Recently in Old Us [Here] posts Category

with blogrolling getting hacked the other day, it motivated me to put something in motion here that I've wanted to do for a long time, I'd had it bookmarked for a while, but was worried I would fubar my MT install, or that it was beyond my abilities...
thankfully, I was wrong *s*
I used a combination of several tutorials...which I will combine here for you to use, and in case I ever have to do it again :smile
as usual, change the items in bold

• first of course, is to download mt-list and mt-rssfeed and extract the files
• open the mt-rssfeed.pl file in whatever text editor you use, you will (probably) need to edit this line # my $RSSFEED_DATA_DIR = "./db/"; to something like my $RSSFEED_DATA_DIR = "/home/redeagl/public_html/mt/db/"; if you are using a mysql install, you will need to add a 'db' folder in your MT instilation...if not, you will probably want to not have this in the same db folder that the rest of your MT uses. (ps, don't forget to uncomment the beginning of the line)
• upload mt-list and mt-rssfeed into your plugins folder in MT
• upload LP.pm (with the mt-rssfeed download) into yourMTdir/extlib/XML/RSS, if you don't have this folder, create it using this path.
• in MT, create a new index template, (I'm using the same layout as my main page) in the 'body' part insert this code

  <MTList name="feeds"> <$MTInclude module="feeds"$> </MTList>

  <MTListLoop name="feeds">
  <MTRSSFeed>
  <a href="<$MTRSSFeedLink$>"><$MTRSSFeedTitle$></a><br/>   <MTRSSFeedItems lastn="2">
    *<a href="<$MTRSSFeedItemLink$>"><$MTRSSFeedItemTitle$></a><br/>
  </MTRSSFeedItems>
  </MTRSSFeed>
  </MTListLoop>
  Syndicated using <a href="http://www.mplode.com/tima/files/mt-plugins/#mt-rssfeed";>mt-rssfeed</a>
  

  
  now you will notice, this uses a module, if you don't wish to use a module where
  <$MTInclude module="feeds"$>
  is, simply replace with the .xml url
  

  example:
  <MTList name="feeds">
  http://www.redeaglespirit.com/us_here/index.xml
  http://www.redeaglespirit.com/album/index.xml
  http://justjet.redeaglespirit.com/JJ/index.xml
  http://justjet.redeaglespirit.com/speedbump/index.xml
  http://www.redeaglespirit.com/lifesongs/index.xml
  http://arrrgh.redeaglespirit.com/index.xml
  http://tbone.redeaglespirit.com/index.xml
  http://homeslice.redeaglespirit.com/index.xml
  http://justjet.redeaglespirit.com/album/index.xml
  </MTList>
  <MTListLoop name="feeds">
  <MTRSSFeed>
  <a href="<$MTRSSFeedLink$>"><$MTRSSFeedTitle$></a><br/>
  <MTRSSFeedItems lastn="1">
    *<a href="<$MTRSSFeedItemLink$>"><$MTRSSFeedItemTitle$></a><br/>
  </MTRSSFeedItems>
  </MTRSSFeed>
  </MTListLoop>
  <p>Syndicated using <a href="http://www.mplode.com/tima/files/mt-plugins/#mt-rssfeed">mt-rssfeed</a></p>
  

  
  

this is exactly the way I've got it set up on my site, the tutorial I used also gave instructions how to do it with part of the post included, I didn't want to have all that in mine...your miliage may vary :smile
the last thing I did was set up a cron job, so it would rebuild every hour and let me see when someone has posted (which was my main purpose for having blogrolling!)
/usr/bin/prl /home/redeagl/public_html/mt/mt-rebuild.pl -mode=all -blog_id=1
obviously you will have to change the blog id, and your path to Perl if different, and absolute path...if your server allows cron jobs (my old one did not!) which if this is the case with you, manual rebuild is the way you will have to go :sad

last but not least, if you need any help let me know *s* if I can, I'd be happy to!!
have fun!

