In a nutshell:

Turn off your CAPS lock!  Really!  Unbelievable, but true!

I hope this has helped someone today!

With WordPress, you can create posts and by default, they show under the menu option “Blog”. But you may not have an actual page called Blog.  And you may not want “blog postings” to be the first thing you see when someone visits you WP site.   You may want your postings to appear on a page called Timbuckto, not Blog. But how?

Turns out it is easy!

In a nutshell:

•  create your ‘main’ or ‘home’ page. I named mine “Why”.
•  create your page you want your blog postings to appear on.  The page can be named anything you like, I went with, you guessed it, “Nutshells”.
• go to Settings, Reading and you can assign your ‘main’ page as your front page and your ‘blog’ page to display your postings.

In the example below you will see that I setup Nutshell as my ‘main’ or front page and Blog as the page to display my postings.

Task number one: setting up multiple wp sites on one host.  I have decided to install to my localhost, keeping my mess-ups to myself  I am running an Apache server, installed using XAMPP  on a Windows 8 laptop.

I have already, previously installed a WP site on my local,so my first task was to setup a new database, so the two WP sites wouldn’t intertwine. Then I had to setup a user with permissions for that new database.  So far, so good.

I downloaded  the WP install zip and extracted the files to a subfolder of my site.  Then I edited the wp-config.php to tell it the database name, as well as the user and password.  I wuz cooking with oil!

Or …  so I thought.  Remembe Ally McBeal (tv show from a few years back)?  She’d be in a happy daydream, when suddenly, you’d hear the sound of a needle scratching a record (loudly) and reality would wake her up!  I felt the same way, when I realized I wasn’t quite sure what to do next!

I had done WP installations before, a couple of times with the one click method on host servers and once before, manually, here on my local. But, I had been following a tutorial and had step by step instructions! Hmmmm…..

I had it in my mind that I needed to open the wp-admin file, but instead of bringing me to a login screen, it was just opening the file in  edit mode in my browser.  Dang!  After staring at it, cross eyed, for about ten minutes  I finally seen in the address bar that it was trying to go to a subfolder.  Kinda hokey looking, but I could get enough out of it to see what it was trying to do.  So I retyped the address and viola!  WP login screen.  ex: mysite.com/wordpress/wpadmin/install.php

Very cool.  I logged in and ran the install, which in turn created the tables in my new WP database. I checked my previous WP installation.  All was good, they were coexisting quite nicely.  I might call it a day!

So, in a nutshell:

* Create your WordPress database in mySQL. Give it a name that makes sense
* Add a mySQL user with full permissions to the new WP database
* Download and extract the WP installation zip.  Be very conscientious of what folder you unzip to.
* Run the install.php found in the wpadmin folder

As a support technician, I often-times think I have seen it all.  But, last week,  I ran into something I had never seen before, with regards to our software  at a customer site.  When I finally, perplexedly  Googled the symptoms, looking for an explanation or solution,  nothing helpful came up.  It was the most dumbfounding thing I had ever seen!  So, hopefully, should anyone else ever run into this situation,  the information I am about to include here may help!

I work for a transportation software company that caters mostly to over-the-road trucking companies.  Our data is stored in xBase flat file .dbf format and each software module may have dozens of database tables.

The support call came in from one of our customers, that one of his dispatchers had entered a new truck in the system, but for some reason, he couldn’t see it from his computer.  He could see where a new load (order) referenced that truck, but he just couldn’t see the truck, itself, in the truck file maintenance screen.

My first thought was bad index, so I recommended indexing the files.  When he said that didn’t’ help, I remoted into his system to have a look.  He was correct, the truck just didn’t show up on his Windows 7 workstation.  I remoted over to the workstation  that had created the entry, an older XP, and the truck was there and active. “Hmmm… how odd”, I thought.  There has to be a simple explanation for this!

