Archive for
October, 2007
October 28th, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
My web sites were down twice this week, and I had to contact tech support to get them back online. This is not a usual occurrence, but it was very annoying. This week I got an e-mail from my hosting company, Successful Hosting, entitled “Notification of Scheduled Maintenance.” Here is what the e-mail said:
Dear Valued Customer,
This is to inform you of a change window scheduled on Sunday October 28th, 2007, starting at approximately 3 A.M Eastern Time, and ending Sunday October 28th, 2007 at approximately 10 P.M Eastern Time. During this change window we will be moving all clients from Baltimore to our new Andover MA, Data Center. Please be aware that this is a client impacting event and there will be downtime during this move. We will make every attempt to get servers back online quicker than the window and will keep you fully informed during this move process.
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this move. We are confident that this move will result in an increase to your overall client experience. Along with being hosted in world class data center in our Andover facility the new platform will offer greater stability, flexibility and extensibility to your hosted applications.
So yesterday, which was Saturday, I woke up to find all my sites were down. My guess was that they started the server move a day early, but I had no way of knowing because I never received any notification of this. I went to the company forums to find out, but I had to have an account to view the forum and to post. I registered for an account, and then received notification that a moderator would have to approve my registration. So I waited for for my registration to be approved.
Once my registration was approved five hours later, I was able to login to the forums where I found the posts stating that they decided to move the scheduled maintenance up one day to Saturday instead of Sunday. This notification was not posted until 1:30 PM on Friday, October 26th and no e-mails were sent out, so if you do not check the forums you would have no way of knowing this is the case.
So to recap, they notified us that our sites that were hosted with them would be down for 20 hours on Sunday, then they decided to change it to Saturday one day before without notifying anyone. So their plan for the move is to unplug all the servers, move them to a new data center, plug them back up and turn them on, while all the sites and e-mail on those boxes is down. WTF? Isn’t there a better way to do this? I don’t know much about hosting, but it seems that would be the case to me.
Well, once their clients started to complain in the forums, they decided to moderate that thread so that no one could post in it unless it was an update on the status of the move by one of the mods or it was a client saying something positive. Again, not a good decision in my opinion. I understand the need to keep the forum productive so that updates can be posted, but it is not a good move to piss your clients off and then censor the negative reactions.
So I resigned myself to the fact that my sites were down, and there was nothing I could do about it until 10PM. Throughout the night, the mod kept posting updates saying that everything was still on track to be back online by 10PM. I questioned that after this status update that was posted at 6:55 P.M EST.
1)the truck is currently located: 1-2 hours away
2)approximate time it will take to arrive and unload: 1 hours
3)approximate time it will take to re-assemble/re-rack the servers?
2 hours
As far as I can tell, we’re still on schedule to meed the 10:00 P.M deadline.
So if you add this up, they are saying it will take 5 hours to complete the process. With 3 hours left, how could they be on track for 10PM? Well, as it happened they weren’t. I checked up until 12AM, and things were not back online yet, so I went to bed. When I got up, things were back online, but not until 2:30 AM apparently, going by the posts in the forum.
So things being as they are, there is not much to be done at this point. I am extremely displeased with the way this went. I don’t think it could have gone worse. But they have said this is a one time move that will greatly improve performance, so what can you do? Well, we will see if things improve. If my sites continue to go down like they have this week, I will be looking to move.
October 26th, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
Today I learned that there is a “nowrap” equivalent in CSS. Nowrap is an attribute of the td or th tag that is deprecated in HTML 4.01. Nowrap tells the table cell not to automatically wrap the text contained in the cell.
The CSS 2.1 specification has a property called “white-space.” One of the values of white-space is nowrap. I tested this property, and it works the same as nowrap does. I also confirmed that it works in IE6, IE7 and Firefox 2.
So, if text automatically wrapping is a problem for you, don’t use “nowrap” because it is deprecated. Instead use the white-space property, with nowrap for the value. I added the property as an inline style rather than in the stylesheet, so that I didn’t have to create another class and I can use it only where it is needed. How you use it is up to you.
