I recently gave an unfavorable review of the yurbuds inspire pro earbuds. In response, I got a comment from yurbuds apologizing for my bad experience with their product, and they wanted me to call them to resolve my problems with them. Kudos to them for that. Perhaps I was harsh in my review. Your experience with these earbuds might be much more positive than mine, so you should decide for yourself. I have heard several people say good things about yurbuds, and someone even told me that yurbuds were the best earbuds she ever bought. I should have put that in my review, and I sincerely apologize for not giving a more balanced point of view.
Yurbuds customer service is great
Integrating Facebook comments with your WordPress site
One of the changes I’ve made to my blog is adding the ability to leave comments using a Facebook account. There are a couple of advantages to commenting this way. First, the reader doesn’t have to type in their name and email address in the WordPress comments, so that makes it a little bit easier for the reader and therefore a little more likely that he or she will leave a comment. Second, when the reader leaves a comment, should he or she leave the “Post to Facebook” option checked, it gives your website more publicity because it shows up in their news feed and all their Facebook friends have an opportunity to see it.
Now I’m going to show you how to add this feature to your WordPress site.
First go to developers.facebook.com/apps and click the Create New App button. Give this app a name, and ignore the App Namespace field. I named mine “danielveazey.com comments.” Click the checkbox saying that you agree with their platform policies, then click Continue. Type in the Captcha words to prove you’re not a spambot. Then you’re presented with a bunch of mumbo jumbo about App ID and API keys and whatnot.
Now go to developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/comments/. You should see this:
Put your website’s URL in the first field (you’ll be changing this later in the code, but don’t worry about that now). Set number of posts to how many comments you want displayed by default (I left mine at 2). Set the width to a number of pixels that fits your theme well. For mine, I made it 773, and that goes all the way across the main content area of my single posts. You can choose the light or dark color scheme, then click Get Code.
Now you’re going to get your hands a little dirty. Leave that code there and open a new tab on your browser. You need to get into two files in your WordPress theme, header.php and comments.php. Make a backup copy of these files before you go mucking about in them. From your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance → Editor. Over on the right, click on header.php. Copy all the code in the editor window and save it to a file on your computer so you can change it back if you mess up. Do the same for comments.php.
In header.php, look for the <body> tag. Right below that line, paste all the code from the first part of the pop-up code that Facebook gave you. Make sure it’s the HTML5 version (it should be by default). It’s at the top of the pop-up window. Now click Update File at the bottom of the editor. Here is an example of what that part of the file might look like:
<body <?php body_class(); ?>>
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=221223671306596";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
Now open up comments.php and find the line that reads “You can start editing here.” Paste the second piece of code from Facebook right below that line. You should see your website’s URL where it says data-href=”http://blahblahblah.” Where your URL is, you need to replace that with ”<?php the_permalink(); ?>” so the comments will appear correctly.
So the whole line looks like this:
<div class="fb-comments" data-href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" data-num-posts="2" data-width="773" data-colorscheme="dark"></div>
Click Update File at the bottom of the editor and you’re done. Now the Facebook comments should show up just above where your WordPress comments appear.
If you found this post helpful, please leave a Facebook comment below, or a WordPress comment below that. Or both.
Yurbuds suck
UPDATE: Yurbuds has contacted me and wants to make sure I’m satisfied. Read all about it here.
I bought some earbuds so I can listen to music while I walk. I got the wrong ones. I bought the Yurbuds Inspire Pro, and they suck.
On their website, they make the claim:
Yurbuds are ergonomically designed to avoid nerve rich areas of the ear. Made with medical grade silicone, Yurbuds are ultra soft and comfortable for hours on end.
But it’s pure lies. These things hurt after wearing them for only a few minutes. The sound quality is average at best.
One of their gimmicks is their “twist lock technology” which is supposed to keep them from falling out. And that is something that actually seems to work, but the pain these earbuds cause makes me want them to fall out.
This is an overpriced, underperforming product. Don’t waste your money.
