Jul/095
Wordpress 2.8 automatic upgrade fails
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
Loading ...I’ve been trying to update my wordpress blogs from various versions like 2.5 and 2.7 to the newest 2.8 for a while now, but was never able to do it automatically.
Every time I pressed the “upgrade automatically” button, it told me it was downloading the latest file from Wordpress, but it never got any further than that. I logged in to my site using my FTP client and found a 0KB sized file called wordpress2.8.zip in the wp_content folder, so I thought I’d found the issue – maybe the script can’t actually download the file and save it to disk because of permissions. I chmodded the file and then the folder to allow write access, but no joy.
Of course, I could have just downloaded the latest install from wordpress and done a manual upgrade, but there’s about 8 million files in the zip file and I didn’t want to have to upload that to 5 different sites! ;)
After a bit of research, it turns out that the problem is that the auto-upgrade script requires PHP5 to run, and as my sites are hosted on 1and1 servers which default to php4, the script was failing!
So if you’re having the same issue, all you need to do is make sure your wordpress is running on PHP5 instead of 4! If you’re on a shared server and you can’t change the server’s config, you can still tell apache to run your scripts as PHP5 rather than 4 by adding the following line to your .htaccess:
AddType x-mapp-php5 .phpAll that does is tells apache to to parse all .php files with the PHP5 parser rather than whatever the server’s default is! So just throw that in the .htaccess you find in the root of your site – put it just after the “# END WordPress” line – save it, upload it and try doing the upgrade again – it worked first time for me! :)
If you’re still having trouble after that, or you’ve got a different solution, please post a comment here and let others know!
Apr/091
Apple iPhone OS 3.0 – function follows form
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...I was reading a post over at ALA today called In Defense of Eye Candy, in which Stephen Anderson talks about how actually putting some effort into the way a site looks can have positive effects on the way the site is used.
The more we learn about people, and how our brains process information, the more we learn the truth of that phrase: form and function aren’t separate items. If we believe that style somehow exists independent of functionality, that we can treat aesthetics and function as two separate pieces, then we ignore the evidence that beauty is much more than decoration. Our brains can’t help but agree.
Just 5 minutes after I read the article I opened up Safari to test one of our sites in, and saw a great big shiny blue button advertising the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 software on the apple startpage.
Ok, yes, the graphics are quite cool, but what drew my attention was the list of new features Apple will be adding to the iPhone/iPod Touch, including:
* Search your iPhone
* Cut, copy, and paste
* Send photos, contacts, audio files, and location via MMS*
* Read and compose email and text messages in landscape
Apparently, “For iPhone owners, it just keeps getting better” – that’s right – it’s getting so much better that after a year and a half, iPhone users will finally be able to do things other phones/PDAs have been already been doing for years! :D
I’m thinking someone at Apple should read Anderson’s articles and get them to spend a little less time faffing around with flashy graphics, and a little more time on functionality…
Come on Apple, sort it aaaaht.
Sep/080
Creating Transparent favicon in Photoshop
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...I’ve found a handy little plugin for Photoshop that lets you save files out in the .ICO format – handy for making favicons for your website!
http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/
Download the “ICO (Windows Icon) Format” in Mac or Windows format, unzip and copy the “ICOFormat.8bi” file into your “File Formats” plugin folder located in “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Plug-Ins\File Formats”. If you have Photoshop open, save your work, close it and start it again.
You should now see “ICO (Windows icon) (*.ICO)” in the “Format” menu when you try to save a file.