Regardless … Google is usually useful in any language.

I’ve written a few times about the problems that I’ve run into while upgrading WordPress to a more current version but, since implementing a nice little multi-site workaround some time ago, I’ve enjoyed the luxury of being able to update the WordPress core and plugins from a single location, as well as being able to have a single spot for a set of verified themes.  That said, in order to upgrade to the most current version of WordPress, these little hacks are not quite the best solution … or are they?

Upgrading the Core

In order to simplify things, I decided that it would be better to create a new WordPress database and re-import all of the posts and comments from there.  This would provide the opportunity to easily roll back to the previous version of the software should an insurmountable error occur.  So, for 18 websites, I exported the database via the WordPress Export tool and received quite a few files that were much larger than expected.

From there, the requisite changes to wp-settings.php were made so that multi-site was enabled, the new database was targeted, and everything was kosher … or so I thought.

Problem #1: “www” is not supported with multi-site

This was a slight bit of a piss-off.  This site has been “www.j2fi.net” for years. Google knows this. Yahoo! knows this. Bing knows this.  Now everything will need to re-point to “j2fi.net”, which is going to cost a bit of index juice.  Thanks, WordPress.

Problem #2: My host doesn’t allow file uploads larger than 2 MB

This isn’t a fault of WordPress, really, but it’s something that enough people have complained about that it should be a non-issue by now.  Unfortunately for me, I opted to simply slice the 19 MB WordPress XML file into ten smaller pieces, that would then be uploaded separately.

If you’ve ever had to work with XML files larger than 5 MB, you can probably feel my pain.

Problem #3: Because “www” is no longer supported, all of my image links and self-referencing links no longer work

Another slight aggravation, but one that could be solved with the help of MySQL Query Browser.  I simply typed in this command:

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, ‘http://www.j2fi.net/’, ‘http://j2fi.net/’);

Not an Earth-shattering issue, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Problem #4: Custom Fields are NOT included with WordPress Exports

This is something that I’ve often wondered about: just how hard would it be for plugin developers to add their own 2 cents to the WordPress Export function so that the information their plugins contains are not lost in the ether?  Seriously … I’ve lost geo-coordinates, thumbnail details, secondary filters, specialized sorting markers, and a number of other rather important bits of information over the years thanks to the marked absence of custom-field exporting.

I can understand why any tables a plugin creates are not included, but custom fields are (supposedly) a core part of the WordPress system.  Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Problem #5: media library is GONE

Sure, I was able to re-link all of my images, files, and videos, but now my media library is completely empty.  In order for me to mark an image on an existing post as a thumbnail, I need to download it, and upload it again.  Yay.

This should really be part of the WordPress Export. There’s no reason why it isn’t.  Heck, there’s no reason why the media library can’t be “rebuilt” by scanning through the wp_posts table.

Problem #6: minor theme breakage

This comes as no surprise and, luckily, the theme breakage was really minor with this particular update.  That said, it would be nice if core WordPress calls were kept a little more consistent.  WordPress isn’t Apple … we are not forbidden from using private APIs, calls, or other components that will get the job done.

Problem #7: creating new sites as sub-domains needs to be explained a heck of a lot better

This is something I’ll be addressing on this site here in the coming days, as it was not immediately obvious how I should go about re-creating all the sites that I had stored as sub-domains.  Turns out you need to point them to the main site itself using wildcards.  Who would have thunk it?

Problem #8: new sites create NINE more tables in the database

I honestly thought I was seeing things when this issue first popped up.  After importing the posts to the first sub-domain, I did a quick search in wp_posts for the new articles … but couldn’t find them.  After a quick refresh of phpMyAdmin, I found the reason: every site gets its own set of tables.

Oh, freakin’ yay! I can understand this was done to simplify plugin handling, but are the developers at WordPress seriously telling us that it’s okay to have 900+ tables in a database if our “network” has less than 100 people?  This is an incredibly lazy answer to what could have been an interesting technical challenge.  I’d seriously like to take a look at the WordPress.com database(s) to see if they’re little more than a collection of mini-databases inside a larger master system.

That said, this will give me the opportunity to dust off my old multi-site-single-database-with-no-more-than-20-tables-including-plugins code and present it to the developers of the platform.  For 99% of all WordPress multi-site “networks”, there should be no need for people to have such a wide database. It’s a waste of disk space, and it’s not very efficient.

