Brain on Fire Tim McCormack, distilled.

WordPress is nice, but some of the plugins I've installed really boost the user experience (and mine!) I thought I'd share what I've gathered.

One of the problems with AJAX-style hash-based permalinks (as in use at WikiMapia) is that the browser's history becomes cluttered, and the user has to hit Back a large number of times to escape the page. By using location.replace, I've devised a way to keep the history pristine yet allow DOM-state permalinks.

Check out the demo. (Should be working now, thanks wioota.)

Combining the power of hot buzzwords such as "closures", "private and privileged scoping", "anonymous functions", and "object namespacing", I present a framework for future Javascript libraries.

A while back I wrote a very simple plugin for WordPress that would automatically insert Dublin Core metadata into the header of my blog posts. I released it under a free license (as version 0.2) with the hope that someone more proficient in WordPress than I would come along and build on my work. And someone did!

Anyone can create and maintain an anonymous online identity through the use of Tor and carefully chosen browser settings, but a difficulty soon arises: How does one pay anonymously for services? Some hosting and email providers accept digital currency (usually e-gold), but the process of getting e-gold in the first place is a bit trickier. Every reputable-looking digital currency exchange service that I've seen demands some proof of identity in a bid to prevent money launderers and financial fraudsters from using their system. There used to be a service that allowed anonymous digital currency transfers (YodelBank), but it closed when the operator became weary of running it. Where does this leave anonymity-seekers? I have a proposal for a system that could allow (though not guarantee) anonymous, blind transfers without opening avenues for money laundering.