A lot has already been written about URL/URI design, the new WordPress 3.0 enhance support for Custom Posts and Custom Taxonomies so I leave it to the reader to "Google-Upon" it to find out out more about it.

The new WordPress additions bring WordPress a step closer to a real CMS system. A step closer since it will bring many new WordPress applications enabled by these new options but it also makes it apparent that it is really in the core a system for building weblogs.

In CMS systems very roughly spoken we have something called nodes which is a very generic "thing" often tied to a unique URL. So /animal/goat is the node about a goat.

To be honest I’m currently totally LOST with regards to the architecture behind WordPress with these new custom posts and taxonomies enhancements.

I just take a little outtake on what’s now present:

So… the core thing I don’t understand:

- why is there the difference made in all these types of content while they could have just become the same thing.

In the example above you can decide to make a custom taxonomy for movies e.g. if you write 100 posts about startrek1 an 100 posts about startrek 2 you could make a term "movie" and a taxonomy "startrek1" and "startrek2" to label your posts with. When you then type /movie/startrek1 you get all posts about startrek1. Sadly when you type /movie you do not get all posts where you used a taxonomy related to that term.

In the example above you can also decide to make a custom post type "movie" you can then write a custom post of type movie called "startrek 1" and the benefit is that with /movie/startrek1 you have unique url to your startrek1 postingS(!) and with /movie you get all your movie posts. Nice for url hacking.

In the example above you can also decide to make a custom field "movie" to tie to your e.g. blogpostings. So you write a post about startrek1 and then fill you custom field "movie" with "startrek1". In this case you do not get any url support…

Is there any difference here what you try to achieve from the point of the social graph/urls? Nope.

Reading through the forums you can now e.g. also see questions about comments. When you tie in buddypress you even could say that /movie/startrek1 could involve your forum or group you wanted on that page.

In short: both in the database storage and is the url representation of "objects" and/or "taxonomies" and/or "whatever" I don’t understand which way all of this is heading.

Because in my viewpoint all of this is much simpler when I look at it from the viewpoint of a url (and url hacking). An endpoint of a url is simply a node, whatever on that node is. It "represents" something that could just as well be the "term".

I think that (custom) fields, (custom) posts, (custom) taxonomies are all of the same. If I would be a facebook person I would say that /movie/startrek1 is an endpoint for everything around that movie. What I would want is say /contact/edward.de.leau is the node for "me". and /contact/edward.de.leau/addresses shows then all my addresses. While /address/mystreet_63_amsterdam shows my address and /address/mystreet_63_amsterdam/contacts shows all persons living on that address.

I would expect not only url handling doing this (so everything is clickable) but also the database structure underneath e.g.:

And If I would become even more madder I could even go as far as to say:

Taxonomies versus Custom Post Types example 1

Suppose you have –whatever- relational database (just pick one) and you want to represent the records as custom-post-types of type <table_name>. No problem. Just loop through the list of tables and add them as custom post types (register_post_type(‘<table name>’,$args);). The fields of the records then become custom fields which you attach to this custom post type via e.g. a nice meta box on the right hand side.

So /wp_term_relationships/record_1 would display the contents of that first record another one would be /wp_posts/recorcd_23

The problem is now how you are going to represent the relations between the tables (hence relational database). What you want to indicate is e.g. that with 1 record within a table there are 3 related records in another table e.g. wp_term_relationship –> wp_posts. A nice thing is that /wp_term_relationships shows all records of that table.

Laying the relation now is more difficult since you can not lay relations out of the box. You have two choices here. Since we have two relations outgoing out of the custom posts types either via custom fields or via a custom taxonomy.

1. via custom fields you would have to code a custom field that does a query on all custom post types of a certain record and then pick the ones that are related. In the gui you then would have to make them links to the correct custom post type object of the related item.

2. via a custom taxonomy you could create a custom taxonomy per record e.g. wp_term_relationship_record_1 and then "tag" the records that are related with this custom taxonomy.

In terms of work it is the same: you have to go to the specific record and then click either the custom field relations or click the custom taxonomy entries.

The advantage of the taxonomy direction is that it becomes a hyperlink and brings you to a record 1 page where it shows all related records. Unfortunately this is not the custom post record 1 page, so you have to code something for every entry to show to custom post on top (or something likewise).

The advantage of the custom fields is that the items will be more or less more easier to select via your own written selection system. The disadvantage is that they will not be clickable in the gui. So you will have to write that link to the custom post type object yourself AND you will have to add a loop on there yourself showing all related records.

So in this example:

/wp_posts/  : shows all records out of the box IF using custom fields otherwise shows nothing if using taxonomy
/wp_posts/record23 : shows the record23 posting but the related records you will have to add yourself (when using custom fields) or visa versa: shows all related records but not the custom post object of record 23 itself (when using custom taxonomy).

