Posts in category "blogging"

Another thing on my todo list was to learn PHP and write a WordPress plugin to randomly select quotes stored in the database to rotate the tagline.

An admin interface to create, modify and delete quotes was planned for Version 2.1 (beta) due Q4 2008.

Fortunately for me though, a helpful person called Zombie Robot (pseudonym ?) has already produced wp-quotes (and another kind person tweaked it to work properly for taglines).

All that remains is the interesting part - performance tuning. No - wait. Existing users have already identified this modification as efficiently fetching a single, random record. Horribly database specific of course but worth having when you have 2.4 million quotes.

    36c36
    < $sql = "select * from " . WP_QUOTES_TABLE . " where visible='yes'
    < order by rand() limit 1";
    ---
    > $sql = "select * from " . WP_QUOTES_TABLE . " where visible='yes'";

Theres been a lot of excitement and discussion recently about the emergence of a new blogging platform called Habari.

A brand new blogging platform being created from scratch with more developers than actual blogs.The prospect of my blog being completely broken by the nightly alpha build was an attractive one. A chance to leave the comfort of a stable Wordpress environment with all those themes and plugins. A change to live on the bleeding edge. I desperately tried to resist but the lure was too strong. In the end, I simply couldn't help myself.

The first step was to install subversion (much better name than boring old CVS) on Bluehost following these excellent, idiot-proof instructions.

Then you check out the habari code. Or rather you don't. You get this error.

svn: PROPFIND request failed on '/svn/trunk'
svn: No transaction named '26572b6d78b0be18? in filesystem 'habari'

No need to give up and commit Hari-Kari just yet. Consult the Habari self-help group to discover there is a known problem with the SVN repository on the Google server. When this problem is resolved, I finally get to download the code. Habari requires PHP5 and PDO (for database access). On Bluehost, the following lines must be added to 'php.ini' to activate the PDO drivers for mySQL.

extension_dir = /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20050922
extension=pdo.so
extension=pdo_mysql.so

I am already hosted on a server running PHP5 but if you don't have PHP5 on your server, open a ticket and Bluehost Technical Support will promptly move you.

Create a(nother) mySQL database and account, edit the database credentials in 'config.php', create an '.htaccess' file to handle redirects and you're away. A simple installation page creates the initial user account, the blog, tagline and the first entry.

Congratulations ! You are now the proud owner of a Habari blog.

Obviously, this is an embryonic product but the Administration page looks great and is fast and responsive. Although I'm not sure I believe the traffic statistics !

The article editor is a little minimalistic (especially contrasted with the recently released WordPress 2.1) but perfectly usable.

A special word of praise about the Habari import facility.

This connected directly to my Wordpress database and was blindingly fast (less than 30 seconds) to import my WordPress blog. In fact, it was so fast, I had to check that over 500 articles and 400 comments were indeed correctly imported although I noted that tags weren't preserved.

It is not clear how you might import a hosted Wordpress blog where you don't have access to the database but I am sure other data formats will be added in due course.

Of course, there isn't the rich variety of themes and plugins available for Habari (yet) and, while I will not be jumping ship to Habari from WordPress today, I will certainly continue to follow developments with interest.

Auto-discovery detected the availability RSD and Atom (but not RSS) feeds.

If you're interested, here is my Habari sandpit.

Sort of.

I decided to remove all posts from my newly created Habari sandbox in case my readership and GoogleBot gets confused. As there was no obvious bulk deletion tool, I simply truncated the `wp_posts` table.

Unfortunately, I truncated the `wp_posts` table from the Wordpress schema instead of the Habari schema.

So, in the space of a mere 24 hours, I had managed to lose my favourite boxer shorts, get a brand new shiny blog and then completely trash my established, trusty, stable blog.

No problem. Earlier today I upgraded to WordPress 2.1 so I can use the backup I carefully took before that upgrade. Only the Bluehost one-click upgrades are so reliable and trouble-free, I got out of the excellent habit of taking my own backup by hand.

No problem. I will just use the backup Bluehost took automatically. Only I can't. That backup is purely of the PHP code (and not the database).

No problem. I will simply use the Bluehost mySQL database backup. Only I can't. Murphy has spoken. The latest daily backup has been made in the last 2 hours and the `wp_posts` table is empty.

No problem. I will go back to the weekly dump, extract the SQL for `wp_posts` in isolation and add the raw data by executing the INSERT statements.

That all works fine. 502 records inserted into `wp_posts`. Triumphantly, I pat myself on the back and check the blog looks OK. There are still no articles. Weird.

I create a test article, which is visible, and compare the 'good' record against the 'bad' record. Quickly track the problem to the 'post_type' column which is NULL on the imported posts and should be 'post'. Issue the necessary UPDATE statement and, magically, all my posts immediately re-appear. Fix the 'About' page which imaginatively has a 'post_type' of 'page'.

All that remains is to fill in the gap between last week's backup by manually pasting in articles from Google Reader and modifying the timestamps. Slightly tedious but much preferable to laboriously typing in 501 articles.

And the moral of this tale. If I ever cross your threshold to be interviewed for that production DBA role for a large Siebel deployment, just thank me and politely show me the door. Quickly.

Occasionally, I used to wonder what people thought when they were subjected to some of the material on this blog. Andrew Shermans comment questioning whether this story was completely true also resurrected this thought.

