Recently in Tech Stuff Category

So I finally broke down and did it...this post is the first one I've made (and made on this site unless someone beat me to it in the last 5 minutes I was junking comments) in the brand spanking new MT 3.34
testing smilies
So far I'm liking the plugins in this thing...very nice!

When it rains, it pours...
for the last 2 weeks this has be oh so very true!!

first off...work stuff...
as I think everyone knows, I work in payroll for a franchise restaurant (not saying the name for obvious reasons here!)
I LOVE MY JOB...don't get me wrong, but damn, as everyone is aware, it's tax time, and even though we don't print the W-2's at our location, we are responsible for getting them out, updating addresses, etc...
if you have had a job in the last year, have left said job, and moved...for goddess sake, don't call bitching at me if you didn't put in a forwarding address, or called earlier to update it with us, and you haven't received your W-2 yet!! :let_it_all_out
it's not MY fault you're incompetent, and personally, I don't really care anymore just how badly you need it, if you needed it that bad, you should have taken 5 minutes to call a toll free number and update your damn address :uhoh3

on what is fast becoming my 'other' job (so it seems people think it is) my bedroom is starting to look like a computer repair shop :hammer
one of which I did have fixed, running great, and the person it belonged to got into a fight with her brother and he threw the damn thing :throwcomp yes, I could kill him...especially since he ruined a perfectly good 20 gig WD hard drive
:jaw
then there is my wife's computer...yes, she finally has her own computer...and one day I might even get it set up (not to mention ME removed from it :scared )
lastly...there is this self proclaimed 'computer genius' we know...who can't get his running, so he brings it to me :rofl I think you can all see where I'm going with this...

and then...3 new domains that I'm hosting :scatter and trying to find the time to set up...
send in the troops if you don't hear from me in 6 months :errrr

**warning, geek speak ahead, feel free to leave an opinion or if you know of something I haven't looked at (or comments on what I have)**

I've been on a mission lately...
My mission is, I've been wanting to get away from MT for some time now...I think it's outrageous the prices they want to charge to continue to have a multi-user/multi-blog setup.
Don't get me wrong, if they had started out that way, I wouldn't have an issue with it...even when it was a free version I still made a donation because I thought it was a worthwhile project, and I wanted to support it, but they've gotten a tad big for their britches IMHO.
So I've been looking around at other options...who knew how many there were out there!! My main problem is finding one that has the features I want, at a free and/or cheap price tag.
I also, have my users to consider...the ones who, without them...well, redeaglespirit.com wouldn't be what it is today...I'd like to have something that will give them a bit more flexibility if they want it, but still be easy enough for the ones that just want a place to write their thoughts to be able to do that, without a lot of complications.

a short (kinda) list of what I would like to be able to give them

1. the option for 'skins' without me having to hack multiple files.
2. the option to choose their own look, I could have several templates set up and they could pick the one they would like to use, (but still have the option of using a custom one)
3. creating pages...for the ones who want more than 'just a blog', much like WordPress's page feature.
4. plugin manageability. or say Jet wants to be able to show her mood on her blog, yet Buffy doesn't...Buffy would have the ability to leave that plugin off while Jet could enable it on hers if she so desired.
5. ease of use. I cannot stress this one enough. I host a lot of blogs on here (19 20 to be exact, (yes, I set up another one this morning) no, you don't know where all of them are! :lol ) and some of them are for...shall we say...'technically challenged' people (my wife is one of them, so no offense intended there!) I need something that they will be able to use with ease...or they won't use it (and the blogging community would lose some great writers IMHO)
6. CMS, to understand what I want with this, take a look at the home page. I want something that will allow me to do this, without interfering with the rest of the operation! (and preferably without having to hack it to death like I did that page)
7. not required, but I would like to have people be able to 'hide' posts...password protect or registered users only...something like that...so they don't have to worry if someone (ie: family member you're bashing, your boss, etc...) stumbles upon your blog...or worse yet, just stop posting because you're afraid of who's reading it!

