“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
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.
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.
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 21 posts previously published on June 9th
- 2025
- The SPLOT Still Beating On, 2025 Version SPLOTs. Who can’t get enough of them? Most of the internet, I am sure. It’s been a while, aka five years, since I cued up Cher and Whats His Name for that funky toe tapping beat. It’s been literally years since I touched the WordPress themes that power SPLOTs. Yet weirdly, and with all the […]
- 2021
- Amazing Web, Woah For everything wrong about the 2021 web, the candle in the small window is the unexpected click that results in an expression of Neo-like “Woah” – is that truly possible in a web browser? Once the bar was set kind of low to be amazed by the web, just a collection of not so stupid […]
- 2019
- More Ways to Plug Into SPLOTbox In a media making workshop I ran last week (overdue for the blog queue), I found it both reassuring to see how participants took to sharing media created in a TRU Collector SPLOT powered site and also saw some shortcomes that led to some useful code rabbit holing this weekend. On issue was when we […]
- 2016
- Call / Plea / Beg for Responses: What If Creative Commons Certifications? Like I’ve done in the past, to some degree of success, I am asking for people to help out on a project with a video response to questions related to my new project with Creative Commons, helping to design/build a system, process for offering a “certification” in Creative Commons. Yes, I put that in quotes, […]
- Party on! Flickr Notes are BAAAAACK! Before you make a wisecrack about the imminent demise of the creaky old Yahoo bad mojo flickr (which I continue to use daily 12 years after I started)… crank up the music! Via a comment from “Eric” (nothanks@yahoo.com) on a post where I myself called flickr an word that stars with “a” and ends with […]
- 2014
- Rubric On the drive home from VCU today, Gardner’s wife Alice was sharing some research she was doing on old music manuscripts, some of which had markups written on them. She asked if we knew where the word “rubric” comes from – as we should, since rubrics are those necessary instruments (to some) for teaching. Well, […]
- Under the Hood of Thoughtvectors.net creative commons licensed ( BY-NC-SA ) flickr photo shared by Tom Holbrook Now that the Thought Vectors site is out and running (36 blogs syndicating in, 11 of them from registered students, not bad for the day before class starts), it’s time for a bit more of the techie WTF does that do post, in […]
- 2013
- To Serve Learners (a #ds106zone radio show) Last week was the third leg of a 3 week cross country trip by train. I was not planning to be part of a ds106 radio show project for the summer 2013 5 week madcap section of ds106 Jim Groom is teaching. But this idea got in my head, in that ds106 way that I […]
- 2011
- My Lucky Coin cc licensed (BY) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog The smiling hippy chick behind the counter at the restaurant on Nelson handed me my change. "Oh look, you get a lucky dollar coin" (coy smile). Sure, I am in Canada, and people have that "nice" thing going, so I’m ready to believe. And their money is […]
- I’m in Your Mailbox cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by sayhellotojessica Well, actually I wont be there unless you ask. I’ve had some people request a means to get updates from here via email, namely for the upcoming road trips. Yeah, e-mail. that dead thing. I looked at adding a subscription plugin (likely Subscribe2), but […]
- Web Story- Elliminate: Dead! Don’t ask me why I tooled around in Firebug, but my sarcasm spot sure needed some itching. I was looking at some of the works done for the web story assignment in Martha’s ds106 session (wither the URL for the class blog?). I was wondering if this time I could do the whole thing in […]
- Google Guitar Hero When I first saw (or correctly, when Ninmah sent me the link) Google’s home page today, first reaction, was “nice graphic”- a guitar version of the logo. Then I moved my mouse. The graphic made a noise. OISOME! The logo makes sounds. But wait, there’s more. You can record your sounds at a URL you […]
- Ayn’s Eyes In watching the first episode of All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace I became mesmerized by the shifting, laser like movement of Ayn Rand’s eyes in the interview sequence. It lulled me into a trance, mumbling zombie-like “Must make animated GIF… Must make animated GIF… Must make animated GIF… Must make animated GIF… […]
