WordPress is Cool - But Can Be VERY Annoying

I really like WordPress. I do. It's easy to install, it has many uses and designs and it helps a lot of people to create blogs and sites. It has a lovely support and development community. It's free. It's cool.

That said, WordPress can really annoy the hell out of you. I started my way with the 2.5 version, and for many days I have battled with a persistent problem - image uploading.

It started with an HTTP Error - every time I tried uploading an image to a post - the upload bar would fill, but the process ended with a message: "Http Error. An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later".

I managed to find a fix for that. Apparently you have to edit your .htaccess file. There's a very good explanation here.

It worked well for a few days, but today I couldn't upload images once again. This time there was no HTTP Error, but something completely different. The image uploaded fine, but when I clicked "Insert to Post" - I got a 404 message - page was not found. Other users reported simply blank pages. The image, of course was not inserted into the post. However - the images WAS uploaded, it WAS present in the Uploads folder, and if you wanted - you could link to it. Still, it was very annoying, and it also caused problems the NextGen plugin .

I use FireFox, by the way, but apparently the problem persists across browsers, OS and servers.

Here is what I tried to no avail:

1. Updated Flash.
2. Cleared the cache.
3. Upgraded to WordPress 2.5.1.
   
4. Created another user with an Editor permission.
5. Opened the WordPress as a single window, with no other tabs open.
6. Edited the media.php file as suggested here.
7. Installed the No-Flash Plugin and changed some files for it to work.
8. CHMOD'ed (changed permission) of the default upload folder (wp-content/uploads).
9. Created a new uploads folder under wp-content, unticked the "Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders" option and stated a direct URL to the folder.

After some very long hours, pissed as hell, I found a solution that worked, for some unknown reason:

I created a new uploads folder, this time on the server's ROOT. I CHMOD'ed it to 777. Unticked the "Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders". Stated the direct URL to the folder. And it worked. WHY? I don't know. Will it work for you? I don't know. Will there be a bug fix for it? I don't know.

Many people are struggling with this. I hope some can use my stupid solution. I know my way around some code and general problems, but I don't envy people who installed WordPress because they heard it's really easy to use. I guess it's easy to use if there are no bugs.

So, I am annoyed with WordPress today. Never had such problems with Drupal, or even the highly bashed Blogger system. Woof. Now I can get back to work. Until the next bug.

Yet More Proof that Vista is a Piece of Shit

The hell that a simple computer user goes through with Vista is hard to describe. A while back, a friend of mine needed my help - his laptop was sluggish and buggy, although it was a new one. The obvious culprit was Vista. After a long, hard battle, I managed to get his computer to a manageable level.

The troubles didn't end there. He wasn't the only one with Vista problems. Complaints about the new Microsoft junk-OS are all over the place - friends, colleagues, bloggers, surfers - all tell the tale of the Vista Horror Show. My friend and his laptop finally gave up. I "upgraded" him back to XP, and all is well, for now.

And lo and behold - even Microsoft employees can't handle the piece of crap that's Vista. Internal e-mails of Microsoft employees, published online by The New York Times, reveal that corporate vice president for Windows product management Mike Nash, says he "got burned" after purchasing a notebook computer advertised as "Vista Capable" that was actually incapable of running Vista.

Nash wasn't the only one - Microsoft's chief operating officer, Jon Shirley, chose not to install Vista after discovering it was not compatible with his printer and two scanners.

So, even Microsoft can't handle Vista. Why should we, then?

How can you tell for sure that Vista is a failure?

A small item I came across (Thanks to the Mixx Community!) states that Microsoft reports that the counterfeit rate of Vista is half that of XP. Microsoft is basing their statement on Windows Genuine Advantage validation failures, along with other internal data.

Microsoft, of course, attributes this success to the "robust security" of Vista. They are almost claiming that the war on piracy has been won.

I think there must be a different reason as to why Vista is not pirated as Windows XP - it's because Vista is such a terrible OS, that very few actually want to try it out - even as a pirated version. After a very annoying expericnce with Vista a while ago, I wouldn't install this horrible thing on a computer of mine, even if Bill Gates himself offers it to me for free.

There are more and more options out there to those who want a good operating system - a lot of them are free or close to it. If you insist on a Microsoft product, my advice to you is the rule of thumb I always give: Never install a new Microsoft product. Wait AT LEAST two years for most of the bugs to die. And even then - reconsider.

Vista: Mostly Annoying

A friend of mine dropped by for dinner the other day. We had a lot of fun, and he also brought his Lenovo laptop for the rider. He's been having some problems with the Vista operating system and I offered to help.

I don't use Vista myself. I have no intentions of doing so in the near future, either. I have seen Vista on other people's computers, and I knew instantly it would be a mistake to install it. The different horror-reviews I have seen all over the net only made me more confident in my decision. I have XP on my laptop and Windows 2000 on my desktop - ironclad OS that runs smoothly.