After a break (no, not my computer) I'm starting to get this WPMU figured out a bit more.
I discovered that the module I was trying to install had nothing to do with anything I had done, but some server settings that are not set in a way that would allow it to run...so it will be a "can live without that" thing
I'm slowly but surely getting things the way I want to on there...I found a plug-in (well, not really a plug-in) that will display my reads the way I want it to on the page (if you're completely confused, look at the sidebar to your right, that's done with MT RSS plug-in, instead of blogrolling)
so once I get all the toys taken care of...I can start on themes...then, (if I understand it correctly) users will be able to sign up for their own blogs, pick and choose what they would like to have on them (as far as plug-ins and templates) and be ready to go!
if I don't understand it correctly...well, it's still a good platform, with much better spam control features...plus you don't have to hack multiple files anytime you want to add something to the platform!

I think I need a break...:bullet
no, not from 'home' life, since that's as wonderful as can be...

I've been working today on setting up
WPMU, all seemed to be going well...after reinstalling it about 10 times, it was finally doing what I wanted it to do...
until I got lazy...
as you can see...I host a lot of blogs here, those on the sidebar don't even begin to list all of the ones there are here (since I haven't cleaned it up in a while)

one of the things I like about MT is that I can edit the files in the browser, if I want to change a template or stylesheet I don't have to open up FTP or Cpanel and edit them, I just log in, make my changes, and viola!
I thought I had found a plugin that would let me do this same thing...I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong...but I keep getting an error message once I activate it (everything else seems to be working correctly) :hammer
let me once again state how much I really DON'T like php :uhoh3

Why am I doing this, you might ask, since I have this platform hacked to the point that it does pretty much what I want it to?
I'm asking myself that same question...
I don't know if it's the challenge, the fact that this version of MT is no longer supported, the comment spam we get on a regular basis if I don't keep on top of it (since I deleted all ability to trackback any and all posts here, we don't have to worry about that anymore) or what exactly is making me so obsessed over getting this to work...
And when (yes, when) I do get it to work...thats still no guarantee that I'm even going to want to use it! :shakehead

yea...I'm definitally a geek

for those that noticed I was missing...
yes, I have returned...and boy do I have a funny story to tell...
okay, well, it's honestly not that funny to me right now, but I'm sure it's one of those that in time will be (I hope)
it all started a few months ago, my computer started rebooting at random times, not all that often at first, then started it more and more.
before we moved, it was doing it a little more frequently
after we moved, it was doing it VERY frequently :pummel
I'd replaced the CD-Rom, hard drive, processor, memory, power supply, and finally the motherboard...which just came in earlier this week...was still doing it
before the motherboard got replaced, it started giving me a stop error/blue screen, which basically said the boot sector of the drive was corrupt :scared (most likely attributed to all the random restarting)
get the new motherboard, put it in...nadda, nothing, zip, zilch
:wtf could it be??
so I pull out the books...yes, the 4 in. thick ones that I got from the A+ course I took...and started reading...
I came across a part that said to do a memory test when hooking up a new motherboard...basicly only putting in the memory, CPU and fan, and video card if the MB doesn't have it on-board (mine doesn't) and ONLY hooking up the Power SW wire from the case...then turning it on to see if you can get to the BIOS, etc...
so I gave it a shot, figured what the heck have I got to lose at this point?
powered up just fine...where before I had just gotten a blank screen...:hum
So I start wondering about the wires on the case...which one of those would cause it to keep doing this...
the Reset SW ones of course!!
so now I have enough spare parts (except for the case and power supply) to build another computer...since there was apparently nothing wrong with the old ones...:uhoh3:let_it_all_out
I swear, this was testing my whole theory that nothing could go wrong with a computer I couldn't fix :angry

In other, better news, now that I've gotten my computer fixed, I've managed to get everyone else that lives here networked where we can all use our own computers :biggrin

well, it looks like I was finally able to get password protected entries on here! :banana
for my hosties, if you would like this feature on your blogs, leave me a comment...and for everyone, if you see anything wonky, please let me know!!

