I was looking for a MediaWiki extension that could read RSS feeds and output them onto the page. The trouble was, the extensions I found either didn't work, or were very uncustomisable. For example, for one that actually worked, adding this to the wiki page:

<feed>http://jonnylamb.com/feed/</feed>

forced this output on me:

<h3><a href="http://jonnylamb.com/2007/03/22/minimo-bongo/">Minimo Bongo</a></h3>
<small>22 March 2007, by jonnylamb</small>

<h3><a href="http://jonnylamb.com/2007/03/22/durham-visit/">Durham Visit</a></h3>
<small>22 March 2007, by jonnylamb</small>

<h3><a href="http://jonnylamb.com/2007/03/22/musically-active/">Musically Active</a></h3>
<small>22 March 2007, by jonnylamb</small>

<h3><a href="http://jonnylamb.com/2007/03/05/age/">++age</a></h3>
<small>5 March 2007, by jonnylamb</small>

This is not ideal. Instead of looking further for a better extension, I wrote one. It is called SimpleFeed and it lives on the Extension:SimpleFeed page on mediawiki.org.

It is simple for two reasons:

• It uses the SimplePie feed parsing library
• It's exactly that- simple.

Here is a quick tour on how to use it:

Once it is installed, one can choose the syntax each item is outputted in. For example:

<feed url="http://jonnylamb.com/feed/">
== [{PERMALINK} {TITLE}] ==
{DATE} by {AUTHOR}

{DESCRIPTION}
</feed>

For each item from the feed, the curly-bracketed words get replaced with their corresponding values. Note the use of wiki-markup as this is then parsed by the MediaWiki parser, producing something like this:

<a name="Minimo_Bongo"></a><h2> <span class="mw-headline"> <a href="http://jonnylamb.com/2007/03/22/minimo-bongo/" class="external text" title="http://jonnylamb.com/2007/03/22/minimo-bongo/" rel="nofollow">Minimo Bongo</a> </span></h2>

<p>22 March 2007 by jonnylamb
</p>
<p>I shoved
[...]

So of course there's a whole load of MediaWiki stuff added which makes it integrate into the wiki much better, and the killer feature is the customisation possible!

There's more information on its mediawiki.org page: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SimpleFeed.

I shoved Minimo on my Nokia N800 and got Bongo running on it. It is very very slow, and Bongo does look a little weird, but here are some screenshots:

Note the lack of scroll-bar meaning the lower section of the logon window is missing. This doesn't matter as it is not needed at all.

This all looks nice apart from the weird drop-down box to select from Summary, Mail and Calendar. Still, it works.

Composing a new mail. Looks good.

Calendar month view. Looks good.

This is no great surprise that it worked as it's the same Mozilla code, but cut-down. However, it's nice to have access to Bongo on another portable device.

On Tuesday to Wednesday, I was in Durham. This was primarily for a departmental open day, but there was a chance to know the university and some people better.

I stayed in Grey college and it was nice. I met some nice people and am enthusiastic about going there. I was knackered when I got back though. Not really ready for school the next day, and I was truly rubbish and lazy at squash the following day! That's about all there is to say here about it.

Last week was a little hectic musically. Friday, Saturday and Sunday all contained concerts. Details:

Friday A program of Constant Lambert (Rio Grande), Percy Grainger (Tribute to Foster), Stamford and other choral works for the annual school choral concert in the cathedral. This was basically all sight-reading despite a tiring rehearsal the previous night. It went alright I thought, but the distance between instruments (orchestra, choir, piano, organ) was too much and sometimes slipped. I didn't mind.

Saturday The Huntingdonshire Philharmonic invited me back yet again to play with the choir. This is rather embarrassing because every time I get asked to play, I think to myself "I really should practise this time"- it never happens, and I feel quite guilty. There was a rehearsal in the afternoon, straight from school, and concert normal time. We played:

• Mendelssohn - 'A Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage'
• Handel - Excerpts from 'Water Music'
• Vaughn Williams - A Sea Symphony

I was asked whether I could play in the next concert in May, and I wasn't sure. I later found out that I was playing in a Ramsey Choral Society concert that exact day in May so couldn't do the next Hunts Phil one. I didn't mind too much until I just found out that they'll be playing Beethoven's Mass in C, and the Eroica. I am very, very annoyed now.

Sunday This was the concert for the Chamber Orchestra of St. Ives (COSI). We aren't a particularly well-known group but this time the program was a cracker. Again, a rehearsal in the afternoon and concert in the evening. We played:

• Beethoven - 'Egmont' Overture, Op. 84
• Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
• Haydn - Symphony No. 101 in D «Clock»

We've been rehearsal for this concert for a few months now and meet the second Thursday of every month. It's nice.

Basically, the end of last week was very busy.

Oh, and I just realised that I'm on the second page of the school newsletter. Fun stuff.

So a few days ago I turned 18. This doesn't mean too much, but I suppose now officially an adult. I'm finally getting a provisional driving license in preparation for lessons, looking at student bank accounts, and more fun stuff!

Bongo Update: It looks like the folks after the first batch of Bongo Polos have all submitted their interest. I'll email my contact soon asking about prices, and stuff.