Problem #9: repeat steps 2 through 6 for each and every sub-site

This was to be expected, but it’s still not a whole heck of a lot of fun to deal with.  It took me 9 hours to restore 4 sites, and I’m no amateur when it comes to working with web servers, MySQL databases, and all the technologies that we make use of for the sake of blogging.  To make matters worse, there are still over 20 sites left to go.

Problem #10: the side menus no longer work in Opera 10

I don’t know if the WordPress team is forcing everyone onto Chrome or FireFox intentionally, but the admin screens just will not work properly in Opera no matter what I try.  This seems to happen with each and every round-number release.

Final Thoughts

As with all big WordPress updates, there are hiccups and problems to be expected.  This is particularly true with people like me who eventually spot a weakness in the base software and write our own solutions to improve overall functionality, only to have it backfire when it comes time to upgrade again.  I would like to say that the site has not seen a huge speed decrease, as most queries are taking barely 15ms longer than before.  That said, this will undoubtedly be the last time I upgrade WordPress to any extent beyond the expected “critical security update” that follows a week after almost every round number release.

Next time, I’m going to find a platform that actually fits my needs rather than mess around to make WordPress do what is required.

Have you installed WordPress 3.0 in a multi-site setting? What have been your impressions? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Suffice to say, my Tweets are going semi-private from this day forward.  They’ll still be visible on this site, but they will not be openly visible via the Twitter API.  It’s time to draw the line.  I’ve mentioned Twitter spam a few times in the past, particularly regarding targeted “follows”, but this takes the cake.

That said, this also means that I’ll likely need to create a new account when I start at the new company next month. Can’t have a Twitter developer without a public-facing account now, can we?

Have you locked down your Twitter account for similar reasons? Did you quit Twitter because there seems to be more Tweet-spam now than on Facebook?  I’d love to know how you keep the spam messages down.

On an aside, I’d love to have the option to view Tweets sent only by people I’m following, or the people they follow if I’m mentioned.  Then again … that gives me an idea …

While driving around to collect Street View images, Google’s fleet of pimped out camera cars happened upon a veritable treasure trove of information floating around in the form of unsecured wireless network data.  At first the idea was to collect only the MAC address and SSID of the router to provide greater accuracy for non-GPS devices to use location services but, after a German government office audited the data, they found that the software used to collect MACs and SSIDs were also collecting transmissions coming from unsecured routers.  If someone were reading a confidential email that wasn’t secured via HTTPS, POP3S, or IMAPS while the Google-mobile rolled by, there is a chance that Google has a copy of that very sensitive information!

Open WiFi vs. Wet Clothes

The question I have about this situation isn’t so much to Google as it is to the people who are upset that Google’s cars have been scooping up free data the same way police scanners and regular radios have for years.  Companies and the mainstream media have been warning people about the dangers of leaving their wireless routers completely open and free for anyone to use since the early 2000s.  All of this started way back when the first round of 802.11b routers emerged and people were caught driving around town looking for free Internet from which they could download torrents or other large sums of data undetected.  To think that people are STILL uninformed about how to use technology is just crazy.  It’s like owning a car for 5 years before finding out that you need to lock the doors to make sure someone doesn’t enter while you’re gone.

Locking wireless networks is just common sense.

Despite this, people want to dance around pretending to be outraged that Google, a company that securely holds in its clutches trillions of emails thanks to GMail, billions of photos thanks to Picasa, billions of blog posts thanks to Blogger, and untold quantities of data contained in the greatest search engine the planet has ever known, might have scooped up some potentially private information in the few seconds their car was within transmission range of an unsecured wireless network.  Bah!

An unsecured network is really not much different than hanging our laundry to dry outside.  Anyone who drives by for those few seconds can see our clothes.  Some people hang their underwear out for the whole world to see.  Others, like me, ensure that the underwear is hidden behind towels or a forest of socks.  Anyone who really wants to see my freshly washed underwear will need to come up on the balcony and peel away the (simple) layers of protection that ensure nobody can see that I prefer 100% cotton boxer-briefs.

Use The Data, Don’t Just Delete It

If people really want to be upset about Google’s wardriving, they should go after the people who have open wireless networks running on a residential ISP account.  This wouldn’t take much work, either, since Google’s already done the heavy lifting in many of the world’s most popular cities.  With the data they collected, officials can visit the homes of (clueless) people who are sharing their Internet connection and network resources with the neighbors, then show them how to secure their information systems and maybe upsell a decent virus software package to them.  Not only will this create jobs, but it will increase people’s awareness of data protection, personal privacy, and general thinking before doing.  In every dark cloud is a silver lining, and German has a very big silver lining that they can grab hold of here.

