Ok to Cross the Streams When Code Fixing

“Who ya gonna call?” “CODEBUSTERS”

No.

But the metaphor of Ghostbusters crossing the streams was inversely appropriate to a little bit of code action over the holidays (of which the actual action was nil).

But this was fun.

This nice tweet from John Johnston (who spawned the idea) reminded me of a WordPress plugin I had made

Thanks to my On This Day page (thanks to @cogdog for that), I found my review of 2006: https://t.co/bsjJWahYlG (https://t.co/GQky8Cpz10)
— john johnston (@johnjohnston) December 29, 2019

The WP Posted Today plugin is meant to offer a short code you can put on a site and it will list all previous posts on the current calendar day (this of course is useful if you actually still blog regularly) (cough) (cough).

Just for grins I checked the page where I use my own plugin. Yikes. Red Alert. It displayed all the ones for December 29 in years past, but the part where it should list how many there were was blank.

Red arrow points to missing number where the page output reads "There are posts previously published on December 29th"

I dug into my own code… and found myself a bit lost. Crossed. I was not even sure where I got the sprintf functions (John’s original code?) that were aimed to be compatible if anyone every wanted a language translation (maybe, or it’s just that thing when people code things differently).

Taking the path of least resistance, I took out the code where I think the problem was occurring and did it a more simple, but brute force way.

And it worked.

So I updated the version on GitHub and felt at peace with the world. In the off chance someone stumbled into my little corner of code, they would find something that works (or should work).

And then (here comes a stream crossing) Michael Hanscom @djwudi — someone I don’t think I’ve ever communicated with — tweets that he had seen pretty much the same bug and offered a fix.

https://twitter.com/djwudi/status/1212871226953101313

In looking at his post I saw the fix he made, and said– that’s better than mine! So I decided today to roll back my changes in place of Michael’s solution (but also keeping a modification I had made to remove extraneous calls when not needed for singular versus multiple results).

I noted the extra change he made in hos own version

Plus, I’ve made one other tweak to the plugin, so that it adds a link to the end of the excerpt to better handle “microblog” style entries that don’t have titles, so I still get to feel good about that part, as well. 🙂 My coding skills may be underdeveloped and rusty from lack of regular use, but they’re not entirely atrophied!

In this case, these microblog type entries (see Michael’s demo page) lack titles, so yes, a link is needed at the end of the post excerpt.

Yet I could see that regular posts (like on my site) did not need the extra link, and also, not everyone might want the arrow Michael likes.

I solved this cleverly by creating an additional shortcode parameter more which defaults to a blank string. In the shortcode function, we convert any attributes passed to variables with

extract(shortcode_atts( array( "month" => '', "day" => '', 'excerpt' => 1, 'more' => '' ), $atts ));

