Updates on the functionality of the site.
I just finished fixing what was a seriously broken web site. I wanted to add another domain including web site to my hosting service and it got hosed no thanks to what ever tech support for my hosting service did to help me. If you find any broken links and such, please let me know.
Last night before going to work I noticed that I hadn’t got any email since about 1500. Not that I get that much email but it seemed a bit odd. This morning after work and early this afternoon when I got up, I still had no new mail. I checked my quota on my mail hosting service and had used less than half of my quota. I saw from my Gmail account that forwards mail to my hosting service that my forwards were getting rejected due to a full mail box.
Well that was puzzling. After contacting tech support, I found that I had not used up the physical capacity of my mail box but had reached the limit of the number of messages I could have in my mailbox, which was 3000. The tech kindly upped my quota to 6000.
I asked him what good the record of physical usage was if the quota was based both on that and the number of messages. He said that I had to monitor the number of messages in my account via webmail. I asked if there was any kind of alerting to let users know when they were nearing either quota and was told that there was not.
Thankfully, I am not trying to run a business using this email because the lost emails could cost me money. I think I would have to change hosting services were I to have a business dependent on email. I think that my hosting service needs to reconsider its approach.
Anyhow, I did not get email for about 24 hours starting yesterday at 1500 so I you sent me an email between then and now, please resend it.
I’ll have to research this one but if you are looking at the previews of my posts and there is odd “formatting style” text or indications that there should be pictures and there are no pictures, click on the post title to view it in its entirety along with the pictures. I will see if I can find the fix for the issue and rectify it soonest
I have added a page to my blog specifically for kayaking. For the moment, the page just lists the places where I have kayaked with links to the access points less that of the Ferrisburg, VT, town beach. I will be adding over the winter comments and pictures about each location and as I revisit the the sites I will include updated information. I hope that this page will provide a reference for other kayakers as to good places to get on the water.
I thought I had another bug in my Coppermine Photo Album but after much research, a backup of my web site and database, and an upgrade of my photo album software I found that I had just screwed up.
When batch uploading files to my site I got the error “no new file was found.” Finally, and embarrassingly enough, I realized that I had created the server folder containing my new photos using spaces and symbols in the name which is a definite no no as far as I am concerned. I have used filenames sans symbols and spaces for years considering that they were an unnecessary complication in the world of 0’s and 1’s.
After removing the offending spaces and symbols, I was easily able to publish my photos. The PHP software that I use for my photo album just couldn’t handle the offending characters.
I am not convinced of this yet but it appears that I cannot post photos that have no “EXIF” data to my Coppermine photo album. I have not found confirmation that that is a problem yet on the Web but it is a problem for me.
Photos batch processed using Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 lose their “EXIF” info and can’t seem to be published to my Coppermine photo album.
I have noticed, in Internet Explorer, that, once you hover over and pop up an image from the “Gallery Images” widget on the left side of my blog home page, the image does not disappear in a few seconds as it normally should. I am researching the problem. Oddly, or not, it the widget still works as it should in Firefox. Thanks again Microsoft….
Give me time… at least through the weekend.
After many expensive, difficult years with my web hosting service, I recently relocated my web site and email hosting to FatCow. The price is 1/5 of what my previous service was charging me and they provide many more options for me with much less hassle. I was able to get my WordPress blog updated to a MySQL version. I also migrated my photo album to Coppermine which uses a MySQL backend and has much more functionality and security than the previous album software I was using.
Unfortunately, some things pretty much had to break during the migration. I have been blogging since October of 2003 and am in the process of converting those broken blog entries that aren’t in my current blog into a month by month page format in my new blog. I had to learn some fun, new (for me) Unix stuff to clean up the old files in a batch process rather than manually otherwise the project might have been more tedious than it was worth.
Anyhow, check up on the “Old Blog” page in a couple of weeks at which point I should have everything updated. Hopefully you will find something entertaining. Additionally, follow the link to my photo album to see the new format and check for new pictures. Lastly, the gallery photos on the right side of my blog should shortly pop up briefly a larger version of the image when you move your mouse over it. I am coordinating with a woman in Britain to get the code to work with my photo album.
I have some posting to do and will get that done within the next week. I just don’t have the energy now. I will touch on celebrating, just two weeks ago, my parents 50th anniversary and my sister’s Kim’s wedding. Both were most enjoyable and moving experiences. I also have, I hope, three sets of kayaking pictures including some from Back Bay, VA, Bennett Creek in VA, and Mason Neck, VA.
To those of you who have contributed to Special Olympics, VA, due to my email, www.firstgiving.com, or the link on my website, thank you! On September 6, I and 19 of my coworkers will see how long it takes us to pull a Boeing 737 12 feet. On that same day, in case you weren’t aware, we’ll be celebrating Ed’s 50th birthday. Should you wish to attend either event, contact me for details .