… so all sites are now running on Wordpress 2.5, which looks pretty sexy in the back-end, if you’ll excuse the turn of phrase. Everything seems to have upgraded without a hitch, too, which is a first.

In other news, my upper right arm is in excruciating muscular pain. People are suggesting that

1. it’s computer related, and
2. I should go and see a doctor about it sooner rather than later.

Knowing that they’re right on both counts is not making it any more appealing a prospect.

Good grief - it’s been a nerve-wracking twenty-four hours.

Yesterday I discovered that the time had come to move VCTB from its previous home (on the server of a good and patient friend) to the developer hosting account I now have for my other websites.

Moving the files and database to the new host were the easy bit; waiting for the DNS change to propagate was the worst, because it seems that Virgin Media have a very slow TTL setting on their DNS servers … or, in layman’s terms, pretty much everyone in the world could see the site in its new location except yours truly.

But the real fun part came this evening; having done the migration, I figured it was time to upgrade to the new version of Wordpress. Which involved upgrading about ten different plugins … then restructuring the database … then fixing the horrible errors that legacy code in my theme were producing … then replacing functionalities to which I have become accustomed with various hacks and workarounds.

I’m knackered, and my eyes hurt. But it’s done.

However, if you should notice any untoward and strange behaviour on the site, please drop me a line and let me know.

Now all I have to do is get around to making the damn site look less fugly …

Anyway - normal service should now be resumed. Thanks for your patience.

OK, so I decided it was high time I tested the waters with Facebook. Many of you will know my stance on social networks being a time-suck that I cannot justify in my life as it stands, but I’ve heard enough well-reasoned contrary viewpoints that I’ve decided to give it a try for a month and see how it goes.

So, make me feel wanted - friend requests to Paul Graham Raven, please!

Actually, my motives are two-fold - this evening I’ve been upgrading my install of Wordpress to the latest iteration (always a lengthy and slightly nerve-wracking process, no matter how many times I do it without a hitch), and while I was waiting for the backups to download, I discovered Wordbook - a plug-in that will allegedly feed my VCTB posts directly into my Facebook profile.

This is a feature that I would have liked to have for MySpazz, but their API is locked up tighter than an emo-kid’s trousers, so little chance of that. But Wordbook promises to let me keep Facebook updated without having to actually, you know, update Facebook. Sounds like a plan. I’m a lazy bugger.

So, the plugin is activated and the accounts are set up - I guess we’re about to discover whether it works or not.

That said, there will probably be no more content apart from links here for a few days - I’ve written three articles and four CD reviews over the last two days, and the thought of writing anything more makes me want to cry …

Wordpress 2.1 comes highly recommended by all accounts, so I’ve just spent a nail-biting, cigarette-punctuated hour and a half backing up databases, deleting the old install, rebooting plugins and reactivating themes …

… and it seems to have worked. If anyone notices anything awry, please let me know. Of course, most of you read by feed; if you’re reading this, the Feedburner plugin has worked correctly and I can cease worrying. The only problem I’m having so far seems to be a minor glitch with the rich text editor, but I can live with that for now; the codex hints that it may be a Firefox only issue.

If you’re running Wordpress and need to upgrade, make sure you follow the instructions provided to the letter. For an open source project, the WP documentation is fantastic; clearly written and aimed at people who aren’t code monkeys. That having been said, if you’re not comfortable with FTP, database backups and so forth, make sure you get some smart and helpful soul who knows what they’re doing to help you through. Watch them doing it, too, and have them explain the process. These are useful skills to have.

I am now mentally exhausted … which means that trying to write more story isn’t an appealing thought. Nonetheless, see me gird my loins with self-discipline!

I’m a sucker for freebies - blogger and blagger in one simple package. Continue reading “Fancy a free Zooomr Pro account?”

It’s been nice getting a wider readership over the past few weeks. But with more readers comes (dum-dum-DUUUH) wider exposure to spam comments. Continue reading “Spam Karma”