If anyone pays attention to the sidebar, you'll notice I've added another to the Redeagle continuum...please all give welcome to YoureFavFemme of "I know you are, but what am I?"
She's a bit 'in your face' for some of you, I'm sure :wink, married, with 2 kids...and she's a lesbian
not sure exactly what her site is going to be about, but it should make for interesting reading to be sure!!

I've been looking into changing over to wordpress...but I have a question I can't seem to find an answer for
does anyone know if it will allow mutiple blogs? I have a 'few' :biglaugha on this site that I host, and I need to know these things! :rofl
so if someone can answer my question, or point me in the right direction, I would be eternally grateful!!

yep folks, we've assimilated another one...:rofl
Please go welcome Kat to the Redeagle continuum...this is a friend of mine and the roomies from a site we frequent and also in 3D land :smile

so go wish her a welcome to blogging like only my readers can!

has snagged another one :lol (yes -=e=- I am plotting to take over the world *insert evil laugh here*)

please go welcome Ran Ran to our little group, I can tell you first hand this chick is a BLAST to hang around :thumb. Those of you who read Whtetigr may already know of her :sun_smiley

not to much else going on here at the moment...still entirely to busy and will remain so for about the next month it looks like, and planning on taking the boys to FL this weekend for part of their spring break :banana which of course is causing no end of problems with :asshole...as if I would do anything to jeopardize my kids safety! :shakehead
keep me in your thoughts Friday please :errrr
I need all the help I can get :disapear

well, the Redeagle continuum has assimilated another one...Please go welcome Midnight to our happy little group here...if you can't tell he's a friend of Buffy (of Arrrgh fame) :biggrin
he's also brand new to blogging...I'm hoping he updates more often that other 'new' bloggers I could name...while I enjoy their posts, they just don't come frequently enough!! :wtf

and I now return you to your regularly scheduled surfing...
:groupwave

apparently it didn't take as long as I thought it would to get everything back...for the most part...got all my programs back, some of the documents that I had saved from when I built this computer, and a few things I managed to find and save...:red
hopefully the rest will still be on the other HD *crossing fingers*
if not :shrug
and big :kissy to all my friends who listened to me rant, rave, cuss, scream, whine and cry while I tried to get this done...y'all are the best! :thumb

so for the most part...the bitch is back :flames

so I've had a new (to me) hard drive sitting at my house for a couple weeks, with twice as much space on it as was on the 2 in my computer combined...so I get the wild idea to put it in there and transfer everything over...
in theory, doesn't sound to bad, right? :biglaugha
someone PLEASE remind me next time I get an idea like this, to back up everything to disk, instead of transfering it over from the other HD, as I'm sure the majority of my next couple days will be spent finding what files I want to keep (and I know there's a hundred+ or so) and hopefully being able to get the cd burner to work so I can wipe it out and start over...:scared

:throwcomp

so while I'm stressing out and all this is going on, my friend Jamie calls me.:uhoh3
not that its all that unusual, but what she had to say was...

"T, are you on aim?"
ummm..no, I can't even log online at this point, why?
"because you're showing online on that messenger" (I use trillian at home and usually have 4 logged on at all times)

I'm telling you, the next 8 days cannot go fast enough for me!!! :biggrin

you know it's not going to be a great day when you get on-line and discover that your mysql databases are missing. :scared
which means, not only did everyone over on the sidebar that resides here at chez Redeagle have issues, but also the other domain that I host :uhoh3
But thanks to the rocking people I have my account with, they had us all back up and running in no time!! :banana
sorry for any wonkyness encountered during that time :bullet

and totally off topic, :groupwave only 2 more weeks!!
I'm so psyched!! :biggrin

:wavey

so what do you think?
does she not ROCK!!
many thanks to my friend Mercy for creating her for me :banana
please let me know if you see any wonkiness...I think I've got everything just about right though *crossing fingers*

:coffee :flames :jaw :throwcomp
:disapear
:heart
yes folks...i'm testing smilies :kissy

has never been one of MY virtues...
so instead of waiting for blogrolling to get back up and running...I took the bull by the horns and implemented something I'd been looking at for several months...mt-rssfeed..and OMG it works!! :banana
I'll probably post on Us [here] (aka the tech blog) how I did it...with proper credit in all places of course :Woot

I must say...I was very surprised how few I had in my reads list that I wasn't able to syndicate...always thought there were allot more...

