年: 2006年

Some update

Its been a bit over a month, since I last wrote here. I have been quite busy with work. To be more correct, I just started working in Tokyo.

Its my first job as what we call in Japan a “proper worker”. My first time living in Tokyo. I have lived in England, away from home, but has always been with someone – the boarding house or sharing a flat with friends. But I am now living on my own. There are lots of customary things that you got to do when you work in Japan, that’s hard to read through to understand what the hell its all about. Oh and the flats in Japan comes with nothing. Not even a curtain. So I gotta go out and buy beds, fridge-freezer, washing machine, etc, etc…

I got to set up the Internet as well. Currently toying the idea between the 50Mbps ADSL and 100Mbps optic fiber, both at about same cost per month.

Hopefully, I get things settled and sorted by beginning of the next year!

Some useful Ultimate Tag Warrior tips

The Ultimate Tag Warrior is probably one of the best plugin out there for WordPress. It is a powerfull and complex plugin, with lots of template tags. You can customize these template tags too, but do looks rather complicated and confusing to do.

Here are some ideas from aoina, a one of the WordPress user in Japan.

Display 10 most popular tags, with feed icons

This will output the feed icons infront of each tag. Just like the similar feature for the categories.

[php]

  • feed %tagdisplay%(%tagcount%)
  • ‘), 10); ?>

[/php]

Display ‘+’ infront of tags, when tag archive

I love this one. Just what I wanted. It’s easier to see, than to explain. If you click ‘plugin’, it will return the entries tagged ‘plugin’. But if you click ‘+’ infront of ‘plugin’, it will return the entries tagged with ‘wordpress’ AND ‘plugin’.

There is a similar ajax-powered feature which comes with UTW, but this is much simpler and lighter, I think.

Here is the code I use in tag.php. I display it slightly different, compared to how Aoina.com do.

[php]

‘%intersectionlink% %tagdisplay%(%tagcount%)’,
‘default’ => ‘%intersectionlink% %tagdisplay%(%tagcount%), ‘,
‘last’ => ‘%intersectionlink% %tagdisplay%(%tagcount%)’
)); ?>

[/php]

These two customization uses $format for custom formatting.

Add the tag name in the TITLE of the tag archive

When you display an archive for a tag, only your blog title is displayd in the title. For SEO, it would be better to display the tag name here. T the bottom of ultimate-tag-warrior-actions.php, add this code:

[php]
add_filter(‘wp_title’, ‘utw_blogtitle’,1);
function utw_blogtitle($title){
if(get_query_var(“tag”) && !$title) return ” » ” . get_query_var(“tag”);
}
[/php]

This actually didn’t work for me, as I use the Optimal Title plugin. So instead, I edited optimal-title.php. Near the end, between if ($single) { ... } and if ($display && isset($title)) { ... }.

[php]
if(get_query_var(“tag”) && !$title) {
$title = get_query_var(“tag”) . “$sep Tag Archive”;
}
[/php]

Fix the bug when used with WP-PageNavi

Like me, if you use WP-PageNavi, there is a bug when an archive of two or more tag is displayed. If ‘wordpress’ tag has 5 entries, and ‘plugin’ tag has 3, ‘wordpress+plugin’ should return total of 3 entries. But WP-PageNavi returns 8 entries.

Edit the lines 37 to 39 of pagenavi.php, from:

[php]
preg_match(‘#FROMs(.*)sGROUP BY#siU’, $request, $matches);
$fromwhere = $matches[1];
$numposts = $wpdb->get_var(“SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT ID) FROM $fromwhere”);
[/php]

to this:

[php]
if( strpos(get_query_var(‘tag’), ” “) ){
preg_match(‘#^(.*)sLIMIT#siU’, $request, $matches);
$fromwhere = $matches[1];
$results = $wpdb->get_results($fromwhere);
$numposts = count($results);
} else {
preg_match(‘#FROMs(.*)sGROUP BY#siU’, $request, $matches);
$fromwhere = $matches[1];
$numposts = $wpdb->get_var(“SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT ID) FROM $fromwhere”);
}
[/php]

[These tips are by AOINA.COM]

My first WordPress theme – Warped

I have just released my first WordPress theme, called Warped. Well, it’s actually a ported theme. Warped was designed by Six Shooter Media, under the Creative Commons license. I loved the color scheme and the overall style of it, so I ported into a WordPress theme.