October 24th, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
You may have heard that Leopard for Mac OS X is due to be released Friday, October 26th at 6 PM. Apple sent out e-mails to their subscribers today announcing retail events across the country. The events are taking place between 6PM and 10PM on Friday.
According to the e-mail, Apple Store employees will be doing live demos of Leopard and giving away free t-shirts to the first 500 people to show up. My local store is in Knoxville, TN at the West Town Mall. I’m not sure what all will be going on, but I want a free Apple t-shirt, so I will be there!
Update - 10/26/07: Just got back from the Apple Store Leopard event, and I got my free t-shirt. There was a ton of people waiting in line. I was amazed that many people could all fit in the store. I have to admit I was impressed with Leopard. So much so, that I will probably upgrade. I’m not sure when though. Looks like I will be adding Leopard to my Christmas list!
October 23rd, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
Okay, I really like Wordpress, and I really like Twitter. Which means, I love Twitter Tools! I decided the other day it would be awesome if someone created a wordpress plugin that showed my latest tweets on my blog. Twitter Tools is exactly what I was looking for. It not only shows your latest tweets on your site, but it can also create a tweet whenever you update your blog, letting people know that you just updated your blog!
Other options include Twittering from the Wordpress admin or the front end and creating a blog post every time you update Twitter. The cool thing is you can set it up anyway you want. I really gotta give credit to Alex King. The man creates some awesome Wordpress plugins.
Update - 10/28/07: It looks like the Twitter updates in the sidebar are showing the blog post links. Something is wrong because Twitter tools is not supposed to be showing those. I will turn off the auto Twitter updating for the time being in the interest of not cross posting. I will contact Alex to see if there is a solution for this.
October 23rd, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
After trying to install Django on my Mac and failing, I have decided to try and upgrade my local version of Apache 1.3 to version 2.0. If you are developing on the Mac OS, you may know that Mac OS 10.4 comes with Apache installed on it. While this is one of the great things about the Mac OS, what’s not great is that it is out of date. For most cases when you are developing locally on the Mac, Apache 1.3 is fine. But, you may find that with Apache 1.3 installed, you will not be able to run certain software.
The solution to this is to upgrade to Apache 2.0. I admit that I was reluctant to do this myself, but I found a tutorial from Apple that convinced me to try it. Apache 2.0.61 is the current stable version of the 2.0 series, and that is the version I decided to go with. I downloaded the package and extracted it into /usr/local/src using the following commands.
curl -O http://www.eng.lsu.edu/mirrors/apache/httpd/httpd-2.0.61.tar.gz
tar xvfz httpd-2.0.61.tar.gz
cd httpd-2.0.61
export ac_cv_func_poll=no
Make the following changes to srclib/apr/network_io/unix/sendrecv.c in the apr_socket_send function:
Change:
do {
rv = write(sock->socketdes, buf, (*len));
} while (rv == -1 && errno == EINTR);
To:
try_write: do {
rv = write(sock->socketdes, buf, (*len));
} while (rv == -1 && errno == EINTR);
(That is, add “try_write:” right before the “do {”.)
Replace the following else clause (that is, delete these five lines):
else {
do {
rv = write(sock->socketdes, buf, (*len));
} while (rv == -1 && errno == EINTR);
}
with these two lines:
else
goto try_write;
Run configure, run make, and then run sudo make install to set up Apache 2.0 for installation:
./configure --enable-mods-shared=most --enable-ssl \
--with-mpm=worker --without-berkeley-db
make
sudo make install
Create a directory for mod_dav.h, and copy the module to it using the following Terminal commands:
cd /usr/local/apache2
mkdir -p modules/dav/main
cp include/mod_dav.h modules/dav/main/
Once you have it installed, run the following command to start Apache.
sudo /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
You also need to run the following commands to start Apache 2.0 on each reboot.
