Recently in Whole Site Development Category

I just finished isolating an issue that was preventing me from creating posts or doing much else on this specific blog only within my site. The other blogs were fine.

I had to recreate a new test blog and add different elements one at a time to pinpoint the issue on the test blog.

Finally after adding the RSS feeds from the other sites the issue preventing me from publishing occurred on the test blog. I then removed the RSS feeds from this blog and here I am publishing again.

I'll have to pursue the issue on why RSS feeds caused this issue later since I have other items on my plate in terms of priority but will will have RSS feeds on the site again soon hopefully.

The issue appears to be Perl related so if any of you out there have any ideas I posted the error information to the MovableType forum "http://forums.movabletype.org/2010/03/overloaded-package-xmllibxmlerror.html" and I have included it below:

I got this error yesterday trying to post a new entry to one of my blogs during the publishing operation:

"Operation "ne": no method found, left argument in overloaded package XML::LibXML::Error, right argument has no overloaded magic:"

______________________________________________________________________

The accompanying error from the Apache error_log:

" \t(in cleanup) Can't call method "DESTROY" on unblessed reference at /var/www/cgi-bin/mt/extlib/XML/Elemental/Document.pm line 20 during global destruction., referer: http://mysite.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi "

Line Apache error log references in "/mt/extlib/XML/Elemental/Document.pm":

"sub DESTROY {

$_[0]->{contents}->DESTROY if $_[0]->{contents};

} # starts circular reference teardown"

I'm about to update the router firmware and there may be offline for a bit but hopefully not long.

I have downloaded the router configuration in case everything returns back to factory defaults as well as printed out the configuration in case upload of the configuration doesn't work.

I fixed the comment submission error my sites were having with an addition I had added to add different comment capabilities. I had to disable this addition to get comments working again. I may revisit this addition at a later time.

Comments can now be submitted properly and you can use your logins from these services to leave a comment: Movable Type Native, OpenID, LiveJournal, Vox, Google, Yahoo!, AIM, WordPress.com, TypePad, Yahoo! JAPAN, livedoor, Hatena, mixi , Facebook.

I upgraded to Movabletype version 4.261 and then fixed the issue of why the feeds were not coming in on my home page from my other blogs in dhoytt.com.

The reason why the feeds were not showing up was due to me not setting up the "run-periodic-tasks" utility, which I setup to run in cron per the url "http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/administrator/setting-up-run-periodic-taskspl.html".

I updated the way people can leave comments to the way it was previously where anonymous users could leave comments if they verified with their email addresses and I also enabled Typekey authentication.

This is how I originally had planned to have authentication for leaving comments along with registration but in my haste moving to my backup server in November I didn't allow for these authentication methods.

To summarize the full list of services for leaving comments on my sites besides using your email as an anonymous user are with  OpenID, LiveJournal, Vox, & TypeKey login/authentication services.

Well I have been busy with other pursuits and have not had the opportunity to do much on my systems except very late at night. Late nights aren't always good when you have other things pending in the early morning.

I'm posting because Autostatic (whoever you may be) posted a comment “http://www.dhoytt.com/mainblog/archives/2008/05/packagekit-new-default-manager.html#comments” to my initial post about “Pirut” being removed on how get the “Pirut” install bits and install Pirut of course.

Link to Pirut FC9 : http://ia64.koji.fedoraproject.org/packages/pirut/1.3.30/2.fc9/noarch/pirut-1.3.30-2.fc9.noarch.rpm

Well I installed Pirut from the link posted and it is working just fine.

Packagekit's Flaky Operation on New Fedora 9 Install

Since my initial post I had also installed “Pirut” on my backup web server because outside of “Packagekit's” lack of features I liked Fedora 9 and there was a version of a software package that came with Fedora 9 I really wanted.

On this second install of Fedora 9 Packagekit exhibited behavior I did not see or could reproduce on my first Fedora 9 install.

On the second Fedora 9 install Packagekit would show it had updates I would then go click on the Packagekit icon on my toolbar and it would flash for a second and go away.

I even ran the Packagekit debugger I got from “http://packagekit.org/pk-bugs.html” and looked in my log files every time this happened and I couldn't find the reason why Packagekit would flash and go away without letting me interface with the GUI.

This behavior did not occur on my first Fedora 9 install and went away after a reboot on my second Fedora 9 install but after the initial usage after a reboot Packagekit would once again flash on the screen and not let me interact with it's GUI.

I finally left Packagekit alone to deal with time sensitive non-computer issues. I was still deciding however to possibly go back to Fedora 8 or hope someone came up with a nice update of Packagekit or the Pirut Fedora 9 bits or start using the Fedora 8 Pirut bits.

Thanks to the post by Autostatic pointing to the Fedora 9 bits I can patiently await the new Packagekit when its fully functional

Pirut on Fedora 9

Pirut seems to be working fine in Fedora 9 so far. Pirut asks if you want to install source channels for Fedora 8.92 (beta sources possibly) but I said no. Pirut works fine after that and of course you can edit out any sources later in “Software Package Manager”. I have been unable to get this version of Pirut “Software Package Manager” to show available software from the repositories though.

