Category Archives: computers

WordPress: Its been two years : a followup article

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Wow it has been 2 years to the day and I can’t believe what WordPress has been capable of in that time. There has of course been the introduction of the long awaited WordPress 3.0 which really brought things into this century. The developers have been on top of things and continue adding new features almost daily.

As learning goes, I have been really impressed with all of the improvements made in the last two years that I have been using WordPress. I set out two years ago with 2 goals:

Goal 1) To see if, pushed to its limits, WordPress could function as an independent website management tool or CMS and shed its skin of that “blog-like” feel that most WordPress sites had 2 years ago.

GOAL MET! I have had both the pleasure and the learning experience to develop some pretty complex sites built on the WordPress framework. Mind you, not without many a sleepless night. But what I have learned through those experiences only fuels the quest for greater knowledge of programming.

I started my web career about 10-ish years ago with the sole aim of being the best web designer out there. (Notice I said “aim” not goal). Its what I wanted. Its what anyone in the web world wanted ten years ago – to be able to say “I designed that” and have everyone look on with delight and cheer you on endless day.

SCRATCH – back to reality. My every attempt to design led me to a corner stall learning css and programming skills. You know, the back-end stuff. The stuff no one sees but you can’t live without. (What we might call grunt-work).

It took many years to hone that skill and well, much prayer. Most of my prayers were something like “God why can’t they see what a great designer I am?” But after much prayer and accepting where I was at the time – I grew to love what I did. I loved being in the corner stall. I love working with css. And out of that grew my love for coding.

Which now, brings us back some 10-ish years later to WordPress and why I think so highly of it. Mainly – it gets rid of a lot of the tedium of coding those things every site needs; those base, core functions that most people could do in their sleep. And instead frees up valuable time to code the more complex php applications which fit so nicely into the framework.

And speaking of framework: themes! Oh thats right Goal #2! Create a pirate theme.

GOAL NOT MET. Why? Well, plain and simple I’ve been too busy. Too busy working on other projects and too busy working enjoying time with my family. Thats right I said family. I know so many web developers find family as an afterthought. But in reality, why have a family if you don’t enjoy them? Important point coming up:

DON’T SET GOALS UNLESS YOU CAN ALSO SET LIMITS

You have to set limits of how long you are willing to dedicate to a project. Sometimes you have to extend those limits but if you set limits at the same time as setting goals, you’ll be much happier knowing that there IS an end to the tunnel.

That will be my next post: How to set limits in a goal driven world. (if you don’t see that article sometime around October 24 and you’re interested… feel free to post a comment below as reminder.

WordPress Get Posts with Custom Taxonomies [RESOLVED]

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$args=array(
//   avoid duplicate posts
‘post__not_in’ => $ids,
//   SPECIFIC CATEGORY (by name)
‘category_name’ => ‘specific-category-slug’,
//   HOW MANY to display
//’showposts’=>7,
//GET POSTS OF CUSTOM TAXONOMY
//#http://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/06/10/a-refresher-on-custom-taxonomies
//#http://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-taxonomy-and-query_posts?replies=17
//   N E E D BOTH  >>> TO WORK
‘taxonomy’ => ‘allstates’,
‘term’ => ‘texas-state’,
//   PAGANATION FIX
‘paged’=>$paged,
);
query_posts($args);
if (have_posts()) :
echo
‘<div id=”mydiv”>
<ul id=”mylist”>’;
$count = 0;
while (have_posts()) : the_post();
$count++;
echo’<li id=mylist-’.$count.’>’;
$ids[] = get_the_ID();
?>
<span>
<h2><?php the_title();?></h2>
<p><?php the_excerpt(); ?></p>
</span>
<?php
echo’</li>’;
endwhile;
echo ‘</ul><!– //mylist –></div><!– //mydiv –>’;
endif;

This should give you a very very sweet and slick little loop to get posts with custom taxonomies.

Use as many loops as you want.

I also gave you some bonus code to prevent posts from duplicating.

GoDaddy is slow. Anyone else? Or am I the only one today?

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broadband speed test

Well. The first guy I talked to said I needed proof my site was running slow by having a tracert as proof that my site was running slow.

So I asked to file a complaint with his supervisor.

I do not feel that is good customer service. I should not have to have a tracert just to prove that my site and my ftp are running slow on godaddy when they are sitting on performance logs. All he’d have to do is pull them up.

Instead the guy told me that advanced tech support would laugh at him he didn’t have a tracert to prove my site was running slow.

Hmm???

Well, I nicely asked for his supervisor so I could file a formal complaint against their policies. Because if that is a customer – service oriented response, then I’m the kitchen mouse.

His response was, okay but the supervisor can only write down your complaint; he won’t be able to assist you.

After a few minutes on hold I spoke with the “supervisor” who was all too happy to assist me. I reexplained the issue to him.

Lo and behold, there was a heavy server load.

We talked a little longer to address all of my concerns.

Then I asked: What is a “high ping”?

He checked with the tech team and anything over 8 is high he said.

