Archive for the 'Administrative' Category

Wordpress Updated

Published
by
Andy
on June 30, 2008
in Administrative
. 6 Comments

Somehow, in the last week or so, a hacker compromised the DDC family blog website and Google was tracking all of our pages as gambling and poker websites. This was due to a small security failure window on older versions of Wordpress. We are now running the most current version of Wordpress.

There is a lot more functionality and security with this version. I encourage you to do a post and play around. You really can’t break anything. Probably what would be best is to overview all of this at an FHE sometime.

One thing I do want to highlight is the addition of GRAVATARS! (Notice you can change font color now - please keep in mind a whole post in pink will blind our eyes!) This places a picture of your choosing next to any comments you leave. In order to able this function, you need to sign up at Gravatar and upload a picture. Make sure to use the email address associated with your Wordpress login or it won’t work.

Some other highlights:

  • Addition of “tags,” i.e. keywords about your post.
  • New layout/interface.
  • Ability to write a post and schedule it for posting on another date.
  • New upload media interface in the “write post” area.

Anyhow, this has been a long time coming. I’m sorry for the delay, but you know how life gets. Busy, busy, busy. Make sure to get a gravatar and I’ll see you at the reunion.

Issues

Published
by
Andy
on March 6, 2008
in Administrative
. 4 Comments

The blog is officially funkified. Please be patient as I work out the bugs and the messed up design.

New Design

Published
by
Andy
on January 31, 2008
in Administrative and Entertainment
. 0 Comments

I’m in the process of updating WordPress to the current version. We’re three behind and it’s not as easy at it might seem. I have to be careful so I don’t delete the 500-plus posts and nearly 3,000 comments, as well as all your usernames and passwords. When this is done, I’ll be adding some more functionality into the site that, hopefully, will allow more activity. In the meantime, scope out the new colors and such and listen to some tunes.


Reminder about Photos

Published
by
Andy
on December 2, 2007
in Administrative
. 0 Comments

Just a few reminders about posting photos - for those that are new to this and for those who still have questions:

1. Posting photos is easy. Below the box you write your post in lies an upload photos section. It automatically defaults to the upload section. Click on the browse button (not “browse all”), find your photo on your computer, then click upload at the bottom right hand corner. Your picture will soon be uploaded to the network.

2.  When you see your photo, click on it. I list of options will come up. Click on “not linked” and it will change the image to “linked to image,” then click on “send to editor.” You can position your image however you want at that point.

3. IMPORTANT: If the text “using thumbnail” has a line through it (meaning it is not available), your images are too high in resolution (probably above 2300 pixels). Change your resolution on your digital camera to 1600×1200. Truth be told, you should never need higher resolution than 1600×1200.

4. Click the category you want to post under (look on the right sidebar, i.e. “family news,” “happy birthday,” etc), make sure to uncheck “uncatagorized,” and then click “publish.” Your post will now be on the blog for everyone to read. Remember, if you don’t like the way it looks, you can go back and edit. Honestly folks, you can’t break anything by trying.

Thanks to everyone who posts. The latest count is 489 posts and thousands of comments. Obviously this blog will continue long after the Fossils get home from Laos, but right now it serves as a nice time capsule of the comings and goings since they left.

Also, the blog might be in and out of commission for the next few days while I upgrade the version of Wordpress. This requires me to make a backup copy of the entire database that runs this blog and then integrate it back with a new system architecture that will make it more secure. Very scary! Wish me luck. I will also be doing some other housecleaning and some design work, but all-in-all, the blog should function the same.

One last note on pictures - don’t forget the Flickr account. You can mass upload anything you want to that because we have unlimted storage. Go to Flickr.com and login using fredoteabaggins and norman32. Good luck.

Blog Stats

Published
by
Andy
on March 2, 2007
in Administrative and Just for Fun
. 7 Comments

So the blog has been up and running for almost a year (although stuff from February 2006 to June 2006 was deleted) and I thought I’d give you a quick glimpse at our most active bloggers.

  • Andy = 92 posts
  • Barb = 47 posts
  • Dwight = 32 posts
  • Sandy = 29 posts
  • Amy = 20 posts
  • Kim = 14 posts
  • Boyd = 14 posts
  • Rod = 5 posts
  • Jenny = 4 posts
  • Kathy = 2 posts
  • Tonya = 1 post
  • Natalie = 1 post
  • Humble = 0 posts

All-in-all, 261 posts and 1,138 comments. Keep it up! And you cellar-dwellers better step up!

