Using Flip to Clean Up PHP Files
Here’s another handy tool for editing .php files for WordPress themes. I suppose this could be used for any .php files, but editing WordPress themes is where I generally encounter this problem. The problem being .php files created by other people using some sort of Windows editor (ie. Notepad). These files can be extremely ugly to look at and a headache to edit.
Thankfully, there is a nice and easy way to fix this. While in the directory for whatever theme you are working on type the following command:
flip -u *.php
You may also want to do this for the style sheet. The code for this would be as follows:
flip -u style.css
It is best to specify which files you want to fix, rather than do a wild card flip (such as flip -u *). Doing a wild card flip could alter the code in files that don’t require changing which could then screw up the code in those files causing you to have a very bad day.
“The Diffuser Three” Vindicated by FIA
The main controversy that has been clouding this season’s Formula 1 races has been the dispute over Brawn, Toyota, and Williams (aka The Diffuser Three) use of a tiered rear diffuser. Now that the FIA International Court of Appeals has deemed the diffusers legal, we can now move on to some racing.
The question everyone is currently asking is which team of the “Unhappy Seven” (aka. everyone without a fancy diffuser) will be the first to unveil their version of the rear diffuser. Most bets are for McLaren, since they have been amazingly quiet throughout this entire dispute. Regardless, no one is expecting these teams to have their diffusers in place until the race in Spain.
With any luck we may actually get a full race in Shanghai. So far we have had one finish under a safety car and another called for rain. The weather forecast for Shanghai this weekend is calling for a 40% chance of afternoon showers on Sunday. The race is scheduled for 3:00pm. I have my fingers crossed for a dry race.
Malaysian Grand Prix – 2009
The second race in the 2009 Formula 1 season was held at the beautiful track in Sepang, Malaysia. I love this circuit:
The race was run in the late afternoon in Malaysia to offer better television viewing for the European audience. This sounds like a good idea except for the fact that it usually rains in the late afternoon in Malaysia. And we aren’t talking about a little drizzle either. When the heavens open up over this tropical country expect a serious dowsing. Which is exactly what happened midway through the race. With visibility diminishing and the clock approaching the two hour cut-off time the decision was made to call the race. Jensen Button and Brawn along with their controversial diffuser managed to grab hold of P1 again. Due to the fact that only half of the race was run, drivers were awarded half the points.
Race results:
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Grid | Points |
| 1 | Jensen Button | Brawn – Mercedes | 1 | 5 |
| 2 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 10 | 4 |
| 3 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1 | 2.5 |
| 5 | Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 8 | 2 |
| 6 | Mark Webber | RBR-Renault | 5 | 1.5 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 12 | 1 |
| 8 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 4 | .5 |
| 9 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 16 | |
| 10 | Sebastien Bourdais | STR-Ferrari | 15 | |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 9 | |
| 12 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 11 | |
| 13 | Nelsinho Piquet | Renault | 17 | |
| 14 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 7 | |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 13 | |
| 16 | Sebastien Buemi | STR-Ferrari | 20 | |
| Ret | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 19 | |
| 17 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Mercedes | 18 | |
| Ret | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 6 | |
| Ret | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 14 |
Perhaps the best moment of the race occurred after the race was called. Rob Smedley calms down a freaking out Massa:
The Empty Chair ~ Jeffrey Deaver
This title is another Lincoln Rhyme novel. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with this one. The Empty Chair was simply not a very thrilling thriller. Especially after reading The Bone Collector and The Coffin Dancer. However, I think Jeffrey Deaver is a great author and I enjoy reading his books. This one just happened to fall flat for me. The pace never picked up to reach page-turning craziness. Instead the story line plodded along with characters who were as uninteresting as the plot. The few twists and turns that were thrown in were predictable. Deaver created a wonderful character in Lincoln Rhyme. A brilliant criminologist confined to a wheelchair due to an accident that turned him into a quadriplegic. Hopefully, The Empty Chair was a fluke. I look forward to picking up the next Lincoln Rhyme novel.
2009 Grand Prix Season ~ Penalties & Controversy
The start of the new season of Formula 1 is turning out to be a difficult one to keep up with. Only one race has been run and the final results have changed at least two times that I am aware of. If you watched the race, you saw Trulli up on the podium with a third place finish. This was changed after a penalty was imposed upon him for passing Lewis Hamilton during a safety car. Hamilton was then awarded the third place finish for McLaren and Trulli was knocked down into twelfth position with a 25 second penalty.
Now for the controversy. Evidently a bit of fibbing took place by the McLaren team as to what actually happened during the safety car. Apparently the McLaren sporting director, Dave Ryan, and Hamilton “deliberately mislead” the stewards by omitting some of the facts. You can read the entire story on the Official F1 site. The result of this inquiry has caused Hamilton to be excluded from the race results in Melbourne and McLaren faces the possibility of a substantial fine. Dave Ryan has been suspended from McLaren and Trulli has been given back his third position win. Lewis Hamilton may very well be a talented driver, but my issue with him is that he isn’t a very sporting driver. And McLaren isn’t a very sporting team. They both want to win podiums regardless of how they get them. Had Hamilton and McLaren simply let the pass by Trulli go and chalked it up to a misunderstanding between drivers (which it most likely was) the result would have been a one point difference between Hamilton and Trulli. In these early days of the season is one point worth all of this controversy?
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2010 F1 Schedule
Date Location Mar. 14 
Sakhir - Bahrain Mar. 28 
Melbourne - Australia Apr. 04 
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Apr. 18 
Shanghai - China May 09 
Barcelona - Spain May 16 
Monaco May 30 
Istanbul - Turkey Jun. 13 
Montreal - Canada Jun. 27 Valencia - Spain Jul. 11 
Silverstone - Great Britain Jul. 25 
Hockenheim - Germany Aug. 01 
Budapest - Hungary Aug. 29 
Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium Sep. 12 
Monza - Italy Sep. 26 
Singapore Oct. 10 
Suzuka - Japan Oct. 24 
South Korea Nov. 07 
Sao Paulo - Brazil Nov. 14 
Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates -
