I manage several websites, of which I have installed 3 WordPress blogs. I don’t know whether it is lack of experience or bugs in WordPress, or both… But earlier versions of WP had various problems that involved LOTS of extra work to setup or fix. I must say, I am impressed with this new version.

One of my websites had so many problems with the blog. It took 4 months before I was able to fix it. The final fix… uninstall completely, remove from server, and install the newest version… BUT, I had to keep the old archives, posts, comments, and images. Well, my tech support team helped out with the database part. I think they rather preferred to do that than to have me try, fail, and then have them fix a mangled database.

I wish I could have fixed this one blog before I finally did, but I am glad it got done when it did. My client, StoryConnection.net use her blog to update various aspects of her life… Workshops, education, recipes… but this time Professional Storyteller & Author, Dianne de Las Casas, tells us her experiences with Hurricane Gustav.

During this “learning” curve that I have gone through with WordPress blogs, I have been learning so much about plugins and widgets… also learning a lot about using themes and how to tweak them.

I am not what I would consider ‘experienced’ with blog installation and management, but I am getting there. Let me know what you think of my new theme.

More later…
Heidi

Technorati Tags: Blogs

My family is a two Operating System family… I use Windows XP & he uses Linux. With this said, my husband recently built a Linux box for his father and went to set it up for him.

I, in turn, called up Verizon to set up DSL for him. I specifically asked Verizon if they had support for Linux users and they said Yes… So I proceeded.

The DSL modem arrived, with a CD and some papers explaining how to setup. However, as usual, it was all for Windows machines. We contacted Verizon, went through the automated answerer, which gave the options for Windows users, Mac users, or Other OS’s. We were slightly amused that when you get support for Other OS’s, they haven’t a clue what Linux is. Wonder what they mean by Other OS’s?

Anyway, I digress….

It was clear that we had to figure out how to hook up our own modem to the Linux box. I found several things on the Internet to help, but one helped the most… Ben’s Drivel was a tremendous help. Of course we found a few differences… so I am going to list the steps here.

1. Connect your DSL modem and turn it on. For simplicities sake, plug your computer directly into modem.

2. Open Firefox and type in 192.168.1.1 on the location bar.

3. The user name and password are username/password. Be sure to change this to something else once you log in.

4. (Note: At this point, we did not have a username or password. We had call Verizon only to find out that once you use the CD, it will generate the user name and password. I had to RE-EXPLAIN to them the we are hooking up a Linux box… Finally, they put me on hold and then generated a user name and password to use.) So, if you do not have a user name and password, contact Verizon and have them give you one.

5. Wait for the network to be detected, and then click on the green text “connected” in the left-hand pane.

6. Ben’s Drival says “Under broadband connection, click add.” However, we couldn’t find an “add” button or link. Instead, we saw Verizon listed with a Edit link. So, we clicked Edit and added our Verizon user name and password.

7. In Ben’s Drival he also says the following: “Click apply, and then back at the broadband connection screen, disconnect the “Auto registration” connection and then connect the new one you just made. Also, don’t forget to make it default.” Of course for us, we didn’t have any default to mark.. Also, we did not see anything for “Auto Registration.” This could be due to a difference in programs used or the distro of Linux used. We connected using the one we previously edited.

8. Once its connected, open a new browser window and browse to this address: http://192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.htm …

9. Once the page is loaded, click disable.

10. Make sure this process worked by browsing to any web page.

11. Restart the modem to make sure everything is saved.

Perhaps one day Verizon will simplify this set up for Linux users. Until then, I hope this helps someone, just as Ben’s Drival helped us.

Technorati Tags: DSL Setup

I have several programs that I use with my business that helps to create various flash objects. A couple months ago I began experiencing problems with one of my programs, Macromedia FlashPaper.

It first started when my browser told me that a new version of flash was available. Like a good robot, I updated without question. Shortly after, I found that my FlashPaper would try to reinstall itself whenever I right clicked on other programs (unrelated to FlashPaper). I found this to be very frustrating.

After checking for viruses, spyware, or adware, I went to Adobe for support. The first time I called in, I was told that they don’t do phone support for FlashPaper… but since it involved Flash; he would see what he could do. He had me uninstall FlashPaper and then he had me navigate on my computer to C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\ where we located my flash.ocx file. I then changed this file to flash-old.ocx and reinstalled FlashPaper.

Well, that worked for a while. The latest episode was the reason for my blog entry.

This time, Flash Objects weren’t showing up in my Microsoft IE. Any product that used IE to view web pages wouldn’t show them either. Odd… Firefox still showed these objects. (Yeah Firefox!)

I figured that both the IE problem and the FlashPaper reinstalling itself were related. So, instead of calling Adobe, (I knew they wouldn’t help me on the phone), I “googled” the error message I was getting whenever FlashPaper would try to reinstall itself.

Error 1904.Module
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\Flash.ocx
failed to register. HRESULT -2147220473. Contact
your support personnel.

I found some very interesting articles that I felt would be useful to anyone who “googled” the same error message and needed to see a more current report. It is frustrating to search for fixes only to find they are two years old.

Make sure you read these thoroughly before doing any work on your computer; otherwise you’ll be doing it twice.

• Error 1904: flash.ocx failed to register (Flash Player, Flash Paper) – This article is the main article that was directly related to the problem I had with FlashPaper. This last time that I came to this problem, it didn’t work like before, probably because it had the IE problem too.

• Troubleshoot Adobe Flash Player installation for Windows. This article explains how to uninstall Flash.

• Flash Player Support FAQ

• Download SubInACL from Microsoft to fix permission issues that prevent the Flash Player installation

• How to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX control

All of these articles are linked to each other.

With the help of these articles, I was able to completely clear out Flash. Add/Remove Programs in your control panel does not do this completely. Once it was removed completely I was able to reinstall Flash and ActiveX successfully.

Now, I have not reinstalled FlashPaper… Wonder if I should?

More later…

Heidi

Technorati Tags: Plugins, Web Pages