I don’t know yet which is the easiest way.

One in-the-middle-solution could be to also "tag" the initial record with the custom taxonomy of the relation and then define that one to be "sticky" so that it appears on top and when coding against it so you know which one is the "from" and which ones are the "to".

Ik ben gek op de online archieven van kranten, tijdschriften e.d. Vandaag las ik over http://kranten.kb.nl :1 millioen pagina’s online en … genoeg voer voor mij om er de komende maanden in rond te dwalen. Natuurlijk als eerste op zoek naar wat bekende nieuwsfeiten maar ook eens gewoon "de leau" ingetypt en dan komt er toch nog redelijk veel terug in de zoekresultaten, onder meer resultaten als hierbeneden.

Vooral ook advertenties zetten goed een tijdsbeeld neer.

Maar daarnaast gewoon het rondsurfen zelf en gewoon de echte geschiedenis over je heen laten komen zonder dat deze samengevat is in een geschiedenisboek is een waar genot, klik, random, uit de krant van 1808. Vooral de gedetailleerde berichtgevingen over wat er zoals gebeurde van dag tot dag rond de tijd van Napoleon is een eye opener het brengt het allemaal zoveel dichterbij. Je wordt veel meer op de feiten gedrukt over wat er van dag tot dag gebeurde en hoe veel meer complexer de wereld was dan simpelweg samengevat in een alinea.

Het werkt mooi als je in wikipedia iets aan het lezen bent, laten we zeggen de pagina over Willem 1 :

Je leest dan dat op 25 augustus 1830 een opera opvoering in Brussel uiteindelijk leidde tot een onafhankelijk Belgie. Je zoekt dan onder geavanceerd:

en kunt dan in allerlei kranten rustig, alsof het event zich vandaag afspeelt en je er middenin zit, de gebeurtenissen van dag tot dag volgen. De eerste paragraaf verwijst waarschijnijk naar de Telegraaf van die tijd *grin*

fantastisch naslagwerk en waarschijnlijk een site die ik wekelijks ga napluizen over het het nou ECHT zat. Want daar zit hem ergens de meerwaarde van dit archief. Je komt heel vaak interpretaties en samenvattingen van gebeurtenissen tegen vanuit een bepaalde optiek, maar juist dit soort bronnen brengen je vrij dicht tegen "het complete verhaal aan" wat veel vaker een niet zo simpele one-liner is maar een complex geheel van gebeurtenissen en meningen die een bepaalde kant opgaan en die soms bepaalde patterns vormen die je veel vaker tegenkomt. (fans van Hari Seldon weten over welke ultieme droom ik het heb)

En dat brengt me ook opeens op de gedachte vanuit hoeveel wikipedia pagina’s 1 specifieke kranten pagina wel niet gelinked zou kunnen worden (per woord, per geschiedkundig feit, per persoon, enz…) , laat staan 1.000.000.

dus… het zou mooi zijn als de KB ons collectief deze pagina’s zou laten annoteren met tags of andere taxonomieen. Gewoon simpelweg een tagbox eronder, dat opent dan weer mogelijkheden voor auto-linking op basis van thema’s en integratie met "alles is gelinked met alles".

Wat we daarna kunnen doen is op basis van die gelinkte informatie proberen om patterns te kunnen auto detecteren zodat we wellicht geschiedenis meer op mathematische manier kunnen benaderen.

Het idee daarachter is dat we nog niet echt snappen hoe 1 mens werkt maar… we door middel van psychologie, cognitie wetenschappen e.d. wel tot een bepaalde percentage van begrip kunnen komen.

Groups dynamica e.d. beschrijft patronen over hoe dan groepen van mensen bepaald gedrag vertonen en natuurlijk is dat verder scalable langs andere wetenschappen inclusief de invloed van cultuur en tijdsinvloeden (als die al niet te generalizern zijn en als het ware uit de equation te filteren zijn).

Als we geschiedkundige patronen kunnen matchen met features en patronen gevonden hebben in gedragswetenschappen dan moeten we volgens mij een eind kunnen komen in een nieuw te vormen wetenschap. en hoeven we niet te wachten tot 12.000 GE tot een meneer Seldon dat voor ons uitwerkt.

Ik heb ooit gevraagd aan een "geschiedenis prof" of het ooit mogelijk zou zijn om geschiedenis "mathematisch" te benaderen d.m.v. pattern based behavior recognition … hey…

Hey…. i´m the first person in the world mentioning pattern based behavior recognition! (PBBR) !

Cool… I have a new hobby: the science of pattern based behavior recognition, which university offers me a life-time job?

Basically it is cognitive science (which already is a multi-disciplinary science) with the addition of history. So that you don’t need to create models / do tests / experiments but do pure feature detection on historical records and verify the outcome with behavior already happened. So if a group of people in a certain condition always behaves in a certain way we could verify that with historical records. The goal is to automate these detections and not longer have historians perform "parallel behavior search and write article about it".