Hopefully they’ll actually make use of it instead of bitching and moaning, which seems to be the only thing the German government (aside from their incredible Chancellor) is good at doing.

What do you think of this debacle?  Are people making Google’s data collection bigger than it is?  Do you think the data they collected would be an excellent tool to help in educating the proper people on how to protect their digital investments?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Considering just how many times I’ve written about stupid spammers, you’d think that this site would either be inundated with fool messages, or completely devoid of them. But, defying all logic, they keep on coming.  Here is a chart of the recent Akismet action for this site:

That really big spike from a week ago is interesting because, up until that point, there has been relatively few messages breaking through the barrier. But something happened that week in April, and it’s been a nuisance ever since.

Other blogs undoubtedly see a lot more spam than this on a regular basis which only begs the question: just how much are spammers paying people to pollute the Internet like this?

Are you seeing a spike in spam, or am I just over-sensitive to the whole waste of time?

Take for example this quick little reminder.  How great it is for those people that have terrible memories to be reminded that their wedding anniversary is coming up!  But it’s a little odd in my case because I’ve mentioned it on Facebook a few times as well as on this site, which cross-posts as a note on the popular social media site.

Of course, being reminded of a wedding anniversary not a bad thing.  But having this next ad appear right above it makes me wonder if my wife has been saying something on her blog.

As far as I know, the Mrs. is not complaining about me being “too small”. That said, it’s more surprising to see that this kind of advertising is permitted on Facebook.  I haven’t seen any of those ridiculously designed Evony ads that have permeated the web on fb, nor have there been any other adult-oriented ads spotted in the few months I’ve used the service.  Is this the start of a new trend?

Hopefully not, as I have no intention of being bombarded with a bunch of sexually-related advertisements that are neither interesting or relevant.  Suffice to say, this was one advertisement that got the “X” treatment and labeled “offensive”.  If I were to have any kind of enhancement surgery, it’d be to embed a WiMAX card into my skull or extend my life by 100 years through some magical concoction involving stem cells and carbon nanotubes.

But I digress.

Have you noticed any strange advertisements on Facebook lately?

Here is a classic example that I’m sure most of you have seen over the last few years.  You fire off a quick tweet saying how you like or dislike a certain type of product, service, or market, and then suddenly you have several new followers who just happen to promote that particular product, service, or market.  While this seems like a decent idea for people who say they “like” or “love” something, it’s really not that great an idea for those of us who have just tweeted a genuine beef like the following:

Within 1 minute of this message hitting Twitter’s stream, I had this email waiting for me:

I can understand why marketers would think it’s a good idea to watch a text stream consisting of several billion publicly shared messages for particular keywords and then finding ways to reach out to those potential customers, but it would be nice if they had a little more logic behind their automated systems.

If you click the email, you’ll see the messages these supposed Real Estate “Experts” are spreading to their thousands of followers.  Some of these may be useful (for Americans), but they’re almost completely useless to people living outside a certain geographical location.  Profiles that fall outside a specified area should be ignored for the sake of protecting brand image.

Here are some of the rules that I would like to see implemented in the Twitter auto-follow bots that try to peddle their wares:

1. messages originating from outside the target market should be ignored
2. messages that contain negative words (hate, dislike, despise, etc.) should be ignored
3. messages coming from MY profile should be ignored

There are undoubtedly other rules that could be added, but I’ll leave that open in the comments.  Marketers certainly have their work cut out for them when it comes to reaching people online but, with a few simple filters, they would undoubtedly have a better chance of reaching potential customers rather than annoying thousands of people and (possibly) damaging their brand image.

What do you think of companies that have machines read our Tweets and auto-follow us in the hopes that we will care about their products? Are there any rules you’d like to see added to the auto-follow bot filter I listed above?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Then what will Facebook do?

Truth be told, I’m actually quite surprised by the lack of brand advertising on Facebook.  Not once have I seen an advertisement for Pepsi, Coca-cola, Sony, HP, Apple, McDonald’s, or Louis Vitton.  Nor have I seen any advertising from cigarette or alcohol companies.  Does Facebook have a policy for what advertisements they’ll accept?  Am I just out of advertisers reach because I’m in Japan and not America?

Who cares? Because I don’t.

I’m actually kind of glad that I don’t have a great deal of advertising to filter through.  Bad enough I have to opt out of every single app I see clogging the news stream.  The last thing I want to do is start seeing horridly unappealing static advertisements for soft drinks, fast food joints, or whatever else companies want me to waste cash on.

