Tag Archives: irishblogs

The MU forums are moving

The MU forums will shortly be closing up shop.

WordPress 3.0 integrated everything that MU always did so it’s better to consolidate the forums too. There’s a MultiSite forum on WordPress.org and any queries about upgrading or problems using WordPress 3.0 should go there.

The old forums aren’t going anywhere but later today or perhaps tomorrow I’ll be making them read-only. You’ll still be able to browse the forum, and Google will still index the wealth of information already there but posting will be disabled.

So, thank you to everyone who contributed to the forum over the years. You helped make WordPress MU great.

WordPress 3.0 Domain Mapping 0.5.2

I’ve just released WordPress Domain Mapping 0.5.2. This plugin allows you to map any domain on to your WordPress 3.0 or WordPress MU website.

New in this release:

  • WordPress 3.0 support.
  • Added “domains” page for superadmin to add domains to any blog. The user’s domains page can be disabled by the superadmin too.
  • Added support for “www.” prefix in front of domains.
  • Allow dashboard to redirect to mapped or original domain.
  • Better support for SSL
  • Translation file added for localization.

For security reasons remote login is now disabled if the dashboard is redirected to the mapped domain. There is a tiny chance of a man-in-the-middle attack during redirection, but it’s just as likely to happen when you’re logging in and sending your username/password to the login form. Call me paranoid.

I would like to thank Ron and Andrea who were a huge help developing and testing this release. Andrea has written a great post on creating a network in WordPress 3.0 plus instructions on upgrading from WordPress MU. Great stuff!

WP Super Cache 0.9.9.2

WP Super Cache 0.9.9.2 has just been released! This version works with WordPress 3.0 and adds a number of new features and bug fixes:

  • Cache Preloading will cache every post on your site.
  • A cache tester that will check if your homepage is cached.
  • Much better support for mobile plugins.
  • Mod rewrite rules can now be updated from within the admin page.
  • Lots and lots of bugs fixed. See the changelog for more details.

Preloading creates lots of files on your server so if you have many thousands of posts please be aware of this. Filesystem limitations may cause problems if you use a flat permalink structure. For example, ext2 or ext3 only allows 32,000 directories in a directory. If you have more than that number of posts you may run into problems.

The plugin does not preload category or tag pages but because your single posts will be cached you’ll find the load on your server will be reduced. Uncached pages will be served more quickly and your visitors will have a quicker and better experience on your site.
You may also see an increase in site traffic if your server was previously underpowered!

Update! I just released 0.9.9.3 to address the (mostly minor) bugs that were reported overnight. If you don’t notice anything wrong there’s no need to upgrade.

The Robin Cam

Derek Mooney of “Mooney Goes Wild” on Radio 1 has a robin cam pointing at a nest in his utility room. It’s the usual webcam quality but it’s good enough that we were able to see the mother robin arrive and feed her chicks.

See the Mooneycam for links to this camera and a blue tit camera in Áras an Uachtaráin (where the Irish President lives). They also have a diary of sorts where Derek keeps a record of what’s happening.

The Complete Nemesis The Warlock

Hands up if you were a fan of 2000AD back in the day? It’s still going, maybe not so strong, these days. I picked up a copy a while back and it’s reduced to a what seems like a few pages of stories with adverts thrown in here and there. It reminded me why I rarely bought comics. I was too impatient to “wait until next week to find out the stunning conclusion to this week’s story!” Thankfully friends did buy it and I had more than a few copies of the comic myself when curiosity got the better of me.

As you may know I have an Amazon wishlist which is occasionally frequented by users of my plugins who very very occasionally will buy me something from it (and each and every gift is much appreciated!)
Anyway, I read with sadness that one of the artists behind the very successful Nemesis The Warlock series in 2000AD, John Hicklenton died a few weeks ago. I went searching and found The Complete Nemesis the Warlock: Bk. 1 and The Complete Nemesis the Warlock: Bk. 2 and promptly added both to the list in the hope that someone might buy it.

I was lucky! A few short weeks later the postman delivers Book 2 into my grubby hands and I have Daniel Jacobs to thank for it. Memories come flooding back as I soak in the art work. That story was just the craziest and grittiest thing I ever read. Only thing is now, I’ll have to find a copy of Book 1 somewhere or order it from Amazon myself!

In all seriousness, this post is in part made because of the death of a neighbour I’ve known all my life. I hadn’t spoken to him in a long time and it was a shock when I heard the news. He was a quiet man but always had a ready smile and had a great collection of capacitors, resistors and other electronics.
After his removal from the funeral home last week I spoke to a woman who was standing near my car. She asked who had died and I told her, to which she replied, “He worked for Dunlops didn’t he?”
Small world, but nice to be remembered.

Watch out for Amazon reseller shipping charges

When you see a nice cheap product on Amazon or any other online retailer beware of the shipping and handling charges. This HDMI to DVI-D converter goes for a paltry £2.59 but then attracts a hefty £11.08 from the reseller. I can’t pretend that I didn’t notice it on the order page but at the time I wanted to get the order done and dusted so I didn’t quibble. The box it comes in better be lined with velvet and the address better be hand written and signed with the artist’s name…

I had enough trouble with console AV cables and certain retailers in the last few weeks I wanted the whole sorry episode over and done with.

Ubuntu Linux and the Canon MP492 printer

I bought a shiny new combination scanner/printer/copier last weekend. It’s the Canon MP492 and I expected it would work just fine in Linux. I mean, it’s just a printer, right?

Nope. The printer was detected as a Canon MP490 but unfortunately the CUPS system used by Ubuntu Linux didn’t support that particular version. It supported the 520 and others but no sign of my new purchase. To be honest, I was dumb founded. I even configured it on my Macbook and thought about sharing it over the network but the Macbook is on the wireless network while everything else is wired, and I didn’t feel like making things more complicated.

So I went searching again and eventually found this helpful thread (it didn’t show up on my first searches, Google refresh?). Drivers are available for the printer here on the Canon Thailand website. Thankfully the instructions were all in English, and the .deb package installed and configured correctly. Drivers for the scanner are listed on that forum post too but I don’t have an immediate need for that so I didn’t test them out.

Phew.

The printer itself is an average photocopying machine that does the job. Here’s the back cover of the December 1954 issue of the National Geographic. The copy is pretty good except for banding on big blocks of colour like that in the Coca Cola logo.

Clean ball point pen off your LCD easily

Several months ago my son grabbed a ball point pen off my desk and with glee scribbled on my LCD monitor. I was of course upset and researched the best way to remove the offending marks. Various methods and potions were recommended but I didn’t do anything about it. I got used to the scribbles, although looking at a web page with a white background was always annoying.

Eventually I asked again and Alex recommended Isopropyl Alcohol. Today I remembered that advice and asked for “i s o alcohol” in a chemist. I received a funny look in reply but she figured out what it was. She brought over a box of “Alcotip Swabs”. 5c each so I bought 4, just in case.

Did it work? Did it what! The swabs dried out quickly and it took two to clean the ball point pen marks off the monitor but it worked exceptionally well! I hardly had to apply any pressure as the alcohol dissolved the pen marks with ease. Here’s a gallery showing the pen marks (not so well), and the swabs. These things work really well if you have ball point marks on your screen!

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