I am typing this sentence from the OPML Editor on my desktop.
This here sentence, on the other hand, has been added from the browser after I clicked on the iJotEdit bookmarklet.
7/31/2010; 10:32:51 PM. .
Progress
9760.0/60000
7/30/2010; 7:31:47 AM. .
Testing to see what happens to the tag when I edit the image
The picture was too wide so I cropped it and made it a little smaller.
No, the automatic tag doesn't change. Guess it's just triggered by a new addition to the folder. So you just have to edit the dimensions by hand.
7/30/2010; 7:16:39 AM. .
Is there a way to reorder posts?
I dragged the "I like the instant tag..." post below the "Does this mean what..." post in my workspace, expecting to be able to change the order of my posts. Maybe the order is governed by the timestamp no matter that? Or is there something else I need to do?
7/30/2010; 7:09:45 AM. .
I like the instant tag when you add a picture to the image folder
In Scripting2, when you add an image to the folder at OPML > Scripting2 > images, a little window pops up with the img tag all written out for you to copy.
One suggestion: Since all the rest of the style has moved to CSS, maybe the img attributes should be, too: float:right instead of align="right", margins instead of v and hspace?
That way you don't get a margin on the right where you don't need it. Also should self-close the img tag, though I rarely do that unless some validator tells me I have to if I want my HTML to be accepted by some slavish application like Constant Contact.
7/30/2010; 7:01:52 AM. .
Does this mean what I think it means?
I think she thinks the president is watching her every move and is intent on matching it step for step.
It's hard to get inside that head, but I need to for my Sally Forth character.
7/30/2010; 6:53:39 AM. .
8799 / 60000
0
8799 / 60000
7/20/2010; 7:39:26 AM. .
More progress
Switching to percent of first draft completed because the fraction milestones are getting harder to hit.
14.7%
7/19/2010; 9:50:26 PM. .
Thought of another application for sub-text
It would be an easy way for teachers to author practice tests.
What is the best song to hum to help you time chest compressions when giving CPR?
Who did Julie Nixon marry?
7/11/2010; 10:09:47 PM. .
Plugging away
1/9
7/11/2010; 9:51:38 PM. .
More on sub-text
I see the value in sub-text but I can't shake this feeling it has more potential in some application that nobody has thought of yet.
I noticed something new about it today (This isn't the breakthough. It likely won't be I who thinks up the breakthrough!) It's in Dave's The Value of Working Together, posted this morning, his first post that uses sub-text since I tried it out and tried to think what I would use it for.
Only the first paragraph of the sub-text section shows up in the feed. For those lingering few publishers who don't want to give away the full text in its RSS, this would be a way to save little bits of content for people who visit the site directly.
For all I know Dave didn't intend to hold back any part of his post from the feed.
7/11/2010; 11:39:52 AM. .
Trying a link blog post
Scripting News: Scripting2 change notes
Now it works, with the v.29a update.
--- Below notes from v.29
Maybe it's not quite ready. I get:
500 Server Error
Can't compile this script because of a syntax error.
in Chrome and Firefox when I am on a web page I want to link to and hit the bookmarklet.
The command to make the post a live-blog post in the right-click menu was there and must have worked because when I right click on the title node again the option becomes "not live-blog."
The bookmarklet link on the changes page, too, behaved as it was expected to and showed up in my favorites toolbar when I dragged it there in both browers.
Later: I tried again after learning I had been reinstalling the scripting 2 tool from the wrong menu. Same error message.
7/11/2010; 8:30:24 AM. .
Like Max Yasgur, 'I'm a farmer'
Give me two tomatoe plants and I turn right into a farmer, with all the farmer's pride and fretting.
A windy rain started just now -- little less-than-marble-sized hailstones, too -- and I had to bite my fingernails to protect my plants. Constant vigilance, you know, that's how we farmers have to live.
Good thing I finally tied them up this morning, though my method is another entry for the ditz log. I didn't take the trouble to get or make real stakes or trellaces, so I unwound some flimsy clothes hangers and twisted them on to the balcony railing. That means I have anchored the plants to the railing so I can't move them out of the wind.
The stems haven't broken yet.
7/10/2010; 7:03:13 PM. .
