Monthly Archives: August 2007

My biggest blogging fault

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True confession time here. After all, it’s always good to know one’s limitations don’t you think? And this one pertains to my personal blogging effort here and my largest associated fault which is…

I’m too technically oriented.

No, I don’t mean in my writing style which is haphazard as my subjects are but rather my overall nature in general. In other words; I’m always catching myself becoming more occupied with how well the blog works than writing up the actual content. God forbid that a page doesn’t render exactly right or loads a bit slower than usual or that this particular image in my sidebar is not exactly aligned with the one below it. And that’s just the minor stuff. Don’t even let me into the backend of it. Into the actual gears, levers and motors of the operation or in this case, widgets, hacks and plugins.

Is this plugin slowing me down? Is that one overloading my database? I’ll go nuts trying to find out why posting a comment no longer refreshes the page all of a sudden (my host’s having problems) when I know damn well that it’s been working just fine up till then. It doesn’t occur to me at all that I hadn’t changed anything before the problem occurred yet I’ll spend two days ripping up works trying to fix my piece of WordPress machinery that wasn’t broken in the first place.

OMG! My SEO score went down a half a point! I just gotta FIX IT!

*heavy sigh*

Why can’t I just leave well enough alone and just get back to writing?

Look, I understand that there is a learning process to be had here. I do understand that I’m just not the type to set up a basic install and just happily blog away not giving a hoot about whether anyone can actually find my blog or not. If that was the case I’d still be on Blogger where I started off from about two years ago. But I also found out that there is a huge amount of things to be learned about SEO and 404 pages and how to avoid them and redirection of permalinks and easy site navigation and W3C and sitemaps and stuff to stop spam with and .htaccess and, and, and….

IS THERE A PLUGIN FOR THAT OR WHAT??!!??

WordPress is releasing a major upgrade on the 24th of this month.

Groooaaannnn!

Oh well. I am what I am and all that. My love for tinkering will always be vying with my love for writing as to which has the highest priority. The fact that I’m my own best mechanic is irrelevant since I’m having extreme difficulty in splitting myself into two pieces.

I feel so besides my self at times. (and I’m not even sorry I said that).

I suppose every blogger out there has their own worst fault that they’re constantly battling day in and day out. No one is ever that focused and consistent except maybe for or very unique individuals for example. And there’s other ones out there of course, I just had to pick on these two because they were the first ones to pop into my head–just like this post. And I ain’t neither one of them nor do I have their abilities to stay on focused on one subject and the task at hand, which is writing up good content on that particular subject.

Oh well…I like what I’m doing and I’m rather proud of the mechanics running it. Heck, I even have folks dropping by occasionally and leaving comments which is just fine by me.

And I’ll keep working on that fault of mine.

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If your looking for those WordPress 2.3 posts…

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I noticed today there was already quite a few links in Google search and other sources that led back to my previously published WordPress 2.3 beta 1 posts. Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen server problem at my host’s end, I had to revert back to WP 2.2.2 and import the the previous DB backup I had made the day before when I upgraded from 2.2.2. This backed up DB obviously didn’t contain those posts. My apologizes to all who have come looking for those very posts.

I can verify that all the plugins listed in my Plugins page worked with 2.3 beta 1 with the possible exception of Spam Karma 2.3 RC 4 but I’m not positive on that since I didn’t have time to test thoroughly.

The other plugin that worked only partially was Simple Tagging 1.6.8.1. I use the plugin specifically for a related posts function and that worked correctly as did all the admin functions of STP. The problem occurred with my tagging page which was no longer generated and any link to a “tag” archive ended up with a 404. The upside to this is that a Simple Tagging importer will be supplied in the final release of WordPress 2.3 and perhaps even in the next beta. So it looks like the thing to do is to immediately import your STP tags and figure out how to duplicate your tagging functions using WP 2.3′s built in tagging or wait until the plugin is updated to work in 2.3 before upgrading. If that actually happens that is.

I hate it when things go awry when I’m having a good time.

Perhaps with the release of WP 2.3 beta 2 (next week?), I’ll attempt the upgrade again but the jury’s still out yet. :)

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Site Problems…It’s Gotta be Global Warming!

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WaterCoolant

This is it! This is the answer to all my site problems over the last three days!

Global Warming!

And this is my host’s solution for cooling down the overheated servers!

Why didn’t I suspect something like this earlier? Luckily for me a friend of mine who works there saw what was going on as they were headed out for lunch and snapped a quick pic of this tech hosing down a batch. I guess you know I’ll be calling up tech support and giving them a piece of my mind, you can count on it!

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No Apparent Reason for Site Problems

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Well, guess I won’t have to start fresh after all. Although comments posting and the page not refreshing is still happening on and off and neither my host nor myself can find a reason for it. So after dealing with this for most of the day I figure it’s enough.

Let the site ride, I say. It began happening for no apparent reason and I suppose it will go away for no apparent reason as well. Either way, I’m glad I don’t have to start anew. I just hate spending all that time and not learning anything.

So if you post your comment and the page does not refresh don’t worry. It got there. Hopefully this BS will clear up shortly.

FCC lays down the rules for new spectrum. Now Google needs to make good their bid.