Upgrade = Downtime

Published
by
Andy
on January 31, 2007
in Administrative
. 1 Comment

Just a quick FYI. If you visit the site in the next few days and it’s not up or you can’t login, don’t fret. I’m upgrading the blog to the newest version of Wordpress. I did this some months back, but this time around it requires a completely new version of mySQL and PHPAdmin, which requires that I backup all the databases and tables associated with the blog and then import them into the newest version. Very scary stuff. Wish me luck.

Keep in Touch

Published
by
Andy
on January 23, 2007
in Administrative
. 3 Comments

I was thinking of another way we could all stay in touch and chat via the computer and then it hit me. At CashCentral.com, we use Windows Live Messenger to stay in touch during the day. This is a nice tool. Instead of a phone call, Sandy will chat with me via the Internet to see when I’ll be home, what we’re having for dinner, or various other threats and to-dos.

Here’s how to make it work:

1. Download Windows Live Messenger at this link.

2. Install.

3. Register.

4. Add contacts (i.e. to add me you would put andym@cashcentral.com).

Any questions, let me know.

Blog Posting Helpful Hints at Flickr

Published
by
Andy
on January 7, 2007
in Administrative
. 2 Comments

For anyone that still has questions on how to do a spic and span, perfect post at the Dwight Cook Family Blog, follow this link to Flickr and check out the notes on the picture. As always, if you have questions, just let me know. Have a great Sunday and a great week.

By the way, Flickr can now have unlimited uploads and sets and is really awesome (just ask Elder Cook) and will save - as you probably already can tell - load times on the homepage of this blog. I will email you all the username and password.

Flickr is Freaking Fun!

Published
by
Andy
on December 22, 2006
in Administrative
. 4 Comments

So, this is how you would post using Flickr. You’d say some text like you normally do. Blah, blah, blah, this picture is of us in the summertime when we were all tan and didn’t look like the living dead. Why didn’t I photoshop this? Maybe I’ll go back and retouch them. Blah blah blah. Here’s a picture of our family, you can see the rest of them at Flickr.

When you go to Flickr, please note the comments below the pictures and the notes within the picture (mouseover the picture to see where the notes are). These are all cool features, I think. Also, give it a shot for your next post. If you like it, let’s try it out. I think you guys will and I think you’ll enjoy the page loading much quicker.

morgan.jpg

Merry Christmas & Thank You!

Published
by
Andy
on December 22, 2006
in Administrative and Just Saying Hi
. 6 Comments

I realize I’ll be seeing all of you tomorrow at the family Christmas party, but I wanted to publicly tell each of you how much I appreciate and value your friendship and love. Yeah, I know, I know. Mushy. But people always talk about what a husband and wife must do to keep the fire burning and one thing that never gets mentioned, at least very often, is extended family. I can honestly say that all of you feel like true family to me and I think that’s because we’re all friends. I’ve told Sandy on several occasions the friendship I feel toward you isn’t because of obligation. It’s real and I think we could all be friends if we weren’t connected via marriages. It’s something I treasure and hold dear. So, honestly, thanks.

Also, thanks for making this site so fantastic. I love the banter that goes on between us. So far we have 195 posts and, even better, 822 comments. Keep it up.

Lastly, one small item of business for 2007.

I know we’ve had some issues with photos loading and photo size and some confusion in that arena altogether. Another concern is oftentimes the homepage takes an extremely long time to load because of how many pictures are uploaded in a post. I don’t want to discourage people from posting pictures because that’s what this blog is for, however, here’s my idea:

Write a post and put one picture on the post to “tease” and then upload the rest to a Flickr account I created for the family. You can access Flickr by going to Flickr.com and signing in with the username fredoteabaggins and the password norman32. From there, it’s quite simiple. Just go to upload photos and then put the link in your post. I’ll do a sample post to illustrate what I mean. Some other cool things about Flickr are the ability to add notes inside the picture (I’ll illustrate) and the not-so-good thing is that if we want unlimited bandwith and uploads every month, it’s $24.95 per year. However, split between eight households that equates to 26 cents per month, which, I pray, everyone can manage. :)

Hopefully you all think this is a good idea. If not, please email your complaints to crymeariver@youhavenochoice.com.

Just kidding. I love all of you.