“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 19 posts previously published on June 6th
- 2025
- “Hmmm That’s Not California” and what a curious/bothered mind finds For me, the most interesting things happen far from the statistically averaged machine prediction zone. I can’t really explain how these marginalia bits of joy happen almost daily for me. I must be on a different internet than the one the social media choruses decry by the hour. Follow along for another trip down the […]
- 2018
- Lumpers and Splitters, Tags and Categories for Organizing and Sharing I’ve repeated this story somewhere here I am sure. But as wisdom from an unexpected place, it seems worth sharing until every one says “I heard that!” My “preparation” for the field of educational technology included undergraduate and masters degrees in… Geology. I had so many memorable teachers in my programs, including my undergraduate Petrology […]
- 2016
- Old Blog New Dog on the Blog Yup, the branding folks at the CogDogBlog Inc are rolling out a new logo and header. This is a big move around here, and may not be popular. Mickey has been a staple of this blog since it began in 2003, and it feels a bit weird to be changing him out. Change is hard, […]
- 2014
- Thoughtvector Selfies Tom Woodward and I pressed the liftoff button a few hours ago and set out the Thoughtvectors open course site into the web breeze. We have been making a lot of iconic use of the classic Doug Engelbart photo (circa 1968) where he is making an emphatic point: So.. we not have some fun and […]
- 2012
- A Wee Bit Me Too Much Yacking What mean ye storytelling View more from Alan Levine I always enjoy the opportunity to doa remote storytelling presentation for Dean Shareski’s EMCP 355 class, I think I have done one for the last few years. Usually it is a blast through 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to tell a story; this time Dean asked to […]
- What The Taxman Doth Do This is a story that uses flickr photos to illustrate a playlist poetry story I created more than a year ago. The original assignment, not exactly title aptly, was Stories Written in Windows Media Player— and is one of my favorite stories about stories because it was one of the earlier ones created by a […]
- Rocking Out to the Orchestral Funk of Sid Hammerback cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog I cannot believe by good fortune to come across the mint copy of the Sid Hammerback group’s groundbreaking introduction album “Let the Rest Go By”; from everything I have read, the last public version of this disc was seen in East Berlin. Not long after […]
- 2011
- Putting the Blog on the Hoist cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by Lori Greig Ye old CogDogBlog seems to be teeter-tottering long; I am seeing a lot of 404s and Internal Server Error 500s, and the error logs are rife with unhelpful details like “premature end of script headers”. My last round of tweaks aimed at memory […]
- Honk Seems the obvious choice for a ds106 bumper sticker Share this barking on social media
- Blogging by Dictation I am composing this blog post completely by speaking to my iPhone and using the Dragon dictate at Janelly record and transcribe what I say I’m getting this idea reading the June 2011 issue of wired magazine Clive Thompson’s article hold that thought subtitle voice recognition software is changing how we write maybe even have […]
- October 6, 2011: The ds106 Rupture cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Digital storytelling expert Happy Camper has analyzed the facts of ds106, and to him the number are clear. Add the number of user generated assignments plus the bitrate for ds106radio plus the number of blogs publishing to the ds106 website reveal the number 279; the 279th day of […]
- Last List (for Now) cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by dinstereo With returning from Nelson for what my California speaking friends would call “beautifully trippy” time, I am coming to grips soon with next steps in my journey, leading to a departure June 23 for my Road Trip Odyssey. The last few weeks have […]
- Amaze Amazed Amazing cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog To trod a word into the ground of repetition, my trip to Nelson BC was…. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by tuppus … for many reasons. The excuse was to present at and attend the ETUG (Educational Technology Users Group) Spring workshop. […]
- 2010
- 2006
- Conferencing in Cleveland flickr foto Rockin’ In Clevelandavailable on flickr Pick up your bags at the NMC 2006 Summer Conference. Tomorrow night’s reception opens the 2006 NMC Summer Conference, my first one having crossed the line from mere participant (which is a wonderful experience from my previous experiences at 4 previous NMC cons), to behind the scenes organizer […]
- 2005
- The New Spam Book’s Here! Borrowing again on my vast array of literary resources, paraphrashing from 1979’s Steve Martin’s The Jerk: Navin C.D.B. Johnson: The new spam book’s here! The new spam book’s here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need! Casino, Pills, and Porn links in my blog! That really makes somebody! Things are going to start […]
- Today’s Jots Planet IdentityPlanet Identity is an aggregation of public weblogs related to Identity Management. The opinions expressed in those weblogs and hence this aggregation are those of the original authors.Tags: rss The RSS Files — Readers Weigh InMy suggestion was to scrap RSS, which stands for "Really Simple Syndication," and replace it with KOSS, or "Kind […]
- 2004
- MLX Writing Across the Curriculum Special Collection A few weeks ago, the faculty developer at one of our colleges asked if we could create an MLX Special Collection for an upcoming summer institute on “Wwriting Across the Curriculum”, so that participants could create a “starter” package for a project they would complete over the summer (I call it “assembling the box’ like […]
- NMC 2004 Feeds For Martin: Catch the Small Pieces Clue Train Martin was a bit peeved at not getting an RSS Feed for the “NMC Continuing Coverage” blog aggregator provided by Stephen Downes (and he gets the concept). Then Martin still was not satisfied when we provided him a URL for an RSS feed for Stephan’s tool, found with a few minutes of rummaging around EDU_RSS. […]
