Category Archives: Tech

Site Stuff, Tech

Adsense Changes

Google has made some changes to their Adsense program..

  • They’ve changed how they match AdWords up with Adsense ads.
  • According to some people, they’ve made changes in how they figure out how much you get per ad view/click through
  • You can now have up to 200 channels

None of these really matter to me, as this site isn’t here to make money off of. Sure.. I’m going to make a few bucks each month between Google and the iTunes affiliate program..but not enough to quit my job for..

The change they made that interests me?
You can now specify to Google’s bots and spiders, which content on your page should be considered when matching ads up to your page. The benefit? no more ads for blogs, because its looking at the sidebars (or, at least..that’s the idea)

To tell Google what content to look at just add:

<!– google_ad_section_start –>
and
<!– google_ad_section_end –>

around the content you want included. Next time Google checks your page, more weight will be given to this content.

This should help improve which ads show up when…and for those sites that are ad-revenue driven, it’ll help them make more money.

Tech

Google Talk!

Late Tuesday Google quietly introduced their IM client, Google Talk. Apparently, the official release is set for Wednesday. A quick glance at their client page, shows that once again, Mac users get the shaft… no “official” Google Talk client.. however.. in this case.. its not as bad as it sounds.. in that we can use iChat..or almost any other Mac based IM client, since Google’s IM is Jabber based. So.. here’s what you need:

  • A Gmail account (If anyone doesn’t have one.. I’ve got plenty of invites if you want one)
  • Setup iChat following these instructions. Which basically amount to:
  • Create a new Jabber account in iChat’s preferences
  • Username/password are your gmail account information
  • Server name is talk.google.com
  • The defaults work good for the rest of the setup

Then you’ll need someone to chat with.. my Google talk (and then obviously, one of my email addresses) is tepper(dot)dan(at)gmail.com (obvious formatting changes to try and at least slow down the amount of spam that’ll hit that account now.

Site Stuff, Tech

Dynamic Errors

Since I’d switched over to Dynamic publishing, I’ve been unable to access the site stats. Dreamhost does some auto redirecting for requests for a non-existant webpage, to get switched over to the Analog page. Normally, this works fine..

Where it runs into a problem, is with dynamic publishing. The way MT does dynamic publishing, is through some rules in the .htaccess file. Basically, if the file really exists, MT doesn’t try and generate the page. But, if the page doesn’t exist, MT tries to generate the page..

You see where the problem lies don’t you? I need to get to a page that doesn’t exist..but MT won’t give me a page that doesn’t exist….it dynamically generates a 404 error page.. Google, was not my friend for this one.. I couldn’t find any reference to the necessary changes to the .htaccess file to restore access to my non existant stats directory. I was however, able to locate something in Dreamhost’s knowledge base (I know.. who’d have thought the answer would actually be where it belongs?) To help out any others who might be having the problem, and didn’t find an answer.. here’s what works.

Add these lines to your .htaccess:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/stats/(.*)$ [OR]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/failed_auth.html$

RewriteRule ^.*$ – [L]

And everthing will be all warm and fuzzy again!

Tech

MT Licensing Change

In addition to all the spiffy new features in Movable Type 3.2, it looks like Six Apart is also changing the licensing for at least the free version. According to Mena (I say that like we’re on a first name basis or something..I don’t even know her!), all levels of licensing will now be entitled to unlimited Blogs. This is a good thing.. My guess is the other licensing “restrictions” will still be in place (Number of authors, commercial use, that kind of legal stuff), even with the revised licensing, which we won’t get to see until 3.2 is released.

Current Events, Tech

Trust Inspiring (NOT!)

It always makes me feel so, safe and secure when I see articles like this. Makes me oh so happy to know that the department of Homeland Insecurity signed a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract with MickeySoft to use thier software.. and then you get this:

MIAMI, Florida (AP) — Travelers arriving in the United States from abroad were stuck in long lines at airports nationwide when a virus shut down a U.S. Customs computer system for several hours, officials said.

My favorite quote from the article is this one.. and I wonder why no one bothered with the obvious answer:

“The agent was very charming, very nice and greeted us with a smile,” he told The Miami Herald. “It was just an unfortunate thing, but these things happen. Who do we blame?”

