It took some time but here it is… Wordpress 1.5

I’m still learning the ropes on this one, but from what I’ve seen I’m going to like it.

I’ve also started using a pre-rendering engine so that the site comes up faster. That does break some features (like the “More” feature), but I can live with that. You have to make some compromises when you have an older, slower machine.

UPDATE: Ok, this prerendering engine is very cool, but I will eventually need to upgrade. Perhaps I can get a Intel-based XServe next year…

Oh… and I’ve gotten brave (or stupid, or both) and enabled comments again.

I know, I haven’t been posting. We’ve been de-boxing – it’s fun!

Life is good, work is indeterminate, and as a D & D enthusiast (well, from the sidelines these last 10 years or so) and a MST3K fan, I found this little work of web entertainment very entertaining.

I miss Mike and the bots.

And gives me some hope

Ok, so I’ve got this new job figured out. You know how you flail about in the first few weeks of a job before you really catch on to what you’re supposed to be doing? Well, that stage is ending for me.

I work for Company X (“X”). Company X uses Vendor Y (“Y”) for A Very Important Program (“The Program”).

The problem is this: Y produces The Program… but The Program has a lot of bugs. Add to that the fact that the maturity level of The Program is not very high. If the sendmail program is a 10 (very old, quite mature) then The Program is about a 0.5, maybe a 1.0.

So, The Program is not only used by X, but it also used by a lot of the customers of X – it has been provided by X to their customers.

My job? I’m supposed to keep up with the patches for The Program by Y and keep the customers happy by providing those patches to them. I also get to report any problems to Y and wait for their patches.

You see the problem here? I have all of the responsibility, but I’m actually dependant upon Y to provide a solution to any problems… all while I’ve got X (and X’s customers) asking me when the problem will be fixed. And I’m not too confident in Y’s solutions or ability to solve problems.

It’s quite a pickle of a problem for me and I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to do. It’s not like anyone lied to me or anything, but I don’t think this part of the job was made quite clear.

Update

No, I don’t think anybody lied to me; perhaps I just didn’t know what questions to ask. This isn’t a matter of someone “doing something” or lying to me; it’s probably a matter of the proper question not being asked and the proper information not being offered. Acrimony will not solve this issue. Besides, I very much like and respect the people I’m working with.

The Guinea Pig, anyway.

Tonight I plan to upgrade to WordPress 1.5; hopefully that will fix things. If nothing else it will prevent the certain “are you running the latest version?” question I’m certain to get if I ask for assistance.

The other ‘blogs on the server will be unaffacted. For now. >:-)

So, I’ve narrowed the slowness on my site down to the “TexTile” plugin for Wordpress that I use. Apparently it sucks too much horsepower for my P3 server… or something. Not sure what the problem is, I just know where to find it now.

Too bad for me that all of the posts I’ve made in the last few months use TexTile tags… so I can either get it working or I can go back and re-edit every post for the last few months. Ugh.

Broadband should be here soon; we’ve decided to go with SBC DSL again as I’ve never had a problem with them, and they are cheap cheap cheap. Cable modem is out as Comcast is evil and I refuse to give them one red cent. Die, Comcast, Die. I’ll start listening to your adverts when you quit telling people what they can do with their network connection.

The house is slowly shaping up (the boys have their beds, ours will be constructed today). The job is… well, undetermined. Too soon to tell. I’ll get back with you on that one. But I’ve had worse, I can easily say that right now.

We have a new phone number, but it would be pointless to call it as it is dominated by the Apple Airport doing dialup duty for the rest of us. Yay! 4 computers sharing one POTS dialup line. Downloads are a whopping 4kbps if I’m lucky.

To end on a positive note: The weather is wonderful, the scenery is beautiful, and the sunshine is very, very bright. A big improvement on Mordor.