- 2009
- 2007
- Awesome Student Video Shown by Apple’s Don henderson today at the closing of the 2007 NMC Summer Conference, An Empty Cubicle is a film created by students at the Art Institute of Seattle and a winner of the Insomnia Film Festival. It is well worth a watch! But hey Apple, sniff the Web 2.0 fumes and provide cut […]
- Curses to Expedia The expedia jingle (and their annoying 1-800 number) has that annoying… “DOT COMMMMMM” – but I am ready to change it to “dot crap”. I am currently stranded unexpectedly in Chicago as Expedia booked my on a flight that does not exist. I planned travel following the NMC Summer Conference to fly from Indianapolis to […]
- WordPress Boyz A double dose of WordPress pressure from Jerry and Andy (at NMC Summer Conference). Where is the Reverend when you need him? Had fun hanging out in Indy with Gardner, Jerry, Andy, Martha and Jen of the UMW Gang. They run at the same high level of fun energy I saw at faculty Academy. And […]
- 2006
- Second Life Memory Game flickr foto I know The Little Rose is Thereavailable on flickr Playing the Second Life memory game at the NMC 2006 Summer Conference Duriung the late afternoon Corporate Partner’s Showcase at the 2006 Summer Conference, for the NMC booth, we set up a station connected to Second Life (with thanks to Case for the big […]
- Five Minutes flickr foto Bang a Gongavailable on flickr Go over 5 minutes during the 5 Minutes of Fame at the NMC 2006 Summer Conference, and you shall be gonged. What a blast- today at the NMC 2006 Summer Conference included the Five Minutes of Fame, where 10 presenters showed off their cool technical projects. But rather […]
- Alexander’s Law of Hotel Internet Connectivity I recall a conversation with Bryan Alexander who relayed his travel experience in the form of an inverse law- the higher the cost and luxury status of a hotel, the worse your internet connectivity will be– the best free wireless is found in an obscure Motel 8 in rural Pennsylvania. This has certainly proven true […]
- 2005
- Wiki Live Now Dead Will deftly spotted and posted about a site that showed in real-time the update action over at WikiPedia: You can see the line for each edit in Wikipedia as it’s made. In the few moments it’s taken to create this post, over 80 edits have been made about everything from the Pakistani Coast Guard to […]
On Michael’s site he might use There are 21 posts previously published on June 9th
- 2025
- The SPLOT Still Beating On, 2025 Version SPLOTs. Who can’t get enough of them? Most of the internet, I am sure. It’s been a while, aka five years, since I cued up Cher and Whats His Name for that funky toe tapping beat. It’s been literally years since I touched the WordPress themes that power SPLOTs. Yet weirdly, and with all the […] ➡
- 2021
- Amazing Web, Woah For everything wrong about the 2021 web, the candle in the small window is the unexpected click that results in an expression of Neo-like “Woah” – is that truly possible in a web browser? Once the bar was set kind of low to be amazed by the web, just a collection of not so stupid […] ➡
- 2019
- More Ways to Plug Into SPLOTbox In a media making workshop I ran last week (overdue for the blog queue), I found it both reassuring to see how participants took to sharing media created in a TRU Collector SPLOT powered site and also saw some shortcomes that led to some useful code rabbit holing this weekend. On issue was when we […] ➡
- 2016
- Call / Plea / Beg for Responses: What If Creative Commons Certifications? Like I’ve done in the past, to some degree of success, I am asking for people to help out on a project with a video response to questions related to my new project with Creative Commons, helping to design/build a system, process for offering a “certification” in Creative Commons. Yes, I put that in quotes, […] ➡
- Party on! Flickr Notes are BAAAAACK! Before you make a wisecrack about the imminent demise of the creaky old Yahoo bad mojo flickr (which I continue to use daily 12 years after I started)… crank up the music! Via a comment from “Eric” (nothanks@yahoo.com) on a post where I myself called flickr an word that stars with “a” and ends with […] ➡
- 2014
- Rubric On the drive home from VCU today, Gardner’s wife Alice was sharing some research she was doing on old music manuscripts, some of which had markups written on them. She asked if we knew where the word “rubric” comes from – as we should, since rubrics are those necessary instruments (to some) for teaching. Well, […] ➡
