2009 Epic Fail. Glad Its Over. Towards 2010

If 2008 was a good year, and in many ways it was for me, 2009 was an Epic Fail.  I mean EPIC.

It began with good intentions.  An application to finish that was six months overdue and the core of my start-up.  By years end I’d made less progress than in the last six months of 2008.  Go figure that, I can’t…

It began with the bush-fires, a month of interruption in itself.  The first anniversary of those fires is this Sunday 7th.  You’d not believe me if I stated the state government here had done virtually nothing at all to address the core reasons for those fires and that they’ve proven, yet again, that preferences from other parties and latte environmentalists in the inner city are a greater concern to them.

Without dragging out the interruptions in too much detail a damaged shoulder followed, then a hand in plaster after an operation, frequent interruptions in respect of my involvement in politics  it would be fair to say I lost at least four solid months, punctuated by two month intervals of getting anything done at all.

So yeah. Glad to see the back of 2009.  We did incorporate, that was a positive, and two applications were released that I mentioned here at the time.

2010 did start a bit rocky when I managed to give myself second degree burns on my left hand, three weeks later still bandaged. < Note to self.  Lawn Mowers get hot after use, they bite when lifted by carburettor. >

Then the development machine monitor died. Exactly one month to the day out of warranty.  Repair price?  Twice retail price paid.  I now buy wholesale so for $20 more than the price of a 22″ I bought a 24″.  No room on desk now for two monitor setup I was planning.  New desk first. 

So am getting prepped now to get serious again.

Across on his blog, Steph has some really positive things to say about 2009 and his business.  So if I’ve managed to depress you get on over to Follow Steph and a dose of good news.

Updating CMS

As you probably guess this blog runs on WordPress.  In fact so do most of my product sites.  My first “roll your sleeves up, mate” exercise this year has been to begin moving the whole lot from WordPress to WordPress MU – the multi-site edition.  This is actually pretty cool.  One installation of the software on an account on the server delivering multiple websites.  There are a few tricks to pull this off and in the next few days I’m going to document them in an article here should others decide in the future to do the same.

It’s not hard, rather it just needs to be done in the right order and tracking down the doc’s to do it can be tedious.  It might save somebody some time, beyond just being interesting in general.

Progress So Far

To date this blog – www.davidscottkane.com , which you’re reading now, www.mixactionmultimedia.com.au the company site (needing lots of data added to it, not written that yet), www.MixingPress.com – our audio related “magazine” style site and www.kliknmix.com one of our product sites have all been transferred to the WordPress MU installation and are settling in.  The rest will follow.

Note – there is no limit in WordPress MU as to how many sites you run off a single install – but your physical hosting account may well set some limits.  I’ll also include some info on basic requirements and some info on how I structure the server.

The benefit of doing this is multi-fold.

• First one install of the software means lower use of server resources.  CMS software is hungry and does use more resources than a basic HTML site of similar traffic levels.
• Secondly when an upgrade or security fix comes through for WordPress MU, or a plug-in, all sites get the update because they all use the instance of the software.
• Finally – WordPress.com runs thousands of sites off single instances of WordPress MU so it’s been pretty thoroughly road tested.

Next post I’ll document the process.

Scott Kane

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An Australian ventriloquist visiting New Zealand walks into a
small town and sees a local sitting on his porch patting his
dog. He figures he’ll have a little fun.
Ventriloquist: Hey, good looking dog, mate. Mind if I speak to
him?
New Zealander: The dog doesn’t talk, you stupid Aussie.
Ventriloquist: Hey dog, how’s it going old mate?
Dog: Doin’ alright.
The New Zealander is shocked!
Ventriloquist: Is this Kiwi your owner? (Pointing at the New
Zealander?
Dog: Yep.
Ventriloquist: How does he treat you?
Dog: Real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food,
and takes me to the lake once a week to play.
The New Zealander can’t believe his ears!
Ventriloquist: Mind if I talk to your horse?
New Zealander: Horse doesn’t talk either.
Ventriloquist: Hey horse, how’s it going?
Horse: No worries.
The New Zealander’s mouth is agape.
Ventriloquist: Is this your owner? (Pointing at the New
Zealander?)
Horse: Yep.
Ventriloquist: How’s he treat you?
Horse: Pretty good, thanks for asking. He rides me regularly,
brushes me down often, and keeps me in the barn to
protect me from the elements.
The New Zealander is TOTALLY amazed!
Ventriloquist: Mind if I talk to your sheep?
New Zealander: The sheep’s a liar.

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<With apologies to any Kiwi readers!    >