Helping someone out
Today I was going through my feed reader and I saw a request for help from the Freedom Feens Podcast. They are asking people to upload episodes of the podcast to their YouTube channels. I don’t have to work until this afternoon, so I figured I’d upload a few episodes for them. Thing is, YouTube only accepts video uploads, not MP3s. So I have to render a video from the MP3 and a photo from Freedom Feens, which you can see here. The Freedom Feens are also the guys who put out the documentary Guns and Weed: The Road to Freedom, which I review here.
I installed kdenlive on my desktop computer (I had not installed it since I switched to Arch a few weeks ago), and it’s rendering the first video as I write this on my laptop. It is going kind of slow, though, and I’m not sure why. Usually a video with just a single image renders very quickly, but last I checked, kdenlive said it would take an hour and 15 minutes. No big deal, I guess.
It rained overnight. It’s supposed to be warmer today, with a continued chance of rain. I did some kettlebell exercises yesterday, and my back is a little bit tender today. If I get out and walk, I think it will loosen up.
Personal stuff
I’m thinking about taking this blog in a new direction and making it more personal. Here are some things I’ve been doing lately:
I’ve been on the Glycemic Load Diet since November 1. I have lost 34 lbs. The main concept of the Glycemic Load Diet is to only eat foods that don’t cause spikes in your blood glucose levels. Of course that means I have cut out a lot of carbohydrate. The main things I have cut out are bread, starchy foods like potatoes and rice, and sugary sodas. The foods I eat tend to be high in fat, and they tend to be pretty satisfying. I eat bacon and eggs for breakfast almost every day. I’m still not eating enough vegetables, but I do take vitamins and fiber supplements.
I’ve been exercising, too. I walk several times a week, and I have been using a 25 lb. kettlebell to do some exercises in the home. I have been doing some Turkish get-ups, goblet squats, kettlebell swings, push-ups and crunches. I have been tracking my exercise on fitocracy.com and runkeeper.com.
Why have I started this? A few reasons. I have lost a lot of self esteem over the years as I have gained weight. I want to live longer. I also am curious to see how much I can lose.
A few years ago, I was on Weight Watchers. I lost about 30 lbs. in just a few weeks. But then I plateaued and gave up.
This time I lost about 20 lbs in the first few weeks, and I plateaued again, but I didn’t stop. I kept eating food in the diet, and I kept up with the walking. The last 14 lbs have come off a lot slower than the first 20, but that’s fine. I kind of miss bread, but I’ve gotten used to not eating it very often. After a while, this diet becomes pretty natural and easier to stick to.
Installing packages from Arch User Repository
I’ve been using Arch Linux for the past week or so. It’s pretty interesting, having to do everything for myself. Anyway, here is the basic way to install packages from the Arch User Repository. First, download the package from aur.archlinux.org. I downloaded Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Then you do this:
[daniel@TimeMachine ~]$ cd builds
[daniel@TimeMachine builds]$ ls
enemy-territory.tar.gz ld-lsb ttf-ms-fonts.tar.gz
foo ld-lsb.tar.gz ttf-win7-fonts
foo.tar.gz ttf-ms-fonts ttf-win7-fonts.tar.gz
[daniel@TimeMachine builds]$ tar -xvzf enemy-territory.tar.gz
enemy-territory
enemy-territory/enemy-territory.install
enemy-territory/enemy-territory.desktop
enemy-territory/PKGBUILD
enemy-territory/et-ded
enemy-territory/et.sh
enemy-territory/etded.sh
enemy-territory/et-pbupdate.sh
[daniel@TimeMachine builds]$ ls
enemy-territory ld-lsb ttf-win7-fonts
enemy-territory.tar.gz ld-lsb.tar.gz ttf-win7-fonts.tar.gz
foo ttf-ms-fonts
foo.tar.gz ttf-ms-fonts.tar.gz
[daniel@TimeMachine builds]$ cd enemy-territory
[daniel@TimeMachine enemy-territory]$ ls
enemy-territory.desktop et-ded et-pbupdate.sh PKGBUILD
enemy-territory.install etded.sh et.sh
[daniel@TimeMachine enemy-territory]$ makepkg -s
==> Making package: enemy-territory 2.60b-11 (Thu Feb 9 11:12:25 CST 2012)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> Retrieving Sources...
