Rocketstone

Another issue recently, with a different site.

The host supplier had moved the site to a new server and apparently this has “Suhosin” installed. This is an advanced protection system for PHP installations. It was designed to protect servers and users from known and unknown flaws in PHP applications and the PHP core.

It can also kill your WordPress dashboard (and the rest!).

I could authenticate successfully and get the WordPress banner menu showing above the site, but if I tried to get to the dashboard or any other part of WordPress administration, I was being redirected to the 404 Error page.

The site continued to work fine, I was just unable to change it in any way as I could not get to the dashboard.

A quick chat session with the host supplier and they disabled Suhosin. Now all is back to normal.

A web site that I jointly administer suddenly started to fail when trying to add images to pages/posts.

We’d not altered anything nor installed any new plugins, but this was disconcerting as Christmas was approaching and that’s a busy time for us.

It turns out the issue was caused by our host provider changing their security and WordPress was (to use their words) “violating mod_security settings”. Thankfully, they added an exclusion for us and things are up and running again (no lasting harm done).

So, if WordPress starts saying something like “Page not found” (404 error) when you attempt to publish a page or post, check with your hosting provider and see if they can change settings for you.

There’s also a WordPress support thread here on the issue:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-create-posts-with-images-404-error-postphp

I needed an MP3 player, didn’t want to buy an expensive iPod and someone recommended I look at the SanDisk Sansa Fuze. I’m glad I did.

The SanDisk Sansa Fuze with SD card for size comparison

It. Just. Works. The list of great things about it are:

• It plays just about any audio file you wish to copy onto it (MP3, WMA, secure WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC).
• It sounds great and the battery lasts for ages.
• It plays just about any MPEG4 format movie file.
• Has expandable memory with a microSDHC memory card slot.
• FM radio (not used that much to be honest).
• Voice recorder (not used that much either).
• Has EQ settings, including allowing custom settings.
• Photo/image viewer (small screen, so of limited use – use your phone instead).
• Metal back and sides (apparently made of LiquidMetal) with a piano-gloss plastic front.
• Has a good solid weighty feel to it without being heavy.
• It appears as two drives when connected to the PC (internal/external memory) so no iTunes needed.
• It supports Audible books (used these – they’re great).

Rather than bore you with a full review, read the excellent AnythingButIpod.com review which will give you all you need to know.

Want an MP3 player that will last but don’t want to pay a premium price, then this will be money well spent. A simple (not included) jack-to-jack cable lets me plug into separate speakers if I want to.

Enough said. Here’s a photo of the unit with its blue ring of wonder:

The Blue Ring of Wonder!

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

I came across this blog post from Mali Korsten on the perfect recipe for poaching an egg:

Poached eggs have been my nemesis for the extent of my cooking career (I use the term “career” loosely, in the way that one might describe wearing clothes, or any other necessary daily activity). Without one of those special cheat-pans, my eggs just dissolve into a stringy mass of albumin floating in a sea of frothy salt-water, the yolk sitting isolated at the bottom of the pan, long-since detached from its white partner. Yesterday, all that changed.

http://themalikwhey.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/how-to-poach-an-egg/

I tried the recipe this morning and can tell you, it works! Evidence below:

Straight from the pan

Just how I like it

Apart from being able to make great eggs, Mali is also a musician. Her album is here and is well worth a listen: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/malikorsten

Finally, a quote from C S Lewis which mentions a poached egg:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. – Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.

 

After working in Sydney this week I got some free time before my flight in the evening.

Prior to my arrival in Australia, they’d had about two weeks of rain (some quite heavy I believe). When I arrived, the weather took a turn for the better and the sun came out – unfortunately I was working between 8am and 5pm so was not able to enjoy it.

On my last day in Sydney, I had some hours to myself – but the weather has returned to rain, and some of it torrential – there was even a “water tornado” just a few miles away. So with a few hours to spend, I resorted to trudging around the shops with my back pack, looking like a soaked vagrant. Granted, this gave me time to buy gifts for the family, but it wasn’t the day I was looking forward to. I had been hoping to get out and take some photographs of the famous Sydney landmarks.

Thankfully, I’d brought the Canon D10 with me so had no problems using that in the rain:

They’re baaaack!

Now all the UK airports are open airline operators are rushing to get things back to normal, which means the beautifully clear skies of the last six days have been vandalised to:

Communication from Air Chief Marshal Seagull,

This is a great day.

Over many long years we have been struggling against the humans and their aircraft filling our airspace and at last our efforts have paid off. Yesterday, at 1200 hours, the humans admitted defeat and grounded all planes over the United Kingdom.

Long may this continue now that we have, at last, regained our air superiority and are again masters of the sky!

ACM Seagull

When we were having our new kitchen designed we found very few places on the Internet where we could see an oak kitchen with dark worktop and a black sink. So I’ve decided continue reading…

It is said that if the universe is infinite, then there must be an infinite number of universes; each one different from the other. If that’s true, then somewhere there’s a universe where earphones never become tangled when removed from your pocket.

It’s clearly not this universe! continue reading…