Author Archives: Donncha

WordPress Multiuser Snapshot

I decided to release a new snapshot of WPMU today because of a problem posting comments. There’s also a few more changes, they’re listed below. Go download it and play!

  • The referer plugin now uses PEAR Cache. This should speed up pages significantly as MySQL won’t have to lock so many reads when the table is updated!
  • Kitten’s Spaminator has been upgraded to the latest version. This version has a very nice admin page to configure it without editing the plugin file itself.
  • A bug in comment posting stopped them getting through, fixed.
  • To speed things up, template compile checks have been turned off. If a template changes make sure you do it from the backend.
  • Misc bug fixes and WP upgrades.

Later I looked into the sql errors people were having during the install and thanks to Chuck I think I figured out what happened: If you’re getting SQL errors about table names with “wp-inst” in them make sure you’re not calling setup-config.php or install.php using the urls http://example.com/wp-inst/wp-admin/setup-config.php and http://example.com/wp-inst/wp-admin/install.php
The correct urls should be http://example.com/main/wp-admin/setup-config.php and http://example.com/main/wp-admin/install.php
The “main” part of the url is handled by mod_rewrite. Follow the links in the installer and you’ll be fine!
I’m going to update the installer so it knows to replace “wp-inst” with “main” when people call the installer incorrectly.

Here are the URLs you’ll be calling when you install WPMU, the first page is a WPMU page, but the rest is bog-standard WordPress installer stuff:

Here are the links I go to on my local machine:
http://localhost/ – creates directories, page starts with text, “Welcome to WordPress MU, the Multi User Weblog System built on WordPress.
You’re probably seeing this message because you’re installing WPMU!”

The link at the bottom of that page points at this page:
http://localhost/main/wp-admin/setup-config.php
This is almost the same file that exists in WordPress itself.

Hit “let’s go!” at the bottom of that page to go to:
http://localhost/main/wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=1
Fill in the form there and go to:
http://localhost/main/wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=2
where you’re asked to “run the install!”

That goes to
http://localhost/main/wp-admin/install.php
and clicking on “First Step” goes to
http://donncha.homelinux.net/main/wp-admin/install.php?step=1
to fill in weblog title and email address.

After submitting that form I get a login link and username/password to use when logging in at http://localhost/main/wp-login.php

I also fixed the table prefix bug too, but that’s not in this release. It’ll be in the next one!

Photography roundup

Ken says you should shoot jpeg while Petteri Sulonen says shoot raw! I can only shoot jpeg at the moment but when I do upgrade I’ll be sure to give my opinion 🙂
Ken also has an extensive Canon 20D vs Nikon D70 test. Considering he’s a huge Nikon fan it’s reasonably balanced! You may find his Canon 20D review useful too. Apparently Nikon lenses can be used on Canon bodies! You need to buy an adaptor though.
And finally, he has a great write-up on batteries. I have several sets of NIMH batteries at home that are getting a bit long in the tooth and not performing as well. He suggests that, you can easily rejuvenate them by running them through a full discharge-charge cycle a couple of times.

From Better Digital Photography..

Missing Person – Robert Holohan

If you live in Ireland please be on the lookout for Robert Holohan.
The news of his disappearance has been in the papers and on the news continuously but here’s a photo of the young 11 year old who vanished on the 4th of January:

(further description)
Update: 2005/1/13 2 bodies have been found. One was found in Midleton under a bridge and the other near Inch Strand. An examination of the body will be carried out this afternoon. RTE News has more, and breakingnews have a page devoted to news about Robert.
Later Still.. The body found at Inch Strand has been identified as that Robert. Ar Dheis De go raibh a anam.
Much Later.. A murder investigation has now been launched by the Gardai.
2005-01-19 – Student Wayne O’Donoghue was charged yesterday with the manslaughter of Robert.

Attic Insulation, Energy Bills and Conservation

One of those things I have to get around to in the next month is insulating the attic. I had a look up there last week and it needs replacing badly – it’s worn away completely in parts! I rang a local hardware store and they quoted me a price of EUR199.89 to cover the approx 56m squared of the attic. I have to check yet if that had a vapour barrier or not.
Here’s a few links for me to come back to soon:

Later… Comment posting was broken for a short period after the last CVS update but it’s working again – thank you to the person who says they have 60cm of insulation, I don’t think Cork/Ireland is cold enough to justify that amount however!
Much Later… The ESB and Bord Gais have very good but brief pages on energy tips. The ESB recommend 6″ of attic insulation, while Bord Gais recommend 4″. I’m going to install 6″ myself!

Testing Gnome-blog and WordPress

This is a test post from Gnome-blog. Very simple interface, but I prefer the javascript/html bookmarklet myself!
Later… It works, sort of. I was able to post the above text but I couldn’t:

  • Pick the category to post to
  • The post title wasn’t set.
  • The Smarty cache wasn’t cleared so I presume xmlrpc.php doesn’t go through the usual wp-admin/ backend.

The point that I lost all respect for Bill Gates

Haven’t MS and ol’ Bill been spreading FUD as described in this essay for a long time? Isn’t the GPL a communist threat to American jobs in IT?

After ridiculous comments this week at CES, where Gates equated the last three years of my work with Creative Commons as some sort of Red Menace that needs to be stopped, it’s clear he’s off his rocker.

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