AndrewEnsley.com

WordPress: Embed Youtube Feed With a Simple Shortcode

Andrew — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 02:20:15 +0000

WordPress shortcodes are great. They let you perform complex operations or display dynamic content with just a tiny bit of text in any page or post.

I recently needed a way to embed the most recent videos from a Youtube channel (very dynamic information) in a WordPress page, so I decided to write a shortcode for it.

The code is actually pretty simple. Just add the following to your theme’s functions.php file:

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function youtube_feed_shortcode($atts)
{
// Defaults:
extract(shortcode_atts(array(
'user' => 'flamadiddle86', // youtube user
'limit' => 5, // maximum number of videos
'height' => 385, // video height
'width' => 480 // video width
), $atts));
$data = @json_decode(file_get_contents('http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/'.$user.'/uploads?alt=json'), TRUE);
$counter = 0;
$content = '

';
foreach($data['feed']['entry'] as $vid)
{
$url = $vid['media$group']['media$content'][0]['url'];
$title = $vid['title']['$t'];
$ycontent = $vid['content']['$t'];
$content.= '.$width.'" height="'.$height.'">'.
'.$url.'">'.
''.
''.
'.$url.'" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="'.$width.'" height="'.$height.'">'.
'

'.$title.'

'.
'

'.$ycontent.'

'."\n";
$counter++;
if($counter == $limit)
{
break;
}
}
$content .= '

';
return $content;
}

add_shortcode('youtubefeed', 'youtube_feed_shortcode');

And it couldn’t be easier to use. The videos you see below were embedded simply by putting this code in the post:

1	[youtubefeed]

rm -rf /*

I've always wanted to do this.

Primary to Secondary

Going from semi-auto ruger to semi-auto pistol. The word of the day is "tactical."

The shortcode is completely configurable. The following code would have resulted in the exact same output:

1	[youtubefeed user="flamadiddle86" limit="5" height="385" width="480"]

You can change any option as needed.

You might have noticed the code gives each element a particular class to make it CSS friendly. All you have to do is add CSS rules for three classes: .youtubefeed, .youtubetitle, and .youtubecontent.

My stylesheet looks like this:

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.youtubefeed {
margin: 10px;
text-align: center;
}

.youtubetitle {
font-size: 1.6em;
font-weight: bold;
margin: 3px;
}

.youtubecontent {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}

A quick note about requirements:

Your server’s PHP configuration needs to have allow_url_fopen set to On.
You’ll also need the PHP JSON extension

Most hosts meet those requirements.

So there you have it. It’s a quick and dirty way to get functional, always up-to-date Youtube streams in your WordPress posts and pages.

Recover WordPress from broken theme

Andrew — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:42:16 +0000

home

If you ever find yourself with a broken theme and can’t even access the admin side of your wordpress blog, here’s a quick way to get back on your feet.

Simply run the following query from the command line or via a tool like phpMyAdmin

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'default'
WHERE option_name IN ('template','stylesheet','current_theme');

(Make sure to select your wordpress database first, of course)

Sure. Your site looks like it was just setup 2 seconds ago, but at least now you can access all the GUI-licious tools of the WordPress Admin panel to fix whatever broke your theme.

PHP: Validate an IP Address

Andrew — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:14:47 +0000

e-mail

So you need to check if some string is a valid IP address. You could simply test it against a regular expression:

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function is_valid_ipv4($ip)
{
return preg_match('/\b(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.'.
'(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.'.
'(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.'.
'(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\b/', $ip) !== 0;
}

Regular Expression obtained here

This will actually work for most situations, but it’s lacking in a few ways. Suppose you want to exclude private or reserved IP addresses. Maybe you want to validate IPv6 addresses too; not just IPv4.

Enter PHP’s Data Filtering Extension. It just works, and you don’t have to worry about maintaining (or properly applying) complex regular expressions.

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function is_valid_ip($ip, $include_priv_res = true)
{
return $include_priv_res ?
filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP) !== false :
filter_var($ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE) !== false;
}

Now to test it.