Most of the articles, posts, stories on this blog are based on truth. The vast majority are anecdotes recounting real-life events that actually happened to me, that my warped sense of humour finds amusing. Examples in this category:

• Axe Murderer
• Narrow Escape
• Hamsters etc
• Eat Your Own Dog Food
• Trick Or Treat
• Smoke and Mirrors
• Anything titled YCNMIU

Other posts are simultaneously technical and non-technical but merely an opportunity for a superb, ambiguous title.

• Packet Sniffer

Another category of posts are almost completely true but embellished, to a greater or lesser degree for comic effect, normally for the punchline/conclusion:

• Holiday Highlights [I lost my footing but didn't actually fall out of the boat]
• Embarassing Purchase [I didn't really give my mum Durex for Mother's Day]
• Speech Day
• Do What You Are Told
• In Flight Statistics
• Homework Excuse
• Innocence of Youth

Sometimes I massage thoughts and ideas that would be too boring for a conventional blog entry. Imagine the tedium of a blog entry that reads 'I really enjoy the BBC series: Dragon's Den - do you ?'

A relatively small number are (obviously) complete, drug and drink induced, fiction. Normally characterised by silly names.

• Book Club
• Power Dressing
• Iris
• ETL

Single, weak attempt at satire. I always wanted to write for Private Eye.

• World Cup Diary

The biggest compliment anyone has ever paid me was when Doug Burns commented 'You refuse to sign-post things'. In fact, this was merely an observation on my blogging style but I took it as a compliment. In fact, I was so struck by this that I immediately put up a sign-post with this very quote above my desk.

You don't need smiley faces dotted everywhere telling you where to smile or laugh inwardly.

You don't need to understand all of the lyrics.

You need to be left thinking 'What on earth was that all about ?'

The year end always sees lots of people post meaningless stats about blog traffic. Unfortunately, I only have tracking data since my move to Bluehost in late September but I am not going to let that stop me. Google Analytics reports:-

• 4,709 visits
• 8,036 page views
• 1.71 pages per visit
• 3,902 unique visitors

[ Note the almost linear growth in visitors over the three months. It took me ages to get that perfect straight line ] Of course, these traffic numbers are bitterly disappointing so, to cheer myself up, I analyze the AwStats reports for the same period. This makes me feel much better.

• 13,738 visits
• 54,266 page views
• 68,858 hits (even better !)
• 3.95 pages per visit
• 6,002 unique visitors

AwStats includes robots, spiders, crawlers and spam automatons whereas Google Analytics only counts human beings (and cats). Worse, Google Analytics filters out my own visits and referrals from the WordPress dashboard (which accounts for 97% of traffic) ! Oh no. What's this ? Feedburner are now offering even more blog tracking statistics and reports.

Occasionally, I have been tempted to experiment with Google Adsense on this blog. Not because I think I will get rich and be able to retire but I am curious to see how the technology works. Thankfully, to date, laziness, inertia and minimalist tendencies have prevailed.

So I was very interested to read Guy Kawasaki's 12 month review of his popular blog. 'How To Change The World' received 2.5 million page views (slightly more than my humble blog), 7,000 comments (again, slightly more than my statistics) and 2,000 trackbacks (1,999 more than me) in 2006.

For all this effort, I was staggered to learn that this blog, with 4,217 inbound links, 21,000 subscribers and which consistently features in the Technorati Top 100, earned Guy Kawasaki the princely sum of $3,350.

London, near England. 1 December 2006

Brightside Productions proudly announce the launch From The Murky Depths Of The Recycle Pool.

This innovative blog series will round up the latest happenings from the blogosphere with a sideways glance at Oracle. The blog will feature a variety of exciting formats including articles, podcasts, video blogs and live satellite links. Assuming I get that microphone, Webcam and satellite dish for Christmas that is.

'Recycle Pool' will be authored by a succession of guest contributors including CEO's of leading technology companies, penniless Web 2.0 developers, 'B' listers, long standing subscribers to 'Blog In Isolation', dead pop stars, retired footballers and famous libel lawyers.

'Recycle Pool' will only be available as a beta to a limited number of subscribers for a small fee of £25 per month. The blog will be available in all popular RSS formats and an easy to digest email digest. For a small additional charge, the guest author will come round to your house and read the content to you. Travel costs and all expenses are billable.

Top London marketing agency, Scratchy and Scratchy, were paid 3 million pounds to come up with a marketing campaign, corporate branding, logo and tagline. All their efforts were discarded in favour of:

'Drudged from the bottom, read into memory, processed and immediately discarded.'

Stay tuned for the upcoming first article which will be written by the most avid reader of 'Blog In Isolation.' For over a year, this subscriber has stayed with the blog through thick and thin, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. He has devoured every single article. He religiously visits the site every single day without fail. He reads comments, categories, archives, trackbacks.

Sometimes, he obsessively re-reads the same article again and again. However, this gentleman is a little shy and, to date, has never summoned up the courage to comment. So, it is with great pleasure that, after weeks of high powered negotiations in a Travel Lodge Hotel outside Oxford and a clandestine meeting at a motorway service station, I am pleased to announce the identity of the first guest:

Mr. Google Bot

Stumbled across this blog. Another young life ended prematurely. Sad. Very sad.

Engtech has some great references stressing the importance of the blog title when trying to attract readers.

However, this merely confirms what I already knew. A couple of weeks ago, I posted this entry which brought a trickle of traffic from TailRank. This, in turn, brought another article about the same news story to my attention.

My post was titled: '361 days to go'

The other article was titled: 'Black Cat Thunderbolt Rocket Up The Arse'

Some of us have it. Some of us don't.

Phil McIntyre is busy blogging right now.