Monthly Archives: April 2006

Updated

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My feed broke for some reason so rather than try and find out why, I updated to whatever is in svn right now. I wait for an error log as something unexpected breaks…

Edit:
One function in the sidebar seems to have changed. I did use:
<ul><?php wp_get_links(1); ?></ul>
but this new code doesn’t seem to put the <li> </li> around the output. Changing to this function:
<?php get_linksbyname(‘Here’, ‘<li>’, ‘</li>’, ”, FALSE, ‘name’, FALSE, FALSE, 12, FALSE); ?>
does the trick.

Also, as noted before, when using RunPHP saving a function such as
<?php get_recent_comments(); ?>
results in the < > being broken so breaking the output with the solution being to not use the editor when needing to use that code. It’s been noted before though.

After the drill…

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The garage is yet again full of junk, boxes, books, games and the correct EU-approved quota of spiders. As I have shiny new drill I need somewhere worthy to put it. Tut tut … no shelfspace. In fact, no shelfspace at all. Down to B&Q, buy 2 metal – put it together like meccano – shelf units. And while I was there I saw a new toolbox. And one of those compartment boxes with the moveable bits so you can get lots of things in. Had to buy that. Them. Back in the garage there is so much junk – the council are taking it away on the 5th. I had a cardboard box squashfest this morning and that all goes Saturday – that I cannot get the meccano put together – but I can get my tools and use my new boxes which I did. I own – like everyone else – an astonishing number of Allen keys that I did not buy – a fact I discovered today. Having a new drill and new toolboxes bestows on me a feeling

That I know what I am doing

This is a temporary effect I know which will pass when J asks me to drill into the concrete lintel above the window to put up a new curtain pole.
Why when I’m in a big DIY warehouse do I get the feeling that I really should be walking round with thickly calloused hands, paint-spattered clothing and grumpy expression?

The foxes

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I mentioned the foxes that visit a while ago. They now arrive at about this time (21:15) every night for the first visit, returning later for seconds :) Both foxes sometimes grab a huge mouthful of food before dashing off – they will otherwise stand and eat where the food is. In fact last night we were a little late with the food so the dogfox (who nearly always visits first) actually came to the glass doors and looked inside) – so we think that there may be little foxes somewhere. This has the effect of increasing our petfood bill even more – it had already doubled with just the adults, but a whole family? It’s nice that they are a little less spooked than they were, and it must be nice for them to have something to eat every night. Wildlife is a good thing and I don’t think a bit of human intervention will harm them too much :)

ftp / sftp / the point

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I use Filezilla to transfer files (I use winSCP for editing because upoading is painfully slow due to the nature of the program). Now… in Filezilla I have some options for transfer:

  1. FTP
  2. FTP over SSL/TLS(using encryption)
  3. FTP over SSL(explicit encryption)
  4. SFTP using SSH
  5. FTP over TLS(explicit encryption)

Pardon me for being thick, but what’s the point? I expect to be corrected but from what I read I can’t figure it out. This is what I can’t figure:
Here on my machine nothing is encrypted. On the server nothing is encrypted. So it seems that when I choose to use a secure ftp, all I am doing is protecting the data in transit. But the ftp connection on the server couldn’t care – I use the same password for ftp or any of the others. So if all I’m doing is protecting the transfer then if what I’m doing is innocent (all of what I upload/download with ftp) then why use this encryption? Especially when it slows things down? The IP I’m going to can’t be encrypted can it? So they know the IP so they could try and batter their way in if they wanted. If it’s to stop ‘snooping’ or ‘packet sniffing’ or whatever it is then surely using encryption indicates something?
I can see why I might encode a letter to a friend – I suppose this is similar? In which case you would use ftp when uploading blog files but sftp when uploading plans for illegal activities? I can’t help but feel that for the vast majority of people this stuff just doesn’t matter – and for those individuals that are left it also doesn’t really matter. If someone important wants your data they’ll just take it. Or is there actually a sound reason to use the secure route?

Freshly drilled wood

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There’s something almost fetishistic when you’ve got a new power tool which you can wield impressively and use noisily. I had additional images of John Candy in “Uncle Buck” with his drill too. Or maybe it’s just me. Meh. J wanted some stuff doing so for once I got round to doing it on about the same day as she asked. Impressive for me.

New page in the guides: How to ping / trackback. Checking over the entries on the TT blog showed that such a guide would not be amiss.

Themes and more themes

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If you are content with your theme you may have missed the fact that Shadow has done a heap more work over at the Theme Viewer. There are now almost 500 themes there to be perused – and if you can spare some time a week (not heaps of time, just some) he could do with some help. There are so many themes coming in and it’s a lot of work – especially when once a theme has been checked and displayed someone else comes along and takes that work for display elsewhere. The Theme Viewer has no ads. The Theme Viewer has no link juice to take or give. The Theme Viewer was developed by 3 people and then maintained by the one for a single purpose – to let WordPress users see themes in a place that was free of ads and other cynical marketing ploys. There is no exploitation going on, no agendas. It makes no money for Shadow or anyone else. But it IS a lot of work and the Theme Viewer could do with some help. After all, wouldn’t people be annoyed if WordPress was for free and yet do much of the extras were surrounded by ads? It’s okay for plugins because they are the work of one person. It’s okay for guides as they are the work of one person and it’s okay for theme authors IF what they offer is their own work. But for other stuff? For the collected work of many …… So here’s the post and any help you can give would be hugely appreciated.

TT upgrade

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The TestTrack blog is now upgraded to svn which is version 2.1-alpha1. Not because it is stable – I have no idea about that so please don’t go doing this – but because I found some error log stuff (why are people from something ending with .aspx battering it? The selection of errors included:
preg_replace(): Compilation failed: regular expression too large at offset 0
fread(): SSL: fatal protocol error
fopen(http://localhost:83/PMO/Blog/326/View.aspx):
so I nuked it all. And used svn and the Treba theme by Phu (who is IMO the best theme designer WP has. What you are looking at has traces of his influence).

(I’m wondering now whether to jump this blog to svn …. if my headache goes it might be fun to do)

Vintage Rock

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Surprisingly good after not listening to this for years. I’ve got all their good stuff – everything up to but not including Back in Black – geordie lad cannot take the place of Bon Scott. Oh no.

Talking of music, there’s some band around at the moment that have done a cover of Tainted Love – and absolutely massacred the track. It’s not just bad it’s beyond atrocious. Do these people hold nothing sacred? Next they’ll be pulling ‘Come On Eileen’ to bits! :)