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$ips = array('72.215.140.69',
'192.168.0.1',
'127.0.0.1',
'10.0.0.1',
'255.255.255.0',
'andrewensley.com',
'255.255.256.0',
'::1',
'fe00::0',
'2001:4860:0:1001::68');

foreach($ips as $ip)
{
echo $ip,' ', is_valid_ip($ip, false) ? 'yes' : 'no','
';
}

The above will output:

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72.215.140.69 yes
192.168.0.1 no
127.0.0.1 yes
10.0.0.1 no
255.255.255.0 no
andrewensley.com no
255.255.256.0 no
::1 yes
fe00::0 yes
2001:4860:0:1001::68 yes

Thank you PHP for making this otherwise complex task very simple. And even better: it’s fast!

I tested the regular expression and the filter_var functions by running each 100,000 times. Here are the timings for each test:

1.53423094749 seconds with the filter_var function
3.1516289711 seconds with the regular expression function

Not bad! Happy filtering.

Nancy Pelosi is a liar, and I can prove it (stop the health care bill)

Andrew — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:09:51 +0000

content

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has been at the center of this very heated controversy about health care. She has relentlessly pushed this legislation trying to “make history.”

For those that don’t know the history of this bill, I’ll break it down for you:

November 7, 2009 – The House – under enormous pressure from Pelosi – passed The Affordable Health Care for America Act H.R. 3962
- This included the Stupak-Pitts amendment which enforced long-standing law banning federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother.
December 24, 2009 – The Senate passes their version of the bill – The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act H.R.3590
- This did not include the Nelson-Hatch amendment which contained the same language as the Stupak-Pitts amendment.
February 25, 2010 – President Obama holds his “Health Care Summit” in which nothing is really accomplished. Well… almost. More on that later.
The current strategy is to pass the Senate version of the bill through the House, which is supposed to happen in a vote on March 18, 2010

Nancy Pelosi is – of course – putting huge pressure on pro-life Democrats that voted for the Stupak-Pitts amendment to now support the Senate bill without the anti-abortion language included.

Now it starts to get ridiculous. The one thing that was accomplished at the Health Care Summit? The country got to see first-hand just how corruptly this entire proceeding has been handled.

At the Health Care Summit, Pelosi had this to say:

Ms. Pelosi, have you read this bill you’re trying so hard to pass?

The current health care reform proposal:

Includes government funding of abortion
Imposes a brand-new “abortion fee” on taxpayers
Directs $11 BILLION in new funding to groups like Planned Parenthood — the nation’s largest abortion chain that took in over $349,000,000 in tax funding last year while aborting 305,310 babies
Would result in the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade

The Family Research Council does a great job of breaking down even further exactly how this bill provides federal funding of abortion:

Eight Reasons Abortion Is in the Health Care Overhaul

1. The legislation specifically includes it. The President’s bill to amend the Senate bill leaves several abortion provisions in place. In Section 1303 it allows tax credit subsidies for plans that include abortion and leaves the abortion surcharge in place. It maintains the proposal to create a multi-state plan that includes abortion in Sec. 1334. Even worse, it would increase the Senate bill funding from $7 billion to $11 billion for community health centers in Sec. 10503 without any abortion funding restrictions. (H.R. 3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.)
2. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said it is. “And I would say that the Senate language, which was negotiated by Senators Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray, who are very strong defenders of women’s health services and choices for women, take a big step forward from where the House left it with the Stupak amendment, and I think do a good job making sure there are choices for women. . .That would be an accounting procedure, but everybody in the exchange would do the same thing, whether you’re male or female, whether you’re 75 or 25, you would all set aside a portion of your premium that would go into a fund.” (Sebelius: Everyone will pay into abortion-coverage fund.)
3. Senate Democrats refused to ban it. Instead of allowing for an up or down vote on a Senate amendment similar to the Stupak Amendment in the House which bans federal funding of abortion, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) “tabled” the amendment, effectively killing it. This was the only amendment dealt with in this way. (Vote No. 369 S.Amdt. 2962 to S.Amdt. 2786 to H.R. 3590)
4. House Pro-life Democrats, who support a government takeover, say it is. “The Senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable.” (House Representative Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), February 23, 2010, CBS News)… “I think abortion’s wrong. The problem is that I’ve lived too long. When they say they can keep this money separate, I just don’t believe it.” (House Representative Marion Berry (D-Ark.), March 6, 2010, Arkansas News.)
5. House Pro-abortion Democrats say it is. “The good news is that the Senate bill does allow [abortion coverage],” (Chairwoman of the House pro-abortion caucus, Dianne DeGette (D-Colo.), March 5, 2010, Washington Post.
6. The Abortion industry has sent out alerts in favor of it. The abortion giant Planned Parenthood sent out alerts on March 6, 2010: “President Obama’s health care reform proposal would make a real difference for the women and families who rely on Planned Parenthood. . . . and [the bill] significantly increase access to reproductive health care.” (Planned Parenthood alert, March 6, 2010.)
7. Candidate Obama said it would be included, and the Obama administration includes it in its definition of reproductive health care. Presidential candidate Barack Obama stated he “believes that reproductive health care is basic health care.” (Rhealitycheck.org questionnaire, 2008.) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed up on this in 2009: “Reproductive health care includes access to abortion.” (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, April 22, House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing)
8. House Democratic Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has indicated he wants to “fix” the abortion coverage problem in the Senate bill. “House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday that lawmakers could draft separate pieces of legislation with abortion language to earn the support of anti-abortion rights Democrats on healthcare reform legislation.” (March 4, 2010, The Hill)
For more resources in the health care debate, check out FRC Action’s resource page: “Standing Against the Government Takeover of Health Care.” Also check out why the Hyde Amendment does not apply to the current bill by reading “Q and A: Government Health Care and Abortion.”