On Michael’s site he might use There are 19 posts previously published on June 6th
- 2025
- “Hmmm That’s Not California” and what a curious/bothered mind finds For me, the most interesting things happen far from the statistically averaged machine prediction zone. I can’t really explain how these marginalia bits of joy happen almost daily for me. I must be on a different internet than the one the social media choruses decry by the hour. Follow along for another trip down the […] ➡
- 2018
- Lumpers and Splitters, Tags and Categories for Organizing and Sharing I’ve repeated this story somewhere here I am sure. But as wisdom from an unexpected place, it seems worth sharing until every one says “I heard that!” My “preparation” for the field of educational technology included undergraduate and masters degrees in… Geology. I had so many memorable teachers in my programs, including my undergraduate Petrology […] ➡
- 2016
- Old Blog New Dog on the Blog Yup, the branding folks at the CogDogBlog Inc are rolling out a new logo and header. This is a big move around here, and may not be popular. Mickey has been a staple of this blog since it began in 2003, and it feels a bit weird to be changing him out. Change is hard, […] ➡
- 2014
- Thoughtvector Selfies Tom Woodward and I pressed the liftoff button a few hours ago and set out the Thoughtvectors open course site into the web breeze. We have been making a lot of iconic use of the classic Doug Engelbart photo (circa 1968) where he is making an emphatic point: So.. we not have some fun and […] ➡
- 2012
- A Wee Bit Me Too Much Yacking What mean ye storytelling View more from Alan Levine I always enjoy the opportunity to doa remote storytelling presentation for Dean Shareski’s EMCP 355 class, I think I have done one for the last few years. Usually it is a blast through 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to tell a story; this time Dean asked to […] ➡
- What The Taxman Doth Do This is a story that uses flickr photos to illustrate a playlist poetry story I created more than a year ago. The original assignment, not exactly title aptly, was Stories Written in Windows Media Player— and is one of my favorite stories about stories because it was one of the earlier ones created by a […] ➡
- Rocking Out to the Orchestral Funk of Sid Hammerback cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog I cannot believe by good fortune to come across the mint copy of the Sid Hammerback group’s groundbreaking introduction album “Let the Rest Go By”; from everything I have read, the last public version of this disc was seen in East Berlin. Not long after […] ➡
- 2011
- Putting the Blog on the Hoist cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by Lori Greig Ye old CogDogBlog seems to be teeter-tottering long; I am seeing a lot of 404s and Internal Server Error 500s, and the error logs are rife with unhelpful details like “premature end of script headers”. My last round of tweaks aimed at memory […] ➡
- Honk Seems the obvious choice for a ds106 bumper sticker Share this barking on social media ➡
- Blogging by Dictation I am composing this blog post completely by speaking to my iPhone and using the Dragon dictate at Janelly record and transcribe what I say I’m getting this idea reading the June 2011 issue of wired magazine Clive Thompson’s article hold that thought subtitle voice recognition software is changing how we write maybe even have […] ➡
- October 6, 2011: The ds106 Rupture cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Digital storytelling expert Happy Camper has analyzed the facts of ds106, and to him the number are clear. Add the number of user generated assignments plus the bitrate for ds106radio plus the number of blogs publishing to the ds106 website reveal the number 279; the 279th day of […] ➡
- Last List (for Now) cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by dinstereo With returning from Nelson for what my California speaking friends would call “beautifully trippy” time, I am coming to grips soon with next steps in my journey, leading to a departure June 23 for my Road Trip Odyssey. The last few weeks have […] ➡
- Amaze Amazed Amazing cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog To trod a word into the ground of repetition, my trip to Nelson BC was…. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by tuppus … for many reasons. The excuse was to present at and attend the ETUG (Educational Technology Users Group) Spring workshop. […] ➡
- 2010
- 2006
- Conferencing in Cleveland flickr foto Rockin’ In Clevelandavailable on flickr Pick up your bags at the NMC 2006 Summer Conference. Tomorrow night’s reception opens the 2006 NMC Summer Conference, my first one having crossed the line from mere participant (which is a wonderful experience from my previous experiences at 4 previous NMC cons), to behind the scenes organizer […] ➡
- 2005
- The New Spam Book’s Here! Borrowing again on my vast array of literary resources, paraphrashing from 1979’s Steve Martin’s The Jerk: Navin C.D.B. Johnson: The new spam book’s here! The new spam book’s here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need! Casino, Pills, and Porn links in my blog! That really makes somebody! Things are going to start […] ➡
- Today’s Jots Planet IdentityPlanet Identity is an aggregation of public weblogs related to Identity Management. The opinions expressed in those weblogs and hence this aggregation are those of the original authors.Tags: rss The RSS Files — Readers Weigh InMy suggestion was to scrap RSS, which stands for "Really Simple Syndication," and replace it with KOSS, or "Kind […] ➡
- 2004
- MLX Writing Across the Curriculum Special Collection A few weeks ago, the faculty developer at one of our colleges asked if we could create an MLX Special Collection for an upcoming summer institute on “Wwriting Across the Curriculum”, so that participants could create a “starter” package for a project they would complete over the summer (I call it “assembling the box’ like […] ➡
- NMC 2004 Feeds For Martin: Catch the Small Pieces Clue Train Martin was a bit peeved at not getting an RSS Feed for the “NMC Continuing Coverage” blog aggregator provided by Stephen Downes (and he gets the concept). Then Martin still was not satisfied when we provided him a URL for an RSS feed for Stephan’s tool, found with a few minutes of rummaging around EDU_RSS. […] ➡
// 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.