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By now most folks have been aware of the great debate on the upcoming auction of the spectrum that will be abandoned when broadcasters go from analog to digital broadcasting. Things became especially interesting when Google stirred the pot with their guaranteed 4.6 billion dollar minimum bid if the FCC agreed to the following rules:

Official Google Blog: Our commitment to open broadband platforms

  • Open applications: consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;
  • Open devices: consumers should be able to utilize their handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;
  • Open services: third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and
  • Open networks: third parties (like Internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee’s wireless network

    • The FCC basically chafed at these rules at first but as time went on and a few of the incumbents like AT&T and Verizon began making noises about capitulating to a more open wireless network should they win the bid, the FCC just recently handed down the final wording of the rules that will set the requirements for companies bidding on this new spectrum and guess what? Looks like Google had a strong influence in the flavor of these new stipulations. Although the exact wording of the new FCC rules hasn’t been released yet, there’s a few excellent articles that cover the gist of it and cover some questions thereof:

    Continue reading →

    Two New Sites Worth Taking a Look At

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    In my travels through the Blogosphere this past week I came across two new sites that snuck into my brain and kept hollering at me until I went back for a second and then a third look. I liked what I saw.

    And I never thought red layouts would be so easy going on the eyes.

    It's Write Now

    The first one is Emma’s . A new blog dealing with “Insights into how to write, and where to publish the content” (may she forgive me for stealing a possible logo off of one of her posts). And although the blog is still new and we all know how “learning the WordPress ropes” can take some time, she has her “niche” well chosen and established already in just three short months and of course, the best way to begin is to post quality content and she’s off to a grand start as far as that’s concerned. As a matter of fact I found several good resources already that Emma had posted about that I hadn’t known of before and the only way to see what these resources are, is to head on over and check out her posts.

    As far as her blog’s layout is concerned it’s a simple, basic two column theme that’s perfect for focusing on the content she writes and along with good readability makes for very comfortable experience.

    Good work so far Emma, I’m cheering for ya’!

    The Blog Experiment

    The second site I stumbled across and later joined is Sara’s which is a combination blog/forum that is tailored specifically for bloggers and blogging. In it’s current form, the site is just a bit over 1 month old and according to the TBE announcements section of the forum, there’s already around 130 members and nearly four thousand posts so far.

    What impressed me right off about the site was how well laid out it was and the features it offers to the users such as the editor that’s used for posting to the forum. It’s excellent and in fact I’m a bit green with envy since I’ve never come across the equivalent for WordPress. I want one–plain and simple!

    The overall stability is good also with only a few slowdowns when banging back and fourth through various threads. I find this refreshingly different in some ways since server problems are usually the most common cause of slowdowns, crashes and general frustration that goes along with running a forum such as this one especially when it’s new. And there’s a good chance that the statistics service for the site is also installed locally on the server which can quickly slow down the works as time goes on. As it stands now, the site functions well and has a good, solid feel to it which is impressive in itself.

    If Sara is as good at keeping the mechanics working correctly (or pounding on the “mechanics” when something goes wrong as the case may be) as she is a developer, then The Blog Experiment should turn out to be a rousing success. I hope so.

    So when you get time, stop in at these two sites and give Emma and Sara a hello and a word or two of encouragement as they both work on their respective projects. They definitely deserve it.

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    A soggy day means soggy DSL

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    The good old Verizon land lines that deliver my DSL to my door always slow to a crawl when it rains and today has been a soaker which is the reason for not doing the posts I planned today.

    Here’s hoping for a better day tomorrow, ay?

    Can phone lines really become water logged?

    You don’t have to be crazy to read my blog…but it helps.

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    I don’t really have a clue about why I picked that to be a title but it just popped into my head as I was firing up Windows Live Writer so…there it is. One thing a title like that allows me to do it wander all over the place without ever having to settle on one subject. In other words, it’s getting late and I need a break from thinking.

    I’ve had a few new folks stop by which I’ll post about this weekend and make the proper introductions, especially an introduction to a new blog/forum site dedicated specifically to bloggers and blogging. I liked the idea right off.

    And it’s red too.

    Thursday is my Friday this week and hopefully from this point on since I only work a 4 day week and have this overwhelming desire to recover over a 3 day weekend. Something I unfortunately haven’t been able to do of late due to various VA appointments that just happened to crop up every…single…week for the past several weeks in a row that never, ever manage to come around on a Friday. So it’s been Wednesday one week, Tuesday the next, Thursday on the following then…well, you get the idea.

    So for the first time in my life I’ve been dead asleep two minutes after my head hits the pillow. Passing out is everything, don’t you think? This is from an incurable insomniac no less. Throughout it’s life, my body has always thought that circadian rhythm was some sort of dance and attempts to figure out all the moves when I’m supposed to be sleeping. My most wonderful wife has become an accomplished nighttime dancing partner during the time we’ve been together, mostly due to her incredible coordination and strong sense of self preservation. It only took a few well placed bruises before she realized that learning to sleep while doing the two step was a much better option than sleeping on our couch. The latter causing all sorts of havoc in the morning what with all the muscle cramps and other wonderful physical sensations that sleeping on a five and half foot piece of sitting furniture can do to a body.

    And since we’re talking about sleeping here, I think that’s exactly what I’m going to get ready to do.

    A waltz tonight, honey?

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