FiddyP

Hurray! I have been able to do some stuff that wasn’t directly related to the API or backend code for the ComLuv database! This Monday has been an awesome day for productivity.

I have fixed the errant phpmyadmin on my plesk server so I can view my massive innoDB database. (and make backups)

I added a plugin to make adding youtube videos much easier to a ComLuv blog post.

I implemented a site wide footer text links box on the network.

I added a new widget to allow Comluv blog owners to become an affiliate to sell those ads.

I edited every single themes footer to make sure it all worked hunky dorey.

I wrote a “spoonfed” tutorial to show people how to make money with their comluv blog.

I answered ALL support tickets and resolved them.

I got fiddyp back up and running!! Some DNS issues were making it a bit invisible but a quick change of my DNS A records means I’ve got a place to ramble again.

Yey for me. I feel awesome enough to take the rest of the day off

Like running and other endurance activities, programming and website creation can cause you to come up against an invisible wall now and then. Especially if you consume 3 weeks of spare time with coding and creating and supporting and marketing.

I hit a wall just the other day, I’d been at the keyboard day and night and every single spare moment available coding the recode of the API and making the new theme do what I wanted (like work on the 3 big browsers).

When I wasn’t at the pc, I was thinking, sketching and pondering about what I was due to do the next time I got near a mouse. It was just about to calm down and I got called for a filmed interview about The ComLuv Network by UKFast (my awesome hosting company) which then meant I was bound to sit at the pc for many a long hour making sure the site looked sweet and tasty in time for any screenshots or flyins for the video.

I had just managed to get it done in time and, right after the interview (which went really well!) I jumped face first into the virtual coding wall, bazoompf!

I really wanted to get on and put the new support ticket system in and add a few widgets but the wall wouldn’t let me, no matter how hard I thought about it, I just couldn’t make myself sit down and get started.

stage left: misery and mental self flagellation enters

stage right: TV saunters in

That’s right, TV. I cured my wall-ness by watching some crap TV. That’s all it took. After not watching TV for 4 months, seeing just a few hours of it left me feeling like I was completely wasting valuable time with this utter drivel.

An early night and one of those weird promise yourself mantras that I sometimes do before bed and the very next morning I was refreshed and eager to code the code again.

Now I have replaced the not-so-great support system on ComLuv with a nice shiny new one that can build up a knowledge base from the tickets supported.

sorted.

I still haven’t watched any telly. I have watched a few films when I got the chance during a “sane break” and maybe an episode or two of Top Gear on BBC iPlayer while I’m at work but, all in all, I haven’t had time to watch any TV for over 4 months.

Why?

Bloody ComLuv thats why!

I paid good money for a professional programmer and designer make the site and backend API for me and I got more than what I asked for, it was worth every penny, the code was good, the design was good and it worked! Typically for me though, as soon as I got everything.. I wanted it different.

Now, rather than go through the whole process of detailing what I wanted and to-ing and fro-ing with email to the developers (and all that money stuff), I sat down and rewrote it all. API, Backend, Theme and the rest. OMG, I didn’t realize it would be so time consuming! Almost every spare hour has been spent in front of my (brand new!) PC coding. I don’t pretend that my code is as hardcore as Ron’s or my database queries are as clever but, IT’S ALL MINE! I can honestly say, every bit of code and themeness was made with my own fair hands (and own fair eyes on other peoples own fair code/templates)

I could have had it done in a few days if I’d kept it simple, but, once one thing was done – I wanted another thing to go with it. This continued on and on until at last, today, I think I’m just about ready to put the newness on to ComLuv. So that’s the plan for the end of the week, possibly Saturday morning when the intertubes are empty.

Maybe then I can start on some ‘paid’ work…… LoL , the paid work. hah!

What can you do if you stop watching TV for a little while? a frackin lot, that’s what.

I’ve been pretty much an offline boy for the past week, it’s VAT return time which means going through everything we have bought and sold and putting it down on paper for no one to read. Luckily, I have a pretty decent system of recording total sales, overheads, wages and wotnot (yup, wotnot seems to take a lot of money!) so it hasn’t been too bad.

I was a little bit anxious to be leaving the half finished url registration script I was making for ComLuv but, the missus needed help figuring out how to use the accounting software and being the good boy that I am, spent ages going through all the buttons and menus.

We ended up transferring it all to paper so she could understand it. hah!

I think I’ll have to make a simpler spreadsheet that mirrors the format of her paper system and see if that can bring her into the 19th century (we don’t want to bring her too far forward) lol

Good news is, we’re just about done and she’s off for a few days to London so I get double monitor fun with my pc and some php here and there. I should have something up and working by Wednesday if I manage to find my mojo in time.

(I’m still waiting to hear from a theme designer I paid over a week ago too but I’m trying not to think about that)

happy blogging everyone!

What this cliché expression doesn’t add is “if you haven’t got a lifejacket, you learn to make one fast or drown”

Oh the fun of metaphoric rainy days. This week just about everything to do with databases, servers, operating systems and hard disks went a bit squirly. Luckily, it all being digital stuff, I wasn’t prone to panic

This is what I learned by fighting digital fires all frickin week.

• 1GB of RAM isn’t really enough for a million hits plus website if there are tens of thousands of complex mysql statements happening every day.
• Ubuntu can crash too.
• Linux may be more powerful but that just means the crashes are even more spectacular.
• UKFast have really awesome tech support who can answer your call in two rings and be all geeky with your server and do fantastic things while they talk to you on the phone like you called to chat about the weather.
• Crisis makes you code better.
• An external hard drive isn’t a ‘safe’ place to store important data if you let other people use it to “just copy some mp3′s”
• Having another partition for your my documents folder is a really really good idea.
• Life without tweetdeck on my work pc is a bit pants
• Tweetdeck on Ubuntu is also a bit pants when you can’t unlock your default keyring
• It feels like a genius stroke to send a copy of my menu.lst from /boot/grub/ to my gmail address
• Blogging about it makes it better.
• Coding stuff because you need it, makes it worth more when it works.
• If I didn’t have my missus to ground me, I would have stabbed at least 3 people this week. seriously, with a spoon! (because it hurts more)
• It’s bloody hot in summer when you can’t go out.

What have you learned this week?