I figured out the coolest thing the other day!
Using the 'otherblog' plugin on this blog has been nice, but in order for the most current comments from the other sites to show up, I've had to go in and manually rebuild the site...
not anymore!
While surfing around the other day I found this over at mt-plugins site. Basically how I did it, is upload the files to my mt directory, and add a Cron job to run (I didn't even edit the file!!)
The Cron that works for my server is
/usr/bin/perl /home/username/public_html/mt/mt-rebuild.pl -mode=all -blog_id=#

replacing the 'username' with your username, and the # with what the blog number is you're wanting this to work on.
Also remember, if you have MT in your cgi-bin, that will need to go between public_html and mt (or whatever the path is on your particular server for MT)
And now, with no assistance from me...it updates all on it's own *S*

Download mt-rebuild files here.

For those of us running a Microsoft network... one of the neatest tools to run across is a FREE Syslog server. Yes, I know... *nix has it already built in... So what? So KIWI.

KIWI Syslog Daemon is a FREE Syslog server. Okay. Some windows-admins are scratching their heads. What about the Event Viewer? Isn't everything there? No, it's not all there. Which Event Viewer records the information from your switches and routers? None. That information goes to a syslog server. Oh...you don't have one on Windows... So you need this little proggie.

Also to look at:
If you go to the Microsoft site... you can find information about the Windows 2000 Resource Kit tools. The Resource Kit originally sold for $300.... but, now it's down to only $200.

I have had the luck/fortune to have this provided at a few of the networks I've managed/administered. The books are good. Use them to study. You'll see many of the obtuse questions from the exams in the footnotes of these books. I don't think I know a single person who has ever read the whole kit. But, it's a lofty goal nonetheless... ; )

The tools on the CD are indispensible. Well...some of them I couldn't give two hoots about. Others are a necessity. Here's a list of the tools included (and a short description). For those less fortunate... Here's a list of the FREE tools from the kit.

Just some more things to fill your toolbox! Happy downloading...

You can never have enough tools in your toolbox. Building a software toolbox is as essential to computer geeks as a huge metal toolbox is to a mechanic. No matter what you do, there's some little proggie somewhere that can help you do it easier, better, more efficiently, or just with more style...

Style is a very important part of being a puter geek. It separates the Neos from the Neophytes... ;)

Anyway...if you configure routers and switches, you know what a PITA the command line telnet can be. Oh...and try to copy and paste. What a waste of time and clicks. It makes a hard task even more difficult. So what's a geek to do?

Use PuTTY.

PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. It is written and maintained primarily by Simon Tatham.

You can download PuTTY from Simon's site or take a trip through Tucows.

With PuTTY, you can telnet. You can SSH. You can configure which port you want to use. You can LOG YOUR SESSION. This comes in verrrrrry handy. Do a "show run" and log it. Then log off the router -- analyze it OFFLINE. Or use the log to capture your access-list. It'll be easier to copy and paste out of the PuTTY log file than try to copy and paste from that Spartan command prompt window.

It's cool. It's easy to learn. And it's got STYLE....

Oh. And you should take a trip to Tucows anyway. It's an awesome download site. No matter what you want to do, you can find some kind of software for it at Tucows. They have a ton of FREEWARE, mucho SHAREWARE, and bunches of demo versions of regular software. Need a file splitter? They have several. An email client? They have a looooong list. Go. You'll see. But, don't blame me if you fall into a time sink.... ;)

I run Win2k at home, after having ME for about a year and a half or so (no rotten tomatoes please!)
The feature I liked most about ME was the image viewer it had, 2000 does not (that I have found) so is constantly taking over my browser window to open an image in...which was driving me nuts when I wasn't finished with what I was working on!!
So today, I found a neat little program that works across all platforms, that does the same thing and more...opens in a little pop-up window, you can email and ftp from this window, open it in an image slicer, and an optional feature is the 'right click' menu...right click on the image and it gives you a preview and image size right there (handy when coding pages by hand, like I do).
best of all, its FREE!
http://www.coffeecup.com/freestuff/ and download the 'CoffeeCup Free Viewer Plus'

Another cool program that I have found, is Trillian...it does have a free version, I'm not certain if they've got the patch to unblock yahoo yet (they are working on it however) but Trillian Pro is definitely worth the $25.00 you pay for it...you can access icq, yahoo, msn, AOL, and irc (I don't use irc so can't tell you much about how it works with that) setting preferences for each program is a snap, and it will even tell you when you have email with yahoo, msn and AOL (just like the stand alone programs!)