But it became more confounding by the moment!  My second thought was that he MUST be working in a backup copy of the system!  But as I jumped back and forth between his computer and his dispatcher’s computer, checking the paths and the folders that the data was stored in, I could see that they were both pointing to the network’s F: drive and to the same data folder.  I tried creating a text file in the data folder from the dispatcher’s XP computer and sure enough, I could see it from both computers.  So I knew they were both working in the same folder and looking at the same files!  So why was the new truck record not showing in the truck database from both computers???!

I asked them if anything had changed recently.  They said not really, but three weeks earlier they had added this  new Windows 7 machine to their network.  But they said it had been working fine until that day.   I asked if there had been any other changes or problems.  They said no, not really.  They had had a printer problem earlier that day, but it was unrelated and already resolved.

I decided that maybe the Windows 2008 file server was acting up and told them to try rebooting it.  They said they had done that earlier, but they would try again.  I told them  if that didn’t help, to try adding that same truck to the system from the machine that couldn’t see it.  I figured maybe it was just some oddness that might work itself out in a few days.  I was WRONG!

They called me about four days later and said, “Sunny, we really have a problem!  The user on the new Windows 7 machine has added about 200 new loads and we just realized that the other dispatcher cannot see any of them”!!

What was the deal???!!!  The new load records being added from the Windows 7 computer were not being seen by the XP machine and truck records by XP wasn’t being seen by the Windows 7!  But, they could see everything else in all of the other shared tables.  I reaffirmed, again, that there was no shadow of a doubt, they were working in the same file folder on the network!  To make it even more strange, with the exception of the load file and the truck file, they could both see the same information that was stored in other files in that same folder!!!  It was as though a few isolated files were not being shared, almost like they were working in a backup copy of that file, yet everything pointed to the correct place.  With this particular piece of software, there was no way to tell it to write to some files in one folder and other files in a separate folder.  They MUST be in the same physical location!  How could this be happening??!!?

I finally told the customer that I was just flabbergasted and had no explanation and that I really didn’t think it was something in the software.  I suspected something in the hardware setup, but had no reasonable explanation as to what that could be.  He called in two different network consultants, but they were as bumfuddled as I was.  It was as though, out of dozens of files, that mostly they were both seeing,  there were an isolated few, where it was as though they were looking at two different copies!   But where were the copies and how was this happening??!!?

Finally, the second network tech, Dave, and I were looking at one of the files in question, through Windows Explorer, when suddenly he noticed in small letters, but right in plain site:  Offline status:  offline

WTH!!!??  Then the pieces of the puzzled started falling into place. After quizzing the user a little more, we discovered that a week ago, when they had the printer problem (you know, the one that was unrelated!), one of the dispatchers had decided to reboot the server.  It never occurred to him to have everyone log out first.  He just REBOOTED!  In the meantime, the user on the Windows 7 machine was just working merrily away!  Windows 7 had sensed the loss of the network connection, so it took “offline” the  open database tables that he was working in.  When the network was brought back up, it should have synchronized his offline files with the network online files, but it did not.

Fortunately, now that we had finally identified the problem, it was a relatively easy fix.  For more information about offline files and file synchronization, go to:  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Working-with-network-files-when-you-are-offline

~Sunny

There are several ways to tether.  Some phones have built in tethering options, some phones you can tether by downloading an app, but others need to be rooted in order for tethering to work.  Of course, my phone (LG Ally) fell into the latter category.  But, since there are other benefits to rooting your phone anyway, I was not to be discouraged .  There are several ways to “root” a phone.  A lot of this depends on which version of Android OS you have and can also depend on whether you have applied any patches, so, the 1^st thing is to double check your version (this must be exact: i.e. 2.2) and any patches (i.e. 2.2.1).  There are some apps that allow you to root and unroot your phone easily using the app.  Once again, my phone can’t use them, so I had to do some wiggling.  I had to download several things (including special drivers) using my computer and do my root that way.  Since every phone is going to be different, search out your method according to your phone and version of Android OS.

