Category Archives: internet

Nothing new here

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I was recently asked, “why don’t you have your work online so people can see it?”

The answer is very simple. I do have it online for the world to see and explore it. I just don’t have a collection of my work housed in a single portfolio. As the few of you who read this blog know, this is just a place to post my ramblings.

This website is not my design nor is it inidcative of the work I do. I’ve been too busy to work on my own website. Which is really a good thing. Thank God for the contracts and work I have. And as they say “a painter’s house is never painted”. I rely more on word of mouth than I do on a great portfolio page.

If you have heard of me via word of mouth and would like to see a sample of my work, I would be glad to provide such. Simply make a comment in this post and I’ll contact you. Your comments are not initially published and if you would like them left private, please state so in your comment. Thanks!

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.

Netflix now on PS3 (without the disc)

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Its about time!
Microsoft Xbox 360 has had it for over a year.
And now Playstation 3 owners can finally experience the joy of watching Netflix movies without need of inserting a disc.

Sure you could call it a lazy man’s option. Personally I just like being able to exit a game I may have been playing and swap discs.

But Playstation 3 owners have something that Xbox360 console owners don’t have yet:
Video Browsing.

This has got to be the coolest featured Netflix has ever released.

To start using Video Browsing, you select a category or your Instant Queue. Then you flip thru the movies all while a full-screen preview is being delivered to you. You don’t have to read the synopsis, you simply watch the pre-selected clip. If you let it play thru, after 5 minutes you are given the option to “Play Movie”, Return to Browsing, or Add to Instant Queue.

HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Kudos to Netflix on a job well done. A discless version of Netflix on Playstation 3 is long-overdue. And this has certainly not disappointed.

If I had one suggestion for Netflix on the PS3 version, that would be to add the ability to search by actor’s names. Thank you nonetheless; Netflix, for including a search feature.

Discless browsing on the Playstation 3 is finally here. Thank you! Now that’s what I call customer service. The masses of PS3 owners asked for it and now its here!

What do you know, GoDaddy Support read my blog.

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Oh I’m sorry did my posts show up in google? Zoinks!

Well, I guess someone got the point that I was not happy about my site hosted on godaddy being slow.

My site went down on Friday and when I called tech support the immediate greeting at godaddy support was “if your site is down we are aware of the issues and are working to resolve them promptly”. It took a number of hours but it looks like godaddy support was on top of things. My site is finally back up and running.

And, imagine that, after my posts about my sites hosted with godaddy are slow; suddenly my blog is blazing along. That would make my previous posts irrelevant wouldn’t it? Well, I’m going to leave them in place. Why? Not because godaddy needs any more bad publicity over their slow servers. Nor so that when you visit my site you ask what slow speed I’m talking about. No. I’m going to leave those as a reminder to myself when it comes time to renew my hosting. Should I stay or should I go.

Well, I can’t say my mind is made up to leave godaddy because my site is running slow. Nor because my website has been down too many times. But I will put this out there: I’ve got my feelers out for a new host. And I think I’ve got it narrowed down.

If I don’t stay with godaddy (which would be more because of past experience and their distateful ads than it would be with their attempt to make things right after too long of waiting). So if I switch from godaddy, I’ll probably consider hostgator because of past success with other clients.

What do you think? Is godaddy running slow for your website? Is hostgator any better in terms of reliability and speed? I will admin I’m impressed that I was able to login into my site, write this post and publish it the first time I clicked each button. But we’ll see how long this new found speed lasts.

I eagerly await your response, suggestions and comments below.

My GoDaddy Site is Slow. Shared Hosting? Or Lazy Servers?

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As promised here is an update on my slow site issue. I apologize on behalf of godaddy, it appears they are all too busy in the bathroom after watching their own commercials to actually care about their customers.

I’ve contacted them several times to address my slow site. Each time I get canned response. Thats not too helpful. One actually recommended that I install a WordPress optimizer.

Well, guess what? My site is so slow that it times out before I can even install the plugin. Gee? You think we could do something about that slow site now? I’ve even asked about being moved to a new server, the supervisor said they only make that determination when its necessary.

Are there any Network Professionals out there who could confirm my suspicion? (If so please leave a comment below)

Okay so maybe its just me but I suspect that I am getting really high pings and slow loads. But maybe its just my own frustration. Maybe the world of the Internet really does run as slow as my site. And maybe the two seconds I wait for a huge website to load compared to the :49 seconds it takes to load mine is just a figment of my imagination.

To me my site is slow and my pings are really high. You be the judge:

Tracing route to myvideosnapshots.com [x.x.x.x]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1     3 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  myNetwork
2     9 ms    15 ms    13 ms  x.x.x.x
3    10 ms     7 ms     8 ms  x.x.x.x
4    14 ms    12 ms    24 ms  x.x.x.x
5    36 ms    12 ms    36 ms  x.x.x.x
6    18 ms    46 ms    17 ms  x.x.x.x
7    17 ms    17 ms    20 ms  x.x.x.x
8    52 ms    69 ms    53 ms  64.210.13.110
9    59 ms    55 ms    52 ms {x}.ip.secureserver.net [x.x.x.x]
10   127 ms   227 ms   240 ms {x}ip.secureserver.net [216.69.188
.81]
11    53 ms    62 ms   164 ms {x}ip.secureserver.net [x.x.x.x]
12    56 ms    53 ms    54 ms {x}phx3.secureserver.net [x.x.x.x] (now I’m not sure but I suspect this last hop is my actual site. Which would mean my site is fast but the godaddy servers are slow)
Trace complete.
C:\>
Well, I’m not ready to announce any changes yet. So please please be patient as I figure out a faster solution than godaddy which is just too slow for my tastes.
And a rant:

Seriously I don’t get their commercials. I had heard a bunch of hoopla before but never paid attention or watched a commercial. Well, I took the time to watch one of them yesterday. I was disappointed. And I will be moving my hosting away from godaddy servers which are entirely too slow and I no longer wish to contribute to poor taste and poor quality.

Maybe I’ll switch to hostgator, at least they spend their money on environmentally friendly servers. Plus I’ve heard hostgator is much more stable than godaddy which is unfortunately too slow to be acceptable.

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.

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).