Author: Otto

Enable Firefox spell checking in WordPress 2.1

Important note: This plugin only applies to WordPress 2.1 – 2.1.2. The fix is included in the 2.1.3 source by default, and this plugin will no longer be needed.

Edit: Yes, I’ve just looked at 2.1.3 (which was just released) and this fix is in there. Do not use this plugin with 2.1.3 and up.

Lots of people like the new WordPress 2.1, but I noticed several complaints over on the WordPress support forums about the fact that the Firefox inline spell checking seems to not be working with the new editor.

I investigated, and it turns out to simply be one of the default settings of the version of TinyMCE that is being used. Even though it has a spell check button, some people prefer Firefox’s automatic spell checking. I can understand that, I use it all the time myself.

Fortunately, WordPress includes hooks for changing those TinyMCE settings, so it was a matter of a few minutes to create a plugin to deal with the issue.

Here’s a plugin to do just that. It’s simple to use, just upload to the plugins directory, then activate it in the Plugin panel. No configuration needed, it just turns the Firefox automatic spell checker back on in TinyMCE. Simple.

Download FFSpell

Enjoy!

New Years 2007

Well, I have discovered that my camera phone is not good at night shots. Check the photo album below for evidence.

On a plus note, I had a really good time and got really drunk. Started out the evening meeting everybody at Sleep Out Louie’s, made it over to the Majestic for dinner, then made it back to SOL’s for the final nightcap. You can get the complete story and better pictures over on Paul’s blog.

Quite a good evening all around.

LibertyBowl Parade

So I dropped by the Saucer yesterday, and ran into Mikey and Paul, who were having drinks and going off to the LibertyBowl parade on Beale. Now, I’m not one for sport much, but a parade should be worth seeing, I figured.

Unfortunately, it was one of the more redneck parades I’ve ever seen.

Okay, so there were a lot of fans cheering and shouting things like “game” and “cocks”, but the parade itself was extremely weak. There were the required high school marching bands, and there were people on firetrucks and such, and A. C. Wharton riding around, and that was all cool, but the “floats” were just weak. AutoZone just stuck three big semi’s with the logo on the side in the middle of the parade. FedEx tried even less and just had a standard delivery truck all by itself. Most of the “floats” were basically existing rides or very hastily decorated. It was about what I would expect a parade to look like if it was thrown together in, say, a week. Rather disappointing.

However, I did see Semi-Charmed Kat on the Ride The Ducks truck, throwing out beads and moon pies. Unfortunately, I believe she was deaf at the time and so did not notice me and Paul screaming out “Kat” to get her attention.

I got a couple of rather poor pictures from the parade on my new phone, so I’ll post them later when I get near a Bluetooth enabled PC.

Here’s the shots I took using my new phone:

Manny the Manatee

The news over the last week has been somewhat entertaining around downtown Memphis…

It started out with a couple of fishermen seeing something on Monday in the Wolf River Harbor (slackwater harbor that’s connected to the Mississippi river here downtown). Turned out that it was a manatee.

The TV stations even got it live on video.

So officals cut off boat access to the harbor and called people in Florida to try to figure out WTF to do about it.

On Tuesday, they became concerned about it being too cold for the manatee to survive. Activists got involved and got people from Sea World to come up and check it out.

They got here Wednesday, and became concerned as well. So they decided to attempt a rescue on Thursday morning.

Somewhere along the way, it picked up the rather lame name of “Manny”.

But on Wednesday, the manatee became trapped between a couple of barges, and there was naturally concern all around. They ended up deciding to wait until Thursday anyway.

Then Thursday rolls around, and they can’t find the damn thing.

They tried again this morning, with no luck. Now here it is this afternoon, and they are searching lakes and such nearby, with no success. For four days this giant sucker has been rolling around the harbor, then gives them the slip right when they actually want to find him.

Many of the above links have video links on the bottom left, if you want to watch the news reports.

Hefeweizen goodness

I finally chilled a few liters of the Hefeweizen I made a couple months ago. Had some last night. Even picked up some actual lemons at the supermarket in preparation.

The result: It’s good. Real, real good.

I may have to go buy the brew shop and pick up a bigger fermenter vessel and some actual bottles. It came out very tasty. Just the right amount of flavor and no nasty aftertaste like, say, Paulander Hefeweizen. The amount of hops was just right, the cloudiness was perfect as long as I didn’t pour off the yeast, and I’m sure using the correct type of liquid yeast made some kind of difference. All I know is that it was way, way better than my last attempt at a wheat beer.

In fact, the only Hefe I’ve ever had that beat this homebrew one was the Schalfly Hefeweizen at their brewhouse in St. Louis.

So anyway, I’m probably going to try to perfect this particular beer. If I can find the receipe I used, that is. I’ll probably try to get some base ingredients instead of some of the normal canned stuff like the malt extracts and such, and make it up from scratch. Help me learn the process a bit better.