My friend's laptop is brand new - about a month old. He didn't install anything horrible on it (except some sort of a Symantec Anti-Virus, which we will remove ASAP). He has 1 GB of RAM. It's not an expensive computer, but it should do its job. Basic stuff like surfing the net, creating presentations and storing pictures. Nothing fancy, right?

Well, wrong. The computer is slow, annoying and full of stupid little bugs - all because of the not-so-wonderful Vista.

First thing we tried to do, was connect to my home wireless network. Denied. The computer connected to the net but I couldn't use the internet. Since we didn't have much time to play with TCP/IP settings, I decided to try and make the laptop a bit faster and more convenient, by removing some unneeded features and tweaking the interface.

The annoying Vista kept bugging me with "are you sure" kind of questions, for every little move. The pseudo-friendly names for the different elements in the control-panel aren't making things easier - I had to scan the list a few times in order to understand where are the settings I need to handle. Installing drivers for something simple as a Disk-On-Key seemed to take ages. The graphics and effects are redundant, resource-consuming and silly (the "Gadgets" thing on the desktop is especially moronic), and the main feeling is that Vista thinks it's smarter than the average human, and can solve all its problems by itself.

Well, it couldn't. It didn't solve the wireless problem (other computers connected perfectly), it didn't help to improve the system's performance and most of all - it makes the probing and tweaking very difficult.

Since that little meeting with Vista, I had gone online and did some research on how to tweak it and force it into something a normal human can enjoy. I'm going to recommend to my friend to format and install XP. If he doesn't feel like it, I'll do my best to help fix all of the problems, but I'm pretty sure it will be far from perfect.

I have been warning people from Vista from the moment it came out. Not because I tried and tested it, but because of a simple rule - Never install a new Microsoft product. Wait AT LEAST two years for most of the bugs to die. And even then - reconsider. My little meetings with Vista only proved me right. The fact the Microsoft is silently "allowing" vendors to sell PCs with XP again, just fortifies the claim - Vista is far from being the OS of the future. It's just another bad Microsoft product.

Top 7 Annoying Computer Sounds of all Times

Computers aren't the most silent machines in the world. Although they don't blip and chirrup every second, like in stupid movies, but they still produce a fair amount of sound. Some people consider it extremely cool that their computer can make digital noises. I am sure all of you cubical-dwellers have silently (or loudly) cursed your co-workers for leaving their speakers on.

Be it software or hardware, there are a few sounds made by computer that should forever be damned. And they are:

1. The ICQ incoming message ("Uh-Oh"): Yeah, it was cute in the nineties, for about two seconds, but when it started to be the most common sound coming out of a computer, it began to be annoying. Pretty soon it was considered a plague. ICQ usage has declined over the years, but there are still a lot of kids using it. The Uh-Oh sound continues to reign supreme, and annoy the heck out of people.
   
   (The loudest-ever-horn sound that you can hear when you open ICQ gets an honorable mention).
   
   
2. Any PowerPoint Sound: It's bad enough that everyone uses PowerPoint - from businessmen to teachers, from students to army officers - but it appears that some of them still think that PowerPoint default sounds are cool. Bursts, bombs and Ta-Da sounds are still a regular thing in PP presentations, and there is nothing much to do about it, except to hope that those wavs will someday die a slow death, along with their creators.
   
   
3. Dial-Up Modem, unable to connect: The sound of a modem isn't exactly music to the ears in itself, but a modem unable to connect is a master-screech of hell, the embodiment of annoyance. Especially because it usually meant you couldn't connect to the net and your porn consumption suffered accordingly.
   
   
4. Yahoo Messenger, User Signing Out: Oh, yes, THANK YOU! Don't we all love the sound of a squeaky door slamming shut in our faces? OVER and OVER again? All DAY long?
   
   
5. Ad-Aware, End of Scan: When Ad-Aware finds spyware it lets you KNOW. The flashing bug icon and the text message isn't enough. Oh, no. Let's scare the shit out of you by making a weird-bug-like-buzzing sound, just to get your attention. Spyware is a scary business, after all. Reminds me of that horrible blurting beep we used to hear when Carmel Anti-Virus found a virus in a computer, back there in the early nineties.
   
   
6. Computer Fan, Malfunctioning: Here you have your choice between numerous variations of annoying sounds. It can be a rattle of a broken fan, a high-pitch whine or just a plain hum that can drive you up the wallpaper. Sure, today there are many silent fans. Sure, I'll get some when I buy a new computer. In the mean time, I'll just keep the work-room door closed, just in order to avoid losing my sanity.
   
   
7. The Windows Critical Stop (AKA chord.wav and Asterisk): For me, this is the top of the list. The winner. The absolute peak. The undefeated champion of all the years to come. That was the sound of death. The sound of a program crashing. The sound of error and despair. And if you ever had Windows 95, you heard it all the fucking time. Nothing can beat that. Well done, Bill! You are the winner again!!!