Considering all of that, Pelosi is either a liar or completely incompetent.

Neither is acceptable.

At the very least, even those who support abortion should be concerned about such a blatant lie from one of the largest supporters of this bill about the most controversial issue in it!

We need to stop this bill now, before it’s too late.

Contact your Senators

Contact your Representative

Tell them we don’t want this bill! And hurry! We only have until March 18th to make our voices heard.

Senator Nelson Responds to Health Care Concerns

Andrew — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:47:20 +0000

store

Senator Nelson (D-FL) has finally responded to my e-mail about his vote on the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment.

Since this is an open letter, I’m copying his entire response below (minus the “don’t reply to this e-mail, etc.” message).

From: Bill@billnelson.senate.gov
To: Andrew Ensley
Sent: Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:49 AM
Subject: RE: Your response from Senator Bill Nelson
Dear Mr. Ensley:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the health care reform process as it relates to abortion.
On December 8, I voted against Senator Ben Nelson’s amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would have imposed further restrictions on abortion, making it virtually impossible for a woman to purchase an insurance policy that covers abortion, even if she pays entirely with her own money. The health care bill now under consideration in the Senate follows the precedent set by the Hyde Amendment, that no Federal funds shall be used to provide abortions except in the case of rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother. This compromise has been the law of the land since 1976, and I see no need to make any changes to this policy as a part of health care reform.
I believe in a woman’s constitutional right to choose and in reducing the number of abortions in America by encouraging adoption. The Senate bill represents a reasonable compromise, crafted in good faith by both sides. As the bill makes its way through the legislative process, I will keep your views in mind.
Sincerely,
Senator Bill Nelson

Today, I sent my reply.

Senator Nelson,
I have received your response to my initial e-mail, and I am again disappointed by your point of view on the subject of the Nelson-Hatch-Casey amendment.
There are two possibilities here:
You have fallen for the rhetoric that your fellow Democrats have been spouting, in which case you have failed to understand legislation fully before voting on it. Or…
You are part of the rhetoric and willfully misleading others.
Which is it, Senator?
Rep. Capps herself admits that she is against the Hyde amendment (here in the second paragraph), and her voting record has always supported the expansion of abortion in every way. How are people to believe, then, that she would be at the forefront in implementing the very language she is against without altering it in even the smallest regard to favor her point of view? You insult my intelligence again, sir.
The Stupak amendment was overwhelmingly supported in the House (240 to 194), and all the Nelson amendment did was apply the same language to the senate bill.
Again, you have failed to represent the wishes of the majority, and – worse – you are lying to the general public (whether it’s intentional or not).
Please listen to reason. Please do not support Senator Reid’s health care bill. It is a terrible bill in many ways, but the most important issues are the respect for and defense of life. This bill does neither.
Sincerely,
Andrew Ensley

If you would also like to tell him how you feel,

Contact him by e-mail
Contact him by phone: (202) 224-5274

Sen. Bill Nelson did NOT represent us today

Andrew — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:26:10 +0000

Some of you may know already that today, the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment (which bans federal funding of abortion in the new health care bill) was tabled and thus defeated by a vote of 54 to 45.