Thanks to Jay for the great open-source template!

Some Projects

I have also made Projects page. So far, other than just released Warped, there going to be a WordPress theme “How-to” guide, which I am writing at the moment. It will only be in Japanese, as there are very little resource on themes in Japanese.

I have Vox-ed

Vox, Six Apart‘s new blog/SNS was officially released today. Well, at least in Japan. I assume its worldwide, or even we are late. I just started fiddling. Its all so Ajaxy! Its not fast, but not that slow. I was impressed with the sign-up form. That was neat and clear, with pop-up help.

I haven’t quite decided with what to do with Vox…yet though.

WaviaeVoxed

[note in Japanese : 日本語でのアナウンス]

今日正式版がリリースされたVoxにサイン・アップしました!Voxで何を書くかはまだ決めてません。とりあえず、Ajaxバリバリのインターフェイスで遊んでます。ユーザー登録画面はよかった。シンプルで、気の利いたAjaxなエフェクトでヘルプってのもグッド。

Voxユーザの方、よろしくお願いします~。WaviaeiVoxed

W3C Tenth Anniversary in Asia

W3C’s 10th anniversary symposium is coming to Japan. Speakers include Tim Berners-Lee.

W3C10 Asia is the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of W3C’s Asian host at Keio University in Japan in September 1996. The event will be held on Tuesday, 28 November 2006, at the Hotel Nikko Tokyo, Japan. W3C10 Asia is open to the public, W3C Members, the W3C Team, the international media, and invited speakers and dignitaries. Registration is required for all attendees. There is a small fee for members of the public. W3C10 Asia includes a symposium and exhibition, a press briefing, and a reception. Simultaneous interpretation between English and Japanese will be provided at all symposium sessions.

Something completely different … I just realise how this venue “Hotel Nikko Tokyo” is very confusing when written in English. I first thought its at Nikko, but this “Nikko” is actually “Nihon-kouku” a.k.a Japan Airlines, and its in Tokyo …

Firefox2

So its out. Firefox2. Is it just me, or the rendering of the websites are so much faster. Starting up the application is slightly faster too.

Firefox 2

There are some extensions that are not yet conpatible with Firefox2, but there are quite few which I don’t really use. So this might be a good occasion to clean things up. However, Copy URL+ is an extension I am really missing. I really need that for blogging via Firefox, but it does not work in Firefox2! I just found some solutions here and here [ja]. So I will try that later.

Firefox をダウンロード!!

Oh yeah. I am posting this with Firefox Portable, which is yet to see ver2…

Paris Sydrome

I have heard of this “problem” which some Japanese visiters experience at Paris. Looks like it is now called “Paris Syndrome”

PARIS (Reuters) – Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported Sunday.

“A third of patients get better immediately, a third suffer relapses and the rest have psychoses,” Yousef Mahmoudia, a psychologist at the Hotel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre Dame cathedral, told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

[from “Paris Syndrome” leaves Japanese tourists in shock | Oddly Enough | Reuters.com]

Basically, there is a huge difference in what you expect from Paris, and the reality of Paris. In Japan, we have a very stereotype image of Paris. As this woman says:

A Japanese woman, Aimi, told the paper:

“For us, Paris is a dream city. All the French are beautiful and elegant … And then, when they arrive, the Japanese find the French character is the complete opposite of their own.”

We often call Paris “hana-no-miyako” (The City of Beauty) or “geijutsu-no-miyako” (The City of Arts). I have been to Paris. True in some ways, but that is only the bright side. Like any metropolitan city, there are dark side, often never talked about.

I suppose we have a similar image to the whole country of France, though it didn’t say anything about that in the article.

IE7, Firefox, WordPress

IE7 is out (not yet in Japan). Firefox 2 is out in few days (world wide). Lorelle’s article is a must read for the WordPress users.

Basically, both the wordpress.com and the wordpress.org uses lots of JavaScript and Ajax. Especially now, as there are lot of plugins and quite few themes out there utilises these techniques. These can greatly affect the performance of the browsers, and the performance worsens if it has not been well coded. In particular, the memory usage bit.

YouTube Deletes 29,549 Videos after Japanese Complaints

This news was aired on the main-stream Japanese media as well.

