As found on the web (August 26th)

generic (feed #49)
frank shared Sprite madness.
blog (feed #46)
generic (feed #50)
generic (feed #50)
blog (feed #46)

WP YouTube Lyte mobile audio-only degradation

stevygee1987, one of those great WP YouTube Lyte users, discovered that somewhere along the way audio-only embeds stopped working on mobile (iOS & Android).
The root-cause of the problem is that for mobile browsers YouTube does not show the bottom controls any more, even if specifically requested to do so via the iFrame API.
I’m waiting on some bright soul to provide me with a good solution (on stackoverflow, so your upvote might help), but as a temporary workaround audio-only on mobile will be rendered as a normal YouTube video (which YouTube prefers, really, you should not do audio-only if you want to stay within the Terms of Service).
Just for testing purposes, “Alone again or” by Love in a small audio-only embed (unless you’re on mobile, that is);

As found on the web (August 19th)

generic (feed #49)
generic (feed #49)
generic (feed #50)
generic (feed #49)

Autoptimize; JavaScript in head and some deprecated functionality

Autoptimize 1.6.5 got just pushed out, with one new feature and one notification. The new option configures Autoptimize to output the aggregated JavaScript in the head-section instead of at the bottom of the HTML. This can be useful when some of the JavaScript needs to be loaded asap and might prove useful to make jQuery plugins behave.
The notification might be less welcome for some users; YUI compression and the CDN options are marked as deprecated in this release. YUI compression was pretty exotic and required the installation of JAVA and the YUI compression jar, so I doubt anyone was actually using this. CDN options are deprecated as well; some people reported issue that I could not reproduce or fix. As I consider CDN not to be core functionality and as it can better be accomplished using e.g. WP Super Cache (which is a must-have companion of Autoptimize anyhow), CDN will indeed also be removed from Autoptimize. Expect the deprecated parts to be removed in 1.7.0 (which isn’t planned yet).

Power users rejoice; WP YouTube Lyte has an API

Power users of WP YouTube Lyte might be particularly interested in the version that is being pushed out as we speak. 1.3.0 comes with an API, allowing you to substantially change the way the plugin works.
You have the following filters to play around with;

  • lyte_settings; filter to change values in the settingsArray without changing the actual setting
  • lyte_content_preparse; filter to change the_content before the httpv-links are being parsed
  • lyte_match_preparse_fragment; filter to change an individual httpv-link before it is parsed
  • lyte_match_postparse_template; filter to change the parsed code before it is merged back in the_content
  • lyte_content_postparse; filter to parse the_content before it is being handed over to the next plugin
  • lyte_css; filter to change WP YouTube Lyte’s CSS
  • lyte_actionsfilters; action to add extra actions or filters, e.g. to make sure widget_text is parsed by lyte_parse as well

The plugin now comes with “lyte_helper.php_example” which is an sample plugin file that, when copied to “/wp-content/plugins/lyte_helper.php” can be activated as a separate plugin and which contains examples of how the API can be used.
For the less tech-savvy users, these are some of the other changes in 1.3.0 (from the changelog):

  • Support for higher quality thumbnails by adding #hqThumb=1 to httpv-link
  • You can disable microdata on a per-video level by adding #noMicrodata=1 to the httpv-link when microdata is enabled.
  • Checkbox on admin-page to flush WP YouTube Lyte cache (which holds title, description, … from YouTube)

As always; feedback, bug reports, feature requests, criticism or code suggestions are more then welcome in the comments or via the contact form.
But whatever you do, make sure to have fun while doing it! This embedded YouTube audio track (a 2h BBC essential mix by Flying Lotus from back in 2008) might help, if you’re into that type of music that is;

Flying Lotus Essential Mix - All 2 Hours - 2008-11-29 High Quality

De Geest van het Verleden in Evere

Elke ochtend (behalve op mijn thuiswerkdagen vanzelfsprekend) rij ik langs dit stukje herinnering;

"spirit of st-louis landt in haren" aandenken op zijkant van een huis op de haachtsesteenweg
De uitleg; ik werk op de grens tussen Schaarbeek, Haren en Evere. Van 1914 tot in de jaren ’50 was er in Haren/ Evere een luchthaven die later vervangen werd door Melsbroek en Zaventem. Wel, op die luchthaven is er lang geleden iets bijzonders gebeurd.

lindbergh op  vliegveld evere/ harenOp 28 Mei 1927, één week na zijn legendarische trans-Atlantische solo-vlucht, landde Charles Lindbergh met zijn Spirit of St-Louis op de luchthaven van Haren voor een grote menigte toeschouwers.

lindbergh_albertDe dag erna ontmoette Lindbergh Koningin Elisabeth en Koning Albert, die hem het Ridderschap in de Leopoldsorde aanbood.

lindbergh vliegt over waregemOp 30 Mei vertrok Lindbergh naar Londen, maar vloog eerst nog laag over de militaire begraafplaats van Waregem om daar bloemen over de Amerikaanse soldatengraven uit te strooien.

Er staat een hele reeks prachtige oude foto’s van Lindberghs bezoek aan België op past-to-present.com (waar je sommige foto’s ook kunt kopen) en op charleslindbergh.com kun je het logboek bekijken. Leuk toch, geschiedenis?