~no more error messages here! I have a rep to protect :rofl~

I fail to see, how someone can have nothing better to do with their time than to hack into something...
for example...blogrolling...*rolling eyes*

to those people I would like to say, GET A LIFE!!

to everyone else, thank god for the backup feature...now if I could just get the import one to work :sad

my links will return later today...after I've slept
(and the reason the 'hosted here' ones are back is because I can pull them out of MT...:rofl )

when I can go into my activity log and see something like this *s*

2003.10.25 16:09:16 81.218.227.11 MT-Blacklist comment denial: buy[\w_.\-]*online[\w_.\-]*.[A-Za-z]+

I know I'm a bit late, but version 1.5 is out, I just installed it this morning, so please let me know of any wonkyness you may encounter :smile
this version also prevents trackback spam! :banana

you might want to add 'menguma.com' to it...Jamie got hit with her first one today from it.
I've been almost computer-less for the last couple days, CPU fan decided to stop working...(not a good thing!) so I went and bought another one....it didn't work either...seems the connector on the motherboard was where the problem was :sad
fortunately, there is an adapter to hook it into the power supply (and much cheaper alternative than a new motherboard, or even a new fan!) bad part is that I have so much on here already, all my plugs were taken...
*sighs* I really didn't need a CD-ROM AND CD-RW did I?
And yes, for those that pay attention, this is the same computer I re-built just 4 months ago :angry

I just installed MT-Blacklist on the site, to see if we can't rid ourselves of comment spam.
Please let me know if it causes commenting problems for anyone!!
*crossing fingers*

you've heard it all...or at least ever stupid thing you possibly could!

As some know, I get about 2 days (nights) off a week...if I'm lucky
for most of these lately, I've been trying my damnedest to be a mind reader/tech support to one of the properties our parent company owns...normally I don't mind this, truth be told I actually enjoy it...except in this case.
I have NEVER met a person so computer illiterate!! EVER!! and that's saying allot...I thought most I work with on a daily basis had that pretty locked up...I was so wrong...:uhoh3
In this case, not only have I had to explain how to reboot the computer, check her email, and the importance of not throwing away the disks to reinstall the operating system (was to late, they already did *sighs*) but have had to go into detail about why, because she had her computer hooked up to a network (dsl connection) she got over 30 infected files due to so-big and blaster...(and no, they had no virus protection on this machine AT ALL) she just wants me to 'fix it' and wonders why it doesn't didn't work, because "she didn't even check her email" :uhoh3
It's very frustrating, to do this for someone, who not only does not care why, does not TRY to understand why, but also cannot seem to make up her mind what the hell she wants to do with these computers...
then yesterday came the kicker...I finally got the one reformatted that had the viruses, and was working on the other one to get them networked, etc...the cdrom is shot on this one, it wont open...and one of the housekeepers was just getting off work.
I don't claim to be a genius, and I know I don't know everything, but I'll be damned if when I'm working on something, I'm going to stand back and let someone come in and tell me what I need to try...when I explained to her I knew what the problem was, she stands there and says, "well, you need to do this" (she thought I was trying to install a program off a CD :errrr) I gave her 'the look' :let_it_all_out and said, no, that's not the issue, the drive is not even opening...to which she comes over and try's to 'fix' it for me :wtf
by this time, I'm pissed, and informed her I did know something about what I was doing, since I build/repair computers all the time...to which this genius tells me that her husband built one once, and she 'used' it allot
gee thanks...so comforting :uhoh3
and no, she couldn't get it open either :rofl

anyone need/want a tech support job really bad? I'm liable to be busy with these geniuses a while!

ok, the move to the new server is complete...
my site seems to be ok
Arrrgh!!! seems to be ok
the others are ok as I can see them from MT...
but if I try to go from the links on this page, they haven't resolved yet :sad

it just seems to be problems with the subdomains though...except for buffys

*update* Jet seems to be able to see the new ones now...hopefully the others arn't far behind!!