- Under the Hood of Thoughtvectors.net creative commons licensed ( BY-NC-SA ) flickr photo shared by Tom Holbrook Now that the Thought Vectors site is out and running (36 blogs syndicating in, 11 of them from registered students, not bad for the day before class starts), it’s time for a bit more of the techie WTF does that do post, in […] ➡
- 2013
- To Serve Learners (a #ds106zone radio show) Last week was the third leg of a 3 week cross country trip by train. I was not planning to be part of a ds106 radio show project for the summer 2013 5 week madcap section of ds106 Jim Groom is teaching. But this idea got in my head, in that ds106 way that I […] ➡
- 2011
- My Lucky Coin cc licensed (BY) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog The smiling hippy chick behind the counter at the restaurant on Nelson handed me my change. "Oh look, you get a lucky dollar coin" (coy smile). Sure, I am in Canada, and people have that "nice" thing going, so I’m ready to believe. And their money is […] ➡
- I’m in Your Mailbox cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by sayhellotojessica Well, actually I wont be there unless you ask. I’ve had some people request a means to get updates from here via email, namely for the upcoming road trips. Yeah, e-mail. that dead thing. I looked at adding a subscription plugin (likely Subscribe2), but […] ➡
- Web Story- Elliminate: Dead! Don’t ask me why I tooled around in Firebug, but my sarcasm spot sure needed some itching. I was looking at some of the works done for the web story assignment in Martha’s ds106 session (wither the URL for the class blog?). I was wondering if this time I could do the whole thing in […] ➡
- Google Guitar Hero When I first saw (or correctly, when Ninmah sent me the link) Google’s home page today, first reaction, was “nice graphic”- a guitar version of the logo. Then I moved my mouse. The graphic made a noise. OISOME! The logo makes sounds. But wait, there’s more. You can record your sounds at a URL you […] ➡
- Ayn’s Eyes In watching the first episode of All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace I became mesmerized by the shifting, laser like movement of Ayn Rand’s eyes in the interview sequence. It lulled me into a trance, mumbling zombie-like “Must make animated GIF… Must make animated GIF… Must make animated GIF… Must make animated GIF… […] ➡
- 2009
- 2007
- Awesome Student Video Shown by Apple’s Don henderson today at the closing of the 2007 NMC Summer Conference, An Empty Cubicle is a film created by students at the Art Institute of Seattle and a winner of the Insomnia Film Festival. It is well worth a watch! But hey Apple, sniff the Web 2.0 fumes and provide cut […] ➡
- Curses to Expedia The expedia jingle (and their annoying 1-800 number) has that annoying… “DOT COMMMMMM” – but I am ready to change it to “dot crap”. I am currently stranded unexpectedly in Chicago as Expedia booked my on a flight that does not exist. I planned travel following the NMC Summer Conference to fly from Indianapolis to […] ➡
- WordPress Boyz A double dose of WordPress pressure from Jerry and Andy (at NMC Summer Conference). Where is the Reverend when you need him? Had fun hanging out in Indy with Gardner, Jerry, Andy, Martha and Jen of the UMW Gang. They run at the same high level of fun energy I saw at faculty Academy. And […] ➡
- 2006
- Second Life Memory Game flickr foto I know The Little Rose is Thereavailable on flickr Playing the Second Life memory game at the NMC 2006 Summer Conference Duriung the late afternoon Corporate Partner’s Showcase at the 2006 Summer Conference, for the NMC booth, we set up a station connected to Second Life (with thanks to Case for the big […] ➡
- Five Minutes flickr foto Bang a Gongavailable on flickr Go over 5 minutes during the 5 Minutes of Fame at the NMC 2006 Summer Conference, and you shall be gonged. What a blast- today at the NMC 2006 Summer Conference included the Five Minutes of Fame, where 10 presenters showed off their cool technical projects. But rather […] ➡
- Alexander’s Law of Hotel Internet Connectivity I recall a conversation with Bryan Alexander who relayed his travel experience in the form of an inverse law- the higher the cost and luxury status of a hotel, the worse your internet connectivity will be– the best free wireless is found in an obscure Motel 8 in rural Pennsylvania. This has certainly proven true […] ➡
- 2005
- Wiki Live Now Dead Will deftly spotted and posted about a site that showed in real-time the update action over at WikiPedia: You can see the line for each edit in Wikipedia as it’s made. In the few moments it’s taken to create this post, over 80 edits have been made about everything from the Pakistani Coast Guard to […] ➡
// 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.