Synaptic Package Manager

While looking for Pirut/Software Package Manager in the programs section I found “Synaptic Package Manager”! The “Synaptic Package Manager” GUI looks just like the Pirut/Software Package Manager I just installed but also shows the available packages.

Applications Locations

You can find Pirut Software Package Manager after the install:

Applications -> System Tools -> Software Package Manager

You can find Pirut Software Updater after the install:

Applications -> System Tools -> Software Updater

You can find Synaptic Package Manager:

Applications -> System Tools -> Synaptic Package Manager

Well looks like I will be using Pirut/Software Updater to update my system for now and Synaptic Package Manager to install any new packages while I await Packagekit's growth. I'll keep playing and see what I run into next!

Due to the nasty weather here today that featured high, wind and rain my site was down briefly after UPS power went out.

As you can see though the site is once again up after several power outages my site was down for a very short time as the last outage finished diminishing my UPS’s power.

Once again the UPS proved their worth giving me time to let geographically distant colleagues know I was without power and gave me ample time to shutdown and prepare.

I was also able to keep my site up through the first two power outages as well as keep working the job.

Just wanted to say Happy New Year for 2008 from the Capital of Cali, Sactown, and the West Coast and all over the world!

I will have my new site which I have mostly built up on my other system soon in 2008 so check back.

I will have my full E-commerce store shared out, some games you can play on my site, shoot-em ups as well as some other games.

I will have my music site http://www.dhoytt.com/snake-ice-radio-blog/up as usual with some local artist I currently have in my mix and more others hopefully with forums.

As far as the forums I will have them for the music artists and the games and possibly the E-Commerce site.

Right now I'm just writing up some FAQ's and site usage tutorials etc...

See ya in 2008!

I had to finally move back to my 7 foot 19 inch rack for my systems from my 3.5 foot 19 inch rack system. I needed to regain some needed floor space and the shorter rack took up more floor space and didn’t allow me to have organization of my routers and switches.

The smaller rack was longer by 13 inches (39 inches front to back) and 3 inches wider. That length was cutting off my room too much and my network and power cabling were harder to follow when trouble shooting and nearly impossible too keep organized.

I was going to buy a relay rack to sit over the smaller rack with some modifications. Good thing I decided to look at my previous rack that was in storage first. After taking measurements I determined it was what I was looking for and weighed a lot less as well. That small rack is built like a tank!

Well I still have to get the wires straight and a few other items and then I will update the content on my sites!

Short Rack

Tall Rack

I am back on my former ISP Surewest.com with 20mbps upload and download capabilities. Since I host my own website and Internet radio station at home (http://www.dhoytt.com/snake-ice-radio-blog/ ) it is extremely important to have not only a good download speed but a good upload speed for my site visitors.

My radio station has been choked off the last few months while I was with the other ISP. Why in this computer/telephony driven world would an ISP who has fiber to homes only offer .786mbps upload & 6 mbps download over fiber at higher prices is beyond me.

Upload speeds have become very important for even the casual user as they place images on photo sharing sites or send them to friends and families around the Internet. There is the proliferation of chat and online classes at work and schools that need better upload speeds.

People are streaming video and playing games that require more two way communications so a decent upload as well as download need to be used to judge ISP speeds and usability.

My continuous lobbying of my Home Owners Association paid off and we now have a nice alternative in our community that I had previously been with since their initial inception when they were called Winfirst telecommunications. I had Winfirst/Surewest in my former residence and the last few months without them have really made me appreciate them. Surewest is not perfect but they try to give the best service they can which is far superior to other ISP’s.

Surewest’s prices are substantially less for a lot more product. Having Surewest is like buying Internet bandwidth wholesale, not to mention they have video on demand for their TV product and their phone service is just as good if not better. Their support, installers and field personnel are customer friendly and know what they are doing. They don’t charge you every time you switch your service either. Like I said not perfect but this is what we call old fashioned good service.

In the Sacramento/Roseville, California area people actually mark their calendars for the day when Surewest will be coming to their neighborhood! People in areas without Surewest fiber service actually have committed to memory the date Surewest will begin fiber connectivity construction in their neighborhood. Even my super technology challenged parents query me about when Surewest will be in their area.

No I don’t work or have any other affiliation with Surewest or anyone at Surewest but I like their model and hope they keep it up and wish that other Telco’s would follow their lead.

I’m actually seriously contemplating moving but the ISP issues in other parts of the country concern me and with my involvement in technology that is a serious concern. Not many ISP’s have fiber to the home and even if they do they offer copper bandwidth at outrageous prices compared to what I have.

Bottom line I’m glad I have my 20mbps service back and I will soon be making other serious changes to my site to take advantage of this bandwidth.