Archive for the ‘Seasonal’ Category

Posted on April 10, 2009 - by John

Happy Easter

Happy Easter readers.

This is completely unrelated to my happy Easter message, but can I say how great was Kirsty MacColl? Here she is singing ‘IN These Shoes?’.

Posted on February 2, 2009 - by John

Snow

Posted on October 8, 2008 - by John

Gone Fishin!

I don’t fish so instead I’ll be in Asia for the next two weeks. Finally an excuse to use my new digital camera.

Posted on June 10, 2008 - by John

Backing up wordpress – playing it safe

Recently, I was sent an e-mail from a ‘cyber agent’ informing my blog software has a flaw in it, that this ‘cyber agent’ had gained access to the administration panel, to prove this I was provided with the encrypted password and my username with login details. While, it turned out that this was not my main blog and just some blog software I was testing at some stage and never bothered to upgrade – so I was always safe – in that respect, as I always stay up to date with software renewals on my main sites.

This did start me thinking about blog security, or perhaps more importantly if something did happen are my backups ready if the worst happens, and if so does this mean I can turn back the clock and have my blog fully restored. As a wordpress user there is a few simple options you can utilise, but no matter what software you use the following rule is golden.

Check with your web-host, how often do they do full backups of your sites data, meaning your database and all files you have associated with your website, and should you need access to these files to restore the data ,what is the required process. If you are in Ireland check out Letshost.ie who have a great backup policy. Some hosts have cPanel installed which will allow you to run a full backup also.

Step 1 – The database

The wordpress backup plugin, is a great tool for backing up your wordpress database – that is everything you have written on your blog, and the actual database that supports this. You can use this plugin to schedule a regular backup – which is e-mailed to you on a specified basis. Once activated you will find a backup option under the manage menu, I would strongly recommend against saving the backup to the server, as this may be publicly accessible, having it e-mailed is a good idea, or better still saving to your PC. I find deleting spam before backup is a great idea to speed up the download, particularly relevant for those with slower connections and you really don’t need a spam backup, easy to do if you use Askimet. Remember this backup process does not include any themes, plugins, images, or wordpress php and config files.

Step 2 – The files

Getting the rest of the files is the next part, using your favorite FTP client, such as FileZilla (free), log on via FTP to your wordpress installation and copy the entire folder including subdirectories, ensuring your themes, uploaded images, plugins and modified files are all in there, which they should be anyway, and copy to your PC. This process may take a while depending on the amount of data and your broadband connection.

The files should then be backed-up to a CD or external hard-drive , it seems unlikely but a server and a PC going down does happen. You should backup your wordpress database often using the schedule on the plugin (or manually if you prefer), unless you do not post very often, every week/month is a good starting point, and also backup your wordpress files, this – maybe once a month is ok, but if you make template changes and wordpress changes you’ll want this reflected in your backups and so backing up at that point is wise.

Points to note

You don’t need to become a backup freak, but just remember to do it, a simply entry to Google calendar to remind you when to do it is a nice idea, they even send you text reminders, you have no excuse really.

Unless you do both steps above you really only have a partial backup of your blog.

Posted on August 17, 2007 - by John

Blog Action Day 2007 – The environment

I have to say this sounds pretty interesting on October 15th is to be Blog Action Day where bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind. That is the issue that is our environment. It is a very interesting idea, and I will be very interested to see some Irish Bloggers participate. (more…)

Posted on March 23, 2007 - by John

Daffodil Day

Today is (or rather was at this stage) Daffodil Day, a day in Ireland dedicated to raising funds to aid Cancer Research. Check out their website. A special thanks to Donncha
for the banner.(header)

The 20th anniversary of Daffodil Day is on Friday 23rd March 2007. With your support we aim to get everyone in Ireland wearing a daffodil – the international symbol of hope – and have the country ablaze with vibrant yellow blooms and other Daffodil Day merchandise. Every daffodil helps the Irish Cancer Society provide quality care and emotional support to cancer patients and their families through our free, nationwide nursing services.

Posted on March 4, 2007 - by John

Blog Awards 2007

Regretfully I could not make it to the Irish Blog Awards, as I had planned this year, due to other commitments . Congratulations, however, to all those who won, I would love to have seen some of my usual reads winning, but well deserved to those who did win. A special well done to Beaut.ie who picked up an amazing two awards. You can catch the winners here

Update

Photos from the event are here

Posted on January 1, 2007 - by John

2007 Hopes and Things to do

Sorry about the title, I struggled not to say 2007 new year resolutions, because when you call them that its a safe bet that none of them will never happen, and using 2006 as a guide that may well be true.

Career – That is a hard one – I know that this month – January is going to bring changes. Some are not what I want, but time will tell on that one. I would like to stay in Dublin, however expensive it is.

Projects – Internet wise, I have one major project in development, I just registered the domain, and I hope to release the finished product in February. Personally, I hope to do some sort of web design course, last year I did a radio course, which turned out really well, not sure which course to select yet.

Personal – December saw me addressing some issues I have avoided for 25 years, and I am happy to say that I am continuing to address these issues with success. Gym wise, I wont rejoin just yet, perhaps waiting for the new year crowd to die down a bit is good.

Technology – I am looking forward to messing around with Windows Vista, and see what all the fuss is about – so a new laptop may be in the works, however I love apple a bit too much to go back to Windows.

Travel – The US is on the cards again this year, not sure where though, New York rocks so much I may end up there again.

The Future – Lets see….