How Marketers Can Reach Me

One thing that I’ve noticed over the last year or so is that I do make very specific needs known online without a second thought as to what the consequences might be.  That said, I rarely mention those needs on Facebook.  Twitter is my preferred ranting ground, where I can fire off a whole stream of Tweets discussing my indecision regarding the HP Slate and the Apple iPad, solid state disks and spinning disk drives, Windows 7 and OS X ….  Very little is left unsaid on the rapidly dwindling Twittersphere.  Yet, oddly enough, non-spammy marketers aren’t cashing in on this gold mine of information.

Oh well. I really shouldn’t complain.  It’s taken careful planning to ensure my inbox is not flooded with spammy messages from large organizations every day, and the 1% Rule ensures that my eyes aren’t assaulted with unnecessary advertisements more than absolutely necessary.  That said, it would be nice to see companies use this openly shared information effectively.  It’d save me a trip or two to Google, and might even result in a sale here and there.

Opera released their latest update yesterday and when they said it was fast, they weren’t kidding.  Opera has been consistently faster than IE and FireFox for me, but this latest update blows all previous versions out of the water.

If you’ve never given the browser a try, I strongly suggest you do.  It’ll change the way you browse the internet.

If I were to believe the big blue banner that greeted one of my infrequent visits to the site, I’d think that I hadn’t found any of my friends or family as quickly or easily as my sister, fellow ex-pat, or brother.  But this couldn’t be further from the truth.  Fact of the matter is that I’ve found plenty of people on Facebook, and been spammed right off the damned service.

On top of this, Facebook seems to be implying that some of my contacts are feeling lonely and that I should help find them more friends to communicate with.  I don’t know what’s more insulting: that Facebook thinks Yves doesn’t have enough friends, or that Facebook thinks I have time to find him more!

Several months back I had written about how I’ve essentially given up on Facebook, and this is still true.  I visit the site every now and again to remind some friends to participate a little more on Twitter, but that’s about it.  The site has become little more than a nuisance at best, and a time sink at worst.

If this is the culmination of Web 2.0, I’m almost afraid of what 3.0 will look like in 5 years’ time.

Does anyone else think Facebook has become the AOL of 2010?  Am I the only one that finds this online “community” about as welcoming as the run-down community centers we pass by in the neighborhood? I’d love to hear your opinion on this.

Since when did a stretching kitty warrant such an odd advertisement?  That said, I am a bit curious about the DVD … is it an educational hentai video, or a soft-core porn video done with the woman’s satisfaction in mind (which would be different from every other video I’ve seen in the last 15 years) ?

Early this morning I received an email from someone who had gotten my contact info from a previous customer of mine.  I’d created a website for a net cafe, and provided some extra software to help them with customer lists and advertising campaigns.  Nothing spectacular, but they were happy.  The person who sent the email wanted something a little bit different, though.  Here’s what they asked for:

Hello, I got your information from *********** who said you’re the guy to talk to for ingenuity and out of the box thinking:

We are trying to acquire emails of users/ visitors of specific websites and have registered their email addresses for various reasons.

Most of these websites are small community websites and perhaps some are blogs etc.

What we require is a software tool that can acquire such details (Emails) from the websites. We interested in an out of the box thinking and methodologies as we require up to 1m email addresses.

The first thing that went through my mind was that this was going to be some sinister attempt to rip valid email addresses from websites in order to spam the crap out of unsuspecting netizens. After a quick follow up email, my fears were confirmed.

So, not wanting to sully what little reputation I have left for writing software, I responded with this message:

Thank you for considering me. While I would usually jump at the opportunity to provide creative and powerful software tools to people around the world, I’m afraid that I must pass on your offer.  The kind of tool that you’re asking for does not line up with my core values regarding responsible use of the internet and personal information.

Turning the job down was not a mistake, but I believe the last sentence was.  Shortly after hitting “Send”, my inbox was flooded with messages. Over a thousand of them … all sent via the Contact Form on this website.

Here’s a small sample of what the messages contained:

I’ve received so much spam in the last 6 hours that I actually had to temporarily disable the Contact Form (it’s up and running again) to ensure that Google didn’t mark every email from my domain as spam.  They’ve since slowed down, but I don’t think this will be the end.  Shortly after replying to Jamaipanese on Twitter, I was hit with another 38 messages.

Alas, if the problem persists, I’ll put a Capcha or some other form of protection on the Contact Form.  However, one thing is for certain: don’t piss off spammers by saying they’re core beliefs run counter to your own.

