Random entry

| Perl

For many many months now, the random link at the top of this page just below the banner hasn't been working. I decided to fix it once and for all.

First of all I redefined the link to refer to a new CGI script mt_random.pl which I wrote myself using good old Perl. Here is how the new link is defined:

<a href="/cgi-bin/mt_random.pl?blog_id=1" title="Jump to a completely random place on this blog...">Random</a>

Of course the whole random magic of the situation is the Perl script mt_random.pl itself, which looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use DBI;
use CGI;
use strict;

my $q = new CGI;

my $format_url = "/%d/%0.2d/%s.html";

my $hostname = 'localhost';
my $database_name = 'db_name';
my $user = 'db_usr';
my $password = 'db_password';

my $dsn = "dbi:mysql:database=$database_name;host=$hostname";

my $blog_id = $q->param('blog_id') || 1;

my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $user, $password) or die "Can't connect to $dsn: $DBI::errstr";

my $sql = <<EOF;
SELECT
  entry_basename,
  entry_title,
  date_format( entry_created_on, '%Y' ) AS entry_year,
  date_format( entry_created_on, '%m' ) AS entry_month
FROM
  mt_entry,
  mt_author
WHERE
  entry_blog_id = $blog_id
AND
  entry_status = 2
AND
  author_id = entry_author_id
ORDER BY rand( )
LIMIT 1
EOF

my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql);
$sth->execute();

my $ref = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;

print $q->redirect(sprintf($format_url, $ref->{entry_year}, $ref->{entry_month}, $ref->{entry_basename}));

You can now try it out yourself by clicking on the link above, and if you cannot find it then clicking here.

Pretty amazingly magical don't you think?

Random entries

Here are some random entries that you might be interested in:

Recent Assets

  • 2023-09-24-jong-tegen-oud-1.jpg
  • 2023-09-24-jong-tegen-oud-2.jpg
  • just-call-me-fred.png
  • foggy-morning.png
  • oma-2023-07-27.jpg
  • i-almost-died.png
  • chipping-from-twenty-meters.png
  • de-koepel.png
  • screenshot-www.udemy.com-2023.05.18-10_02_39.png
  • screenshot-www.golf.nl-2023.05.08-09_57_30.png
  • IMG-20230423-WA0000.jpg
  • me-and-my-radio-paradise-hat.png

Golf Handicap

Information

This personal weblog was started way back on July 21, 2001 which means that it is 7-21-2001 old.

So far this blog contains no less than 2498 entries and as many as 1877 comments.

Important events

Graduated from Stanford 6-5-1979 ago.

Kiffin Rockwell was shot down and killed 9-23-1916 ago.

Believe it or not but I am 10-11-1957 young.

First met Thea in Balestrand, Norway 6-14-1980 ago.

Began well-balanced and healthy life style 1-8-2013 ago.

My father passed away 10-20-2000 ago.

My mother passed away 3-27-2018 ago.

Started Gishtech 04-25-2016 ago.