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Richy's Random Ramblings

TV: Knightmare – it’s back!

Yes! Knightmare – The show I recently described as “where a strange man blinds children, puts them in hazardous situations and makes them get food and “potions” from strangers after manipulating them is coming back (source The Guardian and Den of Geek). It’s only going to currently be a one-off for YouTube’s Geek Week (4th to 10th August), but it is being produced by Tim Child (the original producer) and will star Hugo Myatt as the unforgettable dungeon master Tregard : so we can all once again be “welcome[d] as watchers of illusion to the castle of confusion”.

This “New Episodes” follows CITV’s “Old Skool” week early this year where they aired a few episodes of Knightmare and a recently Knightmare Live project (actually to take place 31st July to 25th August).

It’s probably a bit late, but YouTube/Tim Child please please please take these 3 simple requests in to mind:

1) Don’t bother with the EyeShield. It was a terrible idea. It took people out of the dungeon (so where, exactly, were they meant to to be escaping from/conquering?) and just “padded” the show causing viewers to sit and wait.
2) Please don’t try and do the “Knightmare VR” style or the one without the advisor: some of the best bits were misunderstandings between the Dungeoneer and the advisors (from right and left confusion to advisors forgetting things)
3) Keep it difficult. Please don’t dumb down things like the Wall Monsters Riddles – they were fun to try and work out and often ended with smacks to the head of “Of course!”

TV’s Most Memorable Numbers

After misreading The Guardian’s TV’s five most memorable mumblers headline, I started wondering what TV’s most memorable numbers actually are/were (from a UK perspective).

1. “911”. Yes, the American emergency services number – crops up a lot in TV programmes aired in the UK, but our own 999 or the European 112 number doesn’t (I don’t think I’ve ever heard the 112 number on TV).

2. “01 811 8181” and later “0181 811 8181” . As used by the BBC for many programmes – such as Live and Kicking, Crimewatch, Going Live, Swap Shop and many others.

3. “0118 999 881 999 119 725 3” : a spoof phone number for the “new emergency services” from “The IT Crowd”.

4. “Darrowby 385” from “All Creatures Great and Small”.

Any others that stick in your mind?

PHP: Flow of data: WordPress – MagicMembers Plugin

I hope this post comes in handy to any one else which has to support/deal with the MagicMembers plugin for WordPress.

The [user_register\ calls mgm_content_hooks.php “function mgm_shortcode_parse” which then calls mgm_user_register_form which is in mgm_form_functions.

If fetches the main registration fields using:
$register_fields = mgm_get_config(‘default_register_fields’,array());
[fields such as username, email address]
and the custom ones using:
$cf_register_page = mgm_get_class(‘member_custom_fields’)->get_fields_where(array(‘display’=>array(‘on_register’=>true)));
[fields such as subscription_options, password, and all others]

However, it then calls the filter mgm_register_form via the line:
$form_html .= apply_filters(‘mgm_register_form’, $form_html);
which calls, via mgm_user_hooks.php, the function mgm_wp_register_form_additional which is defined in core/hooks/mgm_user_hooks.php .

Using the templates it gets from two other filters (mgm_generate_register_form_template and mgm_register_form_template), it then tries to build the template using the filter mgm_generate_register_form_html. This filter (again defined in core/hooks/mgm_user_hooks.php) calls the function mgm_generate_register_form_html (again defined in mgm_user_hooks.php) and then the mgm_register_form_additional_html filter – which isn’t defined.

So, in short:

shortcode [user_register\ -> function mgm_shortcode_parse -> function mgm_user_register_form -> filter mgm_register_form -> function mgm_user_hooks -> function mgm_wp_register_form_additional -> filter mgm_generate_register_form_html -> function mgm_generate_register_form_html -> filter mgm_register_form_additional_html

Snippet: Define “TV Show: Knightmare”

Knightmare: The TV show where a strange man blinds children, puts them in hazardous situations and makes them get food and “potions” from strangers after manipulating them – all whilst keeping the kid’s friends hostage. When it’s put like that, no wonder it was taken off TV!

Amazon and Lulu free shipping speeds compared

Within the space of a day, I placed one order on Amazon and one order on Lulu (a “print on demand” service: i.e. they don’t actually “hold” any stock) and, in both cases, selected their “free shipping” option. I would expect Amazon, being the larger one and having all the books already “in stock”, to get my order to me first – but the results are below:

Lulu:
Order value: £6.56 (1 “print on demand” A4 paperback book)
Postage paid: £0.00 [Free Ground shipping]
Ordered: Thursday 20th June 20:15
Shipped: Monday 24th June 15:51 (via DPD)
Expected Delivery: Wednesday 26th June
Arrived: Tuesday 25th June 15:10
Time from order to delivery: 4 days, 18 hours, 55 minutes

Amazon
Order value: £23.46 (3 pre-printed paperbacks and 1 hardback book)
Postage paid: £0.00 [Free Super Saver]
Ordered: Wednesday 19th June 20:49
Shipped: Saturday 22nd June 09:13 (via Royal Mail)
Expected delivery date: Thursday 27th June
Arrived: Wednesday 26th June: sometime before 1pm (Royal Mail didn’t knock)
Time from order to delivery: 6 days, 15 hours, 11 minutes [working on midday delivery]