MT4 Right Fields to Custom Fields Conversion with SQL

Here’s a script to convert your Movable Type RightFields data to Custom Fields if your Right Fields data is stored in a SQL table. It is a modification of Chad Everett’s RF2CF plugin, which is designed for RightFields data stored in MT’s PluginData repository.
Download it here.
The folder in that zip file should be placed in [...]

Converting Right Fields when upgrading MT 3 to MT 4

Last week, the incoming Daily Collegian Web editor and I put in some very late hours upgrading our publishing system from Movable Type 3.3 to MT 4. We had a few hiccups; I’ll document them here in case any one else runs into the same thing.
Why we upgraded: MT 3.3 was getting slowwwwww. And worse, [...]

Ryan Pfisters: we’re not the only ones that share a name

Check out this New York Times article on people with the same name that keep track of each other on the Internet.
Obvious quote of the day:
“Why do so many feel a connection — be it kinship or competition — with utter strangers just because they share a name? Social science, it turns out, has an [...]

Guide to making a personal Web site (with a Penn State focus)

If you’re a Penn State student (or anyone else) who wants a spot on the Internet, here’s my getting starting guide based on my own experiences.
Topics covered:

Hosting your site (where to save your files)
Creating and updating files
To dot.com or not to dot.com (or .org, or .net)

Hosting your site
For people to be able to view your [...]

Goodbye, Netherlands Antilles

Great. Just when I get the excellent idea from ma.tt to register ry.an, I find out that the Netherlands Antilles is scheduled to be abolished so the country code might disappear. Oh well…I guess I can’t expect geopolitics to cooperate with my naming ambitions all the time.
UPDATE: Looks like pfist.er is out as well.

New Wordpress

Just upgraded to WP 2.5. I got some errors the first time around when I tried deleting wp-admin and wp-includes and then copying in the new versions — something about the wrong ABSPATH.
Instead, I just backed up my wp-config.php file and wp-content directory, deleted the old wp install, deployed WP 2.5, and then re-copied the [...]

I couldn’t resist

I know I said I was sticking with Blogger in an earlier post, but I decided I couldn’t resist the lure of owning my own domain and having full control over the blog template. I just found out about nearlyfreespeech.net through Bugmenot.com. If it’s really as cheap as they say it is, it should be [...]

English-Lolcatz Translator

I’m working on a way to translate English into lolcatz-speak.
Check it out here.
Just using javascript arrays to do word-for-word substitution right now. Might need to get more complex later.

How to search engine optimize your name for $7 a year

It’s Ryan Pfister vs. Ryan Pfister in a search battle to the death. Or at least to the number one search result.
There’s another Ryan Pfister out west who also happens to specialize in Web development. When I Google my name, the pages returned are a mix of results for him and me (and possibly some [...]