Category: tech

Real?

So in very uninteresting and completely mundane news, I joined realjock.com last week. I thought it might be fun to try and interact with other guys who enjoy working out.

So far, I’m not that impressed. Besides being an obvious hang out for those dealing with internalized homophobia and the ever emotionally stunted “straight acting” types, no one really seems to actually interact that much.

The site is designed relatively well and does have some good tips/guides for working out and building muscle though. The forum is decent as well. I guess its the best to be expected considering. I’ll give it a whirl for awhile and see what develops.

Hack

I hacked one of my old plug-ins and finally got it to work with the new template. This just means my categories are back as a link, up top. The blogroll will be back shortly as well. I also added a new log-in feature directly to the home page. This hopefully simplifies the login process as well as giving visual clues to users to know when they are actually logged in or not. [1]Are you logged in? You should be. *EG*

The great thing about WP 2.7 is it is much more widget and hook friendly. The bad news is it is much harder to do manual hacks. There are pros and cons to be both approaches but I like tinkering with the code.

Someone complained the links to the old blog were broken but they look fine to me. I’ve tried a variety of browsers and can’t seem to get a failed link. If you experience trouble, email me.

References

References
↑1 Are you logged in? You should be. *EG*

Stimulating…

Well, I’m doing my part to “stimulate” the economy.  I just received my new laptop today.  I decided to go with something a tad lighter this time.  I read some great reviews for the Lenovo Y650 series.  I’ve never owned a Lenovo. [1]IBM sold them their laptop division a few years back.  I can tell you this sucker is super slim & light.  I lost an inch of screen real estate but so far I’m not missing it! 

It also arrived a day early so I got a nice surprise this morning.  heh heh  I noticed right off how small the box was and was a bit confused thinking I must have ordered something else and just forgotten. 

I’m definitely impressed so far.  True to its description it has a very slim profile.  My laptop bag feels almost empty now when I’m carrying it. lol  Even better, I get a free upgrade to the full version of Windows 7 when it comes out later this year!  I think I mentioned I have the beta version on win7 on my old lappie right now.  I’ve gotten a little spoiled actually.  Win7 is all the things Vista should have been, IMHO.  I highly recommend upgrading when you can. 

Oh and I switched to a 64-bit OS.  The reason being the 64-bit version doesn’t have the memory cap on RAM like the 32-bit version does. 

The old Dell lappie is still in excellent shape.  I haven’t decided if I want to sell it or not.  TFA expressed an interest so we’ll see.  I’m currently transferring stuff from it to the new one.  I’ve had a NAS for years now and am getting better and better at using it as my primary storage.  Makes things a lot easier when transferring files. 

Anyway, so far I’m loving the new one.  Hopefully, it will stay that way. 

References

References
↑1 IBM sold them their laptop division a few years back.

Anal-Who?

No, not that.  Get your mind out of my gutter.  heehee  I’m referring to analytics.  I’ve been using Woopra for some time now to track my blog stats.  With the new version, they have a nifty plug-in that incorporates easily into my blog dashboard.  

Its fun examining the new blog stats.  And nothing like some dirty talk to boost my clicks. lol  I’m always tickled how many people read about my wild antics.  That pesky brettcajun is currently in the lead in referrals.  Of course, now that Large Tony has a new blog going, he is gaining fast and looks like he is trying to reclaim his title of top dog.  In a big surprise, Obliquity65 is bringing up a respectable 3rd place. 

I’m really surprised at how many oversea clicks I’ve been getting.  While most of my clicks still come from inside the country, I am noticing more and more international clicks.  Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia, hell even Singapore.  lol  Who da thunk it?  

Google is still the top search engine, no surprise there.  twitter and Facebook have really begun to generate a lot of blog traffic as well.  I’ve currently left my blog open to being indexed by the search engines but if the junk gets to high again, I’ll nix it.  

It seems I’ve settled into a core group of about 150 regular readers off and on.  Lord only knows why you stick around.  Gluttons for punishment I say. heh heh  Anyway, thanks for tuning into my madness on such a regular basis.  I am hoping to meet a few more of you in person this year.  Of course, if you find yourself headed to SF, give me a shout.  My schedule isn’t always the most conducive but I do try.  

