I seem to be running out of fresh ideas for songs lately. Instead, I'm turning back to some older projects I've abandoned and seeing if I can go back to finish them.

I'm still having trouble keeping ideas in my head once I sit down at the piano, but the funny part is that I usually have the other song I'm working on still fresh so I can work on that instead.  It's a bit weird working on a light, cheerful song (Sparkle) and a slower, more moody song (Fraying Strands) simultaneously but eh, it works out.

"Sparkle"

"Fraying Strands"

Any suggestions, let me know as usual.  Hopefully I can finish them before the summer is over... -_-

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Sadly I still find myself craving to play Norse/Fort Wars every now and then, so I hope some of you are still out there.  It seems like the nail was put to the coffin after the NorseWars.com site went down, but I hope that isn't the case.

1. Norse Wars Site Reinstated
I went ahead and setup Norse Wars under a new domain NorseWars.net, since I wasn't able to obtain the .com version.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get in contact with Mike, so I don't have any of the forum/ladder data from the old site - everyone has to re-register again.  If Mike does ever get back to me with the backup though - I'll quickly restore it.

If anyone is still up for the occasional game (or even if you're too busy), it'd be nice have you around.  If you have emails of anyone else who used to play, please let them know too.


2. Fort Wars Fixed for TWC
Yes Fort Wars is back online for AOE3 TWC.  It turns out the only thing that kept it from working was that ES changed the Unit IDs - a quick run through the script and rematching up the IDs did the trick.   It is unfortunate that it took this long to address.  The map might be a bit unbalanced because of balance changes (though unlikely from what I've tested so far), but it works now.

Latest version can be downloaded here: Fort Wars

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     I finally managed to put aside some time to add comment boxes to the SMF Event Registration Mod.  Appologies upfront for those who were requesting the feature almost a month ago.

     What the new change does for SMF Forums is basically allow those who sign up to also add a comment next to their name.  This is useful if you want to collect additional information on your event, such as dietary restrictions or preferences.  Like other changes, this is optional and can be enabled/disabled per event.

     You can download the updated file here:
     SMF Event Registration 0.17-Modified

     Just a quick disclaimer, but this is not my mod per se but a series of improvements on the original mod at SMF.  I'm hoping to get these changes incorporated into the official version eventually, as they've been very useful in the past couple years I've used this mod, but we'll see how that goes.

The total changes made to the original are now:
- Allow multiple registrations from the same member, to allow them to sign additional people up.  Optional per event.
- Allow registrations from guests.  Optional per event.
- Allow comments to accompany signups (for additional information such as event needs, etc).
- Admin Register button added, allows you to register or delete other members from the event.
- Admin buttons always visible now, even if Admin isn't registered for the event.
- Allow members with moderating permissions to administrate event sign ups.
- Event administrator can also confirm or cancel any signups on the topic view.
- $timeleft fixed, was originally not ever getting the option to confirm. (Display Source and Template)
- Show number of days remaining before you can confirm. (Display Template and Language files)
- Setting days before confirmation to 0 disables confirmation for the event (hides confirm buttons).
- Setting max attendants to 0 will disable registration for that event (not every event needs signups).
- Post Event page (the one with just event title, no post) does not show event data; sometimes too much clutter when you might not want to link the event to a topic. (Calendar template)
- Event registration options on post event page combined on same lines to save space. (Post template)
- Terms and Conditions don't show if they are blank. (registerEvent.php)

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Hey all, I managed to write up a short but awesome plugin that transforms my Mini Database Builder platform into a fully functional stock simulation system.  It basically allows you to buy, sell, or short stocks just as you would with a real broker, and your performance as well as "cash balance" is automatically kept track of.

The program runs as a customization of Mini DB, but neither are not publicly available yet (I've only set this up with a few websites I help with).  However, those of you have an account on my main site pftq.com can hop right over to the one I have set up here and try it for yourself.


This is perfect for those of you who have yet to attempt stock trading because of not wanting to risk real money or just simply being too lazy to set up an account with a broker.  I'll be copying my own picks over to this virtual portfolio as well, so you can follow the performance of my trades.

Hope to see you guys trading soon - especially those of you who claim to be "Econ" majors but have no investing experience whatsoever.

Enjoy!

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For a couple of smaller forums, I was asked to set up a rich-text or WYSIWYG editor for the SMF board.  The 1.1.x series does not use HTML yet and relies solely on BBC.

I wrote up a small mod that integrates the free CKEditor (ckeditor.com) with SMF but please note that it does not handle the security (CKEditor escapes most its characters though).  Ideally SMF would have its own rich-text editor and that is what SMF2 intends to do.

Download here: SMF WYSIWYG CKEditor Installer

This mod differs from the approach usually posted elsewhere in that it does not use HTML tags, which are only restricted to admins.  It also fixes the formatting a bit (sometimes you end up with double-spaced posts) and preserves the original post format for the quick-reply box.

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