*whew*
I think I got it!!
everything I could export and save before the DNS resolved has been moved over to the new server...
if you can read this...it's working!! *G*
I'm so loving the new place...took less than an hour to import 9 blogs...and if you read some of the others here, not that I'm mentioning any names Jamie, they tend to take up a bit of space :lol
I did this install with mysql, instead of berkley...so far no strange quirks *crossing fingers*

how much longer this will be here...
I finally broke down and got my own reseller account :biggrin
I'm totally psyched about this :mouse
however...yesterday, I changed the DNS...still waiting for that change to go through...while I wait, I'm doing my best to keep all my people here from losing any comments or posts.
not an easy task, let me tell ya!
everything else is backed up and ready for transfer, or has already been transfered! (yes, I can ftp into the new site already :biggrin )
so if you view any blogs in the next couple days in the redeagle continuum, and they look a little 'odd' or are not there at all...have no fear, we will return shortly!
oh, and if you need hosting :rofl my email addy's on the sidebar...:thumb

well, for those of you who've been wondering, we finally posted at Us [here]!
the geek in me is very happy :banana

better/worse, or you couldn't care less?? :-)
right now, I think I fall under the last one...off to bed for me!

oh...it's not to late to sponsor Bluewolf...it's still open for that 48 hours after the blogathon's over (link for it's in her sidebar *s*)

no offense to those that ARE!!
after editing one by one...all of Buffy and Speed's posts...I figured it out...(mucho thanks to you for giving me the idea)

Jet, I may not kill you after all :biggrin

yes, I know, it's rather plain, but I do have something in mind already...just have to figure out how to get it transfered from my head to the screen :lol

Everyone else is also back up and running, links updated over in the sidebar, and redirect scripts for your convenience in place for the time being (in other words, update the links folks!!)

oh, and if anyone knows an easy way to keep HTML code from transforming into ASCII characters when importing...I'd love to hear it!!! (Jets blog will kill me before I get all those posts edited!!)

oh Jet's gonna kill me *g*
their sites have moved, will update everyone on it tomorrow...got to get ready for work!!

well, it seems my server decided to have a 'hardware failure' sometime yesterday evening :sad
however, I can't seem to find anything screwy, so it looks like all of us here are back up and running! :groupwave
(not like I don't have most of my stuff backed up already...but everyone else's blogs is what I worried about!)
oh, and -e-, I actually got my newsletter this month! :thumb

Well, I got my computer back up and running, (after much stress, hair pulling, ranting, raving, etc...)
Mucho thanks to you, you, you, you, and most especially you! for listening to my bitching and moaning, and letting me bounce ideas off of you for whatever the problem could be, and helping me to find the solutions.
Turns out, not only did I end up replacing the motherboard, et all...I also had a bad chip :sad
So what happens today, when I've got all this set up, working, and BOTH hard drives where I can see them?
The power supply goes poof!
I had shut down after checking mail this morning, everything was fine...go to turn it on this evening and nothing.
deader than a doornail.
I check connections, double and triple check them.
Nada
zip
zilch
oh, did I mention this is BRAND NEW?!? It came with the case...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
so how am I here you might ask?
well, I now have 2 cases without all their parts...
both of which, have good power supplies *G*
and yes, I'd hate to be those people in the computer store where I bought this thing at tomorrow to *evil laugh*

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
~ Isaac Asimov

hence the reason I spent wayyyy to much money today, and will be spending my 'awake' time this weekend (after I pick the stuff up friday) putting one together :Woot
new case, motherboard, graphic card, and modem *happy sighs*
with room for 2 hard drives, 2-3 cd-rom bays, and 2 floppy bays...yes, I do belive I'm going to just combine the 2 I have into one kick a** machine :red
plus, more room for ram than I have in either of these...more expansion card slots than I know what to do with (but give me a couple days! :lol) and I'm having to sit back from the keyboard so I don't drool all over it! :banana

So in the midst of all this :fdup I get to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time anyway... :thumb

wonder why that is?
Last night, I was working with a program that allows you to set up a web-ring on your server, the documentation was rather poor but I managed to figure it out! *s* so yea I guess you could say I was pretty proud of myself.

