Author: Jake

Bayesian filtering for MoveableType? I didn’t even know such a thing existed! I found a plugin written by James Seng. At the time, I was actually looking for one of those little images that aren’t OCR readable and the user has to type whatever’s in the image (I’ve since discovered that’s called captcha and is implemented using the SCode plugin). I knew that this method introduced usability problems for the visually impaired and people who use text only web browsers, but I felt that it was a fair trade off in order to stop SPAM. But, in the process of looking for this, I figured I may as well look at other solutions, too (especially considering that GD isn’t working on my machine right now). Wouldn’t you know it, I found one I liked even better. I’ve liked the theory behind Bayesian filtering every since I’ve read Paul Graham’s A Plan For Spam. Mozilla Thunderbird uses this method of filtering, and while at first it’s quite inaccurate, it gets better with time (actually, with a larger sample of both good and bad stuff). Anyway, I’ve now implemented this method for comments on this site. I should now be able to re-open all my entries to comments, undoing the change I made back in November 2003.

Minor though it may be, I’ve now given my blog a bit of a face lift. The design itself is still pretty much the default from MoveableType, but I’ve done a little more with colors. I also added a little bit of Mozilla specific CSS. While the page is certainly still functional in Internet Explorer, it looks better in Mozilla based browsers. CSS really is a beautiful thing once you figure out how it works (I remember it taking quite a while for me to even want to make the transition, let alone actually do it… I probably still haven’t, completely). In addition to the front end improvements, I’ve also made a couple on the semi-backend (eg, not the MT code, but not just CSS). I finally figured out how to make it so links show up in syndicated versions of this blog (this was quite a problem in my last post). In case you’re curious, it was as simple as changing <$MTEntryExcerpt encode_xml="1"$> to <$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$> in the RSS templates. That also has the side effect of having the entire post be syndicated (at the option of the syndicating site) instead of just the first few characters. The other backend thing I did was made the new archive pages (’03 and ’04) much easier. Using a template modules and include statements, I was able to greatly reduce the amount of “code” required to make a calendar. In fact, all I need is:

<!-- JANUARY_2003 -->
<table border="0" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="0">
<caption class="calendarhead">January 2003</caption>
<$MTInclude module="CalendarDOW"$>
<MTCalendar month="200301">
<$MTInclude module="CalendarDays"$>
</MTCalendar>
</table>
<!-- /JANUARY_2003 -->

That’s still a lot more than should be required had a better templating system been used. It would be nice to have all that layout type stuff in one template module so I could just say something like <MTInclude module="Calendar" month="200301"> and still be able to get my own layout, but I this is still better than what MoveableType uses by default.

UPDATE: I was just looking at the 2004 Archive page. With this entry, I’ve now posted more in the month of December than I have for the entire other 11 months of 2004. Kinda sad, isn’t it?

Last July, as in July ’03, I posted about some modifications I made to MoveableType. One thing I had done was a plugin for SETI stats, the other was an actual code modifcation for a “recently archived” sidebar item instead of recently posted. Well, somewhere along the way I seem to have lost that code modification as I noticed my “recently archived” item wasn’t working right. And wouldn’t you know it, I seemed to have made a really boneheaded mistake of not saving the code anywhere! To make a long story short, I figured out, once again, how to do it. It’s my goal to make sure I don’t ever have to spend another couple hours figuring this one out, so I’m gonna post the patch here. As an added bonus, that means other people can use it, too :).

--- Context.pm.orig     2004-12-14 23:11:57.000000000 -0500
+++ Context.pm  2004-12-15 01:15:09.000000000 -0500
@@ -626,6 +626,19 @@
$args{direction} = 'descend';
$args{limit} = $last;
$args{offset} = $args->{offset} if $args->{offset};
+        } elsif (my $days_offset = $args->{days_offset}) {
+            my $sec = 3600 * 24;  # Seconds in a day
+            my $days = $args->{days};
+            my @ago = offset_time_list(time - $sec * $days_offset,
+                $ctx->stash('blog_id'));
+            my $ago_s = sprintf "%04d%02d%02d%02d%02d%02d",
+                $ago[5]+1900, $ago[4]+1, @ago[3,2,1,0];
+            @ago = offset_time_list(time - $sec * $days_offset - $sec * $days,
+                $ctx->stash('blog_id'));
+            my $ago_e = sprintf "%04d%02d%02d%02d%02d%02d",
+                $ago[5]+1900, $ago[4]+1, @ago[3,2,1,0];
+            $terms{created_on} = [ $ago_e, $ago_s ];
+            %args = ( range => { created_on => 1 } );
} elsif (my $days = $args->{days}) {
my @ago = offset_time_list(time - 3600 * 24 * $days,
$ctx->stash('blog_id'));

Mostly it’s a duplicate of the block for $args->{days}, but with some modifications to make it do a starting and ending date. The template block to get this in my sidebar is (I may tweak these number is the future, but it’s just a config option):

<div class="sidetitle">
Recently Archived
</div>

<div class="side">
<MTEntries days="60" days_offset="21">
<a xhref="<$MTEntryPermalink$>" mce_href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a><br />
</MTEntries>
</div>

This will put any entry from 21-81 old days under the “recently archived” heading. This is, of course, a modification to the version of MoveableType that I’m running, which is version 2.64. If you’re running a different version, your results may very.