I’ve added Star Trek to my DVD Collection!
This movie was AWESOME! They did a fantastic job re-introducing the Star Trek franchise with this film and handled the concerns I had going into it. By creating a new timeline (parallel universe) with Spock and the Romulan’s interactions, they are freed from having to match what the first crew did and experienced. It will also help explain why the technology of this particular crew will be so much more advanced than the original due to the input and advances introduced by the original Spock This, in turn, lets them get away with using better special effects than what the original series and movies had at their disposal.
What’s even better than all the effects is the character interaction, story, and acting (something which Star Wars I suffered from). Zachary Quinto as the new Spock was perfect. It’s amazing how much he looks like the original. It was good to see Leonard Nimoy playing Spock again as well. I’m not one to go on and on about movies, so I’ll just say this one more time: It was AWESOME!
I’ve included the outer cover image that the case slides into as well as the front and back images of the case itself. 3 Trailers and 1 TV spot are also included in a combination video that I found on YouTube.
Just wanting to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Oh, and a safe one too!
I have updated my blog to WordPress v2.9 which was just released. I did the auto upgrade option again which seems to have worked well. Even so, once again I had to edit the /wp-includes/vars.php file to force $is_apache to true (see below) since the SERVER_SOFTWARE variable comes back as WebServerX instead of Apache.
// Server detection
/**
* Whether the server software is Apache or something else
* @global bool $is_apache
*/
//$is_apache = ((strpos($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'], 'Apache') !== false) || (strpos($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'], 'LiteSpeed') !== false)) ? true : false;
$is_apache = true;
/**
* Whether the server software is IIS or something else
* @global bool $is_IIS
*/
$is_IIS = (strpos($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'], 'Microsoft-IIS') !== false) ? true : false;
I also had to edit the /wp-login.php file and add session_start(); at the beginning for the Register Plus plug-in to work properly as PHP sessions are not automatically started:
session_start();
/**
* WordPress User Page
Other than the modifications above, which I have always had to do, the upgrade went smoothly.
Of course, I did perform a complete database and file backup before upgrading!
I’ve updated the method I’m using to embed MIDI files in my DVD pages that had them. A couple of example pages are The Best of Benny Hill and Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace. I am using the JavaScript method that is described at MIDIStudio.com. It’s basically the same thing I was doing before directly within the page’s code without JavaScript; however, this script now adjusts the code based upon the browser it detects which should make it more compatible. I did modify their code slightly by adding an optional autostart parameter with a default value of 0 if no value is given so that it does not automatically start playing. Here’s my modified code:
// This script determines correct code required to embed MEDIA files
// for a large number of browsers, including AOL and WebTV
// Windows Media Player is required and always used, except for WebTV
// Written by Les Gorven, http://midistudio.com/
// Ver. 4.0 (simple) auto-start parameter is true - Created: February 2, 2008
// autostart parameter added by Mark Headrick December 2, 2009
function playMedia(mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart) {
var mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart;
if (typeof autostart == "undefined") {
autostart = 0;
}
if (GetBrowser() == "IE")
playAll(mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart) ;
else if (GetBrowser() == "unknown")
embedSource(mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart) ;
else if (navigator.appName.substring(0,5) == "WebTV")
embedSource(mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart) ;
else
playAll(mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart) ;
}
function embedSource(mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart) {
var CodeGen = "";
var mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart;
CodeGen = '<embed src="' + mediaURL + '"' + '\n' ;
if (autostart == 0) {
CodeGen += ' height=' + height + ' width=' + width + ' autostart="false"' + '\n';
} else {
CodeGen += ' height=' + height + ' width=' + width + ' autostart="true"' + '\n';
}
CodeGen += ' LOOP=' + rpt + '>';
document.write(CodeGen);
}
function playAll(mediaURL,rpt,height,width,autostart) {
var CodeGen = "";
CodeGen = '<embed type="application/x-mplayer2" ' + '\n' ;
CodeGen += ' pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/MediaPlayer/" ' + '\n' ;
CodeGen += 'Name="Player" ' + 'src="' + mediaURL + '" ' + '\n' ;
CodeGen += 'autoStart=' + autostart + ' ' ;
if ((height == 24) && (width == 299))
CodeGen = CodeGen + 'ShowStatusBar=1 ';
if ((height >= 50) && (height <= 75) && (width >= 200))
CodeGen = CodeGen + 'ShowStatusBar=1 ';
if ((height > 75) && (width >= 200))
CodeGen = CodeGen + 'ShowStatusBar=0 ';
if ((height <= 49) && (width != 299))
CodeGen += 'ShowStatusBar=0 ';
CodeGen += 'enableContextMenu=1 cache=0' + '\n' ;
CodeGen += 'playCount=' + rpt + ' ' ;
CodeGen += 'volume=-1 ' ;
CodeGen += 'HEIGHT=' + height + ' WIDTH=' + width + '>' ;
document.write(CodeGen);
}
function GetBrowser()
{
var agt=navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
if( ((agt.indexOf("msie") != -1) && (agt.indexOf("opera") == -1)) )
return "IE";
else if( ((agt.indexOf('mozilla')!=-1) && (agt.indexOf('spoofer')==-1)
&& (agt.indexOf('compatible') == -1) && (agt.indexOf('opera')==-1)
&& (agt.indexOf('webtv')==-1) && (agt.indexOf('hotjava')==-1)) )
return "Netscape";
else
return "unknown";
}
Within the page itself, I just put the following where I want the player to appear:
<script type="text/javascript">
playMedia("/midi/SomeFileToPlay.mid",3,65,300)
</script>
If I want the song to automatically start playing, then I would change the code to:
<script type="text/javascript">
playMedia("/midi/SomeFileToPlay.mid",3,65,300,1)
</script>
Seems to work well in both Firefox 3.5.5 and Internet Explorer 8.