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 <title>Coding standards are critical</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/coding-standards-are-critical</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="Programming on the World Wide Web" class="alignright" id="image27" name="image27" src="/files/2006/04/c0ding.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Odds are, if term &lt;em&gt;coding standards&lt;/em&gt; is new to you, you are wasting time on a daily basis arguing over the syntax semantics of your programming language. (e.g. tabs or spaces? 4 spaces or 2? print or echo? etc.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Programmers are required to make hundreds to thousands of micro-decisions like this every day, and especially when there is no standard, this costs time and time is money. If you were to benchmark the programmer's brain, you could begin to see exactly just how much time is wasted asking, answering, remembering, and changing each answer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This form of unorganization has many more side effects than one, however.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;!--break--&gt;Good code works; better code is also easy to read, maintain, and debug.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to Sun Microsystems, 80% of the lifetime cost of a piece of software goes to maintenance, and hardly any software is maintained for its whole life by its original author.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There's nothing worse than inheriting a project that requires a lot of your time to decipher. It should not require the original author to translate. What if that author were to die or simply become uncooperative? Frequently, this is the sort of coercive survival technique novice programmers resort to when their job is threatened. Even more frequently, it becomes the primary cause of frustration for new programmers. The novice instinct is to throw everything out and start over from scratch--&lt;em&gt;do not do it!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Good programmers rewrite; better programmers reuse.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The real problem is the lack of coding standards. Insist on them with every project.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What can coding standards do for me?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Standardized code is easy to document. (e.g. &lt;a href="http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/"&gt;Doxygen&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/"&gt;JavaDoc&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.phpdoc.org/"&gt;PHPDoc&lt;/a&gt;, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Standardized code takes care of easy decisions for you, leaving you free to concentrate on the real work.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Standardized code reduces friction in collaborative group development.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what do you recommend?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The set of standards can vary by language and by project. It doesn't matter what they are, as long as they are there. In PHP I recommend the &lt;a href="http://pear.php.net/manual/en/standards.php"&gt;PEAR Coding Standards&lt;/a&gt;. These are the same set of standards used by many large open source projects, such as &lt;a href="http://drupal.org/coding-standards"&gt;Drupal&lt;/a&gt;. Examples include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Indent with 4 spaces; no tabs.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Always use &amp;lt;?php ?&amp;gt; to delimit PHP code, not the &amp;lt;? ?&amp;gt; shorthand.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Class names should always begin with an Uppercase letter.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Constants should always be all UPPERCASE.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;etc.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Of course, every programmer starts out with their own quirky way of writing code. In high school, my C++ teacher used to pride himself on being able to detect cheaters (i.e. plagiarism) in class... He knew when I was helping my friends because he could recognize my work. Even though the program looked the same on the outside, on the inside the code was unique and personal--like poetry. I find it interesting now, when working with teams of developers, that now two of us can write code to accomplish the same goal--and the resulting code is nearly identical.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Great minds think alike.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thanks to coding standards!&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/coding-standards-are-critical#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/development">Development</category>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/learning">Learning</category>
 <pubDate>Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:25:36 -0500</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">8 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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 <title>AJAX Comments 2.09</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/12/14/ajax-comments-209</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img align="left" title="AJAX Comments" alt="AJAX Comments" class="alignleft" src="http://wordpress.smullindesign.com/files/imagecache/product_teaser/files/ajax-comments.png" /&gt;There's a new version of AJAX Comments, the asynchronous blog post discussion plugin, available as of this week. Compatible with the latest version of WordPress, as well as WordPress MU, it has been  completely rewritten. Several new features were added and numerous bugs  were thoroughly squashed through rigorous beta testing prior to release.  Geeky documentation is also included for WP Hackers, and the license is  now GPLv2:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wordpress.smullindesign.com/plugins/ajax-comments"&gt;http://wordpress.smullindesign.com/plugins/ajax-comments&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I've learned a lot since the previous release (2006-07-08). One big lesson was that creating plugins is great fun, but supporting them [for free] is not. Inspired by Hannah Gray's &lt;a href="http://geekgrl.net/2007/01/02/profile-pics-plugin-release/"&gt;Profile Pics Plugin&lt;/a&gt;, and the &lt;a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html"&gt;GNU philosophy on selling free software&lt;/a&gt;, there's now a minimal fee for the download. So far I've been very pleased with the unique visitors, the number of downloads, and the caliber of the people downloading my plugin—not to mention the international exposure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One &lt;a href="http://rudeworks.com/blog/ronda-de-amor-propio/"&gt;great example&lt;/a&gt; is&lt;a href="http://rudeworks.com/info-contacto/"&gt; Miguel Pérez&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href="http://rudeworks.com/"&gt;RUDEWORKS&lt;/a&gt; who took advantage of the CSS theming capability to present a very slick integration with his already awesome WordPress theme—a reminder that it is time to update my blog theme...&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I want to personally say thank you to all those who support free software! Your US$1 goes towards the prompt release of new features, bug fixes, and email support. The cost is nominal and the benefit is clear. Every download is a contribution to the WordPress platform and inspiration for developers worldwide to focus their creative powers on the WordPress community.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/12/14/ajax-comments-209#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/uncategorized">Uncategorized</category>