Well, I’m getting 1-13 ping before their server and 58 – 73 ping once I hit their server hops. Thats pretty large isn’t it?

He recommended I send the tracert log to support@godaddy.com.

I’ll post a followup once I have this resolved.

In the mean time, for the 28 people that visit my site each day, please. PLEASE be patient with me. I know you’re eager to read every word I write. (hahah) But I can only publish as fast as godaddy ‘s servers allow my posts to publish.

If you feel so inclined, click this link and let me know in the comments if it takes a long time to get to my site. broadband speed test

If things don’t speed up soon, I may just be switching to hostgator.

Oh and one more thing, if you’re in the customer service industry: BE HELPFUL.

GoDaddy vs HostGator : How they live in harmony in my world

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Let me start off by saying I am a customer and have clients with both GoDaddy and HostGator. So you’re already thinking, yeah this guy is going to try and sell us something or convince us for the millionth time why his host is better than any others. Well, you’re partly right. If you click my banner and signup for hosting on HostGator, I would receive a small fee.  That is true. However; this article is more about how I managed to save the most money with hosting and domain name registration.

Its a given we all want to save money. But what if you could help cut your carbon footprint at the same time? Hmm, now I’ve interested a few tree-huggers. But what about the rest of you; the average joe who just wants to save money on your website hosting?

Well, Mr. Average Joe you too should be concerned about the environment. You want it to be a clean fresh place to live when your children and their children are roaming the earth. (Thats not a question, that should just be understood). “So whats all the hoopla about saving the environment? I just want to save money.”

Well, the reason I mention the environment is that hostgator runs their servers based on wind-energy. Thats right, those giant turbine fans. (I might call them windmills, but then you might get an impression of something like this:

Chesterton Windmill, Warks 5 I have to admit the environment is not the first thing on my mind (and probably not on most of yours as well) when you are searching for an affordable hosting plan. I do however take consolation knowing that there such options exist.

Knowledge is useless without action

So what can you do? Well, you can choose your own domain name provider and you can choose your own website host. For me, I opt for being conservative in both my funds and my carbon footprint.

Now I’m getting to why I mention godaddy and hostgator!

I mentioned godaddy because that is where I find the cheapest place to register my domain names. $7.49 .com Sale! I mean you can’t beat that really, can you? Then of course we have the obvious mentions of hostgator for their “green” servers. But what about the cost?

Being green and environmentally friendly aren’t always easy on the pocketbook. The good news is, in this case – that is not true. See the banner below.

And that is how godaddy and hostgator peacefully co-exist in my world. Oh, just one more thing, this has nothing to do with hosting or domain names. But the photo to the right, was graciously donated by Michael Green. Thanks Arkle2 for sharing.

Green web hosting with HostGator. Host your site and help conserve the environment.

Visual Studio Cannot Preview Local Files [RESOLVED]

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I ran into issues today while trying to get Visual Web Developer 2010 Express working. Visual Studio Express 2010 was a fresh install so there should not have been any issues. But for some reason, even after a fresh install, I did the simplest of test only to be greeted by http://localhost unable to connect. I got nothing. I even tried the simplest of files. I typed the word “hello world” in the portion of a standard html document. Still errors. So what did I do to resolved this?

It was simple: Windows\System32\drivers\etc edit the hosts file… and for some reason locallhost had been switched. Delete that one line, and voila, back in business and ready to go!

WordPress ERROR: Unable to create directory [RESOLVED]

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I tried and tried to upload images to my posts but was continuously bombarded by the annoying permission error:

“Unable to create directory /wp-content/uploads/2010/01. Is its parent directory writable by the server?”

I attempted so many fixes. I tried changing permissions on my folders and was unsuccessful.
I tried using the flash uploader and was still unsuccessful.

Finally it hit me!!! When in doubt go back to the basics!
So many errors actually spell out there own solution. But we in our overcomplicated way of thinking manage to make things so difficult on ourselves.

Isn’t that true out of so much we do in life? Not just with computers. But with everything. Even our relationships. Its that way with God too. He has made things so easy for us. But somehow we muck things up. We cloudy the crystal clear water. We think to ourselves, “it can’t be that easy. So I’m going to do things the hard way”. All God has asked of us is that we give him a chance. That we listen to what he has to say. And when we listen. To those simple word He says. What a joy! What a peace we have! Jesus says today “I love you”. Can that be any simpler?

Oh my I’ve almost forgotten! The reason I couldn’t upload images was soooooo simple. I went back to the error. It said it can’t create the directory. So I checked how WordPress was setup under “Settings > Miscellaneous”. And there it was!

[ /wp-content/uploads ] “Default wp-content/uploads”

HAHA! I had an extra slash in my location. Once I removed the slash from the beginning of the folder location, everything was fine and dandy.

I was immediately able to upload images. And it had nothing to do with permissions to folders. Rather that I had my focus in the wrong place. So how about you? Do you have your focus on Jesus today? Or has your focus waned?

Are you looking and searching for answers to life’s simplest question? Feel free to contact me by submitting a comment. (*I’ll have a contact button setup shortly).