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After completing the move of The Sand Trap over to the same server that hosts this blog, I found that I was restarting Apache every few minutes - and that doing so gracefully wouldn't work.

Why? MaxClients in httpd.conf was set to only 10! I've bumped the setting to a more reasonable 150 or so. Also, log files are now supposed to rotate every 10 MB, though that's not happening accurately. Previously, they were set to rotate every 2 GB! Ouch.

I've written about my methods for "404 Searching" before, but due to the speed (or lack thereof) with which MovableType handled searches, I disabled the feature entirely.

WordPress is much lighter on it feet, or faster afoot, in many ways. I've been able to re-institute the 404 Search under WordPress without noticing much in the way of spiked server loads.

Almost every theme comes with a "404.php" file, which usually just has a "sorry, not found" message. I've modified mine and it is available here. It's grown a bit since its initial version, but most of the additions simply help to abort the script if the search is caused by a virus looking for IIS .dll files or something.

I've encountered some unusual issues with WP-Cache today. I'm using PHP 5.1.4 and MySQL 4.1.21 with WP-Cache 2.0.20 and WordPress 2.0.5. Gzipped content is disabled (Options -> Reading).

When I enable caching, cache files are created in wp-content/cache/, but the counters at the bottom of the WP-Cache Manager page always say "0" (cached pages, expired pages). I've even gone so far as to restore the default configuration. The "Delete cache" button removes the cache files. Permissions on the cached files are rw-r--r--.

I also never see a cached file. I'm always served dynamic content for some reason. This problem exists regardless of whether I have Daniel's modifications installed or not.

Folders have appropriate permissions, symlinks are properly set up, and the config has a cache as "TRUE" like it should. Yet two things are wrong: the counters don't count and cached pages aren't actually being served.

What gives? Any suggestions?

The Sand Trap will be moving DNS servers very soon. I put in the change late last night, and already this morning my own DNS has updated. The server has been running the forum database without any problems for a few days already, so hopefully it will go smoothly.

A bug in VLC isn't an Apple bug, meaning the "Month of Apple Bugs" lasted all of one freakin' day.

VLC is not an Apple product, it doesn't rely heavily on Apple frameworks, and it isn't even an app that runs only on Apple's OS. I have no idea how the "MoAB" folks could justify putting this bug second. What's to follow? A bug in Microsoft Vista because Parallels runs on Macs?

You know, it occurs to me that you could take "The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007." quite literally. Taken in such a plain light, Apple's recent little marketing stunt is nothing more than a statement of truth.

But Apple knows - and Apple knows that you know - that that's not how the stunt will be taken. In recent years, Apple has been flagged for "disappointing" expos, largely due to a rumor mill that kicks it into high gear shortly before expos. This high is almost never induced by Apple itself, but rather is a secondary side effect of speculation and desire, along with an itchy credit card finger.

Knowing this, Apple's recent little stunt could be taken in one of two ways: a) they know there's nothing they can do to quell the minds of the zany, so why not play into it? b) they truly believe that this is going to be one heck of a year.

I've grown tired of speculating. I've grown weary of watching every move Apple makes - or is rumored to make - but I still tune in to an IRC channel during keynotes. I've been mentally preparing for an iTV (whatever they end up calling it) purchase, and I would seriously consider dropping my RAZR for an Apple-branded phone if they ever come out with one… but I also don't really care one way or the other if they do. The spectacle, though, is another matter. 😀

I'm going to be writing a book this year with a friend. We'd like to write and maintain the book online (because we're likely to publish it that way), and we're looking for software to do it. We thought of using WordPress or another blogging tool, but we want to organize things by chapter, subchapter, etc. - not by date or category. We thought of writing our own tool, but even a basic one would take a day and that's a day I could spend doing something else. A wiki is probably overkill (plus we don't care for wikis) and LaTeX, though great for (some kinds of) books, simply isn't a good fit.

So, is there such a tool out there? We're not that worried about saving a record of changes (nightly database dumps can be automated, among other things) - just a simple-to-use tool that works really well for writing a book.

It shouldn't matter with a web-based tool, but I'm on a Mac and he's on a PC. The book will have a significant number of images, so we need something that supports simple image markup (HTML's img tag qualifies).

Inspired by Alex's post, here's a look at my blogging through the years.