The second step after completing the “root” was to find a tether app that worked.  There are several in the Android Market, but the first one I tried (Barnacle) didn’t work for me.  My laptop did not discover my phone, even though my phone said it was broadcasting.  The second app I tried (Wireless Tether) worked!  YAY! SCORE!  Now, I will be able to use the internet with my wifi devices (laptop, tablet) even when the power is out or I am not in range of any wifi connections.

BJ Exum

p.s. Please remember that “rooting” your phone may void your warranty!

• ADK: Android Development Kit, What people use to develop anything for the droid such as ROM’s
• Baseband: In communications and signal processing, the baseband describes signals and systems whose range of the frequencies measured from close to 0 hertz to a cut-off frequency, a maximum bandwidth or highest signal frequency; it is sometimes used to describe frequencies starting close to zero
• Boot Loader: State in which the droid can be flashed from RSD with an appropriate .sdk file that reprograms the phone into a specific ROM or update. This is typically a last resort when the recovery screen cannot be reached to make a much simpler and less risky solution
• Boot Loop: simply means something is preventing the phone from completing it’s boot cycle and is stuck between the boot animation and the unlock screen, creating a looped animation. This is often fixed by either reloading a Nandroid, or Reflashing a rom from the Boot Loader.
• Brick or Bricked: Jargon for a completely unrecoverable device, (no more than a brick or paperweight)
• Bug or Software Bug: an Error or flaw in software that produces a failure or unexpected/unwanted result. Typically created from incorrect code, this is why some ROMs are better and smoother running than others because certain developers have taken the time to input “perfect” code
• Busybox: BusyBox is a single multi-call binary that packages the functionality of most widely used standard Unix tools, BusyBox provides a fairly complete environment for any small or embedded system.
• ClockworkMod: A recovery program that is often used to apply updates, ROMs, or create a back up or restore a backup file
• De-odex: Apk files have respective odexes that devs use to supposedly save space. Deodexing means you convert it back to a .dex file and put it back inside the apk. This allows you to easily replace files (not having to worry about odexes), but the main point was to deodex services.jar so that you can change all text to different colors (such as the clock color to white) and to deodex services.jar, you need to deodex everything.
• Dev. or Developer: An individual that creates, or alters a file in such a manner as to advance the program
• Flash or Flash Memory: a program technology that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed
• Kernel: The governor of the CPU useage and Battery output, one can upload certain Kernels to achieve greater performance speed of their device at the cost of some battery life
• Root: Common word associated with giving a user “super user” access to their phones programming and other various aspects that would normally not be possible, also known as “Jailbroken” for iPhone’s
• Nandroid or Nandroid Backup: A file typically created in the custom recovery program, such as SPRecovery, that is a carbon copy of whatever state your phone is in before a drastic change is made. the file then can be moved onto or off of the SD card for later use in case something should go wrong in the ROM or Update, or a Boot Loop occurs
• OS: Operating system, I.E. Windows Vista or MAC or ANDROID
• Overclocking: Speeding up the CPU past the factory presets to achieve a faster and more responsive device
• ROM: Read Only Memory, a program used to make changes to anything from the look of the home screen, to icons to custom boot animation
• RSD or RSD lite: Remote Software Download, Motorola’s own tool in flashing virtually any type of program, (so long as its in .sbf form) to the Android OS
• Shell or SSH: secure shell or ssh is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices
• SPR or SPRecovery: A recovery program that is often used to apply updates, ROMs, or create a back up or restore a backup file
• Stock: Simply means an unaltered state, such as when you first purchase your phone from Verizon, or when you do a factory reset to “go back to stock 2.1″
• SU: “Super user”, or root permissions
• Theme: A set of icons, backgrounds and app trays that change the aesthetics of the overall look of the droid and its applications
• TUN/TAP: Refers to a network TUNnel, operates within layer 3 packets, or ip packets. Packets sent by a system via a TUN/TAP device are delivered to a user-space program that attaches itself to the device. A user space program may also pass packets into a TUN/TAP device. In this case TUN/TAP device delivers (or “injects”) these packets to the operating system’s network stack thus emulating their reception from an external source.
• Underclocking: Slowing down the CPU mainly to limit battery usage
• .sbf: Summation Briefcase File
• .apk or APK’s: An .apk file extension denotes an Android Package (APK) file, an .apk file can be opened and inspected using common archive tools
• .tar: Similar to a zip file, a tar file archives multiple files into one file
• .tgz: TGZ files are commonly used as install packages for Slackware Linux.

