Webmacster87.info

The MOD Team today has unleashed MODX, a new format for the phpBB MOD Template. This IS the XML MOD Template that was previewed in the MOD Writers Discussion forum about 10 months ago.

So what’s the big idea? Well, the old MOD Template with the ##################### is making its way to the recycling center. From a user’s point of view, when they install a MOD, they’ll double click a .xml file which will open in their web browser and display the MOD install instructions in a beautiful themed layout. Eventually, a new version of EasyMOD will be released which will allow these MODs to be installed like the old ones were, automatically, but it will be a lot faster because XML-based instructions are a LOT easier to parse and read than the old Text Template.

For MOD authors, it means that you will start using a new XML-based template. Although MODX is still in trial and the Text Template is still required for submitted MODs, the Text Template now has an expiration date. You will eventually need to port your MOD over to MODX, either by writing the XML by hand (which is tedious, but works), or using one of the uber-cool automatic convertors (an online one and a command line one). Or, if you use David’s MOD Studio, it’s already MODX-enabled; just save your MOD as XML to unlock the new MODX features.

You can learn more from The announcement, or the wealth of info available in the new MODX Resource Centre.

What about my MODs? I will still be supporting and including the Text Template in my MODs for some time, but all future releases of my MODs will include a MODX install file, and eventually, all my MODs will be repackaged with the new install file.

So enough of “I’m a MODder!” It’s time for “I’m a MODXer!”

So, I took my weekly look through the phpBB About Page, and I noticed that there’s a new member on the MOD Team. Congratulations to Swizec of phpBB.com for getting appointed to the team (I’m not sure when it occurred exactly, it was within the last week). Once you’ve joined the team, you are scarred for life!

Anyway, I hope you do well on the team. And maybe I’ll be able to congratulate you a little more personally soon…

I check my FeedBurner Feed Stats recently, and I just noticed that yesterday, the site had an all-time high with a circulation of 16 readers! Thanks for visiting Webmacster87.info and helping to set this new record!

UPDATE: Now up, you can subscribe to Webmacster87.info through e-mail! Powered by FeedBlitz, this subscription will send you a daily e-mail digest of the posts from each day. Just enter your e-mail address in the sidebar to subscribe (and, of course, there’s a counter for the number of people using e-mail updates). Enjoy!

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon writing a Rosters Script for the 17th District PTA Website. This is for submitting the rosters form information for next year to the district through an alternative method than “writing it out.” It also helps because the ladies can read the information easier.

It’s a fairly simple script to write, just collect the data, e-mail the data to someone, and display the data collected. But this is a LOT of data! Just look at the form, and you’ll see that that’s a LOT of data that needs to be processed through PHP. So although most of it was copy and paste, it was still very tedious work (how would you like to type “parliamentarian” 50 times in a row?).

Anyway, for those interested, here’s the 1,122-line source code. Now please don’t yell at me because I didn’t do something right or could have done some things better, I know I could have, but this was a “one time write a complete working script in a single afternoon” deal, because i wanted to get it done and move on to the other things I have planned for Spring Break.

On December 14, 2005, Microsoft announced that they would be adopting the icon used in Mozilla’s Firefox to represent an icon for newsfeeds (which are powered by RSS and XML). In February, Opera also announced that they would adopt this feed icon in February, and it will be used in the next version of their browser, Opera 9.

But there’s this guy who runs the site Feed Icons, which is trying to make the new feed icon a universal standard. The rationale: We call them web pages when we talk about them, not “HTML pages” or “HTML+CSS pages” or “HTML+CSS+Javascript pages.” Shouldn’t we call them newsfeeds instead of “RSS Feeds” or “Atom Feeds”? To me, it makes a lot of sense (obviously, those acronyms should still be used if you’re a developer, but when just browsing the web, this makes a lot of sense).

So he is promoting the Feed Icon as a standard, and, for those of us that don’t like orange (I’m not complaining, I don’t mind orange), he’s released a instructions on how to change the image color, and he’s released the image in 9 different sizes, all available in AI, EPS, SVG, PDF, PNG, JPG, and GIF file formats.

So what should you do? Spread the word and participate in this “standardization,” if you will, and use this icon to identify the RSS feeds on your site. If you use FeedBurner (like me), you can get to these icons via your Chicklet Chooser.

And lastly, we now just need to get Apple to use this feed icon in the next version of Safari!

Advanced Version Check 3.0.4, the “Golden Super Furry Detergent” edition (don’t you just love Golden Super Furry Linen?), has been released and submitted to the MOD Database!
AVC 3.0.3 was just about ready to be approved, according to my friends at the MOD Team, but dark inca found a small-but-important-enough bug with the VCNS e-mail that this update needed to be made. This has also allowed me to do more thorough testing of AVC 3.0.4 over phpBB 2.0.20, and everything should be working okay (although, as always, I could have overlooked something). Anyway, the MOD Team will be giving this update a really quick look, and hopefully it should find its way into the MOD Database soon.
Plus, the update is really simple-upload 2 files.
Thanks for using AVC!
-Fountain of Apples/webmacster87

Well, you may have noticed that the blog post frequency went down a little bit recently. Heck, I never posted yesterday! Well, the reason is that I’ve come down sick with something. It was kind of mild on Wednesday, but by yesterday, I started feeling a bit worse. Being somebody who loves to go into denile when it comes into illness, I decided to go to school yesterday, but boy, was that the wrong idea. My nose was stuffed, I had a moderate headache, and my throat hurt like nobody’s business. It hurt to swallow, and I couldn’t talk because it hurt. Heck, forget swallowing, my nose was so stuffed I couldn’t swallow anyway.

