So has anyone figured out if/how the new music player can be added to a template/theme so civilians can see it, too?
April 6, 2013
January 31, 2013
administrative note
I know for a fact that people are hitting ask boxes and the messages are never arriving. Just tumblr being tumblr LOLZ.
However, their stupid fan mail system seems to work more reliably. Use that instead, I suggest.
January 25, 2013
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5
- When people say, “but isn’t Tumblr just a bunch of tweens reblogging each other’s pictures of One Direction?” I argue and say, “no, it’s much more! It’s a social blogging platform. There are lots of ways to use it!” But then I see this, and it becomes clear that the powers that be here see it as identically and exactly a bunch of tweens reblogging each other’s pictures of One Direction, and they have zero interest in any other use cases.
- So, I can take a hint. I’ll be setting up a Wordpress for my thoughts about stuff more pressing than One Direction, thoughts which I have about 3 times a year. It’s a mistake to use any software too much against the grain of the intentions of the creators. Only pain and misery line that path.
- I’ll keep this for pics and shenanigans. I’ll still be around as usual, hearting you whorishly, and being generally stunned and amazed by the characters here. I’m not going anywhere. I like One Direction as much as the next 46-year-old suburban dad. Don’t want to miss it!
- Why is it that social media entrepreneurs are so universally hell bent on destroying their products? Can anyone think of a mature medium that’s better now than it was a year ago?
- Speaking of entrepreneurs, I am getting some things going here. Not in social media, though. Those people are nuts.
December 1, 2012
note for Disqus (rhymes with “disgust”) users
If you have Disqus comments enabled on your tumblr, and odds are you do, then you may want to take a look at a recent change they implemented. If you look at an individual post on your blog, down below the comments, you may see links to other people’s content under a “Recommended For You” header.
First up on mine was a link to celeb puff piece about Jenny McC****y. I assure you, the only time that asshole’s name will appear on any content of mine will be when she’s finally hauled into court and charged with the thousands of counts of murder she so richly deserves for her idiotic, appalling, anti-science jihad against immunization. That will be a day to celebrate. Sadly, we’re not there yet.
So I had an angry. Got ragey. But the good news is, you can turn these off. You can go to the Disqus settings, click on the Discovery tab, and turn it off. Note that they probably set this horror show up for you by default, without your opt-in. While turning it off, I got a whole bunch of “omg I can’t believe you’d do this!” type javascript, but, yeah, Disqus, I’m extremely sure. Fuck you and your asshat link spam fuckery.
October 25, 2012
MULTITHREADED PROGRAMMING HOW DOES IT WORK
April 7, 2012
Administrative note
Ask box messages appear to be arriving only sporadically. I have confirmation that one was sent today and I never saw it; there are probably others. I also assume this is not just tumblr out to get me and this is likely happening all over. (Super glad they delivered the Highlight This Post feature, though.)
I have no idea if their insipid, recent post-it note email thingy is also afflicted.
Anyway, caveat scriptor.
March 2, 2012
~ Your Freedom To Use Your Browser Is Under Attack ~
Tumblr’s Terms of Service hasn’t changed yet. So please read and help out!
The Tumblr staff recently requested feedback on updates they will be making to their policies. They specifically mention one of their goals is to prevent the promotion of self-harm. However, their updated Terms of Service includes something a lot less laudable.
Unable to find the required avenues to stop developers from creating and distributing browser extensions that enhance the way you use Tumblr and not getting enough of a response to their scary warning campaign, they now seem to be preparing the groundwork for coming after users of these extensions.
<snip>
As disheartening and awful as this is for users of Missing-e and similar, this actually has far larger potential ramifications. Tumblr is, by any measure, a major player in this space. What they do will be watched, and, if successful, probably copied.
They want to dictate what you do in your own browser on your own computer, the one in your home, after the data has been received there via the Internet provider you paid for. For the entire history of internetworking protocols, it’s been generally understood that once something goes out on the wire, it’s not under the sender’s control anymore. They have a different view.
Remember how agitated we got when Congress wanted to screw with how DNS worked? It’s about like that, except of course it’s a private company, not the gummint.
This is a bad one, gang.
UPDATE: tumblr has issued a clarification that they specifically do not intend to go after plugin users.
January 27, 2012
On anger management and social media
My name is John Scholvin and I have an anger problem.
Along with rugged good looks and luxurious, silvery hair, I inherited a vicious temper from my dad. I wish it could have been his jump shot or golf swing, but instead, it’s the ability to go from idle to redline in a couple of milliseconds.
I’ve been working on managing it for twenty years. My anger has damaged me personally and professionally. It’s something I have to be continually aware of to subdue. I’ve become pretty good at keeping it under control over the years. Part of it is probably just age and a natural change in my endocrine chemistry. Beyond that, I have techniques for quelling the rage when it rises, techniques which work well if I apply them early enough. That’s tricky: when it happens, it happens fast, and when it gets to a certain point, there’s no dialing back.
