jetpack fail

September 24, 2011 by ux

Following on from an earlier post where I said I was having all kinds of problems with my blog themes… I’ve now found out what the problem is, and how to fix it without killing my theme.

If you get an internal server 500 error on your WordPress site when you try to log-in (or get to /wp-admin/) then you’ll need to do the following.

  1. Use an ftp client to access your site
  2. Browse to htdocs/wp-content/ folder
  3. Rename the ‘themes’ folder to ‘themes_old’ (or similar) – do not delete it
  4. Go to your admin login page for your site
  5. When logged in – go to the ‘plugins’ area in the admin section
  6. Disable ‘Jetpack’
  7. Return to your ftp client and remove the ‘_old’ from your themes folder (or whatever you added to the folder name)
  8. Go back to your admin screen and refresh – if the site stays up, there is your problem.  If it doesn’t, repeat steps 1 – 5, when you log back in, disable all your plugins (except Askimet which doesn’t seem to cause any problems).
I hope this helps – I was starting to get very annoyed with it.

e-ink or ink, ink?

September 24, 2011 by books

Anyone who knows me, knows that I read – a lot.  My passion is clearly literature, but I also love news articles (although I’m trying to stay away from the ‘real world’ stuff – mainly because it’s depressing as hell).  Being the most impatient person in the universe when it comes to wanting to read something, I want to read a book, by my favourite author as soon as it comes out.

In the good old days (OK, so they still exist, but bear with me for a moment please), I would either pre-order the book on Amazon, or I would trundle down to the shops and get the book as it came out.  I would then become the most irritating person in the world while I devoured the book from cover to cover.  If someone tried to drag me away from my book then I’d become grumpy and irritable (nothing’s changed there really).

This last Christmas, I was given a Kindle.  I’d initially said I wanted one, then changed my mind as I was hoping at some point to get myself an iPad, but anyway, Christmas rolled around and I was given one.  For a book reader, it is the valhalla of gifts.

There are many arguments raging about those who love and hate them.  Those who staunchly say ‘but I love the smell of the book, and being able to turn pages’.  Well, I was in that camp, really I was.  Now? Now I struggle to pick up a normal book and read it, have you thought just how heavy they are? Don’t get me wrong, I love my library, and I have a lot of books (although they recently went on a diet), but having a huge library on one device that I can carry around makes my indecisiveness about what to read a lot easier to manage.

There’s a bit that can be said for and against owning and using a Kindle.  I know I love mine (and it’s also handy having it available on my Mac, and my iPhone – if I forget my Kindle, I can just pick up where I left off on another device).  I also know that there are people out there who wouldn’t love it, one memorable quote ‘doesn’t it have a touch screen?’ – no sadly.

So there is a point to this, in an effort to generate some revenue through this site, I’m going to be putting Amazon adverts on the site.  They will be specific to what I’m reading, or have read.  If you click through on the link and make a purchase, then Amazon will pay me some money.  I think it’s a little less intrusive than Google adverts.  So – if you’re thinking of buying a Kindle for someone this Christmas – click through on one of the links on this site :o )

I’ll start posting what I’ve been reading and I’m about to read… warning, there maybe a few posts!

Currently Reading: Fallen by Karin Slaughter

oppressor

September 22, 2011 by stuff I write

In this great wide world of ours, there are people who, for whatever reason believe that they have the right to control others.  It doesn’t matter whether that’s on the scale of a single person or an entire country.  The personalities of these people are, by and large ruled by insecurities.  I’m sure that you’ve all come across someone like this in your lives.  Essentially, I’m talking about subjugation by an oppressor.

An oppressor can take many forms, a tyrant, a bully, a despot, a dictator to name just a few.  The oppressor feels the overwhelming need to control someone.  I believe that this personality is driven by insecurity, and the overwhelming need to prove everything in their lives.  They need to rule the lives of others, because they are incapable of ruling just their own.  From observing these people at close quarters, I think the number one thing that drives them down this sad road, are insecurities.  Everyone has insecurities, it doesn’t matter what someone says, and there are always little insecurities that ripple through lives.  They can be small, or they can engulf a life and take it over letting it rule the way a life is lived.

Very recently my path crossed with someone, who I have known for a very long time.  More and more, I’ve noticed that this person is a bully.  They express instant dis-satisfaction with any element of my life, if it is not to their high standards.  When something like this happens, they are rude and say some reasonably nasty things.  Yesterday was pretty much the final straw.  Instead of lying down like a demure debutant and taking what’s thrown and me, and agreeing with it (something I don’t do anyway, I normally ignore them), I pushed back.  So, somewhat childishly, they ran for the hills crying and hurling obscenities at me.  Clearly, this is their prerogative, but it’s just not something I’m tolerating any more.

I won’t try to understand why this person feels the need to talk to me the way they have.  I have now (I hope) removed them from my life permanently.  So, what can I take from this situation? Well, I can strip them bare of their every facet and trait, and then store them away for safe keeping when I come to craft a story.

