Anonymous users can no longer see the names of logged in registered users. Anonymous users will see the number of "registered users" that are currently logged into the system, but not their identity. To view the identity of online registered users, you must now log in. Read on for another user tip regarding anonymity.For the ultra paranoid, here’s another system tip: If you really don’t like people seeing your identity (your username, anyway) in the Who’s Online block when you log in - just click on "Customize" in the top menu. Then uncheck the option labeled: "Show Online Status: Show up in Who’s Online block". You still get all the benefits of being logged in, but your username is not displayed in the in the Who’s Online block. This makes it impossible for other people to know that you’re online, but no one will bother you in the chatter block!

You’ll notice a new block in the right column which displays the most recently played song in iTunes on my iBook. I’ve been looking for something that I could use to provide this kind of dynamic content, but I wanted it to run on autopilot. I found a reasonable solution here. It only displays the currently playing track (or last played track if I shut down iTunes or the script), but I’m still looking into the possiblities here.

Members of this site can now easily submit their own personal favorite quotations to the in8sworld quote database using the newly added “Daily Quote” plugin. The plugin creates a new block (Quotation Corner) in the left column which automatically serves up a new quotation from the quote database every 12 hours. To add your favorite: look for a new link in the “User Functions” block called “Add a Quote”. There are currently 40 of my personal favorites in the system.Dailyquote was created by Alford Deeley (aka machinari) of Summit Pages fame. Alford has created a really sweet plugin for Geeklog (just what I was looking for!), and he was really helpful when i couldn’t get it running right away.

I rarely, if ever look at my logfiles for this site. Being that its a free-form, not for profit exercise in "self actualisation", it really doesn’t matter so much who reads it and why, but when I did so this morning I was surprised how many hits this site is getting! Interested in what is bringing people here, I peeked through the output of analog (web site stats scripts) and here are the top 30 search words used to bring people to this site (for the last three weeks only):Sadly, it seems that most people hit my page by accident after searching for something more scholarly. Now if I can just find a way to market to these people maybe I can get this page to pay for itself! Not.

The results roughly parallel that which you can get using the stats link at the top of this page, but not exactly since I host a lot of other content on the site besides this blog. Using the stats link above though gets you a link to the correspondingly popular story in the blog…

Listing the top 30 query words by the number of requests, sorted by the number of requests.
#reqs: search term
—–: ———–
556: 911
509: farenheit
324: yoshi
323: tsurumi
281: harvard
192: bush
172: point
172: nude
172: smith
172: beach
163: online
141: and
141: gilson
140: domain:in8sworld.net
140: warhammer
135: cache:qeidppo9m_sj:in8sworld.net/index.php
135: misconceptions
135: keg
135: leaked
135: emails
122: tapping
121: historical
109: a
101: mower
100: the
99: george
98: sadam
98: cheney
94: moore
92: black

I reviewed the site access policy today and realised that after the spam attacks I had locked down pretty much everything to members only. This wasn’t my original intent, I really just wanted to disallow postings by the spammers. So you might notice that you can do some things on the site without being logged in anymore.You still can’t post stories or comment on stories (obviously?) without being logged in, but you can search, browse the links list, look at the stats page and poke through the calendar. The links page is pretty neat if you haven’t looked through it before. If any members wish to help maintain the links page, let me know by email and I’ll enable it for you.

For logged in members of this site only: I’ve added Chatterblock to the site (you should see a block in the right hand column) which allows you to post temporary messages and send private messages to other logged in users. I was talking to Fred at work and he mentioned that such a feature might be cool, so have at it! There is a new "Chatterblock settings" link in the "user functions" block which controls some of the new block’s behaviour, in case you feel like playing with that…

Having trouble reading this blog? Is it too light, too dark? I have uploaded two new themes for the site, including the old Smooth Blue (the original standard theme for in8sworld), and a new theme by the folks at Aeonserve.com called "professional". I really liked the latter so much that I have made it the default on the site! If you visit this site anonymously, you will likely have already noticed the difference. Read on to learn how to change your theme. Look for a block in the right margin entitled "Theme Chooser" to select a new theme. If you want to keep the new theme, you’ll need to be registered with this site and logged in when you visit. Simply click "use permanently" to save it as your default theme in your profile. If I decide to remove the theme chooser, you can change your theme "manually" in the ‘User Functions | Preferences’ section (block is located in the left hand margin).