 As usual, I promise nothing beyond my normal blunt opinionated self.  That will have to do. *g*  I’m getting better at dragging the camera around w/me though.  I’ll try to continue including random pics for excitement.  

Ok, enough babbling.  I’m off to get my hooves clipped and polished before TFA arrives tonight.  And no, I will not be posting any of those details. lol

Bitten / Kudos

The blogging bug has definitely bitten me again (as if you couldn’t tell). I guess the new blog and template has inspired me. heh heh

I’ve been tinkering w/using Google’s “Friend Connect” to allow people to sign into my site. It was pretty easy to setup and it worked well. Unfortunately, it only seemed to complicate the process. Their sign in doesn’t actually create a new user account on my blog, which of course means no control over content and access. Users would have to double register to truly be listed as “user”. I’ve since disabled it. I guess my blog really isn’t a social mecca anyhow. lol

In a slightly different vein of thought, a big thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  I was very humbled by all the kind words and emails I got.  I might have mentioned I have a 4-day weekend this week and have been a total slug so far.  Well, besides the gym anyway. lol  TFA arrives tomorrow night.  The only thing planned, besides the obvious, is to check out the new Underworld flick.  I’m a big fan of the movies so far.

Tonight, my buddy kristaki drug me out to some of the local gay bars in the gaborhood.  He is straight but grew up here so totally cool.  His fiance has a whole contingent of gay friends as well.  Sadly, the group seemed to like all the bars I hate. lol  I wasn’t miserable but I certainly wasn’t overly excited.  kristaki and I were in the acadamy together and we could pretty much have a good time anywhere.  We actually ended up splitting off from the group and wound up at Sparky’s gorging ourselves on chili cheese fries.  Even though we didn’t really do anything exciting I had a blast.  I don’t get to see him as much now that he is on the force and has a blushing bride-to-be.

So now I’m home feeling like a bloated heifer.  Ugh, I ate too much.  Tomorrow is definitely gonna be a cardio day!

Geeky-Poo

*Geek alert*

In completely unrelated random news, tons of geeky stuff to cover.  On the movie/TV front, BSG has finally starting up again.  I can’t wait for the final episodes!  The first episode was a doozy! 

I’ve also seen several trailers for the new Star Trek movie.  I’m mixed on the latter.  The last attempt at jumping backwards [1]Enterprise: The series was the lowest and worst rated in the franchise. didn’t go over so well.  However, Silar from Heroes is playing our favorite Vulcan before he embraces his Vulcan side.  I’m assuming this means we will see lots of emotion from Spock.  heehee 

True Blood on HBO has quickly become one of my favorite shows.  The storyline is a very nice twist on the vampire genre with decent acting from a whole crew of virtually unknown actors.  The homo-erotic imagery is significant to say the least.  Sookie’s brother is HOT!  You see him in various states of undress all the way down to his butt.  I’m bummed the first season is over already.  However, I was very happy to see HBO picked up the series for at least 2 more seasons. 

Sanctuary on scifi is another good watch.  Amanda Tapping from Stargate: SG1 plays the lead role. [2]She is also the director  Amanda plays an entirely different character and does a superb job.  While the supporting actor roles can be a bit lacking at times, the overall story line and acting is very good.  The series offers an interesting twist on a variety of horror characters throughout history and neatly ties them all together.  

And speaking of, the Stargate: Atlantis series has ended.  I was very sad to see’em go but I think they had beat the plot to death and it was time.  The last episode was a bit rushed IMHO but still a good end to a fantastic series.  I’ve seen a couple very vague teasers on the website and TV about a new series so I’m all ears on that!  Up until BSG, SG1 and Atlantis were the highest rated shows on scifi.  They would be stupid to retire their money cow too soon considering BSG was never written to go beyond this last season. 

