Dan's Web Spot

Introduction:

In my last post, I outlined the XAMPP program and what it can do. Unfortunately, I hit a bit of a bump in the road, and wanted to share with others how I got around it.

Once I installed XAMPP, set up a new local database for testing, extracted a fresh copy of WordPress in the new c:/xampp/htdocs/wordpress folder I created, I opened wp-config-example.php to add my database and account info, and then saved it as wp-config.php.

All good so far, right? Well, not exactly. To begin the WordPress installation, I pointed my browser to http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php
I entered my user name and email address and clicked on the next button.

At this point is where the snag came in: normally a randomly-generated initial blog password is displayed and/or sent to the email address you provided at initial setup for you to use when logging in for the first time. After you log in, you can change your password to whatever you like. However, when running your blog on your hard drive as localhost, you may not ever get that initial email, and worse yet, you can't access your blog's admin panel to change anything. If your email service is not set up, or if your firewall is blocking such communication, there is still a way to get in. Note that this applies to a locally-running XAMPP-powered test blog as well as a live, web host-powered blog. » More...

While I was performing some extensive WordPress plugin compatibility testing, I was getting frustrated with having to wait for what seemed like an eternity for page refreshes to occur. I did a little Google-ing and found an excellent open-source software package called XAMPP that runs on Windows.

XAMPP screen shot

It lets you run Apache (a web server program), PHP5 (a server programming language), MySql (a database program), FileZilla (an FTP program), and Mercury (an e-mail server program) on your local hard drive running a 32-bit version of Windows. You can manually start the programs/servers or run them as installed services. Here is a good XAMPP installation tutorial.

The XAMPP program lets you install a test blog locally on your hard drive, which greatly speeds up development and testing. » More...

This article saved me a lot of headaches when trying to upgrade my WordPress blog database from MySQL4 to MySQL5:

Restore your WordPress Database From MySQL4 to MySQL5

Follow these easy-to-implement, non-destructive instructions and your blog's posts and pages will load faster than ever. Bye-bye pokey MySQL4! » More...

NTIA DTV coupon program

UPDATE: The DTV Coupon Program officially ended on July 31, 2009. Further information regarding background and statistics can be found at at the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) web site.

On February 17, 2009, the television stations that broadcast analog signals over the air will be required to switch to digital. You don't need to worry about this unless you currently use a roof antenna or "rabbit ears" on your television to view TV.

If this is how you receive television signals in your home, then you will no longer be able to do so without a converter box to convert the new digital signal into the older analog format so your TV can understand it.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has been issuing coupons for DTV converter boxes since early 2008. They have set up a program to help people with the cost of a converter box. You can apply for up to 2 $40 coupons towards up to 2 converter boxes per household. » More...

I was minding my own business today and looking at some links on my "Web" page when I realized that Stella, Zack and Rocko's Home Page on AOL Homepages had been taken down.

Back in the late 90's/early 2000's, I had AOL for my Internet access (dial-up). On the free space I got with an AOL user name, I had a created a simple page that had a picture of my 3 cats at the time, along with some comments about them. What I learned today when visiting the link, was that as of October 31, 2008, the AOL Homepages service is no longer in operation.

Determined to find some hidden, cached copy of my old (and mind you, not that valuable at all) stuff, I Googled the URL to no avail. There weren't even any cached copies of the page listed. It seems that Google only maintains cached copies of pages that currently exist. Of course, this does make sense, but didn't help me in the least...

After some more Googling I struck gold! I found a little gem that I think everyone should know about:

The Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine" » More...