Update:

In the 30 minutes it took for me to write this post, Akismet caught over 800 messages submitted to this site. *siGh*

Maybe I should just give in to the guys who wanted me to write some software and make an “application” that’ll infect every computer on their network while “appearing” to work … then perform a remote erase of every hard drive this coming Wednesday.  That ought to keep them offline for a day or two

Impossible?  Not at all.  We have the technology and the systems in place to do this now for 30% of all jobs, yet we insist on doing things the hard way.  While I can appreciate the need for people to escape their home lives by going to an office to do work, one question has remained in the back of my head for months: why do we continue to have business trips when a web or teleconference would do just as well?

Most of Us Hate Meetings

Most people will tell you that they hate attending the various meetings at work.  Decisions don’t get made. People aren’t prepared. No agenda was set, so there’s no plan of execution. A 30-minute meeting drags on for two or three hours. People easily get distracted and stray from the topic…. The list is seemingly endless.  So why would we want to travel from city to city to attend these colossal failures of management?

I’ve had this discussion with Kenji and a few other businessmen in Japan and they all have the same answer: it’s better to make decisions face-to-face.  Okay, I can understand 100% that by building a personal relationship with colleagues in different cities and countries we can have a stronger sense of team spirit, but is this really the only advantage?

I have at least two meetings every month via Skype and, while I admit that I probably don’t need to participate in half of them, they do allow me to stay in my home area rather than take an early-morning Shinkansen to Osaka or Tokyo.  In addition to saving time and money, I can be productive by working on reports or other assignments while the meeting is in progress without anyone knowing.

So, if this works for me, why can’t it work for others as well?

Eco-Friendly Policies Aren’t “Eco” at All

A number of companies in Japan have all pledged to be more environmentally conscious with everything they do but, as with companies everywhere else around the world, many can’t see the forest for the trees.  They mean well, but can’t make the tough decisions that will truly see a reduction in costs, time, and ecological footprints.  Kenji tells me that his company’s “Eco Plan” comes right from the top, not the other way around.  As such, business trips around the country will continue to take place.  Perhaps this is the problem.

One thing is for certain, though: we can’t keep using resources the way we are today.  Several large nations have developed a thirst for advancement, and we only have so many raw materials.

Does your company make use of webconferencing or teleconferencing to reduce costs?  Do you hate going to meetings?  Have I just been lucky enough to meet the few people who don’t like going to company meetings in other cities?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

That said, every once in a while we will run across something that gives us pause.

This happened to me today while I was on BicCamera’s site looking for the best price on some notebook RAM.  I understand that BicCamera is one of the most hideously over-priced stores in the nation for computer parts, but they do sometimes have some decent sales.  Alas, I’m getting off topic ….

So, while scanning BicCamera’s site, I happened to see something that looked a little out of place in the footer and I’m sure you’ll see it, too:

Yes … that reads “BicCamera.com is viewed best with Internet Explorer 5.x or Netscape Navigator 6.x browsers with cookies enabled. We recommend a screen resolution of at least 800×600.”

Seriously?  IE 5.x or Netscape Navigator 6.x?  Does anyone still use either of these browsers?

From the looks of things, BicCamera has not had a major site redesign in over six years.  Considering how these guys are supposed to be one of the biggest electronics retailers in Japan, I find this to be a sad but often repeated scene.  When a company reaches the top of a market, they stagnate.  I can certainly understand that if something ain’t broken, why fix it … but come on!

Maybe this is why BicCamera continues to sell SD memory cards for twice the price of the (also over-priced) little camera shops that are dotted along all the major train stations in Japan.

I’d offer my services to give them a nice fresh design, but I don’t think I could handle all the red tape and untold levels of communication that must exist within the organization.  Any company with more than 20 people in Nagoya seems to be horrendously top-heavy, so I can only imagine what a huge corporation in Tokyo is like.

Do you still see sites proclaiming we should be using IE or Netscape to view their pages?  Are there any other big companies using digitally ancient website platforms?

Insomnia is something that I’ve been struggling with for years, and there are even a few blog posts on this very site that talk about it.  For someone who wants me to approve their spammy comment, wouldn’t it make more sense to target those posts rather than one that outlines the journey from Outlook to GMail?

Sure, spam will be with us long after the human race has disappeared from the universe (thanks, auto-sending bots), but if someone wants to spam a blog, the least they could do is include a quick Google search into their spamming, no?

Do you ever get spam like this on your sites?  Ever wonder why they don’t target the right posts?  Am I the only one that shakes their head over this kind of stuff?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.