Some Blog Site

I had a blogging emergency last week. I went to write the blog post and WordPress wasn’t working. The page I normally use to sign in to write things was broken – it just said “Error establishing a database connection”

I had gone through a similar problem a few weeks before when a client requested a PHP update, which I did and then her WordPress blog stopped working so I had to revert PHP back to 5.x that we were using.

So I went into my hosting configuration and saw that they had updated everyone’s PHP to 7.3.

Ugh.

No choice to remain at 5.x.

I do not like automatic upgrades. I do not like updates in general. I keep an old phone and I decline any updates – my phone’s performance never slows down and I never have any problems with things not working like they used to.

Anyway, I got updated and now I had to deal with it. Because reverting PHP was not an option, I figured I must have to update my WordPress version. Since, you know, I turned off automatic updates and kept it at the version I liked. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well, now it’s broken so now I have to fix it.

Most of the “how to update WordPress” sites let me know that I can login to my blog and then click the Update button. Those were not helpful because I couldn’t get into my blog. But one of sites was actually helpful and I followed their instructions to download the WordPress install zip file, remove the wp-content directory, then upload that modified zip file into the website and it would be good.

I did that, and tried again. I know the update worked because now the error message had a new font. But it was the same error message. My new WordPress version is now 5.7, and I think the old one was 4.something.

So all that investigating and updating did nothing for me.

I found a handy thingy that let me check what the connection problem was. It involved making a test PHP file that returns mysqli_error, and that told me “The server requested authentication method unknown to the client”

So more Google-fu and the main thread seemed to be with the username and password. A suggested fix was to either alter the current username’s authentication method or create a new username with a different authentication method than the old username.

I created a new username in my host server’s MySQL setup, but I didn’t see anywhere to modify the authentication method. But it kind of worked. Now when I went to the login page I got a notice from WordPress that my site crashed and I’d get an email with some help.

So I checked my email and, sure enough, there was a helpful email that gave me a link to log into my WordPress with safe mode. I guess that was one advantage of upgrading my WordPress version.

I logged in using safe mode and I disabled the offending WP plugin and then everything was magically working again.

Moral of the story: if your WordPress installation stops working, don’t just upgrade things. Check what the problem is with mysqli_error and go from there. New MySQL usernames are free – accidentally overwriting files or losing settings during an update is not free.

No blog post this week. I’m busy preparing for the Super Bowl.

Not really much for me to prepare though. Really this week has been about battening down the hatches for the bitter winter weather moving in, plus getting started on taxes (CARES act stuff plus some unemployment is making this a fun year for taxes), plus lack of inspiration (I have ideas, just not able to get them together). Everything’s conspiring together to make this a week without what I consider a real blog post.

There is a certain infographic that made its rounds a while ago and was a popular way for people to describe why it’s important for everyone to wear a mask.

But the analogy bothered me.

First of all, I didn’t like it because it was crude and used urine to make a point. Not what I wanted to work with, but that is what the internet has served up.

Second of all, I didn’t like the attitude with which it was presented.

Third of all, it’s wrong.

It might have been right at the time it was made, based on what was known then. But now that we know more, it’s time to update the analogy.

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For our Christmas card this year, I was playing around with some ideas. I thought I’d make a stereogram out of the typical coronavirus image, since that’s what 2020 was about, and I was going to have the hidden text that appears when your eyes are correctly aligned. I was partially successful in that endeavor – the online stereogram generator did generate a stereogram with my text, but it didn’t look good and my son reminded me I already did a magic eye thingy before so I moved on from that.

But in my iterations of stereograms, I made this one that does not have any text – just blobs of virus that get a depth effect when you cross your eyes just right.

For those of you who did not get a Christmas card from me, consider this as your holiday greetings.

I’ve written about life as a simulation before, but it came up in the news again recently so I want to add another thought to it.

It’s supposed to be an explanation of how life on this earth got started and continues, but it is limited in its explanation to this earth and what we can observe from here.

I’m reminded of the story of the world being supported by a turtle, but what supports the turtle? Of course, it’s turtles all the way down.

If we’re in a simulation, then someone must have started (and be running) the simulation.
No, silly, that person is also a simulation.
Ok, then who started that simulation.
Obviously, it’s simulations all the way down.

It’s just an existential version of kicking the can down the road.

I was inspired to modify a song to fit with recent news about President Trump. Imagine Frank Sinatra’s voice before you peruse the following image.

Note: if the image is too small to read easily, click on it and you should be able to zoom in better.

For those of you not keeping up on things, the Huawei company has been banned from doing certain business in various countries. Trump has weighed in on things, and around that time I saw a comic of Bucky Katt singing his version of I Did It My Way, and the two things just clicked. I left a bit of the song out, keeping just the most memorable and applicable lines to the situation.

There are plenty of downsides to the Covid-19 pandemic, but there are also some benefits to how things are going. Here are some of the silver linings I’ve seen.

1. Teens get enough sleep. Enough studies were showing that schools have their start times backwards that some schools around here were looking at changing things so the elementary schools start earlier and high schools start later. It’s better for teenagers to be able to sleep in. But the district that was seriously considering it decided it didn’t want to mess with the status quo so it dropped the matter.

Then the coronavirus arrived.

Now, my teenagers get up whenever they want to. Although if the oldest one isn’t up by lunch we remind him to wake up. Their developing bodies get all the sleep they need. They do their schoolwork in the afternoon, and still have time for whatever in the evenings.

2. The open office plan is dead. Before this, the company where I work was just about to convert our office from standard cubicles to the open floor plan for “increased collaboration”. We’re an engineering department, we need decreased distractions. No one in our building wanted the open office, but headquarters decreed it so it was going to happen.

Then the coronavirus arrived.

Now, an open floor plan means “increased contamination” and CDC guidelines make it a bad idea. When I do go back to the office (see point #3) it will remain old-school cubicles for a while longer until management decides what the new CDC-friendly trendy office plan will be.

3. Work from home is required. Working from home was always an option, but it was frowned upon if one took too much advantage of it. It always helped to have an excuse of why you needed to be home that day, such as a sick child or an appliance being delivered. I suppose a sick appliance or a child being delivered would also have been valid. Officially, no excuse was needed – the excuse was just to avoid being seen as a slacker.

Then the coronavirus arrived.

Now, those of us who can work from home are discouraged from going to the office. In fact, we must get approval beforehand if we want to go into one of the buildings. I’m saving hundreds of dollars on gas each month, I’m getting to enjoy hours of my life each week not commuting, I eat lunch with my family, I don’t have to think about packing a lunch – I just open the fridge, I get to sleep in, I get to be outside while it’s sunny, I go days without combing my hair, etc. Work-from-home is a major part of social distancing, but it’s good for many things besides that.

I might be able to come up with some more benefits, but those are the main things to me.