Kyle Ritter

I guess there is a problem with wordpress pinging ignOregon.com. I’ll see if it works.

Update: No problems with pings on this end.

I have this little Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh that has been quite fun and useful for when I’m running around doing BarFly business. It’s easier than lugging around my main laptop, and it’s easier for entering happy hour info than using my iPhone.

However, the keyboard recently went out on me. It was quite odd, I’d his the “A” key, and it would trigger “QAW”. I’d hit the tab key, and it would toggle Caps Lock. Hitting “A” again would them display “qaw”. Pretty silly.

It turns out, replacing the keyboard is cheap and simple.

Step 1: Order a new Dell Mini 9 Keyboard
I saw some listed for as much as $35, I got mine in an auction for around $19. Once it arrives, you are all set.

Step 2: Remove the battery.
There are two big tabs on the backside, pretty hard to miss.

Step 3: Remove the keyboard screws.
There are two of them. This is all you will need to remove. Be careful, don’t lose them.

Step 4: Remove the keyboard
Flip the Dell Mini right side up, open up the monitor, and very gently wiggle the keyboard lose. You may need to use some leverage to pop it out. Be careful, there is a ribbon attached to the keyboard.

Step 5: Remove the keyboard ribbon
You will see either grey or brown slider locks on the keyboard ribbon. Gently slide them away from you, towards the monitor.

Step 6: Insert the new keyboard ribbon
It can be a bit tricky, just be patient. Make sure the latch locks are still slid out, and meanwhile, insert the keyboard ribbon. Latch the locks.

Step 7: Pop the keyboard in place
Gently, as always.

Step 8: Put it all back together.
By all, I mean, put the keyboard screws back in and then slide the battery back in place. Voila. You are done. Should have taken 3 minutes, max.

And he is trying it with the Twitter Updater Wordpress plugin. I hope it works!

Testing out a Wordpress plugin that updates Twitter while shortening the permalink with pdx.be

At some point a little over a week ago I whipped up a temporary Oregon blog aggregator to take the place of the much beloved and missed ORblogs.com.

Other efforts with programmers far better than myself are underway too.

In full disclosure, I’m just posting this as an excuse to test how well my ping script is working with Wordpress.

[[UPDATE]]

Yep, it works great.

I just finished a minor little project with my friend Kyley, who works in the bulk flower seed industry. I learned all kinds of fascinating stuff about the wildflower seed business. There is quite an interesting set of interaction between growers, wholesalers, and retailers. Often the lines get blurred, as growers buy their own seed mixing and germination equipment, as wholesalers sell seed back to growers, and in turn retailers sometimes go direct to growers.

I’ve been working a little harder on BarFly lately. I realized I was not logging search queries generated by our users. How stupid of me to neglect an asset that helps me learn a ton about what kind of information people are seeking. I started logging this stuff and found ways I could make our listings more accessible. In addition to that, I’ve added “Drinking Buddies” to all BarFly accounts. Basically, it’s just a myspace friends type deal.

I even had time to write some content. Not that I had time, I had far too little, but you know what I mean. Nonetheless, here is a guide to St. Patrick’s Day in Portland. And of course, you are looking for Irish bars in Portland.

Okay, I really don’t. Trust me, I’ve seen those baby people. The people who dress like babies. In all seriousness my friend Jason recently had a baby and his fiance is a product reviewer for baby clothing. They recently started a website reviewing all sorts of toddler type clothing, and Megan seems well adept at it. So, hello toddler clothing reviews!

You wouldn’t think it would take this long, but I finally got around to adding Portland happy hour info to BarFly.

There are still a good 200 bars that need updating, but maybe I’ll be able to get around to it.
With all the good happy hour sites out there, I knew I’d better get something added at one point or another. Not sure what my next step is, but I’m guessing I’ll do some sort of search functionality.

Emma Juhlin finally sent me another article. That chick rocks. She wrote a wonderful guide to the antique stores in Portland’s Sellwood Neighborhood. It fits nicely with her other article about Bernadette Breu.