Thanks again to Sam Fisher!

Now, as an aside: fooling with your phone WILL void the warranty, so keep that in mind!!

~Sunny

• 1. Wi-fi hotspot coverts your Mytouch 4G into a wireless router where you can connect up to 4 computers or devices, wirelessly, to the internet. USB or Bluetooth Tethering is when the phone becomes a modem and you can connect your laptop (I don’t know if you can connect a desktop) or tablet using the USB cable/ or Bluetooth  and after enabling your phone (going to Settings/Connect to PC/Default connection type/USB tethering) you can navegate the internet on your computer.
• 2. I can connect so far via USB tethering without paying, some claim they can also connect via Hotspot without paying, I haven’t been able to do it, may be I’m lacking skills.
• 3. Wi-fi hotspot goes against your data plan. Making phone calls on wi-fi goes against your minutes.
• 4. As I understand as long as you do not agree and sign up, even if you are able to connect via USB tethering and/or wi-fi hotspot, there shouldn’t be any charges.

Now, I need to point out, this came from a forum, so when it comes to the charges,  proceed with caution.  I know that I ‘tethered’ my Archos to my phone and did not suffer any additional charges.  I did not have to enable anything.  Actually, it wasn’t seeing my wireless network after I had connected to a friend’s network and later returned home, and it just picked up my phone’s bluetooth signal on it’s own.

~Sunny

Wouldn’t it be nice to get paid to download and review Android Apps and weed out the really cool ones?  Well, lucky for us, there are people out there that do just that!  And, if you are like me, you prefer recommendations to the cool ones, instead of repeatedly downloading/uninstalling,  downloading/uninstalling looking for something that you actually might find useful!

Here is a list of the top five (of the day, this changes constantly):

I got this list from a technical email I subscribe to:  TR Dojo and it is referencing a blog by: Jack Wallen So far, the only one I have tried is the Dolphin browser!  And, I’ve got to say “S.W.E.E.T.”!

If you are unsure which version to download, here is a guide:

• What is the difference between Dolphin Browser and Dolphin Browser HD?

Dolphin Browser is built on 1.6 android platform while Dolphin Browser HD is built on android 2.0 platform. So users with 2.0 above devices can try Dolphin Browser HD, which had powerful add-ons for you to choose.

It is setup to allow for tabbed browsing.  It is great on my phone, but where it is really shining is on my Archos Tablet!  Nice!  As you are installing, it will prompt you to install a bookmarks add-on.  I recommend saying Yes.  Once installed, opening a new tab offers another add-on called Screen Cut, that allows you to do a screen cap. (see below)

Dolphin HD Browser Home Screen

I also notice that as I open a new tab, it has an app of the day.  Today’s app is a free PDF Viewer.  How cool is that?

Hope you all have a great day!

~Sunny

Password protecting is easy but  different than in previous versions of Excel.

Here are the steps in a nutshell:

• Open or create the Excel 2007  worksheet
• Click the Microsoft Office Icon.
• Click Save As and pick Excel Workbook.
• Click the down arrow on the  Tools button (in the lower left side of the Save as prompt).
• Click General Options.
• Set a password to open and modify your spreadsheet.
• Click OK and reenter your password.

Make sure you use a secure password, but more importantly, make sure you use a password you will remember!
If you lose or forget your password you will not be able to recover it.

Make sure that you keep the password in a safe place.

A similar procedure applies to other Office 2007 documents such as PowerPoint presentations and Word documents.