New MT plugin: MTExtendedAttribute

I’ve just released the <MTExtendedAttribute> plugin for Movable Type into the wild. I’ve been working on this off-and-on for the last month or so, but other things have been keeping me busy, so it’s taken a while to get it polished enough for anyone else to use.

Movable Type only gives you a limited number of fields in which to store data for entries, blogs, categories and authors. With <MTExtendedAttribute>, you can add new fields by adding the extra data into a CSV file, which you drop into your file system, or into a Template Module. I’m using it right now to define multiple icons for each category in my “Quick Reviews” sidebar (which is itself a Movable Type blog).

It’s possible/probably that future versions of MT will allow you to defined custom fields for your entries, categories, and other stuff, but this plugin allows you to do this right away.

Food…must eat more food…then sleep…for months

The Atkins diet has been getting lots of publicity recently. That’s the one where you cut out most of the bare carbohydrates, and stick to eating foods that are high in protein. It’s not quite as simple as sausage, steak, and bacon, but it does allow you to eat lots of stuff you’d think you’d have to turn down if you wanted to lose weight. I think I’d have trouble living without bread.

Whenever Abi and I try to slim down, we go for a simple calorie-controlled diet: 1500 calories a day. We eat whatever we like, only less of it. It means I get a packet of hula hoops and a finger of fudge each day :-).

I’m back up to 74kg again, and I’d like to lose some of that before Christmas rolls around. I’m finding it hard to get the motivation together, though. As we descend into the depths of winter, my body keeps saying “bulk up…eat more fat…hibernate.” And there’s all of the festive season thing going on with visitors (hi Andy!), birthdays, gaming days, work dinners, etc. Sigh.

It’ll get better after the solstice. Or at least, after New Year.

Thoughts on new PC

I think I’ve decided on a set of components for upgrading my PC:

  • Asus A7V8X motherboard. Good reviews, excellent features (6 x USB 2.0 ports, 2 x Firewire, Gigabit ethernet, on-board sound, et al.), and a nice price point (£100).
  • AMD Athlon XP 2000+. Seems to offer the best price/performance ratio in the range I’m looking at right now.
  • 512MB DDR 2100 memory.
  • AcoustiCase ACC6606A quiet case. One of the things I don’t like about my current PC is that it’s really quite noisy. I don’t notice it so much when I’m working away at it, but when I’m doing something else, like watching TV, the background noise is annoying.
  • Matching ultra-quiet 300W PSU.
  • And a Zalman Flower Cooler to keep the CPU cool & quiet.

Total cost looks like it would be around £450. Hmm…

Rollovers with CSS

This is at least party for my own reference, because I have a habit of misplacing useful links like this in my bookmarks… But here is a pretty nifty guide to creating image rollover effects with CSS instead of JavaScript.

History

Just found a terrific resource for (largely biographical) historical information: “Spartacus Educational”. This seems to be part of SchoolNet, an educational resource run by EasyNet. I’ve only had a brief snuffle around on Schoolnet, but it looks to be an enormous collection of links and sub-sites by and for teachers and pupils. There are some great links here…lots of stuff I can see coming in handy when Alex gets a bit older.