Archive for December, 2007

All posts written in December, 2007.

Dec
27
2007

Post Holiday Hurrah

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: General, People

I am back from a few day vacation in Washington DC with my family. We had a nice time in a great city! My grandparents were with us and I had the pleasure of going to the World War II monument with my grandfather who fought over in Europe during WWII. It was quite touching and a nice way to spend the holidays. A special thanks to my sister and her husband for putting us up and putting up with us. She did a fabulous job at getting meaningful presents and also making us feel at home!

Now that I am back in IL – I have a number of things to take care of before the new year, but I will be back to a normal posting schedule in the next few days. I have been working on some really interesting projects and have some great tips to share in the next few posts.

Happy holidays!

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Dec
20
2007

How to Set Up a 3 Way Call

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Business, HOWTOs

I have finally figured out how to do a 3 way call (phone manual is long gone). I have a Panasonic 2 Line phone, and for my reference later:

  1. Dial first number
  2. Press flash
  3. Dial second number
  4. Press flash
  5. Talk

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Dec
19
2007

Jappler Recommends: Babel Fish Translation

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Business, Hints, HOWTOs, Jappler Recommends

My company is working on one of the largest projects we have ever done and the entire project (a 153 field application form, admin, scoring admin, etc) has to be done in both English and Spanish. This has been a fun project all around. This is the first time I have worked with Ruby on Rails and with localization. Fortunately enough, I found a great tool which I had never used before: Babel Fish Translation. I can input all my form labels and text into the English to Spanish translator and viola! I should mention I started with the Google Translator (still in beta) and did not have the luck I have had with Babel Fish.

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Dec
17
2007

apache, mysql, php update.

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Apache, Content Management Systems, Hosting, jappler.com, Web Development, Wordpress

Finally after two years of contemplating the updates to Apache 2.x, MySQL 5.x, and PHP 5.x, I finally updated my server to the latest version os Apache, MySQL, and PHP. I was not too concerned about custom work or any of my WordPress sites, but I was concerned XOOPS and/or XOOPS modules would have some problems, but it is now a week later and everything is running smoothly. Why finally? Well, as of the end of this month, support for PHP 4 will be discontinued. Better late than never. Time to update your servers too?

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Dec
13
2007

WordPress MU Spam

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Jappler Recommends, Serenity Now!, Web Development, Wordpress

I recently finished up migrating a site for a client (WordPress MU) from one host to another. I got an email requesting the migration from someone that said “it was a simple blog with only a few plugins”. When I took my initial look, I counted 30 plugins, and a database with 2093 tables (WordPress MU standard install uses 7 tables). When I asked them about the database size, they were just as shocked. Come to find out – they had a ton of “spam blogs”. After a few hours of weeding out some of the spam blogs, they were able to get the database size down to 1390 tables – which made it slightly more easy to work with.

The lesson here is – if you are going to use WordPress MU – I would consider requiring approval before a blog is created, or at the very least, monitor the blogs on your site. Of course, I would also highly recommend using Akismet for comment spam as well which will also cut down on the general spam level per blog. Also something to note, before you move your site to another server, delete all the caught spam so your database is less bloated – this will save time with the export/import of data.

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Dec
11
2007

Nine Years Later…

Posted by: Jen | 4 Comments »

Categorized: Penn State, Serenity Now!

Nine years later to the month that I proudly graduated from Penn State and I have finally paid off my student loans! This is a big day for me as I thought it would never happen. Now I can put my student loan payment towards’ Evan’s future college fund so he hopefully will not have much to pay when he graduates in 2029.

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Dec
10
2007

Tis the Season

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: People

I, for some crazy reason, agreed to go to one of the busiest malls in America yesterday with a friend. Of course it was supposed to be a quick in – quick out shopping experience, but as soon as you get there, it always turns into a “ohh, I also need to go to x”. Not only were the lines were hideous in the stores, one women told us the line to see Santa was at 3 hours! I just have a hard time dealing with all the people and the non-holiday spirit.

I remember when Christmas seemed so special, but I think that ended the year the cabbage patch dolls arrived because from then on – it seemed to have turned from “what I want” to “what the big companies want me to want”. Seriously…broken bones from trying to get a doll? At my holiday get together we have turned to giving gift cards – but it is rare that we actually get a surprise or something that took a lot of thought. Nothing against anyone in my family, we just all seem to buy what we want.

What is the point here? I just wonder how long this is going to last and when/if Christmas is going to go back to being more about the people than about the gifts? What will my kids think about Christmas and will they ever feel excited about Christmas, or will they just expect gifts and be more disappointed then happy about what they get, if they do not get exactly what they wanted?

It is time to re-think this holiday and to re-simplify it.

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Dec
06
2007

Time To Clean Out the Trunk…

Posted by: Jen | 4 Comments »

Categorized: Golf

Well – I think it is finally time to take my golf clubs out of my trunk. I spent the morning yesterday getting the driveway clear with the snowblower (it was like Christmas to me). I love the snow, using the snow blower, and being out in the cold (think: free air conditioning). Unfortunately, this means I will have to give up golf for a few months. Oh well, but hopefully we will get some more snow so I can enjoy another hour or so using the snowblower.

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Dec
03
2007

Jappler Recommends: Carnivale

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Entertainment, Jappler Recommends, TV

There have been some great HBO shows that almost everyone has at least heard about…Sopranos, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, but not many people are aware of one of their best series (in my opinion) Carnivale. This is a great look at good v. evil in a great, yet mysterious time after the first World War. If you are looking for something interesting to watch during your upcoming holiday break – put this series on your Netflix list.

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