It also allows influencing of groups of people on a massive scale by just fine tuning some parameters and has probably overlap on a higher level with the science behind politics and marketing although it takes a more holistic approach.

(while typing this I read Is marketing science? really interesting read)

Ok… LOST is over… now what are we going to do in our life?

Hmm… maybe i should close http://edward.de.leau.net/about/lost with a more elaborate final piece on LOST…

There are about 10 applications out there which I use A LOT. One of them is Windows Live Writer, the blogging tool from Microsoft. There haven’t been updates for some time though.

Today I got a message that a new version is available:

Hurrah! However… when I click for more information I end up at a blog which seems to be "not updated" anymore since 2009. It also seems to be very hard to get any information on the release notes or "what’s new" in it.

What actually happened to WLW? Did Microsoft abandon it?

When I download the installer it tells me an error occurred and I need to download the installable download, it’s 135 Mb, so let’s see if it has any other version number. Currently I am running:

The installable is from 24-05-2010 but that is probably because it takes the date of download, let’s check what’s in it.

The first thing I notice is that there IS a new copyright statement dated March 2010. I know I should read all of it but it is simply too long to go through. I bet there are quite a lot of websites which have the manpower to go through each and every change and make a nice story about it but uh… i don’t.

I just read quickly through it and well… I agree. I understand there is no warranty and I should not spam. I understand that they want to auto update it.

There is a lot to install but I don’t want messenger (I never message), I don’t want mail (unless it syncs contacts with my PocketPC and hotmail account, need to dive into this), I don’t want photo gallery since i use my own photo app, I dont want the toolbar since I have already one million toolbars cluttering my browser, I don’t want family safety since I dont know what it is, I don’t want Microsoft office live add-in since I use mainly Symphony.

It is however nice to see the complete subset of live offerings and it is nice to see the components that are also installed with it since it is a checklist of things I have to dive into when I have time.  It now needs 25,7Mb for installation which ok.

ow… I now need to close WLW to continue with the installation… so Let’s close this and then continue my post…

… continue … unfortunately… : the copy right says 2009 ….

And as you can see… I DO actually have a newer build…but still version 14 and not 15 …. and I now have "en" instead of "nl"… oops.

Let’s check if this project is still alive…

http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=WL_Writerv3&querytype=keyword&query=qaf
the help does not give a link to release notes

http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/
the help points to the developer team link but that just links to the blog on which no new updates have appeared since july 2009.

On the forums: http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/writerbeta/thread/5a771be8-e28e-4c55-b9f5-1d9e6bde95d7 I read something about "Windows Live Wave 4" … hmm… never heard of it. Let’s do some search on this.

Hey… now I find the http://www.live-writer.net/  windows live writer weblog with also some news on Windows Live Wave 4.

Some differences on the upcoming version and this version: http://www.lehsys.com/2010/02/windows-live-writer-2010-just-minor-updates/

and some screenshots: http://www.live-writer.net/2010/02/21/new-wlw-wave4-screenshots/

Ah … well… let’s wait some more

Google celebrates the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man with a very nice logo. The web is all over it.

The logo was created by Marcin Wichary who’s dad was … an arcade game and pinball technician.

If you press "insert coin / geld inwerpen" you get a multi player option with ms. Pac-Man.

Pac-Man was created by Tōru Iwatani , programmer Shigeo Funaki and Toshio Kai for the sound and music in 1980. (If you have an X-Box 360 you probably know that Tōru Iwatani also designed the Pac-Man Championship Edition in 2007). The original concept was to keep it as simple as possible and to try to make more women play games.

Tōru Iwatani did not get any benefit from creating Pac-Man, no salary increase, no bonus since he was just an empoyee of Namco. Nowadays he teaches at Tokyo Polytechnic University.

Perfect play

A perfect Pac-Man game occurs when the player achieves the maximum possible score on the first 255 levels (by eating every possible dot, energizer, fruit, and monster) without losing a single life then scoring as many points as possible in the last level. As verified by the Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard on July 3, 1999, the first person to achieve the maximum possible score (3,333,360 points) was Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida, who performed the feat in about six hours.

In September 2009, David Race of Beavercreek, Ohio, became the sixth person to achieve a perfect score. His time of 3 hours, 41 minutes, and 22 seconds set a new record for the fastest time that a perfect score had been reached.

In December 1982, an 8-year-old boy, Jeffrey R. Yee, supposedly received a letter from U.S. President Ronald Reagan congratulating him on a worldwide record of 6,131,940 points, a score only possible if the player has passed the Split-Screen Level. Whether or not this event happened as described has remained in heated debate among video-game circles since its supposed occurrence. In September 1983, Walter Day, chief scorekeeper at Twin Galaxies, took the US National Video Game Team on a tour of the East Coast to visit video game players who claimed they could get through the Split-Screen. No video game player could demonstrate this ability. In 1999, Billy Mitchell offered $100,000 to anyone who could provably pass through the Split-Screen Level before January 1, 2000; the prize went unclaimed

I like Brad Pitt!