So today, I'm uploading MT, like I've done (I have no idea how many) countless times before, with no problems, save a few minor glitches that were soon fixed...*sighs*

So I get it installed, log in...configured...etc...
there are no templates
NONE!
wtf??
so I re-upload the tmpl file...thinking that might fix it...
WRONG!
So I go to MT's default templates page (yea I've got it bookmarked, so?) and add them all in one at a time...rebuild...
it gives me some weird error message saying that "template " has no output file"
again...wtf??
there is no template ''!
and for every template I add I get 3 more to go along with it! (very weird)
and to top it all off, when I scroll to the bottom of the page, there is all this strange coding there...error strings on line ... and the like...

So I do the only thing I know how...delete it all and try again!

I'm wondering if her server is possessed?!?

***Update***
well, it WORKED!!
she now has MT running, and I retain my techie-goddess crown...no matter how tarnished it may be *s*

well, as some of you know this last weekend I bit the bullet and reformatted this piece of crap (aka Gateway) that I'm on, and got rid of the 'standard screen-saver' that comes with Windows-ME :happydance
Yea, I'm almost embarrassed to say it but I was on ME, for about 2 1/2 years, and to be totally honest it was ok, well, as long as you reformatted every 6 months or so :fdup, and we won't even discuss all the crap that the aforementioned Gateway company puts on their machines...(can you tell I really don't care for their computers? :smile)
so now, I'm running Windows 2000 professional...(and before you say it yes I know how great XP is, we use it at work, however my poor little machine does NOT have the resources to run it :angry) it's a nice clean install, with none of the other bullshit, and I'm a very happy camper now...
well, till I get the time/money to build my own machine :thumb

In other news, we have snow! :freak3 allot of snow, and no I'm not nearly as thrilled about it as my children are...(go figure) I saw/heard something yesterday I've seen very few times in my life, thunder and lightning while it was snowing/sleeting!
Now mind you, I've lived in areas where snow was a very common thing (SLC for 4 years, KS for 2 and MO for 4) you get very used to it around there, but thats just weird when its snowing like hell and you hear thunder! I was at the grocery store when it started and one lady asked if that was a jet going overhead :lol
So all total we got around 8 inches, they closed school and 1/2 the town last night, and I made sure to check my caller id before I answered it, as it was my night off and no I can't come in to work thank you very much!! I have a mommy mobile (aka van) and they don't really like anything but the most pristine conditions, so I'm sitting my happy arse at home! :biggrin

**UPDATE**
I did just get a call from work that I answered, apparently everyone has called in, and I have 2 co-workers stuck at work, they can't leave (because of the snow) and are taking turns sleeping up there in the lobby...yea, I do feel sorry for them, but I don't have a vehicle to drive up there, and I'm not walking!!
I told him to look at the bright side, at least it was 2 of them and not just one...:rofl

Stay warm all!

IT WORKS!!
thanks to a bit of patience from Bluewolf, this script from the Scriptygoddess now works to show/hide my regular reads list!!
*T does happy dance*

well, finally got my MT upgraded, however I f*^$#@ up and lost my smilie icons...and for some reason when I try to fix it I get errors all over the place :angry
I did however, get this blog finished (finally, only been supposed to do it for months now! and I love the new default templates in the latest version of MT) for those of you not regular readers of her site, this is KG and Craig's son.

and I think I finally have my layout the way I want it...thank you all for the comments on the new look, (but it's staying in spite of those! LOL) cause, well >I< like it, and more important...SHE likes it! (and I do have my priorities!)

so now I'm off to do a few more blogs, if this keeps up I'm going to make another credit button :lol

please forgive the screwyness around here for a bit while I test this new layout...or delete my blog entirely...:angry

I don't know what I'm thinking, but after having redone some friends sites I got the wild hair up my a** to redo my site...and of course now it's not working the way I want it to!!! :angry
I WILL get this to work...
just had to take a break for a bit...so ignore this very boring post.

She's back!
and yes I'm mostly doing this to see what her trackback template looks like...:biggrin