So what will I be taking away? I think the venom that I could imagine they spat from their mouth when typing in fury their apparent hatred for me.  I’d also like to explore the ‘oppressor’ and ‘victim’ dynamic a lot more.  It’s one area that could be tricky to develop, but it would also allow me to get my teeth into some of the more challenging aspects of writing, namely, dialogue, voice and personality.  Perhaps the challenge for me would be to create a clichéd view of the ‘oppressor’ and ‘victim’ relationship, then turn it around somehow into something a little bit more interesting.

email

September 21, 2011 by ux

As part of what I do, I find myself researching developments and changes in technology more and more.  Of course, part of this is also keeping on top of the likes of Facebook & Google Plus.  In keeping on top of this, Google has got me thinking about the disposable nature of email addresses.  More specifically, they aren’t so disposable any more.

Back in the good old days of technology, (i.e. when I first started working in IT), the only email account I had at work was an internal one.  Connecting email up to the greater world was unheard of.  If you were a personal computer user, then you a choice between AOL or Compuserve.  I was of course an AOL subscriber, and yes, I do miss Joanna Lumley’s dulcet tones telling me that I had mail (now I long for the red ‘M’ or ’1′).  The thing was, email was something relatively new and unheard of.  You just wouldn’t go swapping email addresses with people who weren’t ‘in the know’.

In the early days of my web life, I had many different email addresses.  Swapping them around wasn’t exactly a problem, why? well, nobody really knew that I had one, and I didn’t really communicate with people via email that much.  Now? well – now I’m lost without my email.  I found out that changing over your email address these days is a complete nightmare.  Have you thought of how many companies and websites you have your email address registered with? no? go have a look – it’s more than you might think.

So, when has your email address become part of your personality?  Changing it is almost akin to saying you’ve moved house.  It’s a wonder that it won’t be too long before companies start using it as a means to determine our identity.  So thinking about that (and the primary purpose of this website), I’ve got to wonder, what do people use their email addresses for?  Do you have an email address for different purposes? Do you just have the one? It’s all very intriguing to think about it.  I have got approximately 6 email addresses (including my work one).  I use half of them actively.

It makes me wonder whether people have ‘throw away’ addresses, that are use for illicit purposes? Do people really keep their work and private life separate when it comes to email?  Are there people out there who refuse to communicate with people in any way other than email?

What are your thoughts?

trying to fix it

September 20, 2011 by ux

Yeah I know – I’ve just updated my theme and got it working.  It turns out there was a conflict with one of my plugins – no idea which one.  Anyway – there’s tons to configure with a Woo Theme, so I’ll be having a play this evening with the hopes of getting this working properly.

If anyone has come here because Google has dropped them off, it’s because you were possibly looking for a fix to a fault that you might have had.  So… here are some keywords that might help…

WordPress crashes when installing a custom theme.

WordPress gives an internal server error after installing a custom theme.

WordPress gives a 500 server error when installing a custom theme.

If you’ve got any of the above problems – please go and read this article - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/500-internal-server-error-while-installing-a-theme.

Als0 – to initially fix the problem, you will need to get ftp access to your server.  Once there, you’ll need to go to the following folder: htdocs/themes > you will need to either delete or rename the folder.  Once you’ve done so, you’ll need to go back to your admin / login page and login.  Once in there, go to your plugins menu and deactivate all your plugins.  One of them is possibly conflicting.  Anyway – that’s the short version, I would suggest reading the article above as the guy who’s posted it has done a really good job with it :o )

UPDATE: I know what’s causing the problem – Jetpack for WordPress – enable it and my site tanks completely.  It also looks as though it’s causing the problems I’ve been having with performance.  Unimpressed!!

the problem with publicity

September 14, 2011 by stuff I write

OK, so I seem to be woefully neglecting to blog on here.  It’s not that I don’t have anything to write, I do.  It’s just that I’m finding that I’m having to censure myself a lot.  Obviously people who know me can find this blog (’cause like, dur, it’s got my name in it), so I can’t say anything about people I know, or my job, or anything like that.  It’s just hugely liable to do something like that.

So the only things I can think of to write about is my writing, but then now I tend to find myself actually writing, rather than actually talking about it.  So I think my opportunities here are to either turn this into less of a blog, and more of a website.  Or I need to find something I can write about that isn’t going to get me into a mountain of trouble.

Parchment and pen

July 9, 2011 by stuff I write

Well… after 14 years (ish) I am now officially single.  I have moved to my new home, and I am pretty much unpacked.  So in the process of unpacking, I came across a bundle of letters that I exchanged with friends when I was at school / college / early 20s.  It got me to thinking.  Nobody exchanges letters anymore.  I mean, why would we, when it’s so easy to type out a nice email and send it without really thinking about it.  Does anybody send letters any more?