Umm… hello? McFly? Anyone home? How bout you blame the software company that writes software with security holes in it large enough to drive a mack truck (or in this case, fly a 747) through??? I’m still waiting for a class-action lawsuit against MickeySoft for all the lost productivity and extra expenses incurred by those people who have yet to switch to a more reliable (and secure) operating system…

Tech

Dreamhost Hiring

Dreamhost, my web hosting provider.. is hiring for a tech support position (No.. I’m not appyling – although I do think the job would be a blast, I don’t live in Brea California, hell.. I don’t even know where Brea California IS! (I do know where California is.. its that big chunk o’ land that is soon to be an island..after the next major quake). So, you might ask why I’m mentioning this on my blog? (Go ahead.. Ask….)

Because I found this line in the job posting absolutely hilarious!

Qualified applicants please send your resumes to us at jobs@dreamhost.com.

Plaintext is preferred, .rtf will work too. If you send your resume as a .doc file we will know that you suck at following directions!

Now… if they would open that position up to “work from home”… I’d apply in a minute..

Site Stuff, Tech

Dreamhost Tech Support

I love these guys… seriously!

I do tech support for a living, so I know how big of a pain in the ass it can be to have to answer stupid questions…(especially ones where the answer is obvious.. at least..in hindsight)

Since I’d read the part in Hacking Movable Type about using the mysqldump command, and scheduling it through your server’s Cron command… I’d been trying (in between playing with MT 3.2 beta, and redoing all the templates – See the new title picture up top? That’s what happens when you delete the wrong files, and have no backup of some stuff!—anyway..back to the real story) to get it to work. I’d gotten the command to work, if I just entered it from my shell account on the server.. worked like a charm (after a few tries to get formatting correct).

The problem? everytime I added it to Cron.. it failed.. badly.. like a 2 year old taking a driving test kinda bad..

So, Like any good geek.. I do some Googling, and some flipping through of Dreamhost’s online support section… not finding anything that looks like it would help, I throw in the towel, and send them an email.

Response was quick.. 24 hours or less.. and then the work began, we spent several days emailing back and forth, and trying different things. Finally, today they fix my problem and email me to let me know about it. The solution that was obvious in hindsight? Turn the stupid command into a script, set the script executable, and have Cron run the script!

Works flawlessly… now.. if I can just remember to backup the rest of the site information….

Site Stuff, Tech

Movable Type 3.2 release date

2 Comments

According to this post, Six Apart will be releasing the last beta build Thursday, followed by the release of the ‘final’ version next week.

Really, all I have to say about this, is crap… I was hoping for a longer beta period.. not because the 3.2 Beta versions are buggy and unstable and in need of many fixes (After all, we’re not talking about a Microsoft product here, and they fixed the one bug I reported)….but because I’m nowhere near done with customizing the 3.2 templates to look like I want them to, and this means, that I have to hurry up and get them done.

You think if I asked nicely, they’d hold off on releasing 3.2 so I could procrastinate further?

Tech

Hacking MT: The review

I finished Hacking Movable Type by Jay Allen, Brad Choate, Ben Hammersley, and Matthew Haughey. I actually finished it a few days ago, this is really the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write a review (I kept trying to write it at work, so I could just copy and paste it into the Blog..but nooooo.. apparently, I’m expected to actually work at work) So… Here’s the review!

Incredible suspense, amazing plot, intelligent characters, hot steamy sex scenes.. these are all things that are NOT in this book.. if you’re looking for those.. try a trashy romance Novel.. or maybe check out something over on Satan’s bookclub. If, however, you’re looking for a book that will teach your inner (or outer) geek the secrets of Movable Type.. this is it.

Continue reading Hacking MT: The review →

Site Stuff, Tech

Hacking Movable Type

So my copy finally arrived today.. and I’ve only had a chance to read the forward, the table of contents, and part of chapter 1 (that darn job thing…keeps getting in the way)

So far, I think it’ll be a good resource, I’ve already learned somethings I didn’t know about configuring a MT install.. The important thing, is that with the exception of some files changing names, it looks like most of the information in the book will continue to apply even under MT 3.2… I’ll post a ‘real’ review when I finish reading the book.