I tried to access my blog on Saturday, but encountered a white / blank screen. I didn’t think too much about it at the time, I was considering writing something but I didn’t have anything concrete in mind. Then on Monday I tried again, while I was at work, and I got the same result. Hmm, that was a bit odd. I might not have worried about it much, except that I had just paid GoDaddy for five years of blog hosting, which was a big deal for me. So I called them. I spoke to a very polite & courteous chap who was clearly based in the U.S., and he advised that probably my plug-ins were causing an issue. There were two ways to address this; I could either SFTP into my account and try to fix it myself, or I could pay another healthy £37 to get premium support, where an expert would fix my issues for me.
It goes without saying that I chose the DIY option. I googled a few things and then went into full-on problem solver mode. I downloaded an SFTP client, FileZilla, and accessed my account without issue. There are some troubleshooting guides on the net, so I followed those; I disabled all my plug-ins and then my themes, but unfortunately neither of those steps resolved the issue. I was logged into my WordPress account on my chromebook, so I logged out to see if that was the issue. It wasn’t. And that meant that I couldn’t log into my account at all, which was a blow. I repeated a few of the steps to see if that would change anything, and I was getting more and more desperate. I renamed my .htaccess file, and looked in my config file to check if debugging was enabled. Debugging wasn’t enabled, so I tried to enable it but I think I buggered it up: the config file didn’t look the same as it did when I first looked into it. And the message had changed – I was now getting a 500 error message when I tried to access the wp-admin page.
I was considering giving up, and potentially re-installing WordPress from scratch, but reading through it, it seemed a bit more complicated than I wanted to try. Maybe some time in the future, eh? So as a last resort I started clicking around my GoDaddy account pages, and I spotted that there were back-ups. Back-ups? I didn’t know about those. The polite GoDaddy rep never mentioned back-ups. And I knew that my last blogpost that seemed to work was on or about the 4th July, so if I could go back to before then, I might be in luck. If it didn’t work in totality, hopefully my config file might at least be repaired.
I hit the “restore back-up” button. Then I closed out of Chrome, to refresh the cookies / cache. I took a deep breath and fired up Chrome again, and tried to log into my wp-admin page. The log-in option was there and I was able to access my account, finally. After about two and a half hours of faffing around with SFTP, it turned out that I could have solved the issue in a couple of clicks in the GoDaddy admin pages. So that was a wasted evening, more or less. And then, it was time for bed.
TTFN.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
18-07-25 Wednesday - Huawei Y7
So TW’s phone contract expired a few days ago and she popped into Tesco at the weekend to select a new phone. Everyone likes a new electronic toy from time to time. Before we went in, I was leaning towards suggesting the Moto G6 Play. It has a big screen and is cheap on a 24-month contract. I like a cheap phone, they tend to do most of the same things as expensive phones, but maybe not quite in such a flashy (I.e. quick) manner. The saleswoman recommended the Huawei Y7, she said it was quick and the camera was good. I’d had a P9 Lite, so I was happy with that as a recommendation, and TW took it.
We picked the phone up on Sunday, and by Sunday evening TW was already complaining about the responsiveness (or lack thereof) of the phone, and the fact that the screen was dim and the camera was not good. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised. The Y7 had to be at least one step down from the P series, and although the screen was big, the phone didn’t look good. She was advised that she had 14 days to return it in case of dissatisfaction, and so she took them up on that offer. On Tuesday she took it back to Tesco and exchanged it for a Samsung A6. All credit to Tesco, they honoured their end of the bargain, they exchanged it without any fuss. Although the phone is slightly smaller and slightly more expensive per month, TW is happy. And in fairness the A6 performs better than the Y7. So there’s a tale for you; make sure you know what you’re getting in your next phone, and if you can, make sure you’ve got the option to swap it if you’re not happy with it.
TTFN.