As a teenager, I longed for a love letter or a real valentines card.  It took 34 years, but this year I finally got a proper valentines card this year.  I have no idea who it was from, but it was sent to work.  I don’t actually know who sent it.  The only potential sender swears blind it wasn’t him… so I’m out of luck and guesses.

Regardless, it would be nice to exchange proper letters with someone again.  I’d love to be all romantic and have an exchange of letters with someone special, but I guess the thoughts of doing something like that isn’t going to be happening any time soon.  You see in this day and age, our privacy is so heavily guarded, it’s like we want to keep it locked up and hidden away from everyone.  So sharing your home address isn’t something that anyone would readily do.  You’re email address? doesn’t seem to be a bit of a problem.

It wasn’t just the effort of writing a letter to someone who was your friend, I mean back then, it was the only real way to communicate.  Now we have text messages, emails, twitter, facebook etc.  Communicating is so easy. No, back then you took the time to go to the shops and pick out the nicest paper you could find to send to your friends.  Then you sat down and really thought about what you wanted to write, and you did so in long hand.  It really sucked when you made a mistake.  There wasn’t any backspace keys to remove the offending remark.

I’d love to find someone to exchange proper letters with.  Ones where I can pour my heart and emotions into it.  To really think about what it is that I’m saying.  To have a smile on my face when I get home from work to find the hand written envelope on my door mat.  I guess the hopeless romantic in me is still there, it’s just become somewhat cynical with the age of time, and damage of other people.

tuned out

June 14, 2011 by books & movies

I may have mentioned on previous occasions that I love music.  Well at the moment, it is the drug of choice to get me through a rather tough patch.  I seem to be alternating between a few albums that are uplifting and remind me to keep going.

There’s nothing particularly meaningful about each of the albums, and the lyrics (if there are any, which is a rarity), carry no significance.  It’s just that the music blocks out things that I don’t have the energy to deal with.  Probably the biggest one is conversation.  If I’ve got my headphones on, then the world is closeted away and that’s it.

I find listening to music is a key part of my senses, probably close to the smell of something evoking memories for someone.  Music does exactly the same for me.  With each piece of music I seem to encapsulate something positive (or on the rare occasion, something negative).  So anyway, each piece of music is important to me.

The downside of this is that when everything is done, some pieces of music can become tainted with memories that are sour.  Listening to that piece of music can then become a bit of an issue.  It recalls all kinds of things that I want to forget.  So anyway, I’m using the new Above & Beyond Group Therapy (ironic in so many respects) and Anjunadeep 03 album as my mental walking stick.  I’m leaning on them and using them for much needed support.

game changer

June 11, 2011 by books

Sometimes a book comes along and it changes the way you look at all others.  The only problem here is that when that book comes along it causes you to shift on your axis and nothing seems to compare to it for a while.  Perhaps the easiest way to describe this is like a drug.  Heroin addicts describe hitting up as trying to find that feeling they had the first time they scored.  Nothing comes close to it, yet you still try to find the same hit.

I appear to have gone off reading.  This is why I’m posting this.  Of course it could be related to the crap that’s going on in my life, or perhaps even for the simple view that I’m actually living life for a change.  Then again, it could be related to most books feeling flat having read The Millenium trilogy.

Yes, this is a post about those books.  Let me rewind a little bit.  I’m one of those really irritating people that judges a book by its cover.  I really didn’t like the covers for the books, and I just didn’t want to jump onto the bandwagon and be one of those people who read the series of books.  Why not? well, it’s partially cliched in a lot of respects, but I’m more the kind of person that makes a decision because she can, and not because society or peers dictate I should.  I’ll go for the oposite of something just to make a statement.

So moving back towards the books themselves, a friend finally recommended them, and said ‘you’ve got to get past the first 100 pages, don’t put it down.’ great advice.  You really do need to get past those first 100 pages.  If you don’t, then you’ll give up on a book that is probably one of the best deliveries of a book I have ever seen in my life.  It really is the kind of book that puts others to shame.  Why? well… you’ll just have to read them yourselves.

So while I’m here… I just thought I’d pass on the recommendation that if you haven’t already seen the trailer to the new film I really recommend you go and watch it on Apple Trailers.

feeling naked

June 8, 2011 by ux

So as I was searching through my Mary Poppins bag this morning (I’m always amazed at the crap I pull out of it), searching for my headphones I realised with a panic that I’m lost without them.  Why? I find they help me concentrate when I’m at work.  So then I started thinking about the things that I carry with me pretty much everywhere I go.

Well, there are two levels of things I carry with me.  The bare minimum and the ‘I’m going to get stuck somewhere and get bored’ minimum… so, my lists of things I carry with me:

The bare minimum:

  1. Keys
  2. iPhone
  3. Wallet

The boredom minimum:

  1. Keys
  2. iPhone
  3. Wallet
  4. Headphones
  5. Book of some kind

So I amaze myself that I carry such a huge bag! what are the bare minimum things that you lot carry around?