The last one today, is one I've used for ages, and it's recently been improved.
The google tool-bar has added a pop-up blocker!! The nice thing about this one is it won't prevent pages from opening in a new window like so many of them will...you can search the web or the page you're on right there...and if you're into that sort of thing, can see the 'page ranking' of the page you're on also...very customizable, and easy to set up...and if you're using blogger (and I'm sorry if you are *s*) you can even blog from it!

**note: no, I'm not getting paid to promote any of these programs, they just happen to be some I use and think are useful so I wanted to share them with you :smile **

For some time I've noticed a problem in some comment boxes, perhaps some of you have run into this also.
In the newer versions of MT, if someone leaves their url when commenting, and you try to click on it, it will open in the same window, which most times cannot be resized, and if you're like me, it's very frustrating! I don't remember the older versions being like this (but I've slept since then *s*)
Anyway, to fix it, open up the 'comment listing template'
under the 'stylesheet' link, place this line

<base target="_blank">

save, rebuild, etc...

**UPDATE: I realized, that you have to also put in target="_self" (or when you post a comment it will also open in a new window) on the line that looks like this

<form method="post" action="<$MTCGIPath$><$MTCommentScript$>" name="comments_form" onsubmit="if (this.bakecookie[0].checked) rememberMe(this)">

should look like this

<form method="post" action="<$MTCGIPath$><$MTCommentScript$>" name="comments_form" onsubmit="if (this.bakecookie[0].checked) rememberMe(this)" target="_self">

this post was brought to you because I needed a place to keep this tip *s*

So I was playing around with this some more, I wanted to have it link to the entry the comment was made on, etc...but wasn't sure if it would work correctly.
But it does!! So thought I would share again :-)

<MTOtherBlog blog_id="1,6">
<h2><$MTBlogName$></h2>
<MTComments lastn="2">
<a href="<$MTBlogURL$>archives/
<$MTCommentEntryID pad="1"$>.html">
<$MTCommentDate format="%m.%d.%y"$></a>
<$MTCommentAuthorLink spam_protect="1"$>:
<$MTCommentBody trim_to="50" convert_breaks="0"$>...
[<a href="<$MTBlogURL$>archives/
<$MTCommentEntryID pad="1"$>.html">more</a>]<br/><br/>
</MTComments>
</MTOtherBlog>

again, bolded items can be changed: blog id numbers, how big you want the header, how many to show, whatever your archive folder name is, your file extension (php, shtml, html, htm, etc...) how long you want the comment to be. The date format can also be changed.
Have fun!

So I was searching high and low for a script or plugin that would let me pull in comments from another blog on the same MT installation, but it seemed every one I tried gave me a lovely 500 error before I got a chance to test it out, or required me to have a MySql database, and I'm happy running Berkley DB.
I did find a plugin that would let me pull in posts from another blog (called Otherblog) that worked with my configuration, so I sat and figured out how to modify it to work with comments instead of posts.
Much to my surprise, it worked! So, I thought what better way to get this blog restarted with a bang.
You will need the Otherblog plugin, installed in your plugins folder (you might have to create this) where MT is installed, then place this code in your template where you want it to show up:

<MTOtherBlog blog_id="1,6">
<h2><$MTBlogName$></h2>
<MTComments lastn="2">
<$MTCommentAuthor$> said:<br />
<$MTCommentBody trim_to="75"$><br />
</MTComments>
</MTOtherBlog>

The bolded numbers can be changed, obviously the blog_id would be changed to the id of your blog you want to pull the comments off of, and you can do this with more than one.
The lastn="" can be set to however many comments you want to show.
The trim_to can be set to however many characters you want to pull in, or can be removed to show the entire comment.

Its very basic, but it works! Play around with it and see what you can get it to do.