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Journal Posts Are Down!!

:: Tags: Computers, WordPress

I am going to be doing some maintenance on my online journal and websites to try and bring them up to industry standards. Unfortunately this may require that I take the entire server off-line for several weeks while I update the OS and all the modules. I will try to build-up a temporary server to put in place while I rebuild my primary server, but I’m not sure if this is an option yet. I’m still trying to figure out why some of my earlier journal posts (all the ones with library images in them) are not working in single post mode. Stay tuned… more to follow!

Date: Saturday – June 28, 2020 22:12:09
UPDATE
: I know it’s been a while, but I’ve finally gotten around to moving my websites and content to a new hosting server that has a current OS. This means that I will be able to start uploading new content and adding the two years of back-dated journal posts that are missing from my blog. I will also be looking into redesigning my entire website to be a little more modern and more compliant with today’s larger than life monitors… more on that to follow.
This past Monday, I pulled the plug on my personal Web Server, which has been up and running and providing excellent service since 2005. The OS had reached end-of-life more than a year ago and I couldn’t update the modules anymore, so it’s time for a major rebuild and fresh OS. I’m still not sure if I’ll put this unit back in service, but it will be nice to know that I have a fresh backup server sitting in the basement should I need it.

Working from the Backyard

:: Tags: Backyard, Computers, Home

‘Enjoying my day for a change while working from home!’ – Arlington, VA

It’s nice to have days like this once in a while, when your working from home and both the weather and the workload are surprisingly pleasant. Even though I have a pretty nice backyard oasis to hang out in, I don’t use it nearly as much as I should. I’ve been told this by several people, so I plan on making it a habit to get outside and enjoy it more often in the future.

Upgrading PHP for WordPress v3.2…

:: Tags: Computers, WordPress

WordPress v3.2 was just released last week and if you didn’t bother to read the Development Blog you probably didn’t get the memo that some of the minimum system requirements for the new version of WordPress have changed. Your system must now support PHP 5.2.4 or better and MySQL 5.0 or better. In other words, older systems that do not get maintained and updated on a somewhat regular basis might have a problem when users of WordPress try to update their blogs to version 3.2! If you’re an end-user running your blog on someone else’s server, you will simply need to contact your server administrator and have them perform the upgrades.  If you’re like me and maintain your own servers, you’ll have to perform the upgrades yourself.

You can find the how-to info online at the php.net Website or by searching your particular system and the module you’re looking to upgrade on Google. For my system, which is a Linux system running CentOS v5.6, it was a fairly easy upgrade, but the trick is that only one version of PHP can be installed and running on the server at a time. PHP 5.1.x will not upgrade automatically to the new version PHP 5.3.6, so you first have to uninstall the old version completely before installing the new version. If you’re running CentOS 5.6 (or Red Hat 5.6 for Linux) there are now PHP 5.3 packages already included in the OS, and ready to be installed.  (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)

Akismet Stats for 2009…

:: Tags: Computers, General


Akismet activity chart for my WordPress journal…

The Akismet plugin for my WordPress journal is one of the best features for controlling unwanted comment spam! It comes as a standard plugin with the WordPress install, but you have to activate your account with WordPress.org to make it function properly. Akismet works so well that I almost never have to do anything more than the occasional plugin update, but when I do check up on it I’m always impressed to see the stats for the amount of comment spam it’s blocked.

I just ran some reports for the last half of 2009 and was very pleased with the results of both the Akismet plugin and the WordPress Publishing platform as a whole!


Oceanimagery.com/journal/ – The 9 most popular posts of all time…

New Year – New Dell Server!

:: Tags: Computers, Networking

I’m not going to bore you with all the details and politics surrounding my need to build-up a new Web Server for Oceanimagery.com… Instead I’ll try to keep this short and sweet for once. There were circumstances which developed towards the end of last year which required me to re-locate my Web Server to a new IT company here in the area. After doing some research on several different IT and hosting companies, their networks and infrastructures, I decided to Colo with a company known as HopOne Internet.
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Akismet Stats…!

:: Tags: Computers

Akismet is a WordPress plugin designed to filter out unwanted comment spam from your posts. The plugin works so well that I rarly have to check up on it, but when I do I’m always happy to see the stats for the amount of comment spam it has blocked. I was working in WordPress today and noticed that the year-to-date count for blocked spam was at 1500!! This might not sound like a lot, but it keeps me from having to login twenty plus times a day to check it myself. Way to go Akismet!!!


Akismet activity chart for my WordPress Journal…

The Fiji Islands – Revisited…

:: Tags: Computers, Photo

I’ve just finished updating some of the apps/plug-ins for Word Press and as a result I’ve also found several new and very slick features to help populate thumbnails in my posts. I spend quite a bit of time searching the internet for new scripts and plug-ins to help me with the management of my server and Websites and every now and again it pays off! Just last week I came across a WP plug-in that uses the RSS feeds from my photo sales site (Smugmug) to populate my image galleries to my journal posts.

This is so nice… now I only have to upload my images once to Smugmug and I can just link to them over RSS! The weird thing about this plug-in is it’s not in the WP plug-in directory… it was written and distributed by Adam Tow on his personal Website.

Anyway, I’m using this post as the testing ground for several new plug-ins, so you might see some changes over the next couple of days. Once I get the bugs worked out I’ll post some more stories. Please Note: All photos on this site are copyright protected. (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)

Way Too Funny!!

:: Tags: Computers, Humor

My brother just sent me a link to a Website that features a home made video called “Sales Guy vs. Web Dude”. The video is about 10 and a half minutes long, but it is well worth watching! Even if your not an IT person you’ll still get a huge laugh out of this one. According to the guys blog, he’s had over 1 million views of this video so far…!! Check it out and make sure you have your speakers turned on!! 


Click on Image – Video player will open in a new window

Video made and hosted by: http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/

Stay tuned… more videos to follow!

New Photography Websites!

:: Tags: Computers, Photo

Tropical Imagery Screenshot
Tropical Imagery Photography – Screenshot

I have just finished designing and building two new Web sites for hosting another kind of travel photography… Tropical Island Photography! These two sites are going to be mirror images of one another as far as layout and design, but they will both run seperate guestbooks and travel journals for the stats and, with a little help from Julie, some different content as well.

The new Web sites are:  Tropical Imagery Photography  and  Island Imagery Photography. I still have a lot of content yet to upload and the gallery is not setup yet, but this gives you a good idea of what the site is going to look like when completed (I’m thinking by the end of February.) 

I love designing and building Websites and even more so when they are personal sites. I get a huge high out of seeing the code take shape and the site spring to life once it hits the server. But having to maintain the sites and update the content all the time is another story. I still have two more personal Web sites to design and build when I get back from Fiji and I’m hopeing that once they’re finished I might be able to give one to Julie for hosting her own personal photography.

More on the Web sites later…

A New Server for 2008!

:: Tags: Computers

Doug’s work room - building boxes!

You would, think that in this day and age, a person would know what you mean when you use the word ‘server’. The other day I was having a conversation with someone at work and I mentioned that I was getting a new server for 2008 and their reply was “wow…I didn’t know you had a butler. How much does that cost you a month!?” I almost started to laugh and then I realized that this person was kind of serious. After I explained what I was refering to, they said “Oh yeah, I knew that… I was just trying to get your goat!” Ha… You can have the goat… I like beef!

I started putting together a new Web Server about a week ago to host all of my Web sites and any future hosting jobs I might aquire. It was at first a request of my brothers to try and free up some space on the other servers, but it soon proved to be a needful change. I will be able to run more applications and server-sides having my own dedicated machine.
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