I came home with a whole heck of a lot of homework to do which was due today. But I didn’t do it-I’ve yet to open my backpack. I collapsed on my bed, took some Sudafed, and fell asleep for 3 hours. When I woke up, I at first half-believed it was Friday already, but no, it was only Thursday evening at 7 PM. Still feeling bad, particularly in my throat, my dad went to the store and got some Menthol cough drops, which are supposed to help the throat feel better for 2 hours after you take it. Well, my throat felt better for 5 minutes, then it was just as bad again.

I haven’t had an appetite at all, and haven’t eaten in over 24 hours (because I’m not hungry). And, last night, I didn’t think I’d be able to swallow food anyway, it was hard to swallow the Sudafed and juice-I could only swallow small sips at a time.

Anyway, this morning, my throat felt better, which is good. My nose is still a bit tempermental, but I’ve been unloading goop, and taking Sudafed, and it’s starting to clear up. I’m also on Tylenol to help with my headache. However, I’m working from bed.

Anyway, today was the last day of school before Spring Break. I’m hoping my teachers don’t penalize me, assuming that I “left on vacation early.” My English teacher had already threatened anybody that was absent from school today because there was this big group presentation that would be going on today, and anybody absent would get a 0 that could not be made up. I’m hoping that this won’t be the case. I’m also missing a test in Algebra 2.

In my opinion, the reason there was so much homework is because it’s from all these “in-class” projects which we were supposed to work on this week. And if it was a regular, full week, maybe it could have been done. But because of STAR Testing, each class missed either Tuesday or Wednesday, and yesterday was only 32 minutes/class, so there wasn’t enough time to get stuff done. So my teachers simply blamed us for not getting it done and assigned it all as homework last night, due today. Me? I’ll have it ready to turn in on April 17th, when we come back from break.

Anyway, besides homework and getting well, which are first priority over this break, my other projects include getting the Rosters script finished for the 17th District PTA website, doing a Keynote presentation for a “Website Design Basics” presentation I’m giving in May, and getting a beta release of Forum Secretary released.

I’m also hoping to be able to get back on the team sometime during the upcoming week, assuming all goes well. Stay tuned!

phpBB 2.0.20, the “Golden Super Furry Linen” edition, has been released. So, while I put the linen in the laundry to get the Golden Super Fur ™ out, check out the release announcement and update your boards!

Now to check for any clashes with my MODs.

When dotmac.info posted their 2006 April Fools Day joke about an iPC computer, it was just a joke. bobs4 of dotmac.info said “Sure is a good one. Maybe someone should put this up on MSN spaces. Be fun to find out how many people bite on it.” DaveBlaze said “I was ready to call my friends who insist on using windows and tell them their wishes came true…hahahaha!” hedi.regaya said “Apple will never do such a stupid thing!!!!”

Apple just did such a stupid thing. Either they pulled a Watson (Sherlock) on Bootloader by OnMac.net, or they wanted to disprove Nitrozac and Snaggy for saying that Apple wouldn’t release a 30th anniversary product. Or else they’re really trying to get switchers to the Mac. Or, even more likely, hell froze over.

But you can now send your Intel-based Mac to Boot Camp and get it to run Windows XP. Which, in my opinion:

Or as Danimal of GeekCulture said, “We have finally found a way to make a Mac SUCK!”

I don’t know if you noticed, but it has been to the day 4 years since the release of phpBB2, the Golden Super Furry edition.

This is an incredibly long time in today’s world, and it is exciting to still feel the popularity. We wouldn’t have made it without our community and we want to thank everyone who stood by our side and contributed time for our little baby. And, who knows, perhaps there will be a younger brother soon.

I want to emphasize how much of a celebration this is. phpBB was first released 4 years ago with a minimum PHP requirement of 3.0.9. The latest release of PHP was PHP 4.1.2 (PHP 4.2.0 was released 3 weeks later), and many many hosts were using PHP 3 still. PHP 5 did not exist. Now, 4 years later, things have changed a great deal; PHP 3 is obsolete and virtually nowhere, most hosts now use PHP 4.4.2 and many are switching over to PHP 5.1.2. There’s also a lot more bulletin boards out there now: when phpBB started it was basically UBB and vBulletin, now there’s also all the phpBB forks like IPB, punBB, ExpressionEngine Forum Module, YaBB, etc. But phpBB has only had 19 (going on 20) revisions to the codebase since that time and still runs perfectly on the latest PHP 4 and can work on the latest PHP 5 (although officially unsupported); the minimum version requirement was only upped once in 2.0.13 (to PHP 4.0.3, done due to a security vuln). And phpBB is still the most popular, and still 100% free.

This is ultra-rare in today’s world, and something to be proud of.