Jessie

WP-Cron, BackWPUp, and Apache Virtual Hosts

March 12, 2014 / Blog, Development

We were forced to switch hosts recently, and while setting up the new server, I ran into a really frustrating issue with wp-cron that had a stupidly simple fix.

Some background: I setup several virtual hosts with Apache that redirected based on the domain name. This is a fairly common setup for running multiple domains from a single server. To test, I modified my local hosts file to redirect the domains to the new server. The actual DNS record was still pointing to the old server until I had everything ready. This becomes important.

Everything seemed to be working correctly but when I’d run a BackWPUp job, nothing would happen. It would say the job was started, but it wouldn’t show me the job running page. It wouldn’t do anything.

Some searching seemed to indicate that this was related to wp-cron. And indeed, wp-cron was not running. Scheduled posts wouldn’t get posted. But none of my searches turned up anything. Wp-cron just wouldn’t run and there was no reason why.

Some digging showed that wp-cron wasn’t even in the access log. In the default setup, wp-cron gets called when someone visits your site. But it gets called via a callback to domain name/wp-cron. This means the server sends the request to the old server if you haven’t updated your DNS.

The stupidly simple fix? Add the virtual host domains to the /etc/hosts (or wherever, depending on your server) with the IP set to the local IP.* Boom. Everything works. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure this out.

*Alternatively, you can just update the DNS to point to the new server when you’ve hit this point.

Hollowed Out Book Kindle Case

June 26, 2012 / Crafts, Life, Projects

I love books, I love technology, and I love crafts. So I decided to bring my loves together by destroying a perfectly good book to make a case for my Kindle. Sorry, book.

Props to Ilona Andrews for inspiring this idea. She linked to someone on Etsy who was selling Kindle cases made out of old books. I decided that I could make one myself, and so the search for the perfect book began. I scoured Half Price Books for something on clearance. While I was confident I could make it, I decided that just in case I couldn’t, I probably shouldn’t experiment on an expensive book. It took a few tries, but I finally found The Perfect Book:

The Perfect Book — The right size, shape, and prettiness. Just look at that embossed hummingbird!

There are a few different sites offering step-by-step instructions on how to hollow out a book. I prefer How to Hollow Out a Book in 80 Easy Steps. It’s not as bad as it sounds, and there are lots of pictures. Armed with a list of supplies, Dustin and I headed out to Hobby Lobby. Where we promptly got into a sword fight:

Prepared for Battle — Doesn’t he look dangerous?

Take a moment to say goodbye to your book, then let out the little kid that lives inside of you. You get to cut up a book. For reals, yo. I had guilt for a couple seconds until I realized that destroying things is fun.

If you are planning to hollow out a book for a Kindle case, take careful measurements of your Kindle. I added a sixteenth of an inch to both the height and width measurement to ease getting the Kindle into the case. That, along with some “freestyle” cutting left plenty of extra room. Cut a few pages and then make sure your Kindle is going to fit in the hole. Don’t cut fifty pages and then realize it’s a quarter of an inch too narrow. I actually stuck to the “measure twice, cut once” rule this time, as opposed to the “eyeball it and cut several times” method I normally employ.

I deviated slightly from the 80 Easy Steps. I didn’t cut through all of the pages, because the book was thicker than the Kindle. I just cut through enough that the Kindle rested below the page level. And instead of cutting out the first page, I sliced it diagonally both directions and glued it down to smooth out the edges a bit, because my cutting may not have been the neatest. I also added a ribbon to help lift the Kindle out of its nest:

Hollowed Out Book Insides — Now my book looks like it is part of the X-Men. And that’s not a bad thing, right?

If you’ve done everything correctly, you’ll end up with something like the following when you add your Kindle:

The Kindle in the Book Case — Awww, isn’t it adorable?

We have two Kindles. The other one is our older Kindle Keyboard. It’s slightly bigger, so I thought we’d have trouble finding a book for it. Until Dustin came across this gem in the Half Price Books clearance bin:

I guess they didn’t have much to say on the topic of Nuclear Medicine in the 1970s, because it is a perfect half inch thick. And it was only a dollar. A dollar! For a unique Kindle Case. Hollowing it out is my next project.

What Do Patricia Briggs, Patrick Rothfuss, and Kim Harrison Have in Common?

March 7, 2011 / Life, Writing

So what do Patricia Briggs, Patrick Rothfuss, and Kim Harrison have in common? Give up?

