These were taken with my Cannon SD850IS a few months ago, back during the tree bloom (the “first bloom” of the season). Everything was shot in “macro mode”, no flash, everything else set to auto. Cropped using the Gimp, no other post processing.
Over the last week or so, my Windows 7 desktop has intermittently had problems connecting to atomtux. While accessing atomtux via Firefox worked, the Windows file sharing component refused to connect. Occasionally, performing a system restore would fix the issue. However, sometimes it did not help. After a little searching, it looks like the problem was that atomtux’s clock was ahead of my desktop’s (by about 10 minutes). After getting my desktop’s clock back on track (it was falling behind as atomtux synchronizes daily) it once again could access network shares from atomtux.
The moral of the story, if Windows won’t connect to a network share, check your clocks.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
On this day, way back in 2005, the first post on this blog was published (there is one article that predates the blog, it was added after the first post and backdated). Since that time a lot has changed. WordPress has changed dramatically over the past five years. This blog originally ran WordPress 1.5; it now runs WordPress 3.0 beta 1.
Being the five year anniversary of the beginning of this blog, changing themes today seems appropriate. This is Cran-Berry 2. While it is a little rough around the edges, in the coming weeks it will be polished and expanded upon. Once WordPress 3.0 is released, a public version of Cran-Berry 2 will be available.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
With the first beta of WordPress 3.0 being available, it’s time to think about Breadcrumb NavXT once again. Currently, the SVN version of Breadcrumb NavXT works in WP 3.0. All versions of Breadcrumb NavXT prior to 3.5 (not released yet), have known bugs in WP 3.0.
As Breadcrumb NavXT 3.5 is already upping the minimum WordPress version to 2.8, support for custom post types won’t make this release. Some modifications to the core will be done to enhance extensibility for those who don’t want to use OOP techniques (e.g. filter/action hooks will be added). The first “beta” of this will be available, without updated translations, in the next two weeks. After a month of beta status, translations should be updated and a release in early May (will be moved up to be within a few days of the WordPress 3.0 release, if not before).
Breadcrumb NavXT 3.6 will require WordPress 2.9 as custom post type support will be added. Depending on the time available this release may have enhanced multi blog support. Currently, it looks like this will show up sometime in July.
Breadcrumb NavXT 3.7 will wrap up any multi blog support not covered in 3.6. Depending on how WordPress 3.0 and 3.1 turn out, this version may require WordPress 3.0. This will be a fall release, probably sometime in October.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
In a forthcoming project, it was necessary to check the dimensions of a remote image before deciding to cache it or not. While the PHP native function getimagesize() exists, it has some pitfalls. The biggest being: it relies on allow_url_fopen being enabled. While allow_url_fopen is not inherently dangerous, many web hosts do not have it set to prevent issues caused by inexperienced users (including Weblogs.us). Additionally, getimagesize() will retrieve the entire image—a waste of bandwidth, and time. This guide will cover finding the dimensions of images in the PNG and GIF formats with a word on JPEG and why it makes life difficult.