Errors

Posted on August 21, 2010

During the past week this website has been down for a database problem. It turns out some of the tables crucial to the running of WordPress required “repair”. Apparently, there is even a “REPAIR TABLE” command in MySQL. I’d never had to use it before, so I didn’t know it existed. Pretty handy thing to have. The tables are repaired and the blog is working again. I’m still not sure why it happened, but if it happens again, I’ll know what to do.

Now I have to clean out the spam queue.

New theme

Posted on August 1, 2010

I’m working on a new theme. It’s sort of work-related, but mostly because I was getting tied of the old theme and couldn’t find one I really liked. Like cigarettes, rolling your own theme seems simple until you try it.

Calling it a beta version is giving it too much credit, but it’s a good experience.

Haiku to go

Posted on January 31, 2010

Last year I bought the domains gottahavacuppamocha.info and gottahavacuppamocha.mobi, but haven’t done much with them. A few weeks ago, I set up another WordPress blog at the .mobi site, but one that only has the haiku.

Since starting this a few years ago, I’ve seen over 600 films and done a review haiku for each one. I’ve toyed with the idea about putting them in a book, and that may still happen one of these days, but until then it seemed like a good idea to create a separate site just for the haiku. This way, a person can read through the haiku, without having to read the other posts.

The site, http://gottahavacuppamocha.mobi/haiku has over 200 haiku at the moment and I’ll be posting more in the days and weeks to come. Since I’m also learning about iPhone apps, it’s possible there may be an “app for that” in the future.

Photos. Galleries.

Posted on June 19, 2009

It’s been quite awhile, so I updated the gallery to the latest version of ZenPhoto. It’s supposed to work well with WordPress via some plugins. At the moment, it’s only a few photos, but I’ve got a ton more photos to process and add. Plus, there will also be some 3d stuff, graphic design, and so on.

I recently got a flatbed scanner that also does film and slides, so the plan is to convert old photos, slides, and maybe negatives, into digital form. Even if they don’t end up being posted (to protect the innocent ô_o), it will be nice to get them scanned in.

Hopefully this will also give me incentive to come up with another theme to unify the look of WordPress and ZenPhoto. At the very least, the thumbnails can be pulled into WordPress like this. It’s a start.

WordPress 2.8 upgrade

Posted on June 11, 2009

WordPress 2.8 came out yesterday afternoon and I just finished the upgrade. For the past few versions, WordPress has become one of the most user-friendly pieces of software I’ve seen. It seems well thought out and well-constructed.

WordPress has a tool called Upgrade in the Admin panel, which allows people to easily upgrade or reinstall the WordPress code. No FTP needed, since it’s as simple as clicking a button. However, it’s not problem-free.

I have this blog for myself and a test blog I use for work. I logged into this blog and there was nothing new – there was no notice about the new version. Logging into the test blog, there were two banners mentioning the upgrade. Upgrading the test blog was virtually effortless, but I was puzzled by the lack of a notice on gottahavacuppamocha. The Upgrade tool said the blog was using 2.7.1 and that it was the latest version. On a hunch, I clicked on the Re-install button. WordPress 2.7.1 was reinstalled, but when it finished, there was a notice about the 2.8 version. I clicked on the button and let it upgrade. The upgrade went easy, but I had to trick WordPress to do so.

Still, WordPress is far more user-friendly than MediaWiki. MediaWiki is easier to setup, but WordPress is easier to maintain. WP isn’t perfect, but it’s damn close.

Rating:  

Time for an update

Posted on February 14, 2009

Gottahavacuppamocha will be down for a bit for maintenance and upgrades. The files are being backed up as I write. WordPress has a new version out with some security improvements and other enhancements. I might try out a new skin to mark the occasion :-)

Also, I want to see if there are any better WordPress plugins for Twitter. For regular posts, it sends a tweet to @lafnlab whenever I post something on the blog. However, it doesn’t do this for posts that are scheduled, such as the Review Haiku posts. :-( Since there are so many of those scheduled (’til the end of March, at the moment), it would be nice if the blog would send a tweet for each new post.

Twitter killer kicks the bucket

Posted on December 2, 2008

SixApart buys Pownce

Just as well, I guess. There’s too many social networking sites/apps, it’s hard to decide which ones are worthwhile. Since SixApart is a competitor to WordPress, I’m not interested in transitioning to their service.

Dequirked

Posted on June 10, 2008

The site had some quirks to go with the redesign and the software upgrades, but I think they are all taken care of now. The comments are back on, so feel free to try it out.

One of the main reasons for getting MediaWiki going is that it should be a good way for me to make notes while I’m doing research for a master’s degree. I keep running across linguistic terms that I’ve seen before, but don’t recall exactly what they mean (like lemma), so it would be a good idea for me to come up with a glossary of terms and definitions. If my understanding of a term evolves, then I can easily change the definition in the wiki. Writing something down usually helps me understand things better, plus I can put them in easy-to-understand (for me) terms, rather than academic prose.

I also formally applied for the M.A. program yesterday, so that’s out of the way.

Finished the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and put the movie next in my Netflix queue. Good book, but short. It was translated from French, but the English was very witty. I assume Bauby’s original text was just as witty.

New design

Posted on June 8, 2008

As mentioned earlier, I’ve been working on a new design, which I was finally able to apply. The redesign of MediaWiki didn’t take as long as thought, but it may have been that I was so into it that time flew by.

There are still some quirks, however. I forgot to add the comment form stuff for WordPress. There’s no convenient way to search on MW or WP. MediaWiki has a ton of different elements I haven’t defined in the stylesheet. I was mainly concentrating on getting the overall design to work, that I didn’t worry about the things that are infrequently used.

It’s a small world after all

Posted on June 2, 2008

Two things: first, I’m reworking the site a bit and trying to develop a look that will work with both MediaWiki and WordPress. I have the WP version started, but not yet finished, which can be seen over here. Given the architectures of MW and WP, the overall look will have to be coded separately for each piece of software. It still has a way to go yet, and there is a glitch in viewing it in Firefox 3 RC1, though it seems to look okay in Firefox 2, Opera, and Safari.

[edit: it's finished now and looks fine in Firefox 3 RC1]

Second, coming in this morning I saw bicycle commuter coming in a door I was passing by. However, what caught my eye was the bike jersey he was wearing. I saw the logo of Bristol Brewing’s Laughing Lab Scottish Ale and did a double take. I’ve never seen Bristol beers here in Indy, so it was strange to see the jersey. I stopped and talked with the guy for a few minutes, and it turns out his brother works for Bristol Brewing as a QA person (what a job that must be :-D)

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