The Future of Simplify Media
So back around March of last year (2010), Simplify Media announced that it would be pulling it’s desktop and iPhone apps from the market and the company would be moving in a new direction (not yet disclosed at the time of the announcement). I recently came across the news that Simplify Media was purchased by none other than Google! Sounds like a dream come true right? Well, not for me! Although Google is a huge proponent for free/open source goodies, they have one huge strike against them in my book…….They don’t play well with Apple anymore! As excited as I am to hear Simplify Media gain the financial and marketing power of the great and powerful Google Machine, I also fear that the initial cross-platform direction Simplify Media had will go the wayside as far as mobile implementation goes. Since Google’s Android is now a direct competitor with Apple’s iOS, we may see cross platform at the desktop tier, but only the release of an official Android at in the mobile market. I guess we will see exactly how NICE Google can play in honor of keeping things open! Regardless, I can’t wait to see what Google does with a product that was already great!
-Phenix
Status Update!
Hello all, I know it’s been a while! I’m up on my feet here in Atlanta, and life is good! So much has been going on lately I almost don’t know where to start. Here’s a few big highlights:
- Hosting news
- Server was successfully migrated from Valdosta to Atlanta
- After a Hard Drive failure the server was successfully restored to new hardware (no data loss occurred)
- New Hardware:
- The WebRoot sites are running on a single Apple Xserve G4 with plans to extend to 2 nodes once I procure another license for OS X Server 10.5 and a decent NAS for shared storage (2nd Xserve already on hand!).
- New Hardware:
- The WebRoot mail services have been migrated off of OS X Mail Server and onto an Ubuntu Server running Zimbra. I will hopefully make a 3 part series on the implementation and migration, but for now just know that it’s running a lot smoother and is more easily managed!
- Site News
- I am closer to being finished with the new custom theme ( a few set backs with some of my code and the release of WP 3.x)
- I have decided to drop the WPMU setup in favor of a standard WP single player site.
- I will permanently move the site to http://thephenixblue.com once the new theme is ready.
- I am in the process of procuring additional writers so we have new posts all the time!
- Other News
- I have decommissioned a few sites I used to have (vsumug.com and vsumug.org) due to lack of interest.
- I have a new site planned (domain purchased), and I am in search of someone to do the graphics work for it. More details will come soon.
That’s about it for now! I will try to be better about churning out new content.
-Phenix
Again from the Ashes…
Let me start off by apologizing for the outright disregard to produce any content at all on this site in the past months! I follow hat up by saying….There’s a great reason why! Once again the Phenix will be rising from the ashes and spreading it’s new wings, this time in the form of a relocation and a change in occupation. Yes….you heard me correct, I am moving this weekend to the wonderful city of Dunwoody, GA to begin a new career as a Unix SME (Subject Matter Expert) with Global Payments, Inc. I won’t bore all of you with the details of why this move came about, but rest assured it something that myself and my career desperately needed. This move also means that sometime in the near future I will need to migrate “The WebRoot” (the server which hosts all of my wonderful sites). It will more than likely be a weekend between now and April 18th and hopefully will only be down for 48 hours max. As I do not yet have Internet Service at my new place, I will not be quite as “connected” as I have been in the past several years. I will be reachable via my cell, GV, and e-mail. I will probably be searching for a Starbucks or McDonalds with free WiFi to satiate my need for the internetz in the meantime, but access will be limited. For any of you in the Atlanta area, please give me a call and hang out, as I am sure I will be extremely lonely! That’s it for now, I’ll try to post an update once I am settled in Dunwoody!
Theatrical Limitations
Over the years I’ve seen too many movies for my own good. I started movie going at the ripe age of 3 or 4. My Mothers first job after my prents divorce was at the local theater in Moultrie. She was blessed with the ability to take me to work with her, place me in a seat in the back of the theater, and leave me be (coming in often to check on me of course!). Over the years, the “Moultrie Twin,” as it was called, became a second home to me. I watched virtually every movie that came through there (many multiple times) until I went off to college. Even now, I enjoy spending a lazy day doing nothing but watching movies. Netflix has been the bane of my productivity!
Anyways, the point of this is……I’ve seen a lot of movies! Through watching so many movies, I’ve become quite desensitized to violence, vulgarity, and outright debauchery. From rude and lude comedies, gory and gruesome horror flicks, and over the top violent action films, I’ve seen it all. I found myself in the last 4-5 years honing in on a specific niche of films that would make most folks vomit! I used the general terminology, “Fucked Up!” to describe such films. Most fall into the genre of Psychological Thrillers, but many also wiggle themselves into movies that cover other genres, sometimes feigning the appearance of a “NORMAL” movie! I’m not some ethically vacant, demoralized, sadistic, psychotic, heathen (I know that’s what you were thinking!), I enjoy these movies for one main reason. I believe the cinema of today has sold out.
