Lewis' Blog Tales from the trenches of information technology

30Jun/130

Yet another method to grab download-disabled slideshows from SlideShare

Yes, I know. Horrible, horrible subject. The thought of stealing jpgs which are publicly viewable... Oh, well.

Standard disclaimer applies: Teaching someone how to steal a book does not make the teacher guilty of theft. If you get in trouble for following these directions, shame on you, not on me.

26May/130

Still more PHP 5.3 fixes for Joomla! 1.5

When you're on a roll, you're on a roll...

Almost done patching this particular old rowboat. This installment deals with quieting this bit of error log noise:

PHP Deprecated:  Function eregi() is deprecated in blahblah\components\com_htmlmap\views\htmlmap\tmpl\default_map.php on line 20

26May/130

Updating the TCPDF library in Joomla! 1.5

TCPDF is an excellent PHP class for creating PDFs from dynamic (or static, for that matter) web content. Unfortunately, the version of TCPDF bundled with Joomla! 1.5 (all 1.5 releases after at least 1.5.8 - someone please correct me if I am wrong - was version 2.6.000_PHP4, dated March 7, 2008. It's also not very PHP 5.3-friendly (there are other parts of Joomla! 1.5 which are not fully compatible with PHP 5.3, but this article will focus on TCPDF). Time to freshen up, methinks.

28Apr/130

A sincere apology to users of my YUM repo mirror

You see, it all started in January, when I decided to do a good deed (I should have known better). I set up a YUM repository mirror for Netlabs.org, as OS/2 now uses RPM and YUM for (some) package management (I have a post in draft on that whole issue). It turns out, however, that for reasons which I shall explain, the xml (and related) files in my mirror weren't getting updated, so while I was doing a great job of adding content, I wasn't updating the repo information, so subscribers had no idea.

So, for all of you out there who have come to rely over the past couple of months on my US mirror of the Netlabs YUM repository, I most humbly apologize for the inconvenience. It's fixed now, though.

18Sep/120

Adjusting the Lightword theme for WordPress

I got a report today from a long time friend and colleague about some difficulty he was having with my blog. It seems that his view of the pages were lacking the date "tabs" to the left of the content column. He quickly confirmed that when I sent him a snippet of a screenshot (quick shout out to M. Evans, the author of Abduction!, which is an absolutely fantastic tool for capturing all or portions of browser content).

2Jan/120

A new year, a new WordPress version

Happy New Year, all.

I specifically held off upgrading WordPress from 3.2.1 to 3.3 until more of my plugins had been updated and until I'd had a chance to read up on what others were experiencing. All things considered, though, the upgrade seemed to be fairly painless (though why some people insist upon running their own websites and doing such installations and upgrades themselves I shall never understand), and this evening, it seemed that I had a handful of plugins which were candidates for updates, so I took the plunge all the way 'round.

If you happen to notice anything amiss, please bring it to my attention via the contact form or direct email (most of you reading this blog probably have it, but in case you don't, just use lgrosenthal at the domain of this site or .com, and you should get right through to me.

Thanks for reading, and again, Happy New Year!

11Apr/110

New version; new theme

After reading some truly hair-raising comments about the WordPress 3.1 upgrade, I had resigned myself to waiting for at least the .1 version to be released. Upon logging into my admin panel over the weekend, however, I was greeted by the prompt to upgrade to 3.1.1, and threw caution to the wind.

The upgrade went off without a hitch (WordPress is truly slick regarding its handling of updates, themes, and widget installations, and I am rarely - if ever - left feeling that I must use my IT talents to maintain my own blog), and I then set about looking for perhaps a slightly less drastic theme.

The result is what you see. So far, I'm quite happy with the result (I haven't changed anything on the handheld side, still using Carrington Mobile). If you have some comments or if something doesn't seem to work quite right, please drop me a note via the contact page and let me know.

Enjoy!