Well, they all had the high honor of meeting me this past weekend. I know they must have been pretty excited, but they managed to play it cool and professional. I even let each of them scribble in some of my books. I’m awesome like that. :)

Dustin and I spent last weekend in Houston, or more specifically, at book signings at Murder By the Book, an independent Houston bookstore. We originally saw that Patrick Rothfuss was going to be there on Sunday, so we figured we’d pop over for the weekend and get our books signed. In a stroke of luck, both Patricia and Kim (am I the only one who feels weird calling famous people I’ve met once by their first names, like we’re pals now?) were signing on Saturday night, so we went over a little earlier and spent Saturday at Murder By the Book, too.

The turnout was crazy. The bookstore is fairly small, so if you go to any of their signings (and they have a ton!) make sure to get there early. We barely got a seat for Patricia and Kim and we arrived two hours early. For Patrick we arrived before the store opened on Sunday and there was already a line. They were expecting over six hundred people for his signing.

Overall, the bookstore was very nice. The staff was super awesome, even though I know they must have put in some crazy hours. If you’re in Houston, you should definitely check it out.

Here are a couple pics we took.

ArmadilloCon Wrap-up

August 31, 2010 / Life, Writing

As I mentioned in my previous post, this past weekend was ArmadilloCon here in Austin. After three days of hanging out with published authors, not-yet-published authors, and fans, I can definitely say this: These are my people and my people are weird. Falling into both the software engineering and writing worlds myself, I am somewhat of an authority on weird, so take my word for it. :)

Friday was the Writers’ Workshop. Before the workshop started, I sat and talked to Rachel Caine for probably ten minutes before I introduced myself. When she said her name was Rachel, it finally clicked on why she looked familiar–she was the guest of honor. I then had that “I’m sitting next to someone famous” moment, but she was very cool when I turned all fangirl on her for a couple minutes. I’ve read the first two books in her YA Morganville Vampire series and they were fun, fast reads.

The writers’ workshop was awesome. There were four other aspiring authors in my group, and the group was led by Gordon and Ilona Andrews. Gordon and Ilona are very nice, very cool people. They gave me great feedback on the story I submitted. Some of it was critical, but it’s what I needed to hear to be able to see the story through their eyes. They also said some very, very nice things about my ability, so that was awesome. I even got a mini shout-out on their blog. The Jessie in the second paragraph… totally me. ::dies::

Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday were mostly panels. I took a bunch of notes but haven’t even started to process everything yet. All I know is that my To Be Read list just got a whole lot longer. The con was smallish, but it was a nice size because it felt intimate, like a group of friends getting together to talk books. I guess I was basing my perspective on A-Kon, which is freaking huge, but I was expecting more people.

Sunday afternoon, thanks to the urging of the greatest husband on the planet, we got to hang out and have a drink with Gordon, Ilona, their friend Reece, and Stina Leicht (who also organized the workshop). I totally wouldn’t have went over to talk to Gordon without Dustin’s urging, because I never want to be “that girl” that bothers people. That fear coupled with my seriously introverted nature almost guarantees I avoid talking to strangers, almost-strangers, and especially almost-strangers-that-I-really-admire. However, Dustin talked me into it, and I compromised by saying I’d just go say thank you and then leave. A couple hours of chatting later, I realized it was getting late and we really should leave this time. It was amazing!

Terrified + Excited = Terricited?

August 4, 2010 / Writing

At the end of the month, I’m attending a writers’ workshop at ArmadilloCon with Whitney. I submitted a short story that barely squeaked under the 5,000 word limit. It was based on Day Thirteen of my Days of Genius. Thirteen is my lucky number. I think it helped me out.

When I emailed my submission, I very politely asked to be in a group with Whitney. Then, I ultra politely asked to be in a group led by one of my favorite authors, Ilona Andrews.

I was told that I might be able to be grouped with Whitney, but that all guest of honor groups were chosen by a jury process. I didn’t think anything of it and figured it hadn’t hurt to ask. At least Whitney and I might be grouped together.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email a couple days ago, letting me know I was in Ilona and Gordon’s group. I almost died. I don’t know if it’s because I asked politely or because my story was good (or bad?) enough, but I’m now a combination of excited and terrified.

I was already slightly worried about the critiques, as this will be my debut sharing my work with people who aren’t friends (or the few people who read the blog), but now an author whose writing I totally adore is going to be reading my story. Gah! ::breathes in a bag::

The good news is that I get to read the stories/first chapters of the four other people in my group. I’m super excited to see where their imagination takes mine, because the scifi/fantasy world is so varied.