Mr. Beer Mishap

So I pull out the keg the other day to bottle the Blackberry Brew that I’ve been fermenting for a couple of weeks, and what do I discover? The keg damn near exploded, that’s what.

Like I’ve said in earlier posts, the screw top system seems to have a few drawbacks. For one thing, the level of tightening that you need to use is questionable. I appearantly overtightened the lid, and the result was that the keg was overpressurized. Given that it is a fruit based beer, there’s a lot of fermentation going on, which means a lot of gas released. With it too tight, the gas couldn’t easily escape the keg and the keg was bulging and bent out of shape. Fortunately, it didn’t actually burst, but it was indeed pressurized, as I discovered when removing the lid and hearing the fizzzzzzz sound it made.

The beer was fine and I was able to bottle it easily enough, but the keg is damaged to the point where I really can’t use it any more. It also did some damage to the tap mechanism, which is not surprising considering the quality of the mechanism anyway.

I’ve changed my next club order to get a new keg, along with a 2 liter growler. The keg is only $10, so it’s not a big loss or anything, still, it is a bit annoying. I think I’ll keep using the Mr. Beer keg for smaller batches, but I’m definitely going to go buy a more sturdy fermenting vessel and make some larger batches as well. I’ll probably only continue to use the Mr. Beer for experimentation purposes, since I do find that an 8 liter batch is darn near perfect in terms of speed. You can have a decent beer made from start to finish in a month with that quantity, whereas the next bigger size (5 gallons) would take at least 3 months or so.

All in all, given the quality of the keg in such circumstances, and the non-dishwasher safeness of it, I can only recommend the Mr. Beer setup for a) people new to home-brewing and wanting to learn easily, and b) people wanting an easy way to quickly experiment with new brews and styles. The lack of a proper airlock with a ball valve (to prevent contamination) just makes the Mr. Beer keg suitable only for very short fermentation times. 2 weeks, maximum.

Just be sure not to overtighten the lid.

Word from the scene

Okay, so I go out tonight mainly to fuel my hunger and thirst. While I have plenty of stash packed away to fuel the thirst, I’m sadly low on foodstuffs. It’s been an interesting couple hours.

First, I head over to Wang’s. I’d just like to state, for the record, that this is the best named Chinese place, ever. Forget the play on word places, Wang’s doesn’t mess around when it comes to suggestive names. Wang’s.

Wang’s is right up the street, less than a block away. They used to be over at #1 Beale, but that old building got demolished (nobody seems to really know why), and now they’re over at the corner of Main and Gayoso. They’ve been there for a few months, I’ve just been too lazy to stop by. And I must say, their new digs? NICE. They have possibly the best stage I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. I may drop back over in an hour or so to hear whatever band is playing, because they did not skimp one bit on the sound system, or the stage. It’s huge, takes up like a quarter of the place, and looks like they could put on one hell of a show.

Anyway, I get some chinese food and a couple of chinese beers, and notice that the place is practically empty. This naturally concerns me, because I like the places around here to do well. Doing well means they stick around which means more fun for me, because I ain’t leaving anytime soon.

So I finish my meal, pay the extremely reasonable tab, and head over to Sleep Out Louie’s, or as Paul calls it, the Union Avenue Branch Office. They have a couple playing in there that I had not heard before. Pam and Terry or some such thing. I cannot recall. In any case, they’re pretty good. I listen to them a while, while playing some NTN Trivia and drinking mixed drinks, since I’m not quite trusting their beer dispenser system yet. Seriously, I love Louie’s, and I make it a point to go every Sunday morning if possible, but the beer taps need a major overhaul. First they had to clean the lines, then the fridges went out so it was warm. And IMO, it was never really cold to begin with. Still, they have very cheap liqour, so I tend to stick to the mixed drinks and we get along just fine.

In any case, Louie’s is dead too. There’s like three tables full, and nobody at the bar, and this is unusual for 7:30 on a Saturday. So I pay my cheap tab, and head to the Flying Saucer, (aka Paul’s Second Avenue Branch Office). And they’re practically empty too!

I have one beer, then ask around, and appearantly there’s not only a baseball game going on tonight, but some kind of concert. Looking around the intarweb, appearanly Widespread Panic played last night and is playing again tonight. I had no idea. That’s what I get for working hard all week and not paying attention. Not that I’d go and see them, but still, I like to be in the loop on this sort of thing.

So here I am at home, enjoying a Red Bull and Ketel, and typing this worthless drivel. Oh well. With any luck, Mandy will stop by later in the week on her way to NC, although I am doubtful at this stage. It’s kinda out of her way and all. Yes, this is a blatent attempt to guilt Mandy into showing up anyway. )

Enjoy the links.

css.php