We picked the phone up on Sunday, and by Sunday evening TW was already complaining about the responsiveness (or lack thereof) of the phone, and the fact that the screen was dim and the camera was not good. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised. The Y7 had to be at least one step down from the P series, and although the screen was big, the phone didn’t look good. She was advised that she had 14 days to return it in case of dissatisfaction, and so she took them up on that offer. On Tuesday she took it back to Tesco and exchanged it for a Samsung A6. All credit to Tesco, they honoured their end of the bargain, they exchanged it without any fuss. Although the phone is slightly smaller and slightly more expensive per month, TW is happy. And in fairness the A6 performs better than the Y7. So there’s a tale for you; make sure you know what you’re getting in your next phone, and if you can, make sure you’ve got the option to swap it if you’re not happy with it.
TTFN.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
18-07-24 Tuesday - Christmas in July
So, Movies 24 (channel 325 on Sky) has been hosting a “Christmas in July” season. And I’ve been recording a few of the films to watch. Normally I wouldn’t be that bothered, but a friend of mine hosts a “Half Christmas” and that has kind of infected me, I guess...
Half Christmas is like Christmas, but it’s halfway between last Christmas and next Christmas. We have roast turkey, roast potatoes, red cabbage, sprouts, thick seasonal gravy, except there is lots of booze involved and if the weather is favourable, we get a suntan at the same time.
So she (N) has lent me a couple of seasonal Christmas books and in addition to the Half Christmas festivities, it’s opened my eyes to the fact that Christmas isn’t just limited to late November / December. And when I saw that Movies 24 were running a “Christmas in July” season, I thought it would be good to watch a few of them.
Christmas-themed films tend to be love stories dressed up in snow and mistletoe. They tend to be variable in quality, and to date there has been one which I didn’t bother watching to the end. That was due to the low production values, I think, rather than the story. The story itself was rather whimsical, it was suggesting that Santa Claus’s daughter was working with the USPS to answer letters to kids who had written to Father Christmas. And there was a single guy who had taken on the responsibility of looking after his orphaned niece, so there was a big hint about how the film would end. But the production values were poor and they reminded me of a kids’ show, and so I deleted it.
At the other end of the quality rainbow, I’ve seen a couple of seasonal goodies starring Dean Cain (formerly of Superman fame). One was a skiing film, which was enjoyable, and the other was called “Broadcasting Christmas”, in which Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Melissa Joan Hart) was a co-star. That was a good one.
Anyway, I’ve got a couple of films left to watch. But I’ve enjoyed watching a load of crappy festive movies, and I’d like to continue down this particular furrow. Unfortunately, this particular season draws to a close this Friday, so there’s only a couple of films left to watch. But it’s been fun.
TTFN.
Half Christmas is like Christmas, but it’s halfway between last Christmas and next Christmas. We have roast turkey, roast potatoes, red cabbage, sprouts, thick seasonal gravy, except there is lots of booze involved and if the weather is favourable, we get a suntan at the same time.
So she (N) has lent me a couple of seasonal Christmas books and in addition to the Half Christmas festivities, it’s opened my eyes to the fact that Christmas isn’t just limited to late November / December. And when I saw that Movies 24 were running a “Christmas in July” season, I thought it would be good to watch a few of them.
Christmas-themed films tend to be love stories dressed up in snow and mistletoe. They tend to be variable in quality, and to date there has been one which I didn’t bother watching to the end. That was due to the low production values, I think, rather than the story. The story itself was rather whimsical, it was suggesting that Santa Claus’s daughter was working with the USPS to answer letters to kids who had written to Father Christmas. And there was a single guy who had taken on the responsibility of looking after his orphaned niece, so there was a big hint about how the film would end. But the production values were poor and they reminded me of a kids’ show, and so I deleted it.
At the other end of the quality rainbow, I’ve seen a couple of seasonal goodies starring Dean Cain (formerly of Superman fame). One was a skiing film, which was enjoyable, and the other was called “Broadcasting Christmas”, in which Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Melissa Joan Hart) was a co-star. That was a good one.
Anyway, I’ve got a couple of films left to watch. But I’ve enjoyed watching a load of crappy festive movies, and I’d like to continue down this particular furrow. Unfortunately, this particular season draws to a close this Friday, so there’s only a couple of films left to watch. But it’s been fun.
TTFN.
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