The Widmann Blog » blogging http://blog.widmann.org.uk Thomas Widmann's blog about politics, linguistics, programming, food, kids and life in general Fri, 18 May 2012 22:02:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 SNP Eastwood http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/04/08/5354/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/04/08/5354/#comments Sun, 08 Apr 2012 10:57:23 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=5354 In my spare time, I’m a member of the Eastwood constituency branch of the SNP.

I have just created a website for the branch.

It’s nothing special, just a nice little site based on WordPress.

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/04/08/5354/feed/ 1 Arc of Prosperity http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/29/5034/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/29/5034/#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:27:13 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=5034

I’ve decided to make a blog dedicated to Scottish Independence. It’s called the Arc of Prosperity, and you can find it at arcofprosperity.org.

To quote from the About page:

On the 11th of August 2006, Alex Salmond said:

Scotland can change to a better future and be part of northern Europe’s arc of prosperity. We have three countries ­ Ireland to our west, Iceland to our north and Norway to our east – all in the top six wealthiest countries in the world. In contrast devolved Scotland is in 18th place. We can join that arc of prosperity.

I spent the first 30 years of my life in Denmark, but ten years ago I moved to Scotland, and I often wonder about the differences between Scotland and Denmark. I strongly felt that Salmond was absolutely right in making that comparison, although I don’t really understand why he didn’t include Denmark in the arc.

I’ve been blogging for years at The Widmann Blog, but when Alex Salmond announced that the Independence referendum would take place in the autumn of 2014, I decided to create a new blog dedicated to Scottish Independence, and when I was looking for a name, I decided on the Arc of Prosperity to show that I’m approaching Scottish Independence from a Danish perspective.

At the moment, it only contains copies of postings from this blog, but that might change it the future, so please bookmark it, too!

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/29/5034/feed/ 0 Guest blogger http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/23/5000/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/23/5000/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:29:46 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=5000 The excellent Better Nation blog today has a guest blog posting by yours truly.

I’ve read that blog for a while, and I normally really enjoy it, so I immediately agreed when I was asked to write a blog posting on a specific topic that I had been discussing in the comments underneath another blog posting.

Please do pop over to Better Nation and have a look!

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/23/5000/feed/ 0 Multiple categories in WordPress – an undocumented feature? http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/12/4963/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/12/4963/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:42:23 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=4963

WordPress icon for Fluid.app – Wood Series
Originally uploaded by gesamtbild

For a long time, I’ve been looking for a way to find postings that are filed under two or more categories in WordPress. It’s very easy to click on any of the categories in the column on the far left to find all blog postings within this category, but how do you find all blog postings about linguistics in Danish, or the blog postings I’ve written in English about Scottish politics?

I assumed there was no easy way to do it. I read the documentation I could find, I searched through lots of of WordPress plugins, but to no avail.

Today I then suddenly got the idea to see whether they had implemented it anyway, so I decided to try the different URLs that would make sense to me as a programmer.

My first instinct was to try a ‘+’ sign, and much to my surprise it actually worked!

For instance, category/fooddrink+es gives you food and drink in Spanish, linguistics+da gives you linguistics in Danish, and politics+en+scotland gives you Scottish politics in English.

You even seem to be able to get a feed, such as category/kids+linguistics/feed for the RSS feed for kids & linguistics.

The only problem seems to be that the generated heading is wrong – I’ll need to have a look at that to see whether it’s something I can fix.

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2012/01/12/4963/feed/ 0 11/11/11 11:11 http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/11/11/4586/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/11/11/4586/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:11:50 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=4586 This blog posting was made public at 11:11 on 11/11/11. Just a shame WordPress wouldn’t let me schedule it for 11:11:11. ;-/

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/11/11/4586/feed/ 0 My most popular blog postings ever http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/10/14/4383/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/10/14/4383/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:56:58 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=4383 I’ve had a look at my most popular blog postings:
Blog posting Views Comment
How to make business cards in LaTeX 5,004 A very useful posting for people wanting to make their own business cards using LaTeX.
Bjørnebanden er hunde! 2,476 Just pointing out that the Beagle Boys in Danish are called the “Bear Gang”, which is a bit odd given that they clearly aren’t drawn as bears.
Hvilke partier er tættest på hinanden? 2,385 A Danish political analysis.
More about pizza ovens 1,350 Discussing what kind of pizza oven I’d build in our garden if money was no object.
Stem blankt! 1,223 Telling people not to vote yes or no in the referendum on abolishing male primogeniture in Denmark.
Which voting system should you use for choosing a voting system? 1,161 A link to a blog posting on BBC’s site.
Periodic table of mixology 834 Criticising a photo of a poster.
Langtidsstegning af and 800 A recipe for Danish Christmas duck.
Where can I buy food-grade caustic soda? 754 Trying to find a crucial German ingredient.

