Upgraded WordPress
In an unusual move for me, I've updated the site to the latest version of WordPress soon after it was available, rather than forgetting and leaving it 5 weeks. As usual, everything went incredibly smoothly, if only all upgrades were this painless (I'm looking at you, Windows).
Hopefully I'll be able to get back to blogging on Planet Ubuntu again shortly, provided I changed my feed correctly! (If I have, you're probably reading this on the planet now)
Snow Time Like The Present
I apologise for my appalling play on words, I couldn't resist 
The area I live in very rarely gets snow, where the rest of the UK grinds to a halt, we seem to be able to carry on. Though this morning, I got a rather pleasant surprise of waking up to this
Rather than go out and get cold, I decided to have a nice hot drink, and finally fix sendmail on my VPS. Once I'd done that, I decided to check my blog again, noting that it was out of date (it was running WP 3.0.1) I took the time to upgrade it to the latest version. I figured I may as well be productive while I felt like doing it
WordPress 3.0 Upgrade
So as I'm sure a great many of you are all aware of, WordPress 3.0 has been released, fixing a number of new bugs, bringing some new features...and probably bringing new bugs (it's to be expected, let's be honest), though I'm sure that won't get advertised!
As I upgraded, I decided to change my theme. I quite like the new theme, it makes a change to have a bit of colour on my blog, which I quite like, though I do still have the old theme kicking around on the server, should I decide to change my mind. Another change, is the VPS on which this blog is hosted, which is now hosted by Fivebean. So far, no real issues, the minor issue I initially had was dealt with promptly and explained thoroughly, I'd definitely recommend giving Fivebean a look if you're in the market for a VPS
I do have one small issue currently, which I'm not sure whether it is being caused by WordPress, PHP, Apache, or the VPS setup on Fivebean's part, whereby directly after a reboot the RAM usage sits at around 300MB, and refreshing the WP dashboard causes usage to jump upwards by around 200MB. Now I know WordPress likes its RAM, but not that much, it certainly wasn't an issue on the old VPS. Anyway - more news on that as it comes.
WordPress Upgrade
I'm pretty sure I do these wrong, but I can't complain, considering I've recently upgraded to 2.8.5 with no issues, and now I've just upgraded to 2.8.6, again with no issues, everything still seems to be intact (though please let me know if it isn't!!).
Thanks again to the WordPress guys!
WordPress 2.8
Normally these upgrades go well, but when you accidentally unzip/untar the new version over the top of your current install, things don't quite go according to plan 
Though kudos to the WP Dev's, I modified the wp-config file and set all the options (including a different database table prefix), and then I put all my plugins back in to place, and took the time to upgrade a couple I needed to do. Finally, after a deep breatth, I ran what would normally be the installer, which said "Your database needs updating".
And that was all, so considering my potentially costly foul-up, things actually went very well I'm quite impressed!
Drupal?
So I'm trying out a test install of Drupal on my PC, and considering switching the site over to it. Though I have a few issues...
1) Do I keep this blog on WordPress, or do I attempt to migrate it over to Drupal? I love WP, it's simple, easy to use, got a load of plugins I like and that I use. But then Drupal supports blogs, so I could just use the 1 software solution and be done with it, slightly less resources on the server - win all round? But WordPress is set up.
2) Drupal supports dynamic content. This is an issue for me, because I feel as though I would have to take advantage of it, but I never have anything to update my site with (as you may have noticed!!).
3) There's too many settings to configure!!! The first screen presented by Drupal's admin section is just an array of settings, such as the plugins, themes, etc. I don't know where to start. I suppose if I take the time to read and research about Drupal, it would be better.
The thoughts come as I have a broken wrist and can't really go out too much at the minute (I can't drive 
). But it's been something I've considered for a while, it'd be much better than the iWeb pages I have up in place at the moment, and I could probably put content about life in general on the main page instead.
I would like to hear from others who use Drupal to get a rough idea of what they think to it, and whether it would be worth switching to.
All Settled In
I'm running from my new VPS now. It has a healthy 1GB RAM (much better than the 384 I used to have!). And everything seems to be running smoothly.
I did have possibly the most unusual method of moving my blog over - in that I zipped up the directory, moved it over to the new VPS, and imported the database, same for the apache2 settings. Luckily, 98% of it went without a hitch! A few issues with virtual hosts and mod_rewrite, but that's all.
I now have a constant IRC presence, because I'm no longer limited by the VPS provider on what I can and can't use (gotta love having a friend with a server!). And yes - it's running Ubuntu 8.04 Server
I Gave Up
So I finally gave in and bought an iPhone! I know that means some of you are going to hate me now nevermind I like it.
I found out after syncing my email with google that Ubuntu sees the iPhone as a camera, which I found interesting. It also means that I can charge my phone. When running Ubuntu, though for convenience I bought an iPhone dock
Also, I happen to be writing this from the WordPress for iPhone application, which is actually pretty good!
Site Style
I really like this website style, though I have one issue with it - I want it to be a variable width so that it adapts to widescreen displays etc...also a 2nd column would be nice, I might have to experiment with the other themes on offer.
If anybody can help with this it'd be much appreciated
Login
OpenDNS
Joeb454 on Twitter
- Got quite confused then. Just seen a tweet from a "Christina Rankin", mind automatically told me it was @chrisrankin 1 day ago
- Wish the #BBCNews site had support for mobiles with the videos. 1 day ago
- Just seen a picture of @TheTimeZebra dressed as a reindeer... 2 days ago
- RT @AnnieWanKenobi: 'It's a chap!' Midwife Admiral Ackbar. 3 days ago
- Working in the future, as you do… http://t.co/Dg7Rq8zi 1 week ago
Blogroll
- Artificial Intelligence
- At Home With Jono
- b-initials
- Collin Pruitt's Blog
- Copyrighteous
- Drubin’s Blog
- Just North Of The Eyebrows
- Linux Techie
- MadnessJack
- Matthew Helmke (dot) Net
- Motho Ke Motho Ka Botho
- moxiefoxtrot
- Nhandler’s Blog
- Planet Ubuntu
- Silver Fox's Space
Planet Ubuntu
- Maia Grotepass: Ubuntu Hour in Rondebosch this Saturday
- Jonathan Thomas: Muon Suite 1.2.3 Released
- Stuart Langridge: On vendor prefixes in CSS and vendors implementing them
Categories
- Apple (10)
- Internet (59)
- Linux (98)
- Ubuntu (89)
- Community Interviews (14)
- Ubuntu (89)
- Music (3)
- Other (26)
- Programming (9)
- Reviews (9)
- TV (6)
- Uncategorized (11)
- Uni (20)
- Xbox 360 (18)
New Home!
As I posted earlier today (sorry for any Planet spam!), I planned on moving my Planet Ubuntu feed over to blog.joeb454.com later in the week.
I changed my mind and did it about an hour after posting that last post. Hopefully I remembered to use the correct feed type for WordPress, else I'll have to edit it again!
From what I've seen though, the site seems to be holding up pretty well, It's not using gross amounts of RAM just yet, but I'll be keeping an eye on it
The only real issue I've run into is that it doesn't seem to want to email me when a comment is held for moderation, or when a comment is left at all.
I'm not sure why it doesn't, because it sends out emails for registration.  I'll have to wait and see how that one goes