Exceeding expectations
I'm following Marc Barrot's work on his iJot editor.
Funny, when I made that screencast yesterday I typed in the document something about how I supposed you couldn't expect a post edited in iJot to be written back to the blog's server, but indeed he did intend to make that possibleall along.
The ability to edit from any computer would be a big plus. When I used the OPML Editor's blogging tool in 2005-2007 I had to have the editor installed on any computer I might be using and remember to synchronize my files between them. With this development you could even edit on platforms that are not ready for the OPML Editor, like a Linux machine, or an iPad. I think I'll try it on the iPad right now. I'll let you know.
Later:Worked with some headaches of my own making.
7/10/2010; 5:51:39 PM. .
iJotEdit bookmarklet is neat
I can't explain exactly how it works, but iJot is an online OPML editor. When you're on an OPML-based page, and click on the bookmarklet your outline will open in the browser. (More from Dave on Scripting News and in the attached comment.)
A water main broke in my office building and all employees were sent home hours early. Lovely timing, no? Friday afternoon, nice day -- hot but not so hot or humid as it has been.
It feels like a gift, some kind of sign I should do something I don't normally do with the time. I mean, besides the chance to watch the Gillmor Gang live, always a treat in real time.
Here, I'll embed the video for you. It starts at 3:30 Eastern. Chat happens on Friendfeed.
I made some good notes today on index cards on my drive to work (don't tell my employer), and input them in my outline (which needs a good cleanup). I know what happens next in general terms.
But I didn't write today because constructing the details feels too hard, so I'm still at:
1/12
My poor heroine. She's the victim here. Last night I left her literally in a roadside ditch in Wisconsin in Janurary, alone, and she's going to have to stay there until at least tomorrow.
7/8/2010; 10:43:55 PM. .
How would I use subtext?
It is a feature that gives a reader more information about a particular paragraph.
I was going to demonstrate it, but now I can't see how it's accomplished in the editor. I suppose I thought it would just happen if I indented.
You can see it working in the post linked above.
Update: Actually it worked all along but I was looking for it on the home page and it only appears on the story page. Just click on the plus sign beside the first paragraph.
It's a neat idea, very original. You don't see much originality in tech, really, for all the smart people working in it. It's like movies or TV in that way. Notice what's popular and make something like it. Twitter was a breakthrough and consequently very hard to understand when it started. I know I stared at it dumbly when I first heard about it, and for several months after getting an account about three and a half years ago.
Aid to skimmers is the obvious application, I suppose. I can't tell because when I perceive there's something there I can't see, I have to see it, like a cat who hates a closed door even if there's nothing behind it they want to get at. I also can't stand not to read footnotes. Sometimes I'll pre-read the footnotes before reading a chapter of a book so they don't distract me as much.
Sites could create their own context for it. Like, for a tech site that has to speak to both users and developers it could come to mean that users need not click on the plus signs, it's all geek and code or formulas down there.
News sites could use it for background info, to catch readers up on an unfolding story, with the visible text showing just the latest developments.
I'd hate to hide pictures or a video behind an extra click because I like to see non-text objects on my page.
7/8/2010; 7:49:24 AM. .
Line height tightened up
When I wrapped text around the big fraction in the post called "Progress" the line height for that paragraph shrunk. I think. Font size, too? I'm terrible about judging these things when it's close. Sometimes have to put it in Photoshop and blow it up to 1600% to make sure my eyes aren't tricking me. I could go see what line-height is supposed to be normally and add it in, but I'll leave it so Dave can see.
7/7/2010; 10:05:08 PM. .
Twiddlers of the world, unite!
Nice to see Dave revises as much as I do. I feel a little sheepish seeing the tweaks all listed out like that. But there is no other way I can be.
7/7/2010; 9:45:25 PM. .
Progress
1/12
Ever been scared and excited at the same time? I'm working on a novel. I'd been making notes since the winter but was afraid to start writing until four or five weeks ago. Now I'm 1/12 of the way to a first draft, though I'm revising heavily along the way, especially on those days when I'm really scared that I can't live up to my own expectations and make something brand new.
I mentioned in a post yesterday that I might use the space here to push myself along. It could help. I just need to make sure I don't tell about it at the expense of doing it.