January 23, 2012
Oh man: 4 notes but only 3 whodunit bars. Someone’s in hidden tumblr purgatory.
Stop berating plugin developers and fix your shit, tumblr.
August 29, 2011
The future is not bright for ‘Missing e’
I attempted to discuss options through which we could work together on making Missing e something they would accept, but after initial positive statements, they seemed fairly averse to the idea. Their intent is for me to stop distribution of Missing e in any form.
On behalf of all who have developed software professionally, and of all who have led entrepreneurial efforts, I am profoundly embarrassed at what the staff of Tumblr is doing in this matter.
This has moved way past any sort of legitimate technical argument about use of their API and into the realm of sour grapes. Cutlerish made their product substantially better, for free, and their egos apparently can’t handle it. I see no other explanation for this petty vindictiveness.
Absolutely shameful. They’re a blight on my profession.
(via missing-e)
August 17, 2011
Disqus
Disqus, run by the same kind of sharp minds that run tumblr, apparently changed their notification scheme and you have to verify your email address. I’d give you a link, but it’s (naturally) one of those sites where 700 javascript dialogs pop up and the URL has #! in it, so I can’t. You’ll have to log in at disqus.com and find your way.
I was wondering why I’d stopped getting emails after disqus comments were posted. TMYK.
April 22, 2011
Am I the only one who didn’t know
That you can easily get single-spaced text
In the tumblr editing window
By hitting shift-return instead of return?
This is 100x easier than switching into the HTML editor and entering <br>’s all over.
Thought I’d share, esp. for those of you who post a lot of lyrics or poetry.
Game changer.
March 21, 2011
See, tumblr? Not that hard. They’ve been updating their facebook status all day. They also have a page up at getsatisfaction.
Total cost to their investors: $0.00
Total value to their users: huge, immeasurable.
You’re doing it wrong.
March 19, 2011
The “security issue”
I looked around a bit to find out more about the security issue this morning. Since it’s clear that Tumblr will never, ever post any sort of information about what the fuck is going on when there are problems, I’ll engage in a little bit of armchair analysis and wild-ass speculation. I’m not an expert on this kind of web development, but I know a bit. Caveat lector.
So, the “security issue” looks like someone fucked up at tumblr and some of the server-side code that renders the site was displayed rather than executed. Maybe someone was fooling with the front end web server (Apache?) configs or something.
Some krafty kidz who saw this code then had the foresight to post it to github and apparently other places for posterity. (Or posterous. Heh.) So even though tumblr probably stopped showing it to randoms quickly, it was in the wild for good very soon.
My quick glance at it shows that there are a bunch of passwords and private API keys in there, stuff for Google Hosts, Amazon AWS, Facebook, Twitter, Captcha. This is the Major Bummer. I’m sure they changed those passwords and invalidated those keys quickly, and I am mostly inclined to believe their claim that this stuff is some distance from the database of production user passwords and profile info. This is an epic fuckup, no other way to describe it. It’s also as good an argument against hard coding your passwords and other critical config info into executable script code as you’ll ever see. Put that shit in a config file that has 0.00 chance of ever being rendered, fellas.
Beyond that, a bunch of their internal private IP addresses are exposed, which would only be useful to someone who had already penetrated the security perimeter, and someone who’d done that could find that stuff in other ways. There’s a little to be inferred about their architecture from the code itself, but it doesn’t look like rocket science to me. Looks like fairly vanilla CMS/bloggy goodness. Their load balancing scheme starting around line 395 appears pretty lame. This we already knew.
So, it’s pretty bad, but survivable. I’m guessing the problems uploading pictures this morning were because of the Amazon AWS keys being changed.
I’ll reiterate that this is 100% speculation, based only on my fairly quick glance of the assets that were compromised. But one outside nerd’s semi-informed opinion is better than anything we will ever get from davidkarp (nice password…are those your girlfriend’s initials?) and friends. Take it for whatever you think it’s worth.
March 9, 2011
Two Tumblrish Metas
One:
- 5:00pm, on the way home from work, I’m thinking maybe I should set up a second (as far as you know) tumblr for pictures of the food and drinks I make around here. I’m feeling pretty good about my work lately, you know.
- 6:15pm, I casually throw some butter into a too-hot pan and start a giant, smoky fire that reduces both kids to screaming, sobbing messes and fills the house with black, oily fog that should be gone in a week or two if I’m lucky. Good one, universe. Point taken.
Two:
God dammit, it looks like I’m going to miss the karaoke night at #chsh. We got a chance to play at some CPD benefit thing up in Edison Park and I didn’t want to be the one to a) tell the band we should turn down a gig when we haven’t had a lot lately, and b) potentially disappoint a bunch of cops. So I’ll be singing that night but not at Blue Frog. I will, however, definitely be at the Main Event, probably hung over, certainly with fried vocal cords which I expect to be cooled and soothed by the chilled Stoli.
RSS feed: http://scholvin.tumblr.com/rss
