I’m tinkering with the log-in files. If you have problems logging in, let me know.
Category: code
Hack
I hacked one of my old plug-ins and finally got it to work with the new template. This just means my categories are back as a link, up top. The blogroll will be back shortly as well. I also added a new log-in feature directly to the home page. This hopefully simplifies the login process as well as giving visual clues to users to know when they are actually logged in or not. [1]Are you logged in? You should be. *EG*
The great thing about WP 2.7 is it is much more widget and hook friendly. The bad news is it is much harder to do manual hacks. There are pros and cons to be both approaches but I like tinkering with the code.
Someone complained the links to the old blog were broken but they look fine to me. I’ve tried a variety of browsers and can’t seem to get a failed link. If you experience trouble, email me.
References
| ↑1 | Are you logged in? You should be. *EG* |
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Anal-Who?
No, not that. Get your mind out of my gutter. heehee I’m referring to analytics. I’ve been using Woopra for some time now to track my blog stats. With the new version, they have a nifty plug-in that incorporates easily into my blog dashboard.
Its fun examining the new blog stats. And nothing like some dirty talk to boost my clicks. lol I’m always tickled how many people read about my wild antics. That pesky brettcajun is currently in the lead in referrals. Of course, now that Large Tony has a new blog going, he is gaining fast and looks like he is trying to reclaim his title of top dog. In a big surprise, Obliquity65 is bringing up a respectable 3rd place.
I’m really surprised at how many oversea clicks I’ve been getting. While most of my clicks still come from inside the country, I am noticing more and more international clicks. Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia, hell even Singapore. lol Who da thunk it?
Google is still the top search engine, no surprise there. twitter and Facebook have really begun to generate a lot of blog traffic as well. I’ve currently left my blog open to being indexed by the search engines but if the junk gets to high again, I’ll nix it.
It seems I’ve settled into a core group of about 150 regular readers off and on. Lord only knows why you stick around. Gluttons for punishment I say. heh heh Anyway, thanks for tuning into my madness on such a regular basis. I am hoping to meet a few more of you in person this year. Of course, if you find yourself headed to SF, give me a shout. My schedule isn’t always the most conducive but I do try.
As usual, I promise nothing beyond my normal blunt opinionated self. That will have to do. *g* I’m getting better at dragging the camera around w/me though. I’ll try to continue including random pics for excitement.
Ok, enough babbling. I’m off to get my hooves clipped and polished before TFA arrives tonight. And no, I will not be posting any of those details. lol
Bitten / Kudos
The blogging bug has definitely bitten me again (as if you couldn’t tell). I guess the new blog and template has inspired me. heh heh
I’ve been tinkering w/using Google’s “Friend Connect” to allow people to sign into my site. It was pretty easy to setup and it worked well. Unfortunately, it only seemed to complicate the process. Their sign in doesn’t actually create a new user account on my blog, which of course means no control over content and access. Users would have to double register to truly be listed as “user”. I’ve since disabled it. I guess my blog really isn’t a social mecca anyhow. lol
In a slightly different vein of thought, a big thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. I was very humbled by all the kind words and emails I got. I might have mentioned I have a 4-day weekend this week and have been a total slug so far. Well, besides the gym anyway. lol TFA arrives tomorrow night. The only thing planned, besides the obvious, is to check out the new Underworld flick. I’m a big fan of the movies so far.
Tonight, my buddy kristaki drug me out to some of the local gay bars in the gaborhood. He is straight but grew up here so totally cool. His fiance has a whole contingent of gay friends as well. Sadly, the group seemed to like all the bars I hate. lol I wasn’t miserable but I certainly wasn’t overly excited. kristaki and I were in the acadamy together and we could pretty much have a good time anywhere. We actually ended up splitting off from the group and wound up at Sparky’s gorging ourselves on chili cheese fries. Even though we didn’t really do anything exciting I had a blast. I don’t get to see him as much now that he is on the force and has a blushing bride-to-be.
So now I’m home feeling like a bloated heifer. Ugh, I ate too much. Tomorrow is definitely gonna be a cardio day!
