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Assorted Bob Techno Bob Web Bob

I’m back …

At least, I think I’m back. The post before this one was in mid-November. Shortly after that, my hosting provider, AplusNet, was sold and the buyer migrated all severs to a new location. That migration was a nightmare and left me unable to post to this blog.

I’d been with Aplus for about 10 years so I wasn’t eager to leave. They’d provided great service and until November, I’d had no problems. But the more I talked to them after the migration, the more pissed I became. My help desk ticket was rolled into one massive ticket for all WordPress problems, so I couldn’t get any visibility into what was being done to fix it or when we might get a solution. I assume a lot of people with WordPress installs are having problems after the migration. When I asked for a refund for my hosting fees so I could go elsewhere, they refused.

Then my favorite gun-nut blogger, Say Uncle, suggested I give his hosting provider a shot. So far, I’m very impressed with Hosting Matters. Price is right. Everything works as advertised. I’m going to give it a week or two and then pull the plug on all my stuff that’s over on AplusNet.

Moral of this story: AplusNet sucks ass. Total ass. Avoid them like the plague.

To-do: If you see anything broken/strange/odd on here (I mean, aside from the usual broken/strange/odd stuff I tend to spit out), send me a note so I can troubleshoot it. Best I can tell, the move went well, but I’m sure there are a few broken things dangling here and there.

And Happy New Year.

Categories
Assorted Bob Web Bob

Change is good … I think

If you checked in this weekend, you probably noticed more than a bit of turbulence here. My Movable Type blog got bunked up, mostly through my own doing, and rather than try to unravel it I decided to make a fresh start. I was a full release behind on Movable Type, so first I tried upgrading. Bad idea. I had multiple issues, most of which focused on the admin. The javascript in there wasn’t working right and I just wasn’t willing to try to figure out what was wrong. The new templating system in MT 4.23 also left me completely befuddled. So I took the fresh start to another level.

When I set up a Word Press blog for Maroon Ventures, I was incredibly impressed with how easy it was to install, modify and manage. So I switched to Word Press and so far I have no regrets.

A few things to be aware of:

  • I’ve turned the main page of Opposable-Thumbs into the main page of my blog. So now going to http://www.opposable-thumbs.com/ takes you straight to the blog instead of the static HTML page/links that used to be there.
  • I redirected everything from the old blog to the opposable-thumbs.com page. I didn’t bother to try to connect the old URLs to the new ones. I don’t think enough people read or bookmark items in this blog to make that worthwhile. If you’re looking for something specific, give me a shout and I’ll help you track it down. I did import all the entries from the MT blog into this one (612 of them dating back to 2002), so everything should be here, albeit with new URLs.
  • I’ve reversed the redirect. It was having some unintended effects since I have image links and other stuff in there. I’ll need to create a more surgical redirect when I get time …
  • I haven’t settled for sure on a theme yet, so the look and feel might change as my whims change.
  • Still a lot of nits to pick. If you spot one, please shoot me a note. I’ll link all the static stuff from the old site in here somewhere, but I doubt I’ll bother with switching the design to whatever theme I settle on …