So on my site, where I just used the shortcode

There are 19 posts previously published on February 10th

2025Where The Link Goes Therefore I Go (beyond) The humble hyperlink, ever it be so unassuming humble. Click here! It’s an invention, a pending adventure, for me, a potential distraction of the better than the machinery of social media attention sucking. When you spot an interesting link in your info streams, do you quickly share, repost? Click that all so valuable and powerful […]
2023Not Quite the Round Trip You Were AI-ing For Current hyped mythology includes the idea that from the outside of one of the MagicalAI machines you can somehow conjure up what produced it. Or can you loop back? Promises, promises. But the ride might be interesting. As he does frequently, my friend and colleague Grant Potter slides me so many interesting sites and tools, […]
2020On Deconferencing Academic conferences are getting some scrutiny about environmental impact of travel. Some. While a valid concern, I think it’s the a misplaced one. Nor is it one of face to face versus online. Are we really doing the best we can for the convening to share practices and ideas? And while there is a privilege […]
2019Easy IndieWeb Login with WP-Dimension Theme Those big time motivational speakers who talk about starting to learn with a problem you want to solve have never really accounted for serendipitous learning. Is everything as simple as problem -> solution? This is one of those times I accidentally learned something I had no intent of learning. It was like 3 by products […]
2018Sometimes the API is as simple as “Alan Press It” Sometimes (or more) I sure take the wrong way around things with tech. It all started because I wanted my dog to have an Instagram account. Yeah, we are going into very important things. I’ve been posting pix of Felix since I got him to my own account: View this post on Instagram A post […]
2016A Ticket to Ride Poster for OER16 When the #OER16 plea to DS106 goes out… Have you got your ticket yet? (help us make an #oer16 promo poster) ((calling #ds106)) https://t.co/znKl9N8dPr — OER Open Education Conference (@OERConf) February 10, 2016 Of course a response needs to be made The #oer16 conference sent a #ds106 Bat Signal for poster design help… now an […] Inside the World of Catfishing This was my second open talk for students at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón — they are giving me free range for topics, so I chose to take them below the surface of the Facebook Pond to look at the world of catfishing. I was impressed with how many students knew the term (they knew it […]
2013One Day of All This Will Be Yours When the world is full of things that don’t make sense, make a GIF. When you get tired of all the repeated echoes off the chamber walls put down that copy of The Chronicle, and make a GIF. When twitter is full of bird crap, make a GIF. Well… it’s a strategy that works for […]
2012Parent Dog Headswap cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog My variant of the ds106 Parent-Child Headswap assignment, in this case I take some liberty to swap a photo of me and my icon dog, Mickey. The original photo is from August 2001: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog This was […] Photo it Like the Peanut Butter Say it Like the Peanut Butter has been a long standing popular ds106 assignment- capture a key moment in a movie in the form of an animated GIF. Over the summer I did some experiments with using my own photos to generate animated GIFs, and I am making this into a new ds106 assignment. Photo […]
2011Mementoish Daily Shoot/ds106 Story This may set a record for the most un-managable blog title … this week. For some reason (help me Jim!) I cannot find the link for Assignment 4 in ds106 – it was more or less two do two weeks of posting photos in response to the prompts of the Daily Shoot. Heck, I’ve been […] My Life in 2000 Flickr Photos Just by some idle browsing of the discussions inside the 2011/365 flickr group, I found Elizabeth’s link and mention of pummelvision – a service that allows you to validate your flickr account and have it create a video of your last 2000 flickr photos and publish it right to YouTube, How could I not try […]
2007Woah, Blogging Via IM Thanks to a tip from Tim Lauer, I am actually blogging this entry via IM from iChat using imified … slick! Share this barking on social media Share, Link, Repeat Bryan Alexander writes of Web 2.0 network ecology stories and wonders about the phenomena of discovery, re-use of digital media. He shares examples of photos he has taken, shared have seen positive, maybe unintended use by others, as well as the joy of connecting with people beyond his current circle of connections (which is not […]
2006Moosecamp Roundup I’, lagging a bit in writing up today’s MooseCamp experience, the day session before the Northern Voice 2006 Conference. All in all, it was a full and tiring day. On one hand, it was a bit like a standard conference format; the sessions seemed to fly on by and lack significant time to reflect and […] UBC Social Software Salon flickr foto Man With a Microphoneavailable on my flickr Brian extends the microphone so gardner Campbell can hear (he is remotely present via Skype) Mea culpa, my blog pace is waning. Maybe it is jet lag or just some fatigue, but it’s bothering me for not prattling on to the blog stream. Anyhow, yesteday was […]
2005Thanks Will- Energizing One EduBlogger at A Time A “web good dog” to Will Richardson for sharing a link to his Learning Times presentation– see Now THAT Was Fun…and Educational (What a Concept!). His blogging/RSS presentation is available for FREE as a streaming audio narrated show, where he is able to talk over and demo things like Bloglines, etc. But the cool thing […] The Spam Not Traveled A tale of two sequential spam emails, in sequential order. First was philosophical spam (one does not see too many of these): Both the material and spiritual worlds are full of opulence, beauty and knowledge, but the spiritual realm is more magnificent due to its being full of knowledge, bliss and eternity. The material creations […]
2004XPLANA “Courseware Karma” On Graphics…. Karma Shmarma Wow, XPLANA’s Interface Impact When Developing and Teaching Online Courses : When using graphics in a course, it is imperative that the graphics match the subject matter they are being presented with. When graphics are either inappropriate (meaning that they either do not correspond with the subject matter or they are culturally biased) they are […]

and the default value, the link at the end is invisible.

