LefthandedLayup.com

Category: Uncategorized

  • Trying to install USB NIC on PII Laptop (updated)

    may282007_ibm600e.jpgBy a stroke of luck I managed to score a cheap, small and good condition IBM 600e, a PII with adequate horsepower for minor coding and quite importantly, writing. It’s got Xubuntu now, and I’ve found out a battery repack will cost approximately Php1,600 and I think it’ll be good to go. I won’t post the orig price because it’s just too ridiculously cheap.

    Anyway, I bought a USB NIC for it, and am trying to deal with driver issues. Again, documenting here so I’ll remember. Here are the files contained in the Davicom driver for Linux 2.6:

    dm9601.c
    dm9601.h
    Makefile
    readme.txt

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  • Annoying WordPress Permalinks Error Since Server Move

    Warning, highly techie post. All those looking for my usual touchy feely posts please move along now, nothing to see here. Just documenting a disaster of a Permalinks error on WordPress below, which I posted at the WordPress Forum. Posting it below again to document it, to help anyone who has to go through same and so I can keep a record of this sorta crap.

    All my 2.1.3 wordpress sites, which had been around since wp 1.5, used to use the structure:

    %year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

    ever since a recent server host move, the sites have started to insist on the ff. structure:

    /index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

    Appending the ‘index.php’ to all my URLs is a complete disaster as I use the Click Counter by Ozh plugin to count my most clicked links. These all now go to 404 pages. I really wanna keep using this as it has been recording my hits since forever.

    I tried putting it back to without the index.php but it doesn’t work out, resulting in errors.

    PLease help!?

  • A Server To Move The World

    may232007_enough.jpgToday’s the 3rd day after The Big Server Move And to those who don’t really know what I’m talking about, it’s the day I moved my domain Exchange.ph from just – barely – handling – it hosting at Mobilehive.com to hosting – for – the – big – boys Rimuhosting.com (I figured I had to explain that cause I read what I’ve written and realized I may have been fuzzy. Sorry about that, credit it to being overworked).

    Ok here’s more details. Exchange.ph, due to the websites it contains (Kikay, Mom, Basketball, Mobile and Movie), was already suffering from extreme server loads, causing me to surpass my monthly download limits on a regular basis, sometimes 2x in one month. In total, the sites get up to 1,000 to 1,500 visits a day, averaging close to 30+ gb. a month worth of downloads. Actually, I wouldn’t know if that’s accurate, since everything stops when I hit 30gb. and any further requests would go to dev/null I presume.

    I have documented (geeks like to document) most all my experience in The Big Move as I like to refer to it, in the past two posts. My main issues were importing my +-200mb. gz databases (each), the exporting and importing of which possibly developed a few white hairs, and causing me to actually get a zit on my forehead (that’s what happens when I get no sleep. Even back in high school.)

    And now I can say with 90% surety that everything has gone well. Not bad for a first – timer, especially given the fact I had to do the whole thing six times over (because there are six sites total, including this). As a result I am now ready and far more confident that my sites are gonna do ok. No more 10 – 15 seconds to load a page. Kikay, by far the most popular, downloads in less than five seconds. I gotta tell you that is astounding. Well ok sure it can actually do better, but hey I think that’s pretty good at this stage, especially during the afternoons when an average 20 – 30 people are loading it at the same hour.

    So what next?

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  • OpenDNS Rocks the Mike Right

    John Roberts of OpenDNS was kind enough to drop by to educate my behind on OpenDNS’ ability to refresh their cache, and consequently pointed me to cache.opendns.com, where I found the culprit!

    I cleared that out, and apparently only Kikay had that problem. Mom, Basketball, Movie and the rest were ok. After checking them all out, this is the page that says everything’s ok:

    I gotta tell ya deleting that record had the same effect as stamping out a cockroach! Or deleting a virus that had a chance to propagate again once accessed.

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  • Just a few quick thoughts before I hie off to ZZZ land

    Day 2 of the big server move is highlighted by three issues.

    1. Turns out php’s default 8mb allocation was the culprit when I was doing stuff like accessing wp-admin’s pages and it was returning white empty pages. I bumped it up to 16mb. and immediately, that wasn’t enough too. So I bumped it up to 24mb. and I haven’t heard a peep since.
    2. Around this afternoon all the sites suddenly got MySQL errors of the highest order. Stuff I’ve never seen before, like tables loading but not fetching data (“mysql disappeared” messages) or the default “I cannot connect to the WP db are you sure your password / username is correct” sort of stuff, aside from getting bog slow after initially being lightning fast early on. After a quick support email it turned out the installed 160mb. RAM wasn’t enough to handle the load, and they offered me a 96mb. upgrade for a discounted extra $10.00 a month. I said YeeaAAayyy aLLelujaaaaAhh and they set it forth onto the server posthaste. Looks ok so far although I’ve received some complaints of slowness, so we’ll see.
    3. Finally the biggest issue of all is DNS. And I mean 3rd party DNS and not my server DNS (thank God). After an hour or so of working on my sites, I try again and get 404 errors. After delving into it I realized I’ve been pointed back to my old server (!?!?!!). Yet another support email, and cause for alarm was raised, and they started asking me to check out stuff. After some settling down we both realized it was probably OpenDNS (which I use on my PC) maintaining an old record which pops up from time to time. Although I’m not particularly sure how and why that is, since I am dependent on that server it suddenly fetches the wrong record after the requisite 10 minute rotation. Now that is just plain weird. At any rate, the only solution is to just wait it out. I initially thought that it was some sort of failback issue, where it serves up a ‘second best’ record should the first one fail for some reason, but the tech support guys said DNS doesn’t work that way so that’s not it. I’m glad (although I was initially freaked) that it turns out the problem is confined to me. Which is freaky still in a way considering I’m it’s admin, and I’m the one having probs accessing it. Figures, right?

