Posts of a more personal nature.
I disabled Disqus commenting on my site. As it stands now, it just doesn’t integrate fully enough into WordPress for me to be happy with it. I’ll see if I can migrate the handful of comments over to be on my site within the next day or so. I think Disqus has a lot of potential, but I just can’t get used to having it here.
Update: I’ve re-enabled Disqus for the time being. Having trackbacks is a welcome addition.
Derek Powazek’s article “It’s 2008. I can’t believe we haven’t figured this out.” spoke loudly to me. I’m tired of content scrapers. I’ve had articles stolen, simply because they covered popular subjects I’m still offering full text in my feed, but for Derek, that’s no longer an option. The problem with splogs and spam in general is that as long as there are people stupid enough to click on links on their site on it their emails, they empower their creators more and more.
This has got to stop. Just because someone offers an RSS/Atom feed, doesn’t mean others have the right to repurpose that content any way they see fit. It’s one thing for someone to read a feed through Google Reader or some other feedreader, it’s another to take syndicated feeds, repurpose them and monetize off of content THEY DIDN’T CREATE.
There is a plugin called AntiLeech available for WordPress that ought to help curb some of the theft from occuring. Maybe it’ll help, but it won’t eliminate the problem.
I’ve been toiling over the idea of integrating DISQUS into my site to provide a better way to allow site visitors to comment. I’m not sure how it’s going to work out, so consider this an experiment for now.
The idea behind Disqus is that commenting becomes more interactive for readers of this site and others. By using Disqus I’m attempting to make this site more a conversation as opposed to the usual: I post something, you read, you think about posting a comment and then talk yourself out of it. That’s not to say it won’t still be that way, but I digress.
Older posts won’t be affected. If comments exist on an older post, and the discussion is still open, those comments will still use the standard WordPress commenting system. New posts and those with no comments, where commenting is still open, will utilize Disqus.
If you hate the new system, let me know. It’s not going to hurt my feelings one bit. But if you dig it, I encourage you to sign-up for Disqus as well. You can friend me on Disqus by going to: disqus.com/people/cdharrison.
Now, let’s get this conversation started, shall we?
I made some minor changes to the site this morning. Notably, the site is no longer 640px wide. I opted to increase the overall width to 960px so that I could add a sidebar. As I develop this iteration out further, the reason I added the sidebar will be more apparent. I have done no browser testing as of yet. I would be surprised if the site wasn’t broken, but don’t fret… change is coming. I appreciate your patience.
Today’s almost over, but since I was asked about it… Today (April 9th) is CSS Naked Day. This is the second year I’ve participated. To know more about why styles are disabled on this website visit the
Annual CSS Naked Day website for more information. (I’d write more… but I’m on vacation right now.)
Let the Viddler lovefest continue, I say! I’ve just incorporated Viddler video comments into my site, so if you’d like to respond visually instead of typing out a response, feel free. (Or you can do both.)
My son trips me out sometimes. Here he can be found “singing” along with “Flow Rida”. As a side note, this is my first time uploading something to Viddler. It’s a great service that’s really innovative! when it comes to video tagging, commenting, and more.
A recent editorial in the latest issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry entitled “Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction” posits that Internet Addiction should be treated as a Mental Disorder. I’m inclined to agree.
Internet addiction appears to be a common disorder that merits inclusion in DSM-V. Conceptually, the diagnosis is a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder that involves online and/or offline computer usage (1, 2) and consists of at least three subtypes: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations, and e-mail/text messaging (3). All of the variants share the following four components: 1) excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives, 2) withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible, 3) tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use, and 4) negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue (3, 4).
I’m getting closer to being finished with this iteration of the site. The cool thing is that I am using this theme to power our company blog, so all of the changes I make here benefit it as well.
A few things are still lingering out there…
I started a live design a week or so ago, but wasn’t happy with where it was going. That’s why – if you’re visiting the site, and not reading this via RSS – there’s a new design. It’s not quite there yet, but it’s a lot better than what I previously had. The header image comes from the new Ghosts I-IV album by Nine Inch Nails. (If you haven’t bought a copy of it yet, it’s quite good.)
(As of right now, the site probably looks best in Safari, but I’m working to improve compatibility with other browsers. CSS stuff like text-shadow is only going to be available in the most modern browsers that support it, though.)