Work Around
Not being a PHP guru, I have given up trying to figure out why the import/export function of WP didn’t work correctly. After an exhaustive search of the forums, it seems to be a bug. It could also be related to the very reason I decided to start a fresh install of WP. In my first attempt, I was able to import 2005-2007. This is exactly where I encountered problems a couple years ago (and ever since) with upgrading WP versions.
Luckily, the old archive page was rendered with the full links so I was able to just copy/paste into a new page here. This neatly solves the problem w/o a whole lot of fuss!
New and Improved?
It looks like my reasons for starting with a fresh install were justified. When I imported last night, I got all of the posts thru 2007 but nothing beyond that. Obviously, that wasn’t gonna work so I deleted them from the new installation. I’m still tinkering with ways to import so they may come back into this installation.
There was a point during one upgrade around that time something funky happened. I think my DB got corrupted somehow. Every upgrade on my old blog since has had problems. The irony is all my old categories came thru onto this one. [1]Remember, my last upgrade lost a ton of categories WordPress as a blogging platform has matured signficantly since then so I’m happy with the newest version.
Never fear the old blog is still active under blog.mobius.name (or the long url of www.mobius.name/blog/) and will remain so. I’ll probably come up with a way to pull the archive into this blog. After reading the support forum files there were some serious issues w/the export/import option for larger blogs like mine. I knew that going into it so no surprise there.
Anyway, it is a new year and a new blog. This template is only temporary until I settle on one I really like. Things will be missing or odd for a couple weeks till I get settled probably.
I also plan to manage the user list more closely in this one. The last group got so weildy as to be a mess. There will still be content restricted to registered users but that will be a few weeks. lol
Wish me luck?
References
| ↑1 | Remember, my last upgrade lost a ton of categories |
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Almost There
I fixed a few of the last remaining annoyances with WordPress upgrade. he Cocomment thing almost never worked right so it was first to go. And since they still haven’t upgraded it to work with Firefox 3, I just figured it is no longer worth it.
I also nixed the poll. I really like the poll and it will come back at some point. However, I need to find one that works w/my version of WP.
Lastly, I fixed the email link. Switching to a widgetized version of sidebars on my blog caused some unexpected errors w/link routing hence, the old email call function not working. It was actually pretty easy to correct and still protect my email from being harvested by bots. You’ll notice the link (lower left) is an image file of my actual email addy and clicking it auto-fills the To field on your email form.
Of course, for some odd reason the Title for the recent comments widget has gone bonkers. I am wondering if there is an errant piece of code throwing it off or just poorly written. Either way, it is a mild annoyance and I will fix it in time.
That is all. We now return you to your regularly schedule blog surfing…
Problem Solved
I can no longer recommend http://1and1.com as a good ISP. While their services are cheap and easy their tech support is some of the worst I’ve ever encountered. The (overseas) techs are often completely ignorant of anything but the most basic problems.
After spending almost a week and half going round and round w/them, I fixed the problem myself. They kept blaming WordPress and WordPress says it was a standard they were ignoring. Blah blah blah.
Anyway, I wrote a script and then found an even simpler one that solved all the issues (so far).
The sub-domains
Http://calendar.mobius.name
are all functioning correctly once again.
Finally!
I finally finished back categorizing all my posts. [1]Well 1 or 2 might have slipped thru but I can’t be bothered to worry. I didn’t actually lose as many as I had thought in the last upgrade. I also discovered a few posts were saved but never published. If you are a subscriber and get weird emails from me for posts from years ago, feel free to ignore.
I think I figured out the problem w/my categories. Somehow I had not one but two database tables for categories. *closed eyes* I nixed one. *peeking thru one eye* So far so good.
So far I’m liking the newer version of WordPress. The user interface seems a tad faster. The layout is a bit different but overall nice. It does takes a little getting used to. After the drama I went thru during my last upgraded, I decided to wait a while before I trying again. I’d never had any trouble before and to be honest I think the error was on my part. Regardless, I’m back up to par.
I guess I get to keep my geek card now.
References
| ↑1 | Well 1 or 2 might have slipped thru but I can’t be bothered to worry. |
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Update
I’m currently updating the blog. If it disappears for a bit, never fear, it will return.
Well, my FTP shell from my ISP is down so the update is on hold. I’ll try again later tonight.