deebeedee

• Are we designers or developers? | 456 Berea Street Personally, “front-end web developer” suits me just fine.

Note to self: don’t mess with upgrades not pertinent to project at hand.

I was in the middle of creating a simple web database app when I fancied I should upgrade my MySQL a step up from what I had. It turns out that the upgrade didn’t go so smoothly so I was forced to initialize the database server, causing me to lose all my data stored in my databases. Now I’m finding that in order to move forward I need to install the Perl DBI module, which I’m sure will come in handy for future projects, but will more likely now lead to another set of cascading steps of upgrading other things, which is not what I want to do right now. I just want to get back to working on my database app! Aaarrghh…

Update: I avoided having to do all of that by just deleting the MySQL install and repeating the install process. So now I’ve got MySQL up and running (yay!), but now I have to repopulate my databases (boo).

I finally enabled Virtual Hosting on my Mac. It’s great. I get to develop different sites with every single one of them using root-relative paths. No more searching and replacing relative paths with absolute server paths before FTP’ing files. Pretty cool. Here are some good tutorials:

Virtual Hosts on OS X - this one worked the best for me.
Enabling Virtual Hosts on MacOS X - tried this guy’s method but since I already had existing folders for my sites, I didn’t realize I had to append the “.site” suffix to the folders’ names as suggested (I settled for .dev eventually).
Virtual Hosting on Mac OS X - this guy developed an app that supposedly makes the process a cinch to do. I ran into some problems when I tried it though.

Yup, I switched from MovableType to WordPress. I know my layout looks pretty generic but it sure looks better than the stale one that’s remained unchanged, until now, since this blog’s inception. I’ve been tired of the old one as I’m sure many of you have as well (nauseated by it, even). So why switch to an entirely new blogging system when all I want to do is change my layout? As I’ve never upgraded to the paid version of MT, I saw this as an opportunity to try something new and free. I chose WordPress which some of you have recommended in the past. So far, it’s proven to be a relatively easy blogging tool to set-up and work with.

That’s not to say it’s been a flawless process. Because of my requirement to have WordPress use the same directory as MovableType (”deebeedee.com/blog/”) while still keeping the MT files intact for linking purposes, I ran into a few snags. It’s all been ironed out already though. I also got my MT posts to import into WP without any hitches. My main concern with this migration was to have links to my old MT pages (whether from search engines or other sites) not break somehow by having them point to their corresponding WP posts (which have an entirely different permalink structure — a future-proof one). After much searching, I found a redirect script that does just that.

Now that I’ve got the backend work out of the way, I can concentrate on the front-end. The layout will incrementally take on a more customized look as I learn how WP themes work. It may take a while, but I’ll get there, doncha worry.

Every Wednesday, in between dropping off son no. 2 at the sitter’s and waiting for son no. 1 to come home from school, I have a bit of free time. Today, I didn’t know whether to do some web work or do some yard work within that timeframe. The web work I had in mind involves bringing one of the old websites I maintain up to the standards set forth by the W3C. This means removing unnecessary nested tables, eliminating 1-pixel gif hacks, and ridding the code of any hint of divitis or classitis. Yard work on the other hand involves mowing the lawn, plucking weeds from the garden bed, snipping out-of-control rose stems, and sweeping away dried leaves. Doing these things pretty much brings our front yard up to the standards set forth by our neighborhood.

I ended up doing yard work. Just the thought of any more jeers and sneers from my more conscientious neighbors is unbearable. *looks around suspiciously as he takes off his tinfoil hat*