    Anyway that’s it. I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Tiring day, and the promise of another again tomorrow. Later then.

  • Today’s the Big Day

    wish me luck!
    update: as of 17:46 I’ve managed to upload everything, and finally changed the DNS entries to point to my new host. Although the recommended waiting period is 12 hours it should probably be ok before midnight. Meanwhile I’m gonna get a beer and rest a bit. That was a solid 8+ hours of work (off and on since 8am), delayed mostly by the length of time it takes to back up, transfer and activate my gargantuan databases. Crossing fingers.
    update: woke up to work on it at 2am and at 4am, and finally 6am. By now, 835am, everything seems to be working normally. There were some issues with too little RAM allocated by php.ini. This did not allow some internal wp-admin pages to load, resulting in a white screen. I upped it to 16 which still wasn’t enough, and now to 24 and is now pending observation. LFTP’s mirroring was also not recursive, and did not migrate the directories write permissions, which is a drag, but not a complete disaster as there are only a few specific dirs that need tweaking. I needed to reload and re-cache my browser several times and reboot, and even removed the OpenDNS IPs which I use, then put them back again, and now finally I can see all the sites. Apparently I should have used rsync, but they (my host) put LFTP there for me so I thought that was the SOP. Anyway..

    I’m really tired now. The sites look ok so far so I think I’ll go to sleep, after which I need to finish an article for SME Insight and get it in before lunch. I hope my editor doesn’t read this.

    The last command I’ll enter, hopefully for awhile is:

    ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Manila /etc/localtime, which results in: Mon May 21 08:55:09 PHT 2007. Now to zzzz.

  • How I Moved Everything to Lefthandedlayup.com

    If you entered Pisces-iscariot on your browser, or otherwise clicked a link going to Pisces-iscariot, please don’t adjust your sets. This is now my new blog, which I’ve moved to partly to separate my personal blog from the Exchange.ph domain and partly to practice the eventual migration of the Exchange.ph domain and subsequent websites to a new host.

    So I’ve been busy practising a big move to a new server, and this is the first of many migrations I’m about to do in the next few days. Everything looks like it’s working fine now, so I’m pretty happy and hella relieved as well. Below is a shortlist of what I’d had to do to transfer Pisces-Iscariot blogposts, comments and pics lock stock and barrel to this brand spanking new one. This is so that I won’t forget when I have to do it again, with some extra details for whoever else might need the same information. Believe me I’d had to do a lot of groping in the dark (ie. searching in forums, sending tons of email to my host’s excellent support team, testing on my practice server, bugging the chief, etc.) to finally be able to do what I did, so if I’d have appeared extra nervous or cranky these past few days, now you know. At any rate this’ll help anyone who’d happen to be in the same boat I’d be happy. Read on:

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  • Mom Exchange Chief Mom Jen Tan On ANC Today!

    Mom Exchange Chief Editor and Mom Jen C. Tan will be one of the guests at ANC’s ShopTALK hosted by Pia Hontiveros today, May 11, 2007 at 3pm (apparently it doesn’t even have a webpage. Go ABS!).

    Please catch her talk about her projects Next9.org, Babywearing, natural parenting, the diapers she sells and maternity wear. Oh and about Mom Exchange too, if she manages to fit that in.

    Break A Leg JEN!!!

  • Spiderman III

    may062006_spiderman.jpgThree words: Too many plots.

    Let me explain why I think that’s what did this movie in. See, movies, or all story telling for that matter, has to have a main plot. The chief character struggling to maintain his relationship. Or having to face a formidable enemy. Or needing to keep his job and sanity together whilst hurdle on top of hurdle are forced his way.

    In retrospect, that’s what Spiderman I and II were pretty good at. Classic, simple and effective story – telling. A simple, ordinary guy with not a care in the world is thrown into a situation where he needs to deal – and in the process, develop maturity and strength of character in a hurry. THAT is what the drama is about Spiderman (as opposed to out – for – revenge Batman or born – to – be – a – hero Superman). EVERYTHING ELSE, as I’ve said so many times before in other reviews, is secondary to the chief protagonist’s struggles. The subplots, the pretty girl, the effects (MOST ESPECIALLY the effects), and all others are all secondary to the main story.

    But the problem is, which plot was the main one? To be honest, until now, many days after I caught the first showing not only can I not discern which is the main story, but neither can I recall the details as well, obviously because there was far too much it wants you to remember.

    Read the rest or else Spidey will get you.

  • Mom.Exchange.ph & Justclickphotos.com Mother’s Day Promo

    Justclickphotos.com (aka Click) make great photobooks at a very affordable prices. You can give these precious items as gifts from your children to their grandparents! They also make calendars, cards, gift certificates, photo bags and posters.

    In time for Mother’s Day March 13, 2007, Click in cooperation with Mom.Exchange.Ph is giving away THREE PhP100 gift certificates to those who can send in their BEST – est Mom’s Day photos! Send the pictures by email to jencctan@gmail.com and put “MomEx CLICK PROMO” as your email’s subject. Please also include your name and contact number.