sudo -s
mkdir /Library/StartupItems # This directory might already exist
ditto /System/Library/StartupItems/Apache /Library/StartupItems/Apache2
mv /Library/StartupItems/Apache2/Apache /Library/StartupItems/Apache2/Apache2
defaults write /Library/StartupItems/Apache2/StartupParameters Provides -array "Apache2"
perl -p -i -e 's/WEBSERVER/APACHE2/g' /Library/StartupItems/Apache2/Apache2
echo "APACHE2=-YES-" >> /etc/hostconfig
I have a problem now in that turning off and on web sharing in the system preferences will not stop and start Apache 2.0. I am at a loss on how to make this work. I am also unsure whether or not Apache 2.0 will start on reboot or whether I have to start it manually.
Subversion is rather easy to install. I used the tutorial found at hivelogic along with the same one I used to install Apache 2.0. Subversion appears to be installed and working but I haven’t really tested it in depth.
Once I had Apache 2.0 installed, I wanted to be able to access it when I go to http://localhost/ and access the files in /Library/Webserver/Documents. You need to stop Apache and then edit the http.conf file found in /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf. Then you need to change the DocumentRoot and the Directory.
DocumentRoot "/Library/Webserver/Documents"
<Directory "/Library/Webserver/Documents">
Now you can restart Apache and you should be able to access Apache 2.0 on http://localhost/. However, I found that PHP was no longer working because I had not yet installed it for Apache 2.0. Don’t worry though all you have to do is recompile it. Here are the steps I used.
If you already have the php files on your machine, go into that directory.
cd /usr/local/src/php-4.4.7
If not download it and unpack it again and then go into the directory you just created. Now you need to create the directory to install PHP into.
sudo mkdir /apache2/php
Then all you need to do is configure it with the right options. I used the following commands which adds support for the GD graphics library, in addition to mysql.
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache2/php \
--with-zlib-dir=/usr/local/lib \
--with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local/lib \
--with-png-dir=/usr/local/lib \
--with-gd --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql \
--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs
make
sudo make install
I ran into problems doing this. I kept getting the error from mysql.
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient.15.dylib
I fixed this by copying the file into that path using the following commands.
cd /usr/local/mysql/lib
mkdir mysql
cp libmysqlclient.15.dylib mysql/libmysqlclient.15.dylib
I ran configure, make, sudo make install again, and it worked. An optional step you may want to take is to create a php.ini file. I created the php.ini file with this command.
sudo cp php.ini-dist /apache2/php/lib/php.ini
Now we need to edit the http.conf again so that PHP will run in Apache. Add the following lines in the appropriate sections.
LoadModule php4_module modules/libphp4.so
DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Now restart Apache 2.0. Once I did that it worked. I now have Apache 2.0, PHP 4.4.7 and Subversion 1.3 installed locally on my Mac.
Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary. This is the compilation of a lot of work over a period of several days. I have tried to recount the steps I used as closely as possible. Use at your own risk. Here are some tutorials you may want to look at if you get stuck. Good luck.
Building and Installing Apache 2.2.4 and PHP 5.1.4 on Mac OS X 10.4.6
Apache 2.0 on Unix systems
October 19th, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
As the end of the year approaches, the release of Mac Office 2008 is getting closer. According to this post on the Office for Mac blog, it is currently projected for a release date of January 15, 2008. Here are some good sites to read up on Office 2008 until then, Microsoft Office for Mac 2008, Mac Mojo - the Office for Mac Team Blog and Art of Office. Microsoft is also running a special right now where if you buy Mac Office 2004 you will be able to get Office 2008 for only $10 when it arrives.
October 18th, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
From the makers of Stripe Generator and Tabs Generator, comes a similar, easy to use, web based automator called Reflection Maker. I want to like this tool, but unfortunately it lacks a few things that prevent me from using it in a production environment.