I’m not sure what to conclude from this. I clearly should write more on culinary topics and less about linguistics if these numbers are to be believed, but I can’t help thinking that many of these are simply popular because people stumble upon them in Google searches, not because they’re really that interesting and well-written.

Isn’t my article about changing England’s borders more provocative, the one about Lünmòn funnier, and this one about how to play Danish Monopoly (Matador) more informative than either of the more popular ones?

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/10/14/4383/feed/ 0 New blog design http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/05/22/3872/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/05/22/3872/#comments Sun, 22 May 2011 19:21:12 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=3872


Construction Signs

Originally uploaded by jphilipg

I’ve created an entirely new design for my blog.

I had been looking for a newspaper-style layout, but I couldn’t find any that I liked, so I decided to create my own.

It’s not entirely finished yet, but it’s good enough that I’m activating it now.

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/05/22/3872/feed/ 1 Fem år som blogger http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/05/01/3741/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/05/01/3741/#comments Sun, 01 May 2011 08:20:09 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=3741

Chocolate Frosting and Five Candles
Originally uploaded by TheDeliciousLife

I dag er det fem år siden, jeg offentliggjorde mit første blogindlæg!

Det er ret morsomt at læse de første par måneders indlæg – jeg havde endnu ikke helt fundet ud af, hvad det var værd at blogge om.

Gad vidst, hvor længe jeg vil fortsætte med at blogge…? Efterhånden føles det som om, jeg altid har blogget, men fem år er jo ikke ret lang tid (omend Léon og Anna nok ville bestride det).

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/05/01/3741/feed/ 0 Tekstredigering uden distraktioner http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/03/21/3580/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/03/21/3580/#comments Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:19:27 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=3580 I de gode gamle dage, da jeg var næstformand (NF) i TÅGEKAMMERET, skulle jeg skrive løbesedler på næsten daglig basis. En sådan løbeseddel skulle normalt skrives på ét A6-ark på en skrivemaskine af mærket RemToR. Jeg sad ofte sent om aftenen på Kammeret, bare RemToR, mig og min Top.

Når man har stirret længe nok på et blankt stykke papir, og deadline nærmer sig, sker der ofte noget. Pludselig begynder ordene at flyde frit fra leveren, og man skriver noget, som man ikke havde planlagt, men som nogle gange forbløffer én selv, når man læser det senere.

Denne effekt er svær at opnå på en moderne computer. For det første kan man bruge uendelige mængder tid på at surfe og maile, men selv hvis man afbryder internetforbindelsen, er der jo hundredevis af programmer installeret på en normal computer, og hvis det ikke er nok, kan man jo bare selv skrive et til.

Selv hvis man klarer at begrænse sig til sit tekstredigeringsprogram – det være sig emacs, Open Office eller noget helt tredie – kan man også der spilde tiden på at redigere og formatere sin tekst uden egentlig at producere noget.

Så hvad skal man gøre? Nogle gange kan man godt blive fristet til at købe en RemToR og sætte sig ned i et tomt rum kun forsynet med en Ceres-øl og en stabel papir, men det er jo også lidt absurd ikke at drage fordel af moderne software, som jo også kan være en stor hjælp til tider.

Jeg er derfor begyndt at overveje, om det er værd at bruge et af de antidistraktionstekstredigeringsprogrammer, som findes. For eksempel er denne blogposting skrevet i PyRoom, som virker ganske udmærket. Jeg har kun tre kritikpunkter:

  • Selv om man ikke kan minimere vinduet, tillader min windowmanager mig at tabbe væk fra det; det ville være bedre, hvis man ikke kunne komme ud uden helt at afslutte programmet.
  • Der er ingen løbende markering af, hvor meget, man har skrevet. Jeg tror, det ville være psykologisk godt, hvis man fik at vide, hvor mange sider, man havde skrevet.
  • Det er desværre muligt at gå tilbage i teksten og redigere den. Det ville nok være bedre, hvis tekstredigeringer var begrænset til den sidste linie eller to.

Jeg ville blot ønske, at der også fandtes en måde at programmere uden distraktioner på, men det kan man nok ikke lave uden at forhindre en i at programmere frit.

]]> http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2011/03/21/3580/feed/ 1 Back together again http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2010/12/09/3070/ http://blog.widmann.org.uk/2010/12/09/3070/#comments Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:36:04 +0000 thomas http://blog.widmann.org.uk/?p=3070

the Final Merger !
Originally uploaded by v i p e z

Earlier this year, I decided to split my blog into two: One for politics in English, and one for everything else.

In retrospect, this was probably caused primarily by my focus on the general election in May 2010.

However, since then I haven’t been blogging nearly as much about politics, so the result has been having two blogs that weren’t active enough.

Because of this, I’ve just brought my two blogs back together again (or to be more precise, I’ve imported the political blog posts into the main blog).

I apologise to those of you who were only interested in my political outpourings, but I believe this will work better for me and the vast majority of my readers.

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