-> Downloading et-linux-2.60.x86.run...
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 258M 100 258M 0 0 397k 0 0:11:06 0:11:06 --:--:-- 324k
-> Downloading ET-2.60b.zip...
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 4046k 100 4046k 0 0 303k 0 0:00:13 0:00:13 --:--:-- 370k
-> Found enemy-territory.desktop
-> Found et-ded
-> Found et-pbupdate.sh
-> Found et.sh
-> Found etded.sh
==> Validating source files with md5sums...
et-linux-2.60.x86.run ... Passed
ET-2.60b.zip ... Passed
enemy-territory.desktop ... Passed
et-ded ... Passed
et-pbupdate.sh ... Passed
et.sh ... Passed
etded.sh ... Passed
==> Extracting Sources...
-> Extracting ET-2.60b.zip with bsdtar
==> Entering fakeroot environment...
==> Starting build()...
Creating directory enemy-territory
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing Enemy Territory 2.60 Full Install..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
==> Tidying install...
-> Purging unwanted files...
-> Compressing man and info pages...
-> Stripping unneeded symbols from binaries and libraries...
==> Creating package...
-> Generating .PKGINFO file...
-> Adding install file...
-> Compressing package...
==> Leaving fakeroot environment.
==> Finished making: enemy-territory 2.60b-11 (Thu Feb 9 11:27:28 CST 2012)
[daniel@TimeMachine enemy-territory]$ ls
enemy-territory-2.60b-11-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz et-ded et.sh
enemy-territory.desktop etded.sh pkg
enemy-territory.install et-linux-2.60.x86.run PKGBUILD
ET-2.60b.zip et-pbupdate.sh src
[daniel@TimeMachine enemy-territory]$ sudo pacman -U enemy-territory-2.60b-11-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
Password:
loading packages...
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...
Targets (1): enemy-territory-2.60b-11
Total Installed Size: 269.92 MiB
Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
(1/1) checking package integrity [######################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files [######################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts [######################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space [######################] 100%
(1/1) installing enemy-territory [######################] 100%
==> You have to run a working PunkBuster to play! Read here:
==> http://www.evenbalance.com/index.php?page=pbsetup.php
Optional dependencies for enemy-territory
et-sdl-sound
[daniel@TimeMachine enemy-territory]$HUD video demonstration
Saw this today. My reservations about introducing HUD in Ubuntu 12.04 seem to be crumbling. It looks pretty neat.
They’re Coming for Your Internet | Liberty Unbound
… And that is a weakness that, try as they might, the DoJ, the FBI, the MPAA, et al., can never come to grips with: their very existence is predicated on massive, centralized, bureaucratic incompetence. To give that up would be to begin their own dismemberment.
Mark Shuttleworth » Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu.
The desktop remains central to our everyday work and play, despite all the excitement around tablets, TV’s and phones. So it’s exciting for us to innovate in the desktop too, especially when we find ways to enhance the experience of both heavy “power” users and casual users at the same time. The desktop will be with us for a long time, and for those of us who spend hours every day using a wide diversity of applications, here is some very good news: 12.04 LTS will include the first step in a major new approach to application interfaces.
via Mark Shuttleworth » Blog Archive » Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu..
A lot of Ubuntu’s stuff has been hit or miss lately, but at least they are not afraid to try new things. Also, it seems that this new HUD interface might be an attempt to show that Ubuntu is not abandoning the desktop/laptop platforms, after all the discussion about Unity being a step toward the tablet market.
But I can’t help but wonder why they would introduce this on 12.04. It’s supposed to be a Long Term Stable release. I think it might have been better to wait until 12.10.
Nevertheless, I am curious to try this out, and I suspect I’ll at least install Ubuntu in a Virtual Machine to see whether it is awesome.
The Linux Mint Blog » Blog Archive » Linux Mint 12 Preview
The Linux Mint Blog » Blog Archive » Linux Mint 12 Preview.
I really like Linux Mint. I’ve been using it for a few months after so many years of Ubuntu. I like the Mint Menu and I like that you don’t have to fiddle with codecs after installing.