You may also know that our distinguished senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) was one of those 54.

He has not responded to my first e-mail yet, but I sent him another one to let him know what I think of his actions today.

I would encourage you to contact him by e-mail and do the same.

Mr. Nelson,
I am extremely disappointed in your action today as you voted to table the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment. I am dumbfounded by your inability to represent your constituents.
Why did you choose not to stand up for life? Why did you choose to ignore the wishes of the majority? You were not elected to do whatever you want, sir. You were elected to represent the views of the citizens of Florida.
If Sen. Reid’s health care bill passes with the CAPPS language as it is now, I will do everything in my power to show fellow voters in Florida how you were directly responsible.
Please, stop ignoring the citizens. Do not vote for this health care reform bill. Do not vote for the 2000-page bill that will cost our weakened economy over 1 TRILLION dollars and 5.5 MILLION jobs. I’m not stupid. I know that this bill WILL increase taxes and premiums and cut benefits for everyone.
Health care reform is needed. But this bill is wrong in every way.
Thank you for your time,
Andrew Ensley

It was difficult to be this polite.

content

My Open Letter to Senator Bill Nelson

Andrew — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:36:15 +0000

home

This is an open letter that I sent to Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) about the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment which would ban federal funding of abortions in any new health care bill passed.

You can contact him yourself by calling (202) 224-5274
(Note: when I called it went straight to voicemail and the mailbox was full)

You can also contact him by e-mail here.

Dear Senator Bill Nelson,
I know from your history on the issue of abortion that you will probably oppose the Nelson-Hatch-Casey amendment, but I urge you, as a constituent in your state, to consider that a November CNN poll found that 61% of Americans reject federal funding of abortions.
It is a violation of the taxpayers’ consciences to force us to fund elective abortions or plans that cover elective abortions.
All the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment does is ensure that the long-standing language of the Hyde Amendment remains consistent in our nation’s health care.
I must inform you that the respect for life is the most important issue to me when I vote. I will not support any politician that believes it is acceptable to end an innocent life in any situation. I personally know many other voters who would agree. I am sharing this letter (along with your response) with them and urging them to contact you as well.
Please respect the wishes of your constituents and the lives of the defenseless.
Please vote yes on the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment.
Sincerely,
Andrew Ensley

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The Manhattan Declaration. Read it. Sign it.

Andrew — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:33:57 +0000

e-mail

The Manhattan Declaration is a fantastically well-written document, and I believe in it so much that I’m encouraging everyone to sign it.

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.
We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:
the sanctity of human life
the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

If you believe in what it says and want to add your signature:

Go to the homepage and click Sign the Declaration

Here is the Declaration in its entirety:

Download (PDF, 205.66KB)

Google’s Chrome OS – First Impressions

Andrew — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:48:43 +0000

Yesterday, Google officially announced their new Chrome OS and explained what it will be when it’s released. They also published the source code to allow developers and other interested parties to take a peek. I’m one of those “other interested parties.”

The Setup

I didn’t build the OS from source myself, but downloaded a pre-compiled VMWare image. Then, using CloneVDI, I converted it to a VirtualBox virtual hard disk. I just created a new Virtual Machine for Linux and added the .vdi. Done!

The Tour

First, you’re presented with a logon screen. My first thought was “uhhh…. now what? I didn’t create an account”. Then I remembered: “This is a Google product. Try your Google login.” And whadayano? It worked!

I don’t know why it was off-center like that. It came up like that every time for me.

The first place I went to after logging in was a button at the top left that looked like a Chrome logo. That gave me this page:

Google Short Links

I don’t know what “Google Short Links” is, but it wouldn’t let me login with my regular username/password here.

I wanted to see what I was working with, so I went to the “About” dialog.

About

It’s using Chromium 4.0.253.0 (32535).

Next, I went to the options menu.

Options Menu

The first page provides you with some time and touchpad settings.

Options Dialog

One setting that would be nice to have? Screen resolution. I couldn’t find any place to change that, and the 800×600 default resolution feels incredibly confining. I found the bottom of the Basics tab humorous:

Basics Tab

Chromium cannot determine or set the default browser.

