ClockInfo.com

One of the fundamental usability guidelines is: never have a link that points to the current page - this confuses the user. (See Jakob Neilsen’s The Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines, guideline no. 10.) The WordPress blogs and websites that I have seen (including this blog!) violate this guideline in several ways. It would be nice if a future version of WordPress would give these functions an option to not link to the current page or category. In the meantime, I have written a plugin that strips the link to the current page. It is used on the web site for my church which is under development.

Here is the code for the plugin, I named the file rm_cur_menu_link.php. It is installed in the wp-content/plugins directory, then it may be activated in the plugin administration screen. This plugin will rermove self links in menus that are generated by the wp_list_pages() and wp_list_categories() functions.

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Remove Current Menu Link
Plugin URI: Does not exist yet
Description: Removes link to the current item from a menu generated by wp_list_pages and wp_list_categories. This makes a Wordpress website or blog comply with the usability guidelines that a web page should not have a link to itself.
Version: 1.0
Author: Bill Stoddard
Author URI: http://clockinfo.com/
*/

/* Copyright 2007 Bill Stoddard (email : bill@billsclockworks.com)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
*/

/**************************************

Hooks and configuration

***************************************/
add_filter(’wp_list_pages’,'list_pages_filter’);
add_action(’wp_list_categories’, ‘list_categories_filter’);

function list_pages_filter($content) {
/* for some reason it would not work with [:blank:]* after the m in current_page_item */
return eregi_replace(’(current_page_item “><a [^<]*href=[”|\’]?([^ “\’]*)[”|\’]?[^>]*>([^<]*)</a>)’,'current_page_item”>\\3′, $content);
}

function list_categories_filter($content) {
return eregi_replace(’(current-cat[:blank:]*”><a [^<]*href=[”|\’]?([^ “\’]*)[”|\’]?[^>]*>([^<]*)</a>)’,'”>\\3′, $content);
}

?>

I still consider this plugin to be experimental, although it works fine in my application (WordPress version 2.3.1), so I have not released it as a downloadable plugin yet. You can see it in action on the Flora First Christian Church website.

I thank silisoftware.com and xce.de for their helpful comments on the eregi_replace manual page.

I had a brand new Hermle clock (model 22835-002114) come back because the customer said it would not chime. He sent the batteries with it, and when I installed them, the clock would not chime or keep time. The batteries checked good on the tester, but would not make the clock work. As an experiment, I installed two brand new Duracell C batteries. The clock worked perfectly.

Examining several brands of battery, one can see that the bottom (negative) contacts are made differently.

AA cells: On some brands, the contact extends downward from the surrounding plastic covering, and these work fine. On some brands, the contact is flush with the covering, and these may not work reliably or at all in some clocks. Two brands of AA Cell that work well are Duracell and Rayovac.

C cells: Testing has shown that Duracell batteries work very reliably in clocks. Their negative contact extends further past the plastic covering then on some other brands, ensuring that it touches the clock’s contact.

I did not repair this clock, just oiled the bearings and regulated it. It has the model name “Sparta” and a date code on the bottom.

The date code is 1901

This movement with the escapement at the back was used until about 1901 in Adamantine mantel clocks. It was superceded by the no. 89 movement. Note: the brass j-shaped turnback lever is not in the correct position because the previous repairer assembled it incorrectly. The long part should be on the left (time train side) and should have free movement toward the time train. See this post for how it should be.

I repaired this Schatz standard 400 day clock recently. I like the Roman numeral dial so much that I decided to illustrate the clock here.

It has back plate number 1281. Date code 4 53 (April 1953). My job no. 4497.

This is a good looking Seth Thomas oak kitchen clock.

Date stamp on the back reads 7981 which translates to the year 1897.

Movement Before Repair

Front of movement showing two crudely soldered on “Rathbun” bushings (on pivots T3F and T5F). This type of work is done by someone who does not like to take the movement apart.

The “Rathbun” bushing on the back of the movement (on pivot T4B).

Movement After Repair

The movement after repair. The previous repairer had gouged the brass very deeply. I didn’t want to remove too much material, so the gouges are still visible.

Movement Assembly

Showing the relationship of the lift/warning lever to the j shaped turnback lever. The turnback lever is riveted to the back plate. Its function is to hold the warning lever in the correct resting position so that the minute hand may be turned back past the numeral “12″ without damaging the movement.

Partially assembled movement showing the gears and levers.

This great looking clock has the original time and strike mainsprings, and only a small amount of mainwheel tooth wear (about 5%).

T: 3/4 wide x .0172 inch thick

S: 3/4 wide x .0172 inch thick

Label on back of case

The 8 day time and strike movement

Back of movement

My job no. 4501

American antique one day spring driven clocks often have mainsprings much stronger than necessary. This can cause severe wear to the mainwheel teeth. Shown here is a Waterbury walnut case kitchen or shelf clock, ca. 1880. The movement has a patent date of September 22, 1874.

The movement has the original strike mainspring of 1/4 inch wide by 0.019 inches thick. Yes, this spring is very thick, but it is not very “springy” and does not provide much force, so there is NO wear on the mainwheel teeth.

The time spring was a replacement of 1/4 inch wide by 0.0157 inch thick. There is about 30% wear to the time mainwheel teeth. I replaced it with a mainspring 5/16 inch wide by .0125 inch thick by 45 inches long (actual specifications: 8 mm x 0.33 mm x 1150 mm). This spring provides plenty of power, enough for the movement to run about 48 hours on a winding. This spring is part no. PM-CS510 from The PM Company. They have a great online and printed catalog, including hard to find parts for Swiss travel clocks.

My job 4365

The movement is designed to accommodate 5/16 inch wide mainsprings.

I wanted the navigation elements of WP-Pagenavi to be centered on the page, and the current page number to be above the previous - next navigation, and not have a box around it.

In pagenavi.php, change line 8 from:

echo ‘<span class=”pages”>’.$pages_text.’</span>’;

to:

echo ‘<p class=”pages”>’.$pages_text.’</p>’;

Add the following to pagenavi-css.css:

.wp-pagenavi {
text-align: center;
}

Change the following lines in pagenavi-css.css from:

.wp-pagenavi span.pages {
padding: 2px 4px 2px 4px;
margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px;
color: #000000;
border: 1px solid #000000;
background-color: #FFFFFF;
}

to:

.wp-pagenavi p.pages {
padding: 2px 4px 2px 4px;
margin: 2px 4px 6px 2px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #FFFFFF;
}

You can see it on this web page on the Flora First Christian Church website.