 <pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:50:49 -0500</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">36 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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 <title>College Scholarship for U.S. WordPress Themers</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/08/09/college-scholarship-for-us-wordpress-themers</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;WOW! You know WordPress is mainstream when you start seeing &lt;a href="http://www.collegescholarships.org/our-scholarships/web-design.htm"&gt;college scholarships&lt;/a&gt; for anyone who can design a good theme. I know a bunch of kids who design for WP at $50/ea. Why design for free/cheap when you can get paid for it like this? Go sign up.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/08/09/college-scholarship-for-us-wordpress-themers#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/design">Design</category>
 <pubDate>Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:14:38 -0400</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">35 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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 <title>New Citi® Dividend World MasterCard®</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/07/21/new-citi%C2%AE-dividend-world-mastercard%C2%AE</link>
 <description>Today I received a new Citi® Dividend World MasterCard®. That's not very unusual, until you realize Citibank didn't ask for my permission--I already have a &lt;a href="https://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/cardDetail.do?screenID=932"&gt;Citi® Platinum Select® MasterCard®&lt;/a&gt; with them, and I recently renewed it on the expiration date. They are pushing this new card as though it's some kind of mandatory upgrade, yet it is still an opt-out offer and my old card doesn’t expire until 2010 and it’s working great. Very strange... &lt;!--break--&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;There's nothing in it for me if I switch, so I called to tell them I would be keeping my old card. Although it was slightly difficult to tell through the language barrier, the obviously off-shored support representative seemed nervous; he behaved as if he could not imagine why anyone would not want this new card, and insisted that if I were to do the research by comparing the two on citicards.com, the choice would be obvious.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Well, the choice was obvious, but it wasn't the one Citibank seems to be pushing. There was nothing about the new card posted on citicards.com; only Google turned up a few &lt;a href="http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2007/05/25/citi-dividend-platinum-select-card-conversions/"&gt;perplexed&lt;/a&gt; bloggers, &lt;a href="http://advancedpersonalfinance.com/dividend-world-mastercard-mystery-solved/"&gt;some&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2007/05/31/followup-citi-dividend-platinum-select-card-conversions/"&gt;speculation&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.ungsunghero.com/2007/06/citibank-nearly-screwed-me-over-hours.html"&gt;complaints&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/personal-finance/credit-cards/credit-card-with-no-pre-set-limit-is-it-bad/"&gt;warning&lt;/a&gt; about the unusual behavior--and one post providing &lt;a href="http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/personal-finance/credit-cards/citi-upgrades-my-dividend-platinum-card-to-dividend-world-mastercard/"&gt;a summarized comparison&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;The primary difference in new "&lt;a href="http://infowars.com/print/Secret_societies/in_your_face.htm"&gt;World&lt;/a&gt;" card (is that short for &lt;a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/archive_new_world_order.html"&gt;New World Order&lt;/a&gt;?) is a feature called &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterCard#PayPass"&gt;MasterCard® PayPass®&lt;/a&gt;, which uses &lt;a href="http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/07/21/radio-frequency-identification-rfid/"&gt;Radio-frequency identification (RFID)&lt;/a&gt; so that instead of sliding your card, you &lt;a href="http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/aboutourcards/paypass/index.html"&gt;"tap"&lt;/a&gt; it on a machine at checkout.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;So, what's the big deal? Who wouldn't love the convenience of their new PayPass® credit card? Well, there is actually lot more at stake here than you may realize; &lt;a href="http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/07/21/radio-frequency-identification-rfid/"&gt;a much larger operation&lt;/a&gt; is moving into place world-wide and it's all part of their master plan. Convenience is merely an enticement; they need you to adopt this for &lt;a href="http://infowars.com/cashless_society.htm"&gt;a much different reason&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/07/21/new-citi%C2%AE-dividend-world-mastercard%C2%AE#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/politics">Politics</category>
 <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:58:08 -0400</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">34 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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 <title>Radio-frequency identification (RFID)</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/07/21/radio-frequency-identification-rfid</link>
 <description>&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;definition:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; An RFID tag is an object that can be stuck on or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radiowaves. The RFID tag can automatically be read from several meters away and does not have to be in the line of sight of the reader.&lt;!--break--&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;For many of us, our first experience with this technology began when Wal-Mart said in June 2003 that it would require its top 100 suppliers to begin shipping tagged goods by January 2005. Many of the world's largest corporations, including &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Gillette"&gt;Gillette&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. razors, shaving cream), &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewlett-Packard"&gt;Hewlett-Packard&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. computers), &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_%26_Johnson"&gt;Johnson &amp; Johnson&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. baby shampoo, band-aids, tylenol), &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly-Clark"&gt;Kimberly-Clark&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. Kleenex), &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_Foods"&gt;Kraft Foods&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. macaroni &amp; cheese), &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_Purina_PetCare"&gt;Nestlé Purina PetCare Co.