…oops.

As for the other two settings pages, they’re exactly what we all have in Google Chrome right now.

Let’s see… what should I try next? Oh yeah! How about my favorite Google service? Hello Gmail

Revoked Security Certificate

Wait… what? This happened to me several times. After refreshing, it usually worked, but it took over 5 refreshes once. Very annoying.

Once I finally got gmail to show up, I tried to enable offline mode. Surely this OS has gears built-in, right? Wrong. It asked me to install Gears:

Gears

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to install Gears. I learned through this process that currently, it is impossible to open any file in this OS.

Gears Install

Clicking on the downloaded file does nothing. Clicking the “Open in folder” option from the file’s sub-menu… does nothing. Google will have gears integrated by the time this is released. They’d be crazy not to.

Conclusion

My thoughts? Looks like fun. For how far along it is, the integration with Google services is impressive. It’s definitely very rough right now. For example: there’s no way to tell it to shut down. That’s a pretty glaring oversight. But obviously, this is an extremely early release which is by no means complete.

Also, speed was an issue. Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit runs faster in VirtualBox on my machine. That is not an exaggeration. In case you’re wondering: My desktop runs on an Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.66Ghz (Q9450) with 8GB of DDR3 1600Mhz RAM and a 10,000RPM boot drive (which also hosted the .vdi file), so the bottleneck was not my machine.

All problems aside, I can’t wait to see what the finished product looks like, or how Google’s new programming language will fit into it all.

Install Ejabberd 2.0 on Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 LTS – 6 Steps!

Andrew — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:13:22 +0000

Problem:

You’ve chosen the most simple, solid Linux server – Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, and you want to run the most simple, solid XMPP server – ejabberd. BUT, the version of ejabberd in Hardy’s repositories is the really old (Sep 03, 2007!) 1.1.4 release.

Solution:

You could of course build ejabberd from source, but that’s not why you chose the “It Just Works^TM” Ubuntu server, is it? Have no fear. A simple and (mostly) painless solution awaits!

The key is in the Hardy-backports repository. Ubuntu Backports are updated versions of software that have not been fully tested with the default software packaged in the Ubuntu Installation. By default, the Ubuntu team only releases security updates and keeps all major versions of software constant throughout the release’s lifecycle.

Backports are an option for brave souls that want the latest major versions of software on their still perfectly relevant (but chronologically gifted) operating system. I say “brave” souls because there is one serious issue with this:

The Ubuntu team does not release security updates for backported software!

So make sure you keep that in mind and carefully monitor the security bulletins of the writers of any software package you install from backports. Since we don’t want every package to be upgraded to its non-security-checked newest backport version, we’ll enable pinning. Pinning allows us to enable the backports repository only for those packages we specifically request from it.

Instructions:

Enough of the explanation, here’s what you’re reading this for.

1) First, we need to add the backports repository. Fire up your favorite text editor (beginners should probably use nano) and open `/etc/apt/sources.list`.

1	sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

and add these lines:

1 2	deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

In my case, the lines were already there, and I just had to un-comment them. Your experience may vary.

2) Next, we’ll enable pinning. Run:

1	sudo nano /etc/apt/preferences

and add these lines:

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Package: *
Pin: release a=hardy-backports
Pin-Priority: 400

3) Now all that’s left is to update apt and install ejabberd. The ‘-t hardy-backports’ line specifies that we want to get ejabberd from the backports repository:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install -t hardy-backports ejabberd

Or, you can do it all in one command:

1	sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get install build-essential && sudo apt-get install -t hardy-backports ejabberd

4) Once installation finishes, run:

1	sudo nano /etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.cfg

And change the following lines to set your domain name and admin user (make sure the domain name matches the output from the ‘hostname‘ command):

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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Options which are set by Debconf and managed by ucf
%% Admin user
{acl, admin, {user, "admin_username", "yourdomain.com"}}.

%% Hostname
{hosts, ["yourdomain.com"]}.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

5) Now, restart ejabberd:

1	sudo /etc/init.d/ejabberd restart

6) Finally, create your admin user account:

1	sudo ejabberdctl register username yourdomain.com password

That’s it! You’re done! Enjoy your fully-functional, up-to-date XMPP server.

e-mail