I found that the way it calculates the size of the reflection confusing. It does so using percentages, rather than length. It took me a few tries to figure that out, then I had to calculate the percentage I wanted to use. I would like more precise control over the size of the reflection than that. You also have no control over the transparency of the reflection, which is a problem for me. The last problem is that the image is too pixelated once it is generated. They should at least let you control the optimization as well.
Based on those criteria, it doesn’t stack up to their other tool Stripe Generator. It is too bare bones in its current state. Stripe Generator, by contrast, gives you a lot more options. If they improve the tool by adding these features, I would highly recommend it and probably use it myself. Right now, I am still stuck doing it by hand.
Update: Here is a good tutorial for creating the reflection effect in Photoshop.
October 17th, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
It’s official. Mac OS X Leopard will make it’s debut on October 26th at 6PM. The price is $129 for single user and $199 for the five-user family pack. You can pre-order it now from Apple to recieve it when it is released.
Apple is touting over 300 new features in this release. Personally, I think I will wait before I plunk down the cash for an OS upgrade. If there is something in there that I can’t resist, then I will do it. But until then, I am pretty happy with Mac OS 10.4.
October 17th, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
If you are a Mac user that is into design or editing images on your Mac, you may have heard of Pixelmator. Pixelmator is a layers-based image editor that uses Apple’s Core Image. It is even compatible with Photoshop in that it can open and save PSD files.
Here are my main likes and dislikes about the product so far.
Positives:
- Frequent updates
- Blog
- Mailing list
- Mac OS X look and feel
- Low price
- Free 30 day demo
- Manual PDF
- Open Source
Negatives:
- No history panel
- Demo leaves watermark
- Export options weak
- No view/zoom indicators
- No info panel for tools
- No rulers
Likes
One of the things I like about it is their marketing. They have a blog and an e-mail list for communicating with customers. They have already updated the product since I downloaded it, and through the blog, they are promising updates and additional features.
I also like that it integrates so well with the Mac OS X, including the beautiful look and feel. It also open source, being based on the Image Magick image libraries.
Dislikes
I have a lot of dislikes as well, and I am hoping they add these features soon. The main thing I find lacking is the several features that Photoshop has, that I use often, that Pixelmator lacks. There is no history panel, no info panel, no rulers and the export dialog is really weak. There is also no zoom indicator that shows you how far in or out you are when you are viewing a document. It is due to these problems that I am not able to currently use this as a Photoshop replacement.
I need a good image editor on my Mac without paying bucketloads of money. Since the 30 day demo will eventually expire and the demo leaves watermarks, I went ahead and bought the full version of Pixelmator, in spite of it’s short comings compared to Photoshop.
I believe that the creators have good things in store for it and will continue to improve. They are also taking suggestions, so if it lacks a feature, tell them what you want to see. Since I am paying, I am going to do that and hopefully they will add the features I want.
October 15th, 2007 by Jonathan Kemp
You may or may not know that I use the Wordpress blogging software for all my blogging needs. I really cannot say enough about the Wordpress team and their blogging tool, not to mention the Askimet comment spam blocking tool. I would recommend Wordpress to anyone looking to start blogging.
One of the nice features of Wordpress is the openness of it and the plugins that are freely available. I have been looking for a good stats plugin for Wordpress since I started using it. The one that I started using a few months ago no longer works with the latest Wordpress version, 2.3.
I also use the Wordpress.com platform for blogging, and the other day I was asking the question, why isn’t the Wordpress.com stats software available for the non-hosted Wordpress software. Since they already have the code, it seems like it would be easy to include in the standalone version of Wordpress.
It turns out that it is available. After doing a little searching, I found the Wordpress.com Stats plugin which looks like exactly what I asked for. I must say I am ecstatic over this. How often do you ask for something like that only to find it so soon? Anyway, I haven’t tested it yet, so I don’t know how well it works yet. But, if it works just like Wordpress.com, it should be the only stats plugin that I need.
Update: It is not showing any stats as of yet. However, a quick look at the FAQ shows me that you need the tag <?php wp_footer(); ?> in your footer.php file. I have added that tag and hope to start seeing stats soon it is working.
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