What I learned from cleaning my keyboard

I decided to clean my ThinkPad‘s keyboard yesterday because it was getting noticeably dirty and I haven’t cleaned the keyboard since I got my computer two years ago. I don’t mean just a surface cleaning, either: I popped off all my keycaps and went in with a toothpick and a vacuum cleaner.

ThinkPad T430 keyboard without keycaps

(Please excuse the photo quality. My batteries for my camera were dead and I wasn’t going to wait for them to charge, so I used my phone)

The whole thing took about two hours: one hour for taking the keycaps off, 30 minutes for cleaning, and the other 30 minutes for putting the keycaps back.

Widen the new WordPress.com editor

WordPress.com has yet again changed the default editor, upsetting many users.

The new editor.

I use my redirect script to get back to the classic core editor (the best editor) instead of using the new one, but I figured I might as well make the new one more useful for anyone who wants to use it.

WordPress.com Classic Editor script updated for new editor

WordPress.com’s new editor was updated on November 16 and it broke redirecting for private and Jetpack-enabled blogs. Specifically, the fallback link to the old editor was removed, so the script could not scrape it and redirect to it.

Those of you who are using the script already and have automatic updates enabled (it’s probably enabled by default) should get an update to v1.4.0 soon. Otherwise, head over to Greasy Fork and install the script manually.

As a result of the update, redirection for Jetpack-enabled blogs whose site root and installation root differ fails again. Until someone figures out how to hijack the API proxy that the editor uses, this will stay broken.

Please report any issues you come across and I will try to fix them as soon as possible.

Stop calling it a “hashtag”!

Seriously, stop calling every instance of the ‘#’ character a “hashtag“. Sure, call it a hashtag when it’s actually used as one, but don’t apply the term to each and every use of the character. It’s really #annoying!

Pi Approximation Day 2015

Approximately today (“approximately”, because of time zones) is Pi Approximation Day. Go celebrate by eating cake, or anything else that’s approximately pie.

Approximately pie.

Leap seconds: You should be concerned

You should be skeptical about these so-called “leap seconds“. These scientists are giving away free seconds and something seems fishy about it. Our clocks can’t handle these extra seconds; are they out to sabotage us? And what if they come back to us at a later date to claim these seconds that they’ve given away? What will you do then?

Time is money, and people don’t give away free money just because. If I were you, I’d stay well away from this sketchy leap second business.

Leap seconds

In about ten minutes, just before midnight UTC, a leap second will occur. This day will last slightly longer that most.