&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. pet food), &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procter_%26_Gamble"&gt;Procter &amp; Gamble&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. Bounce, Charmin, Bounty, Duracell, Downy, Crest) and &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever"&gt;Unilever&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. Vasoline, lotion) now participate in helping Wal-Mart track inventory and theft in return for reports detailing your shopping habits.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;That was just the beginning. Now, they put it in your clothes, in your car, on your new &lt;a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/archives/realid/index.html"&gt;RealID card&lt;/a&gt;, your cell phone, your keys, your passport, and soon enough--embedded underneath your skin. I mean, it’s more convenient, right?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;CAN YOU SAY “&lt;a href="http://www.tldm.org/News4/MarkoftheBeast.htm"&gt;Mark of the Beast&lt;/a&gt;”?:&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoQuote"&gt;&lt;em&gt; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;"And he shall make all, both little and great, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, to have a character in their right hand or on their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;em&gt;  -- Revelations Chapter 13:16-17&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;They'll know where you go, where you drive, where you shop, what you buy, where you run, where you hide--and they'll be able to turn you off specifically at any time.&lt;/p&gt;
We are no longer human—think animal tags for people—we are now officially SHEEPLE.
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;For details, read more:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 8pt"&gt;RFID News – Corporate/Government Plans for Abuse &lt;a href="http://infowars.com/cashless_society.htm#rfid"&gt;http://infowars.com/cashless_society.htm#rfid&lt;/a&gt;
MasterCard® PayPass® &lt;a href="http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/aboutourcards/paypass/index.html"&gt;http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/aboutourcards/paypass/index.html&lt;/a&gt;
MasterCard® PayPass® &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterCard#PayPass"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterCard#PayPass&lt;/a&gt;
ISO 14443: Proximity Cards used for Identification &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_14443"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_14443&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 8pt"&gt;  Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card Conversions
&lt;a href="http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2007/05/25/citi-dividend-platinum-select-card-conversions/"&gt;http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2007/05/25/citi-dividend-platinum-select-card-conversions/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 8pt"&gt;  Wireless Dynamics, Inc. RFID Reader/Writer SD Cards - Compatible with MasterCard® PayPass®
Ideal for use in PDA Phones such as the Palm Treo 700w. Can be turned on/off.
&lt;a href="http://www.wdi.ca/products.shtml"&gt;http://www.wdi.ca/products.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2007/07/21/radio-frequency-identification-rfid#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/politics">Politics</category>
 <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:14:22 -0400</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">33 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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 <title>Hand Exercises to Increase Your WPM</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/hand-exercises-increase-your-wpm</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;I don't know how many other people can type 120 wpm; I imagine there are a lot, but I just haven't ever met any. As a programmer and a guitarist, being able to work quickly and efficiently with my hands is important to me. That's why these &lt;a href="http://www.handhealth.com/video-warmups"&gt;videos demonstrating actual hand exercises&lt;/a&gt; are pretty cool.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Besides strengthing the hand, improving dexterity, coordination, and preventing carpel tunnel syndrome, these double as great party tricks. Check it out!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;!--break--&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Story...&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.handhealth.com/media-kit"&gt;Greg Irwin&lt;/a&gt; is a guy from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio who decided to develop his ability to play EVERY instrument. He realized three special skills were required: auditory (the capability of the ear), mental (the ability to process rhythms, harmony, and melody), and physical (strength, dexterity, and coordination).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first two were agressively trained in formal coursework. However, the physical skill was noticably absent.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After talking to hand surgeons, physical and occupational therapists, as well as sports medicine professionals, Greg found that, although there were programs for rehabilitation for the hand, there were none for advancing the ordinary hand to a higher level of strength and coordination. So, Greg developed his own exercises.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That was in 1980. Since then Greg has has developed several &lt;a href="http://www.handhealth.com/product"&gt;products and programs&lt;/a&gt; to increase the strength, coordination, and dexterity of your hands and fingers. He also has some pretty fun video clips from his &lt;a href="http://www.handhealth.com/video-tv-appearances"&gt;TV appearances on Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and others&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/hand-exercises-increase-your-wpm#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/personal">Personal</category>