On Michael’s site he might use

There are 19 posts previously published on February 10th

2025Where The Link Goes Therefore I Go (beyond) The humble hyperlink, ever it be so unassuming humble. Click here! It’s an invention, a pending adventure, for me, a potential distraction of the better than the machinery of social media attention sucking. When you spot an interesting link in your info streams, do you quickly share, repost? Click that all so valuable and powerful […] &amp#x27A1;
2023Not Quite the Round Trip You Were AI-ing For Current hyped mythology includes the idea that from the outside of one of the MagicalAI machines you can somehow conjure up what produced it. Or can you loop back? Promises, promises. But the ride might be interesting. As he does frequently, my friend and colleague Grant Potter slides me so many interesting sites and tools, […] &amp#x27A1;
2020On Deconferencing Academic conferences are getting some scrutiny about environmental impact of travel. Some. While a valid concern, I think it’s the a misplaced one. Nor is it one of face to face versus online. Are we really doing the best we can for the convening to share practices and ideas? And while there is a privilege […] &amp#x27A1;
2019Easy IndieWeb Login with WP-Dimension Theme Those big time motivational speakers who talk about starting to learn with a problem you want to solve have never really accounted for serendipitous learning. Is everything as simple as problem -> solution? This is one of those times I accidentally learned something I had no intent of learning. It was like 3 by products […] &amp#x27A1;
2018Sometimes the API is as simple as “Alan Press It” Sometimes (or more) I sure take the wrong way around things with tech. It all started because I wanted my dog to have an Instagram account. Yeah, we are going into very important things. I’ve been posting pix of Felix since I got him to my own account: View this post on Instagram A post […] &amp#x27A1;
2016A Ticket to Ride Poster for OER16 When the #OER16 plea to DS106 goes out… Have you got your ticket yet? (help us make an #oer16 promo poster) ((calling #ds106)) https://t.co/znKl9N8dPr — OER Open Education Conference (@OERConf) February 10, 2016 Of course a response needs to be made The #oer16 conference sent a #ds106 Bat Signal for poster design help… now an […] &amp#x27A1; Inside the World of Catfishing This was my second open talk for students at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón — they are giving me free range for topics, so I chose to take them below the surface of the Facebook Pond to look at the world of catfishing. I was impressed with how many students knew the term (they knew it […] &amp#x27A1;
2013One Day of All This Will Be Yours When the world is full of things that don’t make sense, make a GIF. When you get tired of all the repeated echoes off the chamber walls put down that copy of The Chronicle, and make a GIF. When twitter is full of bird crap, make a GIF. Well… it’s a strategy that works for […] &amp#x27A1;
2012Parent Dog Headswap cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog My variant of the ds106 Parent-Child Headswap assignment, in this case I take some liberty to swap a photo of me and my icon dog, Mickey. The original photo is from August 2001: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog This was […] &amp#x27A1; Photo it Like the Peanut Butter Say it Like the Peanut Butter has been a long standing popular ds106 assignment- capture a key moment in a movie in the form of an animated GIF. Over the summer I did some experiments with using my own photos to generate animated GIFs, and I am making this into a new ds106 assignment. Photo […] &amp#x27A1;
2011Mementoish Daily Shoot/ds106 Story This may set a record for the most un-managable blog title … this week. For some reason (help me Jim!) I cannot find the link for Assignment 4 in ds106 – it was more or less two do two weeks of posting photos in response to the prompts of the Daily Shoot. Heck, I’ve been […] &amp#x27A1; My Life in 2000 Flickr Photos Just by some idle browsing of the discussions inside the 2011/365 flickr group, I found Elizabeth’s link and mention of pummelvision – a service that allows you to validate your flickr account and have it create a video of your last 2000 flickr photos and publish it right to YouTube, How could I not try […] &amp#x27A1;
2007Woah, Blogging Via IM Thanks to a tip from Tim Lauer, I am actually blogging this entry via IM from iChat using imified … slick! Share this barking on social media &amp#x27A1; Share, Link, Repeat Bryan Alexander writes of Web 2.0 network ecology stories and wonders about the phenomena of discovery, re-use of digital media. He shares examples of photos he has taken, shared have seen positive, maybe unintended use by others, as well as the joy of connecting with people beyond his current circle of connections (which is not […] &amp#x27A1;
2006Moosecamp Roundup I’, lagging a bit in writing up today’s MooseCamp experience, the day session before the Northern Voice 2006 Conference. All in all, it was a full and tiring day. On one hand, it was a bit like a standard conference format; the sessions seemed to fly on by and lack significant time to reflect and […] &amp#x27A1; UBC Social Software Salon flickr foto Man With a Microphoneavailable on my flickr Brian extends the microphone so gardner Campbell can hear (he is remotely present via Skype) Mea culpa, my blog pace is waning. Maybe it is jet lag or just some fatigue, but it’s bothering me for not prattling on to the blog stream. Anyhow, yesteday was […] &amp#x27A1;
2005Thanks Will- Energizing One EduBlogger at A Time A “web good dog” to Will Richardson for sharing a link to his Learning Times presentation– see Now THAT Was Fun…and Educational (What a Concept!). His blogging/RSS presentation is available for FREE as a streaming audio narrated show, where he is able to talk over and demo things like Bloglines, etc. But the cool thing […] &amp#x27A1; The Spam Not Traveled A tale of two sequential spam emails, in sequential order. First was philosophical spam (one does not see too many of these): Both the material and spiritual worlds are full of opulence, beauty and knowledge, but the spiritual realm is more magnificent due to its being full of knowledge, bliss and eternity. The material creations […] &amp#x27A1;
2004XPLANA “Courseware Karma” On Graphics…. Karma Shmarma Wow, XPLANA’s Interface Impact When Developing and Teaching Online Courses : When using graphics in a course, it is imperative that the graphics match the subject matter they are being presented with. When graphics are either inappropriate (meaning that they either do not correspond with the subject matter or they are culturally biased) they are […] &amp#x27A1;

to get the arrow codes he likes. This works because output for each found post looks like

// output post and link
			
$output .= '' . get_the_title() . '';

// display excerpt if we want it
if ( $excerpt ) $output .= ' ' . get_the_excerpt();

// for microblog output where there might not be titles so add a link at end
// h/t https://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2020/01/02/rss-feed-weirdness-and-php-debugging/

$output .= ' ' .  $more . '';

So how is that for the odds of streams crossing on the same obscure bit of code? That’s the old fashioned kind of net serendipity that still happens.

Thanks Michael! Check out his 20 year old blog, he’s an “Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk” quite the tag line.

Featured Image: Edit of the Ghostbusters Cross Streams scene found in the Ghostbusters Fandom Wiki site which states “Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.” I replaced part of the background with a screenshot of the WP Posted Today PHP code.