Fractions are the right way for me to measure progress. It works for me because it seems so hopeful and encouraging. I do it in the car on a long trip when I'm by myself. It makes you feel like "I can do this. I'm a tenth of the way there already and that was nothing."
7/7/2010; 9:25:29 PM. .
Happy 300th, Palatine descendants
My folks from Germany arrived at Governors Island 300 years ago in June. The Brits put them on the island because the 2,500 Palatines would have burdened the city. New York City had only 5,000 residents at the time.
By October 1710 they were encamped at Germantown to manufacture ship stores for the British crown. The tar making didn't work out at all and the clan broke their indenture agreements and moved twice, ultimately settling in what is now Herkimer County, NY. (The approximate period and location depicted in "Drums Along the Mohawk.")
I like the tradition, but don't feel anything like pride of aristocracy--I'm just proud to have blood that's been American for a long long time--since Isaac Newton's time, think of that. It's not hoity-toity in the least; they were farmers and carpenters, and militia members as early as the French and Indian war. They were scrappy and sort of assholes. One story about the Mohawk years from Philip Otterness' Becoming German tells of a gang of Palatine women riding a tax collector out of town on a rail and peeing on him. Very early tea partiers. A namesake of my line's patriarch had no use for Tories.
My Bellinger line, as far as my dad has been able to figure out: me > Richard > Vernon > Ellis > Adam > Phillip > Adam > Philip > Philip (Known as Lips!) > Johannes. My oldest son is called Adam and my last name is his middle name.
I'm going to repost the last post or two from my regular personal blog just to get the hang of embedding things and formatting and links.
7/6/2010; 8:38:56 PM. .
Got Disqus comments enabled
I fumbled around a little until I realized that in addition to specifying my short name in Scripting 2 prefs, I also had to register the blog in my existing Disqus account and create the short name for it.
7/6/2010; 8:35:34 PM. .
I forgot
Gosh, it's easy to write with this thing. Sentences just fall out.
7/6/2010; 8:21:13 PM. .
So anyway, what will I write about here?
I'm thinking of reporting on an after-hours project to keep myself motivated.
Going public is a great way to keep promises to yourself.
It's like two things I can think of:
- A message board I started in 1997 for grad students having trouble finishing their theses and dissertations. I handed off management of the site years ago, but it's still going and students are still "pacting." That's what they call it when someone starts a thread saying something like "I'm going to write three pages a day for the next five days and organize my notes from such and such a survey. Anybody in?" Then others will say what they're going to do. It's quite inspiring.
- A wedding ceremony. You promise all kinds of things in front of most everybody you know.
How do you do unordered lists?
7/6/2010; 8:15:55 PM. .
How do you delete a post?
I tried nuking the dupe from the backup directory.
I think I confused myself by trying to hand-copy backup files from this morning from my work computer.
A happy note: I did get the OPML Editor installed on my desktop at home.
An admission of recklessness: I deleted gigs of files, thinking they were only OPML files I knew I had on an external drive. The thing was, the global search also included files mentioning OPML in the text, so there went my resume and god knows what else.
Don't ever trust me to be careful when I'm on a mission and thinking in terms of "I don't care about anything else; I want this."
7/6/2010; 7:54:36 PM. .
That was it
When I got the "no att table" error I, as Dave put it, "just started typing" after opening the window from Tools > Scripting2 > Open workspace.
And there I was imputing all kinds of irrelevant causes to it. I should just test and tell. And remember to use the "New Post" button. And forget any memory that remains in my fingers from the old OPML blog. That's hard though, it feels so familiar.
7/6/2010; 7:46:01 PM. .
That was it
When I got the "no att table" error I, as Dave put it, "just started typing" after opening the window from Tools > Scripting2 > Open workspace.
And there I was imputing all kinds of irrelevant causes to it. I should just test and tell. And remember to use the "New Post" button. And forget any memory that remains in my fingers from the old OPML blog. That's hard though, it feels so familiar.
7/6/2010; 1:22:29 PM. .
Post from new post button
Try this.
7/6/2010; 1:18:19 PM. .
Hello World
Hello this is Amyloo's new Scripting2 blog.
7/6/2010; 7:53:37 AM. .
Last update: Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 8:34 PM GMT.
About the author