Ik ben al weer een tijdje lid van het humanistisch verbond. Vandaag zag ik een mail langskomen met daarin een vrij fraai uitgewerkte politieke stemwijzer.

Interesting. Je kunt dan op een van van de standpunten doorklikken (die zich dan uitvouwt) en meer standpunten zien.

Als je op een van de standpunten klikt krijg je weer iets meer diepgang.

Ik vond vooral ook de rode kruisjes interessant. Of ik het nou zelf met alle standpunten van de Humanistische Alliantie eens ben is een 2e vraag. Ik ben het met punt 15.2 bijvoorbeeld pertinent oneens. Ik zal er later eens in detail een blogpostje aan wagen.

Grappig: De enige twee partijen die claimen zich te baseren op de joods-christelijke en humanistische traditie scoren zeer slecht op de humanistische politieke meetlat. De meest humanistische partijen zijn GroenLinks en D66.

I’m a hard-liner Atheist but I must admit these unfortunate slightly brainwashed fellow humans yet-to-make-the-jump-to-the-21st-century-and-update-science-progress-in-the-brains DO make some funny songs, I liked this one:

Somehow, don’t know why it made me think of:

after after some surfing I came again to

groetjes aan Geert.

Ach….. zie ik nu pas dat de Pasar Malam morgen begint…. eens even kijken of ik nog iets kan regelen voor dit weekend of deze week.

Ook maar eens even door de muziek gelopen op de weblog.

Twitter follow: http://twitter.com/tongtongfair/ , ook handig als je elkaar kwijt bent

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I saw on the Dutch television "our friend Putin".

I think everyone should see that documentary.

It’s absolutely horrific what’s going on there. It’s mind dazzling that the Netherlands is currently negotiating with a country we should not deal anything with in the current state of affairs. We are weak, smiling at some Euro’s to gain with a fascists government where no law is in place and only the right of the strongest counts.

If there is any political party out there who has this on his agenda: stop any deals with Russia and make it clear to the public what’s going on and then you have my vote.

I think it’s best to watch the documentary to have your mouth just fall open of what is currently happening and how we, the Netherlands, are preferring oil and Euro’s over human rights and law. I can only hope that we secretly are planning in a much wider Western international secret gathering the downfall of this fascist. Life must be hard up there on the Gorilla Hill.

I hope Balkenende has a secret plan and that giving away 50% of our shares from Shell is part of a complex judo move and not… the complete plan……

I would want to urge anyone reading this with influence in this small country to only further have any contact with Russia after at least Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been released.

I joined the facebook community:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Khodorkovsky-Lebedev-Communications-Center/322308540036

You can read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khodorkovsky

In short: he was once the wealthiest man in Russia. When Putin came to power most oil businessman fled but he stayed. He was pro democratic party’s. After Putin seized all other oil companies in a pure dictatorship style he put them under control of himself via a circle of friends and he arrested Khodorkovsky and simply put him in jail, took his complete company and gave it to a friend who is currently running the profits from it. Khodorkovsky is still under arrest (since October 25, 2003).

It is absolutely unbelievable that you can just take whatever you want and even simply put the wealthiest man in Russia in jail and take away his complete company and well.. take it… unbelievable? Well… in the documentary there are more examples of unbelievable things happening over there. I hope no one invests any money in there.

Unbelievable?

Not if your country is under control of the Anti Christ. 

I’ve read Planet of the Apes and I agree with Pierre Boulle no matter at what stage in history or whatever form of government you look there will always be the Gorilla’s who are in charge battling it out under themselves on the Gorilla Hill who is the biggest Gorilla. The rest of us are chimps and orang utans.

Fine. I can live with that. Apparently for the past 35.000 years we somehow are organized like that in a very natural way. Good.

What is not good, even in nature, if one of the Gorilla’s takes it a step too far. This Gorilla and the little hill under him has taken it a step too far. While I am a chimp I’m looking for an orang utan who can convey this message. And the good thing is, at least over here, that millions of chimps can change the behavior of gorilla’s even if they don’t want to.

Otherwise we are destined in the long run for another big war and my advise would be to go for plan B and prepare for that in a political sense.

To stay up to date just follow what this Putin guy is doing e.g.: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8682108.stm.

If I would be a gorilla I would now very fast team-up with all other like-minded gorilla’s out there in the International arena to prevent him attacking Gorilla by Gorilla and basically stand as one big Gorilla with one voice. That will strengthen the misguided feeling of the brainwashed part of the Russian population that "the West is against them" but the other alternative is losing everything in the long run.