DataSmith Making the world a better place...bit by bit.

I've begun working on a module I'm considering for my capstone project as Capella. What I'm thinking of is a module which will allow users with content creation privileges to set up reminders which will be sent to them if they haven't posted new content to the site in some configurable length of time. Basically, a way to set up a custom nag if you don't post.more>>>

I have three Drupal 6 installations; one for a family site, this one, and one personal-interest site. When I initially set them up they were on separate hosting accounts. Now, because I've changed hosts and because none of the sites has massive traffic numbers, I've merged them onto one account. Since I've done that, my next step is to merge them into a single Drupal instance so that maintenance will be easier.

I haven't fully thought out all the ins and outs but the think the sequence needs to be:more>>>

1. Update all installations to current version of core and modules

Drupal builds in access rules to control who can and cannot access a site and in the Admin section of Drupal, you can see a nice list of the rules in place on the site, like below.

What it doesn't offer is a way to annote the rules to tell you why you added the rule. For instance, in six months it might be nice to have a note to tell me that the rule banning users from IP address 91.214.45.% was put in place because I was getting a ton of comment spam from there.

access rules table screenshot

Lately spammers have found my contact form and have been having a field day with it. In 24 hours from yesterday morning until this morning I got 127 ads for cialis, cheap cigarettes, and a host of other junk. It doesn't look like they were able to use the form to spam others from my site (thank you Drupal!) but it's more than a little annoying.more>>>

The final schedule for DrupalCon DC is out and I've been picking the sessions I want to get into.There look to be a lot of really good sessions offered.Unfortunately, a lot of them are offered in the same time slot as other great looking sessions, so it hasn't been easy to decide.more>>>

One issue I've struggled with while trying to find my way around Drupal's Form API is that there appeared to be no easy way of putting input elements into a table. The solution is to create new form elements using the elements hook, the process of which has been modularized into the Form Table module.more>>>

The Telegraph is reporting results of an Oxford University study which found that playing Tetris shortly after a traumatic event may help to reduce symptoms of more>>>

Initial work on the Drupal version of the WHO-5 Well-Being Index has been completed and I've published a working beta version of the module on the module's Drupal project page.

While this is a working release, the module is not in a finished state yet. Plans for the near future include:more>>>

My HCI (Human-Computer Interface) course is done and the fictitious catering company site I developed for it has been graded. 100%!

While the focus of the project, for the course requirements at least, wasn't to develop a fully functional site, I was able to get a lot of the site actually working.more>>>

The World Community Grid recently celebrated its fourth anniversary. For those unfamiliar with the Grid, the project allows users to download a client application for their computer. That application then takes advantage of the idle cycles of the user's computer (when the computer's on but not doing anything) to perform analysis of the data from a host of medical and humanitarian projects. Essentially, the Grid wires up lots of consumer-grade computers to perform the work of rare and costly super-computers. It's a perfect example of the efficacy of the "Long Tail" theory.

To celebrate their fourth anniversary the Grid put out a video called 'I Dedicate', which highlights some of the reasons people participate in the World Community Grid and some of the accomplishments the Grid has made in the past four years. Here are just a few of the accomplishments:

• Provided the 'Help Conquer Cancer' project with 2900 years of computational power
• The 'Fight AIDS at Home' project was able to complete 5 years of research in just 6 months

What's your computer doing when it's not doing anything?