*

On the hardware front, I’m still loving my new G1.  For a first generation OS, Google gets props for a job well done.  And while there are a few annoyances, overall I’m pleased.  My original complaint was the lack of stereo bluetooth.  It is being rolled out in the next update from what I’ve read.  My other big annoyance was the battery life.  I would easily churn thru the original battery in about half a day.  I bitched and moaned and Tmobile finally sent me a better one.  Its on par with my old Wing now so I’m happy.  The battery will also charge up to a full charge in about 45 minutes.  Oh and Tmo’s new 3g network is pretty damn good.  It isn’t quite what I’d call DSL speed but pretty damn close. 

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In complete and utter geekiness, I recently purchased Netgear’s HDXB101 Powerline HD Ethernet Kit.  I have wifi at home but because of interference, wifi in my room is a bit slow.  It gets the job done but I want it to the max.  The kit is designed to route your existing internet connection thru your electrical outlets.  I was skeptical but figured it was worth a try.  So far, I’m pretty happy.  Setup was a breeze, virtually plug and play.  There were some more advanced setup options available via a CD but I didn’t really see the need.  Plug one device into an outlet, plug your router or modem into it.  Plug the other device into another outlet (preferably on the same circuit but not required) and then plug your device of choice into that.  BAM!  Instant connection.  It automatically encrypts network traffic to avoid tampering too.  My connection is consistently faster than my wifi ever was.

References

References
↑1 Enterprise: The series was the lowest and worst rated in the franchise.
↑2 She is also the director

Work Around

Not being a PHP guru, I have given up trying to figure out why the import/export function of WP didn’t work correctly.  After an exhaustive search of the forums, it seems to be a bug.  It could also be related to the very reason I decided to start a fresh install of WP.  In my first attempt, I was able to import 2005-2007.   This is exactly where I encountered problems a couple years ago (and ever since) with upgrading WP versions. 

Luckily, the old archive page was rendered with the full links so I was able to just copy/paste into a new page here.  This neatly solves the problem w/o a whole lot of fuss!

New and Improved?

It looks like my reasons for starting with a fresh install were justified.  When I imported last night, I got all of the posts thru 2007 but nothing beyond that.  Obviously, that wasn’t gonna work so I deleted them from the new installation.  I’m still tinkering with ways to import so they may come back into this installation.  

There was a point during one upgrade around that time something funky happened.  I think my DB got corrupted somehow.  Every upgrade on my old blog since has had problems.  The irony is all my old categories came thru onto this one. [1]Remember, my last upgrade lost a ton of categories  WordPress as a blogging platform has matured signficantly since then so I’m happy with the newest version.  

Never fear the old blog is still active under blog.mobius.name (or the long url of www.mobius.name/blog/) and will remain so.  I’ll probably come up with a way to pull the archive into this blog.  After reading the support forum files there were some serious issues w/the export/import option for larger blogs like mine.  I knew that going into it so no surprise there.  

Anyway, it is a new year and a new blog.  This template is only temporary until I settle on one I really like.  Things will be missing or odd for a couple weeks till I get settled probably.  

I also plan to manage the user list more closely in this one.  The last group got so weildy as to be a mess.  There will still be content restricted to registered users but that will be a few weeks. lol   

Wish me luck?

References

References
↑1 Remember, my last upgrade lost a ton of categories

Update Request

If you link here in any fashion, please take a moment to update your link for me if you haven’t already done so.  I have decided to fold my main domain and my blog into one site.  I will keep the old .name link active but only as an archive in the event the export/import of my existing posts fails.  Once I switch over completely, no new entries will show under the old domain(s). 

The new link is http://www.sfmoby.us 

While I’m at it, I am working with a fresh installation of WordPress.  My current DB has become quite cluttered with old tables left behind by deleted and unused plug-ins.  With the advent of v2.7, this will become obsolete as they are incorporating an option to “uninstall” a plug-in vs just deleting its operating files. 

I will attempt to import all of my existing database however, if that doesn’t work I will simply keep the old link alive as an archive.  [1]I’ve also made a backup just in case all hell breaks loose.  heehee  

References

References
↑1 I’ve also made a backup just in case all hell breaks loose.  heehee