In what must be one of the biggest mass removals of YouTube content, the video sharing site just pulled down 29,549 clips after a demand from a group of Japanese media companies. The group claimed that TV, music and movies had been uploaded without permission from the copyright holders. But as they usually do, YouTube reacted quickly to avoid a potential lawsuit.

It will be interesting to see if more Japanese media reacts to this, and complains.

Your Guide to the Japanese Baseball (1): Introduction

I decided to write few articles to introduce to you the game of baseball in Japan. One of my big interests is sports, both playing and watching. Though often watching it on TV these days. I follow any sports in general, but while in Japan, baseball in particular. I am a big supporter of Hanshin Tigers. So, I thought I might as well write some articles on the state of Japanese baseball.

MLB All-Star team is coming to Japan to play this winter. Probably that will be on air in the States as well (?). May be you want to check out the future MLB prospect? Or, may be interested in Japanese baseball after the WBC.

Anyway, I hope I can last this series of articles. Long enough to catch the attention of those who are interested.

Continue reading

Tokyo trip, Hashi, and Pentax

I have been away for the weekend, since Thursday. Tokyo was the destination, with my career matter as the main mission. However, I knew I was going to have some free time, So I planned and did made visits to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography at Ebisu, and to the Pentax Forum at Shinjuku.

There are three galleries and a small cinema at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, which you got to pay separately to get in. I headed straight to the exhibition gallery at the top floor for the Yasuomi Hashimura Exhibition. I didn’t really know much about him or his work. Just that he works mainly on the commercial photos, at New York, and is more well know as “Hashi“. The photos were great, but for me, his talks were great too. It was just by chance that there was an event on that day. A gallery talk. Some talks on how he started photography, why he went to the US, how he feels about Japan, and on the current and the future of the photographers. We the moved around in the gallery, with him explaning and talking about the photos from the exhibition. I got the autographs too.

Hashi at Shabi

My visit to the Pentax forum was mainly to have a look and touch at their upcoming new digital SLR, K10D. It was gorgeous. I love the feeling of it in my hand. Good grips, and good balance of the weight, I thought.

I was back in Osaka on the same day, and went to the Touch and the Talk Live event at Osaka on the next day. An event where you can hear the interviews and talks on the development of K10D, and how to use it. There were dozens of K10D to fiddle around to, and model shooting and print out using the hot off the production K10D. So I will write about all the K10D stuff on the separate post. If you want to see some photos now, there is a report on dejikame watch.

I also have some other entries kept as draft, that needs to be finished, but I suppose I will put that on hold for a moment.

Movable Type is 5 yeas old, so too is WordPress

Yesterday (8th October) was the 5th Anniversary date of Movable Type. I found this out through various Japanese blogs which are in my RSS reader. Six Apart Japan wrote “lets hear your Movable Type story” article on their site. I couldn’t find a similar news article on US Six Apart, though you can check the news archive from October 2001.

I wrote this, because I just had thought of “how about the WordPress? How old is it?”. I have only been using WordPress for a bit over 10 month or so. I knew that WordPress born out of b2 development, but never knew when. So I looked around at the wordpress.org, and was not hard to find.

It is the official successor of b2/cafelog. WordPress is fresh software, but its roots and development go back to 2001.

Not sure which month, but looks like WordPress and Movable Type has been out and living since 2001. That’s quite interesting. MT is often seen as, well at least in Japan, “the pioneer” of weblog, but the starting time was similar, MT just got the hype and the success first. A bit like “many headed for the new continent, but Columbus got there first”.

Updated the Links page

The links list page, which was left ” inprogres …” for a quite a while, has been updated. Well, not much, but I sorted out some WordPress links. There are some links to Japanese WP users, as well as WordPress Japan site. Chances that you can read Japanese are slim, perhaps, but if you want to check out the Japanese WordPress community, give it a go and click those links. You might get an inspiration or a two … !

リンク集作ってみました

[ja:Just a notice in Japanese]

多言語をやめて英語のみにするとか言ってましたが、日本語でも書いておきます。

以前からほったらかしにしてあったリンク集のページを少し更新。Masayanさんみたいなのに。(て言うかパクリやん!)今のところWP関係のリンクをアップしたのですが、「日本のWPユーザ」ってな感じで幾つかづらづらならんでいます。うちみたいなサイト経由でアクセス倍増なんて事にはならないでしょうが、もし万が一うざい英語スパムが増えた!とか言う事になれば、ご一報ください。削除するなり、対処いたします。