PuebloGoldens.com once more with a new FLASH HEADER! It looks amazing.

Pueblo Goldens Header