Editing files remotely over SSH using Bluefish
Every now and then, I think of a good idea for a software feature, and when I look where I think it should live, it's already there. I was using everyone's favorite closed source command line text editor, pico, to edit an XML file on a remote server, and I was missing syntax highlighting, which makes it easier for me to pick up my markup violations. I thought: there should be a GPL'd text editor that I can run locally that will manage the opening, updating, and closing of a source file on a remote server in the background. I tried Gedit, but no luck. It's designed to be lightweight, which is good for a default editor. Then I tried Bluefish and hit the jackpot.
In Bluefish 1.0.1, I used File > Open URL and typed in my URL. The file opened, but when I tried to save, it wouldn't let me. In despair, I selected File > Open, and I was surprised to be prompted for my password on the remote machine. I entered the password, and then I could edit and save without a problem. I'm not sure why I wasn't prompted for the password when I tried to save, but the important point is that all the tedium of text editing in pico just dropped out of life, likely forever.
Time to submit the bug to the Bluefish folks.
Wordpress plugin for Google Analytics
I wrote a Wordpress plug-in for the Google Analytics script. After I wrote it, I found that someone else had written a better one a few hours earlier.
Anyway, here's mine. Cut and paste it into a file in your plugins directory with some name that ends in .php. Sign up for an account with Google, and paste your account string where indicated below. Then go to the plugins admin page and click "activate."
(lang=javascript)
/*
Plugin Name: Google Analytics
Plugin URI: http://pingswept.org/index.php/wp_plugins
Description: Adds Javascript instrumentation to main page for Google Analytics
Version: 0.1
Author: Brandon Stafford
Author URI: http://pingswept.org
*/
function call_google_script() {
echo '
type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "PUT YOUR ACCOUNT STRING HERE";
urchinTracker();
';
}
add_action('wp_head', 'call_google_script');
?>
What is Microsoft up to?
Microsoft has claimed that their Open XML formats for Office 12 will be released under the same "open" license as their Office 2003 Reference Schemas, as I mentioned a few days ago. At the time, I couldn't figure out why Microsoft would adopt such a liberal license without going all the way. All of their competitors in the proprietary software world (Corel with WordPerfect or Apple with iWork, for example) will finally be able to write import filters for Microsoft documents that aren't reverse engineered. That will go a long way toward allowing people using different packages to collaborate.
At the same time that Microsoft is opening their formats, they're including a restriction that prevents their use in GPL'd software. To me, the forbidding of sublicensing seems like a strange restriction-- it prevents the sharing of code between parties writing software to read the format, but allows the writing of the code in the first place. In the framework of Stallman's four freedoms, it allows the first three-- the freedom to run, study, and redistribute the code-- but it forbids the last, the freedom to improve the code. I wonder whether Microsoft is trying make itself look as much like a free and open collaborator as it can while still defending itself against the open source juggernaut.
