Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

Today my company had a reefer (refrigerated trailer) sale. Basically, a trailer was refused full of produce and the beneficiaries of this refusal are the employees. I normally don’t go to a reefer sale because the product is normally in huge bulk quantities. As a guy living alone, I don’t really have much need for four whole chickens or a family size package of hamburger patties.

Anyway, today the rumor was that it was all produce in normal sized packaging. I had to take a look and it’s a good thing I did. For the low price of $4, I was able to get 10 avocados, a large bunch of bananas, a bag of oranges, and a bag of plums. Not too bad. The bananas are still green as are the avocados. I think they’ll last for at least a week or two. These are the small perks that make my job worth it… sometimes. ;)

Even though it was kind of a scary process, I have successfully upgraded to WordPress 2.5.  I did everything as described in the upgrading how to at WordPress.org.  If you use WordPress, I would recommend upgrading soon.  The updated dashboard makes it totally worth it.

Always remember, back up your current site before upgrading.  If you need instructions on how to do this, please check my post about backing up WordPress or do a Google search.

Happy Upgrading!

Backing up WordPress shouldn’t be something that you’ve never done.  If it is, just follow these simple steps to ensure that your site is safe if the worst were to happen.

Download  the WP-DBManager plugin and install it.  This plug in allows you to setup automatic backups of your WordPress database and have them sent to your email for safe keeping.  It’s a requirement for a solid WordPress backup regime.

After you’ve setup the plugin to auto backup your databases, you need to backup your content folders.  I have yet to find any sort of auto program that will do this for you so just setup a time that you’ll go out on your server and backup your content folders.  This should be done weekly, especially if you’re adding lots of stuff to your site.  The main folders to backup are, wp-admin, wp-content, and wp-includes.  If you have other folders that you regluarly upload items to that you reference in your WordPress site, back those up as well.

Now you’re prepared to restore your site if something horrible were to ever happen.  Let me know in the comments if you have other backup strategies for your WordPress site.

Here are a two photos of the Waffle House that I really enjoy:

Waffle House after Katrina (click for full size image)

I just enjoy the perspective of this shot.

Different - Acceptance - Phantoms

I wake up with a stuffed up nose and I go to bed with a stuffed up nose. I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. I love the weather, it’s perfect. It’s the reason I love living here in Phoenix.  On the other hand, this is the time when ever plant in the region is blooming. The air is full of pollen and it really wreaks havoc with my nose! Allergies suck and I hate them. At least we’ll only have a few more weeks of this… but by then it’ll be too hot to have my windows open and it won’t really matter that all the pollen is gone. Sometimes you just can’t win!

The new software version of the iPhone allows for WebClips to be placed on the dashboard (think of them as direct links to web pages). Well, if you don’t have a WebClip icon specified in your root directory, the iPhone will use a small snapshot of the web page. This is no ideal, obviously. Here’s how you create your own WebClip icon to provide to those who may want to directly link to your site from their dashboard.

1. Find a square graphic or create one.
2. Open the graphic in your favorite image editing software and resize it to 57 x 57
3. Safe the graphic with the name apple-touch-icon.png
4. Upload the graphic to your root directory (just like you would a favicon.ico) and you’re done!

Now anyone that directly links to your site via WebClip on an iPhone or iPod Touch will have a nice icon to recognize it by. Also, the dashboard adds the nice glass/gloss look automatically.

The big news yesterday was the DOJ approving the merger between XM and Sirius, both satellite radio companies.  I believe it’s been almost a year since the two companies announced the plans for the merger.  I’m kind of surprised that they let it go through.  I’d like to see their reasoning behind saying that this merger will not create a monopoly.  Hmmm…  I’m not against the merger.  I think it’ll be good for both companies.  Also, Sirius is technically buying XM which means that all my favorite stations (which are 1000x better than anything on XM) will be sticking around for sure.  Hopefully the two companies will be able to share transmitters so everyone can enjoy better satellite radio coverage.  We’ll see.  What do you think of the logo I dug up on the net?  I’m sure it’s not their official logo, but it looks cool enough, right?

Partly due to the gifts given to me by [Mike] and partially of my own volition, I got down to business today after work and cleaned my home office desk. Below you will find the before and after photos. Now, the real test is how long will it stay this way?! I’m going to make a conscious effort to keep it looking as good as it does in the “after” photo below. We’ll see!

Before:

After:

First, let me say that I have added a plugin that allows for my blog to be more easily viewed on an iPhone or an iPod Touch. It really speeds up the load times over EDGE.

Second, I have added a plugin to allow for the admin dashboard to be more easily read on said devices. It is actually quite remarkable.

That being said, this post is coming directly to you from an iPhone running on T-Mobile’s network. Enjoy!