Too many studios, directors, producers, etc. are trying to make movies that reach every audience form the cradle to the grave. The wider the audience, the more money can be made! Like most forms of art, when the all mighty dollar takes over, the true creativity ceases to exist. I tend to really appreciate the filmmakers that don’t care if anyone watches their movie, let alone actually enjoys it, but rather makes the movie because they want to. The people who don’t chisel away and rewrite to please “The Man” and his “little dog fluffy”! Very few of these people exist, and even fewer in America. These movies tend to affect the viewer more than a mainstream film, some even beyond the normal emotions of happiness or tears. Many of the movies I watch propose outlandish situations and inspire a realm of thought that most mortals will hopefully never have to experience. These movies penetrate one’s emotional core, their sense of being, and provoke the viewer to become completely enthralled within the surreal. Those movies that keep you up at night and inspire thoughts of the “Boogie Man!”
One filmmaker whom I’ve come to appreciate is Rob Zombie. He really pushes the limits on humanity. I really enjoy “The Devil’s Rejects.” Here’s a brief list of movies that I think fit into this category (off the top of my head, not meant to be my favorites, or anything like that):
That’s a few to start your voyage into the truly “Fucked Up” cinema. Now, just when I thought there wasn’t a movie that could really get under my skin, I took the liberty of proving myself wrong today. I decided to come home from work and watch a movie I had recently added to my Netflix Instant Watch Queue. The name of said movie: The Girl Next Door. When I came across this film, I had the idea of a twisted Cinderella tale. Then I saw it was set in the 1950’s. This movie is far from “Leave it to Beaver!” I can honestly say, that for some reason, it was extremely hard for me to make it through this movie. Many of my friends have said the same about films they’ve sat in with me on, but they never fazed me one bit. I’m not sure exactly what it was that made me cringe. Maybe it was the fact that it’s based on true events, or the fact that it was children, or maybe even just the fact that people stood by and watched it as if it were a game. Anyway, I will watch this movie one more time, only with a few others (I’d love to see how you may react!). If you’ve seen this movie already, I welcome your thoughts and comments, as well as any you may have for any other movies you would add to the “Fucked Up” list.
-Phenix
ZebluePrime Gets New Digs!!!
So ZebluePrime got new digs last night…….errr maybe he just washed them really! I helped him setup his own domain (zeblueprime.com) to get him off of a sub-domain i let him borrow (previously evan.phenixblue.com). Along with the domain setup there were a few changes to make within his wordpress install to make everything go smooth.
I try to keep a directory structure similar to this within my webroot:
WEBROOT/
/domain1.com
/domain2.com
/domain2.com/sub1.domain.com
/domain2.com/sub2.domain.com
/*********************DISCLAIMER***********************************/
PLEASE BACKUP YOUR DATABASE AND FILES BEFORE PERFORMING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING!!!
Step 1: Migrate files from old sub-domain to new domain directory
- Create new directory
#sudo mkdir /WEBROOT/zeblueprime.com- Change to old directory
#cd /WEBROOT/phenixblue.com/evan.phenixblue.com/- Copy files from old dir to new dir
#sudo cp -R * ../../zeblueprime.com/- Change to new directory, verify your files (including .htaccess) exist, and have proper permissions and ownership
#cd ../../zeblueprime.com/
#ls -laNOTE: I also moved Zeblue to a new MySQL DB to keep up with the naming conventions I use for DB’s (Migrating to a new DB is outside of the scope of this post)
Step 2: Update url information within the Database (all DB edits performed via phpMyAdmin)
- Update Site and Blog URL
Within the “wp_options” table, change the “option_values” for the following “option_name” rows
“siteurl” - change to: http://zeblueprime.com/
“home” – change to: http://zeblueprime.com/
- Update file upload url
Within the “wp_options” table, change the following “option_value” where “option_name” is “upload_path” to
/WEBROOT/zeblue.com/wp/wp-content/uploads
- Update Post URL’s
Run the following SQL
UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = REPLACE ( guid, 'http://evan.phenixblue.com', 'http://zeblueprime.com');
- Update URL’s within your Post’s content
Run the following SQL
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE ( post_content, 'http://evan.phenixblue.com', 'http://zeblueprime.com');
Step 3: Verify your site works
Navigate to your site in a web browser and verify your page. post, tag, category, etc. links work (I normally test a few, and then assume they all work!). Also log into the admin interface and navigate through a few menus.
This should conclude all of the required modifications to change the domain of your WP install. This is by no means the only way to do it, just the way I chose to. You can also check out the Wordpress Codex for other options.
P.S. I typed up all of this after the fact, so some of the commands may not be perfect, and there’s the slight chance I may have skipped a step, but most will be able read between the lines!
-Phenix
