PayPal payments and micropayments

So, PayPal has a micropayment system as well as a regular payment system.  The micropayment fee is 5% + $0.05 while the normal fee is 2.9% + $0.30.  For payments below $12.00, it makes sense to use the micropayments system and the normal system above that level.

Here’s the rub – you can only set up your PayPal account for one or the other.  I’m working on a WordPress PayPal plugin, but I’d like to have that plugin work with micropayments without forcing all of my other PayPal transactions to go through that fee structure.  Oh well.

WordPress Plugin Writing Resources

WordPress is easily my favorite open source software project.  I love it for it’s functionality, flexibility, and extensibility.  When it comes to writing a plugin, these are my favorite resources.  Don’t write a plugin without them!

  1. WordPress.org Codex for Writing a Plugin
    1. If you’re just getting started, this is the place to begin
  2. WordPress.org Codex Plugin API
    1. a great overview of the WordPress plugin API
  3. WordPress Action Reference
    • When WordPress displays a post, page, or the administrative pages it has to run through a number of functions and actions.  Your plugin will need to be activated at one of these points, and it is very helpful to know the order in which things happen.
  4. WordPress Filter Reference
    • The WordPress filter reference is a list of WordPress filters.  Each one will be able to deliver a little piece of the website for your to manipulate in your plugins.
  5. WordPress PHP Cross-Reference
    • The WordPress codex is pretty good – but it is not comprehensive.  If you want to know how some of the more obscure functions, variables, or constants work, you’ll just need to dive into the source code itself.  PHPXRef is, hands down, the best way to do this.  It let’s you search and read the the source code from their website.
  6. Top 10 Most Common Coding Mistakes in WordPress Plugins
    • This is quite possibly the best blog post about writing WordPress plugins.  Applying these guidelines will make you a better WordPress developer and your plugins faster, more efficient, and more awesome. :)
  7. How to Design and Style Your WordPress Plugin Admin Panel
    • In a lot of ways, a program is only as good as its user interface.  Build a good friendly and powerful interface and people will use your program.  Build a bad one and no one will use it, no matter how awesome it is.  This one blog post gives numerous little ways to make your WordPress plugin administrative interface look better.

Why I am not a gambler

SMBC Comic
SMBC Comic

See, I’m not a gambler.  For any amount that I’d feel comfortable wagering, it would literally just be easier and take less time for to work a few extra hours.  I recognize that if you’re an actual mathematician you could basically assure yourself of coming out ahead, but I’m just not interested in investing the time of time and resources to assuring myself of a successful gambling attempt.  Again, it would be easier and less time consuming to just work a few extra hours rather than figuring out how to game a system.

In any case, anyone who enjoys gambling would probably tell you it’s the uncertainty, the rush, the thrill of gambling that they enjoy.  If you offered them a way to increase their odds through strict mathematical approaches, they’d probably reject it.  I am not able to enjoy it at all.  I find gambling very stressful.  The moment you put your money on the table, you’re already down and you’re hoping to break even or come out ahead from that point forward.

This is the long way of saying that you’ve got to love entrepreneurial spirit of the guys who’ve figured out how to game the Massachusetts lottery system…

My pseudonym is my name

When I began blogging for MakerBot, it was with the stipulation that I would be able to continue to blog under my pseudonym.  This was not a problem at all.  In fact, I was assured that many people go by their adopted ‘nym’s which are more reflective of who they are than their given names ever were.  I’m saddened and disappointed that Google+ does not recognize this and is apparently banning people from their Google accounts for using pseudonyms.

Seriously, guys?  E-mail addresses, logins, Google accounts, they’re all pseudonyms of some fashion.  If Google+ is supposed to be the equivalent of posting my driver’s license online to confirm my name, physical address, and organ donor status, you can delete my account right now.  If, instead, it is about letting people use the names they’ve chosen to participate in social interactions with people who really only know them by those names…  Then stop banning people.

</rant>

Oh, OpenSCAD…

One of things I really like about OpenSCAD is how anything I make in it is guaranteed to be manifold.  It’s a solid modeler and by manipulating, adding, and subtracting solids – I should always end up with another solid.  I exported two of the parts necessary for a Pez Powered Disc Shooter only to discover that OpenSCAD refused to compile one of the parts – because that part had some polygons with an incorrect winding order.  Mind, I had no problems exporting the part in the first place – but importing it back?  Nope.

Oh, OpenSCAD, is our love affair over so soon?

Day 30

So, I’ve been on a self-imposed diet for the last 30 days.  I’ve lost about 10 pounds so far by just not eating like a piggie, which is pretty cool.

I’ve been using Fitday.com1 very sporadically since April of 2004.  I know this because I can go back and see what I entered for what I was eating and what I weighed back then.  It’s a pretty cool feature.  Kind of like Google Analytics for health.2  Friday was day 30 of my diet.

Unfortunately, Days 31 and 32 weren’t nearly as successful as days 1 through 30.

Here’s to tomorrow!  Another day!

  1. A free website for helping to track food, caloric intake, activity level, and weight changes [↩]
  2. Haha! [↩]

Why I am cutting back on Netflix

First, let me preface this by saying that my current plan is 3-DVD’s at a time, with free streaming movies, for $20/month.  As of 9/1/2011 that price will increase 20% to $24/month.

I get that streaming subscribers cost Netflix less and they make more money.  I couldn’t care less about the “It’s just a latte” comment.  Here’s what I don’t like – they want a 20% increase with no additional offering.  They’ve increased prices over the years, most recently just last year.  This morning Netflix VP of Corporate Communications Steve Swasey was interviewed by Michael Krasney on my local NPR station, KQED.

When asked about this, Mr. Swasey said, “What we’re trying to convey is that this is an improvement in Netflix service.”  (You can listen to the entire program here.)  He then goes on to attempt to reinforce that Netflix is still a good value.  I suppose it might still be a good value.  But, that’s not the point, is it?  Netflix is claiming that this is some kind of “improvement in Netflix service.”  Talk about lattes all you want, but do not lie about what you’re doing.

The e-mail from Netflix, the Netflix blog, and everything talking about these increases make no mention of any change, let alone improvement, in the actual service.  DVD’s won’t be delivered faster, the discs will still arrive scratched, there will still be a backlog on new movies, and there will still be the “window of delay” when new movies are released for sale.