Author: Leonid Mamchenkov

Religious programming

Here is a snippet of discussion I had with a colleague today.  I thought it was funny:

[2:59 PM] Him: this is your prob:
[2:59 PM] * Him sent file IMG_04092012_145925.png.
[2:59 PM] Him: “&” is not valid char in xml
[3:00 PM] Me: hmm
[3:00 PM] Me: how do you know? :)
[3:00 PM] Him: i prayed to the lord and he showed me the way
[3:00 PM] Him: you didn’t, right?
[3:01 PM] Me: I have a different lord apparently :)
[3:01 PM] Him: your lord is not a programmer!
[3:01 PM] Me: no, my lord can parse & in xml just fine … your lord is a pussy :)
[3:02 PM] Him: lol!!

Major Linux Problems or Why Linux is not (yet) Ready for the Desktop, 2012 edition

Major Linux Problems or Why Linux is not (yet) Ready for the Desktop, 2012 edition

Every operating system has its problems.  Some things work better than in others, some do worse.  Here is an interesting (and very up-to-date) overview of the problems in the Linux space.  The good thing about it is that it’s not just bashing Linux over Windows or Mac and it doesn’tjust wine about minor things here and there.  There are issues all over, some are being worked on, and some are not, for a variety of reasons.  But just knowning these issues is already a good start in fixing them.

Estimating sunset time with your hand

I came across this handy tip over at Lifehacker website.  I think that’s pretty useful for outdoor photography, when camera people want to some of the best sky colors.

All you need to do is extend the hand full and count the number of finger width distances between the sun and the horizon.  Each finger is approximately 15 minutes, which means each hand is about an hour.  This is of course just an approximation, but it’s always better to have an approximation than nothing at all.  Enjoy.

Solution to WordPress with WP Super Cache blank pages problem

This took me a while to figure out, so I’ll post it here in case someone else ever gets into this problem.  After enabling WP Super Cache for a project at work, we’ve started seeing really weird and really random white page issues.  WordPress would show a blank page and then a few minutes later it would start working again.  But then it would disappear and so on and so forth.

Tracking the issue down, I’ve tweaked the WP Super Cache configuration quite a bit, but that didn’t help.  And I was sure that it was related to WP Super Cache, since periods of appearing and disappearing were consistent with cache timeout settings.  Browsing through WordPress support forums (threads one, two, and three) game an idea that it wasn’t just WP Super Cache on its own, but a combination of WP Super Cache plugin with something else on the system.

After a lengthy troubleshooting process, I think I nailed it.  APC – an alternative PHP cache module – wasn’t friendly with WP Super Cache.  So, as a short-term solution to the problem, I’ve disabled the APC and now everything seems to work well.  I’m a bit busy now to troubleshoot the problem further, but if you have any idea of why that could be happening, please share.