Over the weekend, I wrote my own photo-inserting plugin for WordPress. I did my own because I keep all my digital photos in one place (and wanted to keep it that way without having all of them publicly available; I also wanted the mechanism to generate and serve lower-resolution (so lower-bandwidth) versions automatically.

The plugin does that: I start my post with something like “” and the plugin takes care of substituting appropriate XHTML markup to retrieve a thumbnail version of the photo (which it also generates), adding on a secret code that’ll keep people from browsing for similarly-named photos (I might not want you to see IMGP0346 or IMGP0348). The generated markup also includes a little Javascript to pop open a larger (but reduced resolution) view in its own window.

Next step: set up a mechanism to handle incoming mail from my Sidekick, so that I can publish a post with photos automatically.

(That’s Gina and I reflected in the big shiny jellybean in Chicago’s Millenium Park.)

We recently replaced my old Mr. Coffee with a Saeco thermal coffee maker. A brief review:

• I can’t believe we waited so long to switch to a thermal-pot coffee maker. The coffee doesn’t taste cooked anymore, and is still almost hot enough to drink eight hours after brewing (and microwaves fine, too).
• I picked this model because it was less than $100 (after BB&B’s 20% postcard discount), holds 10 cups, has a timer, and I could fit my hand into the pot (with a sponge) for cleaning.
• I’d heard horror stories about overflowing problems with several thermal coffeemakers; yes, it’s happened to me once, so I’ve learned to be extra-careful about positioning the pot and making sure the lid’s snapped down.
• About that lid: It’s huge: the whole top (along with that Daliesque melty-looking silver flap) hinges up at the back. This means the whole coffeemaker has to be pulled out to the edge of the counter for filling, to clear the cabinet above.
• The water reservoir has a line marked on a tube inside to show the don’t-go-past-here level; no intermediate levels are marked.
• The thing beeps at the start and end of brewing, whether you pushed the button to start it or used the self-timer. I could do without the beep when I use the self-timer (I’m still asleep!) but there’s no way to shut it off.
• None of these complaints amount to much: it’s really great.

(Tip o’ the hat to Too Much Coffee Man.)

I run this server myself, as an educational experience; I expect that a fair number of posts on this blog will relate to things I’ve learned while working on it. I’ll file these posts in this “Meta” category: blogging about blogging, as well as the other server stuff underneath it.

For now, here’s a list of the mechanisms on this server, many of which will soon be described in more detail in other posts:

• This blog, of course, but also a few other folks’ sites, including Gina’s foodie book club
• My webcam, and the image-processing stuff around it
• A backup mechanism that copies everything to my file server, as well as an offsite location, every night
• A setup mechanism that allows me to rebuild the server from scratch in about an hour, with no interaction
• A mail server, running Postfix, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, etc
• My MythTV backend, which will eventually replace my TiVo
• A Subversion repository (eventually I’ll set up external access to share more of what I’ve made)
• Various other web applications that I’ll describe later (buzzwords: Django & Trac)

The server runs Ubuntu Linux (currently, the Breezy Badger version); it’s a Dell SC-420 Pentium 4 box with 1G RAM and about 300GB storage.

I’ve resurrected my blog. I started writing a couple of years ago, but eventually the posts slowed to a trickle as my impulse to post was swamped by the urge to tinker with the look.

I’ve just spent a bit of time upgrading to WordPress 2.0 and doing my own theme (dig the live photo banner!), and now that I have, the old posts don’t fit. Coming soon: pictures in posts, and of course, Google ads.

Updated 4/4 8AM: Google ads: check!