 <pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2006 03:43:48 -0400</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">31 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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 <title>Learn Ruby on Rails on Windows!</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2006/07/23/learn-ruby-on-rails-on-windows</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;If you are interested in learning Ruby on a Windows machine I recommend spending a weekend to read the free online book &lt;a href="http://www.rubycentral.com/book/"&gt;Programming Ruby&lt;/a&gt; and downloading &lt;a href="http://instantrails.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl"&gt;InstantRails&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.radrails.org/"&gt;RadRails&lt;/a&gt; to begin testing the Ruby code snippets it will show you.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After that, I recommend &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097669400X/104-2763119-5135960?v=glance&amp;n=283155"&gt;Agile Web Developent with Rails&lt;/a&gt; by the-one-and-only &lt;a href="http://www.loudthinking.com/"&gt;David Heinemeier Hansson&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For support while learning hop on freenode.net and join #ruby-lang and #rubyonrails. The crowd is very enthusiastic and willing to answer your questions.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2006/07/23/learn-ruby-on-rails-on-windows#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/learning">Learning</category>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/ruby">Ruby</category>
 <pubDate>Mon, 24 Jul 2006 06:10:24 -0400</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">27 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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 <title>Getting Adobe Reader to Read to You</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2006/07/23/getting-adobe-reader-to-read-to-you</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;I find myself reading more and more PDF &lt;a href="https://gettingreal.37signals.com/"&gt;eBooks&lt;/a&gt; lately, and I am impressed by the accessibility functionality built into &lt;a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html"&gt;Adobe Reader&lt;/a&gt; that lets it read the book to me. Sometimes I listen to it speak while I read; trying to utilize as many learning faculties as possible simultaneously in order to increase retention. Here's how you can do it too:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;View &amp;gt; Read Out Load &amp;gt; Read to End of Document&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;View &amp;gt; Automatically Scroll&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It uses the built-in speech engine in XP which is Microsoft SAM, which is pretty old as many of us techies can recall but you can actually download new SAPI 5 voices that sound great. For example, &lt;a href="http://www.cepstral.com/demos/"&gt;Cepstral Text-to-Speech&lt;/a&gt; has several neat voices like Shouty (Drill Sargeant), Whispery (Scary Movie), and Dog (Animal Translation).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Depending on the kind of reader you are, or your mood, it's a lot of fun.&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2006/07/23/getting-adobe-reader-to-read-to-you#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/personal">Personal</category>
 <pubDate>Sun, 23 Jul 2006 03:01:45 -0400</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">30 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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 <title>LinkedIn Addiction</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2006/07/23/linkedin-addiction</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;I have recently found &lt;a href="http://www.linkedin.com/"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt; to be strangely addicting.  According to &lt;a href="http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=US&amp;ts_mode=country&amp;lang=none"&gt;Alexa's Movers &amp; Shakers&lt;/a&gt; it is #70 on the web.  So the good news is, I'm not alone!&lt;/p&gt;</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2006/07/23/linkedin-addiction#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/social-networking">Social Networking</category>
 <pubDate>Sat, 22 Jul 2006 03:40:00 -0400</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">28 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
</item>
<item>
 <title>List Authors Widget 1.0</title>
 <link>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2006/06/21/list-authors-widget-10</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;Display a list of authors in your WordPress Sidebar Widgets linking to the authors.php page.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;!--break--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Demo:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href="http://www.connectblogs.com"&gt;ConnectBlogs.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Features:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Optionally exclude Administrator account from the list.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Use either full names or login names in the list.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Optionally hide Authors without any posts.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Works in current versions of all browsers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recommendations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If you're metablogging or hosting a blog network, this is a must!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Requirements:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://automattic.com/code/widgets/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false"&gt;WordPress Sidebar Widgets&lt;/a&gt; plugin by Automattic&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;License:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;No license; just trying to help out the WordPress community. Feel free to implement whenever you like. &lt;em&gt;All I ask is that you leave a comment/trackback here so others can see your implementation.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" style="line-height:0"&gt;
&lt;input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"&gt;
&lt;input type="image" src="http://www.mikesmullin.com/paypal_donate.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make donations with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!"&gt;
&lt;img alt="" border="0" src="/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"&gt;
&lt;input type="hidden" name="encrypted" value="-----BEGIN PKCS7-----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-----END PKCS7-----"&gt;
&lt;/form&gt;&lt;br /&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Download:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Version 1.0: &lt;a href="/files/2006/06/list-authors-1.0.zip"&gt;list-authors-1.0.zip&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Tested with WordPress 2.0.2 and 2.0.3&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Plugin Installation:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Unzip/upload to /plugins directory.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Activate via WordPress Plugins tab.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
 <comments>http://www.mikesmullin.com/2006/06/21/list-authors-widget-10#comments</comments>
 <category domain="http://www.mikesmullin.com/category/wordpress-plugins">WordPress Plugins</category>
 <pubDate>Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:02:09 -0400</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>mikesmullin</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">26 at http://www.mikesmullin.com</guid>
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