                 2006     2005     2004     2003     2002
                 ----     ----    -----     ----     ----
Posts             560      940      993     1335       68
Comments         2832     4956     7104     5491        9
Ratio            5.06     5.27     7.15     4.11     0.13

Comments         2832     4956     7104     5491        9
My Comments       459      545      749      639        0
Ratio            0.16     0.11     0.11     0.12     0.00

Avg. Length       925      824     1023     1195     1836

Earlier this year I made a promise to - for the most part - not be on the computer during non-business-hours. Moving from 940 to 560 posts proves fairly well that I did that. Of course, that's down from 993 and 1335 when I was very heavily into posting about Mac-related topics.

Thanks to someone who will remain nameless (simply so he's not inundated with other annoying questions like my own), I found/replaced 1292 links in The Sand Trap's move to WordPress (and its new URL linking scheme).

In BBEdit, search for: ("http://thesandtrap[.]com/.+?)([.]php") and replace with: \1/".

If you're using Perl or PHP, the replacement is $1. The tricky part is using .+? instead of .+. .+? matches as little as possible, .+ matches as much as possible, so using .+ would match from the start of the first instance to the .php" of the final one. It's the sort of tricky thing that if you're only testing against a sample data file with one intended match, it seems to work OK. In the grand scheme of things, the minimally matching .+? and .*? features are relatively new inventions. Ten years ago patterns like this were harder.

I have a book on regular expressions, and as soon as I'm done reading an Aperture book I have, I plan to read it next. I've put off learning regex far too long.

Modern aperture settings are marked in the following sequence: f1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, and 64 etc. While the numbers may seem random, the fact is that each step is 1.414 times the previous step (1.414 is the square root of two).

Each f-stop represents a doubling or halving of the amount of light and comes as the square root of two - moving a light 1.4x further away halves the light, moving it 0.7x as far away doubles it.

Question: What is the single most important thing you learned in 2006?

My Answer: That my definition of "happy" was substantially shallower than I thought.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

A day or two ago I put together my studio package. I still may have a few pieces left to go (including an upgrade from the Canon DR XT to the XTi), but the main parts are in place. They include:

• The DigiBee setup from Alien Bees. This includes two B400 strobes, two umbrellas, two 10' stands, the necessary cords, the bags, etc.
• One RFT1 transmitter and two receivers to radio-trigger the strobes.
• A set of four honeycomb grids to narrow the beam down.
• A Wein Hot Shoe to PC Sync adapter that will let me use an on-camera flash and still trigger remote strobes.
• A Canon 430ex Speedlite with a Gary Fong Lightsphere.
• A pair of 2GB 133x Lexar Professional CF cards. After the mail-in rebate ($55 each, two max), each will cost about $30.

All that remains is the knowledge, which will be gained in testing, and some miscellaneous supplies like some backdrops (local fabric store), a small table (Wal-Mart), and the like. If I can find an extra little side job in the next month or two, I'll see about finally getting the BG-E3 battery grip.

Total cost, after a little negotiating and some promises: relatively inexpensive. My Christmas money and a small side project (about 15 hours of work) will cover it all with room to spare.

Thanks for those who offered their help in response to this post.

MediaTemple has released their (dv)3 package. Within the next week or so, the Plesk migration manager will enable customers to move their domains, but until then, this document informs you that:

Early adopters comfortable moving site files and databases between servers can immediately open a support request to have a new (dv) 3.0 service added to your account. Your new (dv) 3.0 service will be free for the first month (pro-ration charges may still apply) allowing plenty of time for you to migrate all your data and web applications from your old (dv) 2.0 Server to your new (dv) 3.0 Server.

The "automatic" upgrades are even further out - say, five to six weeks or more. Instead, I opted to upgrade MySQL and PHP on the server using this KBase article. All the sites seem to be doing well.

The Sand Trap will be moved over next week, transcoding from MovableType to WordPress in the process. The forum database has already been moved (vBulletin requires MySQL 4.0.16 and PHP 4.3.3 or later).

Ron and I ventured to Dobbins Landing tonight at about 7:15 to shoot the holiday lighting the city of Erie puts on the tower there. It was a good use of my evening, and I learned a fair amount. These photos are untouched except some moderate angle adjustments, cropping, and resizing. EXIF data follows each photo. All photos were shot with a Canon Digital Rebel XT, and all but the first were shot with the IS 28-135 USM lens. ISO 100 was used with every shot.

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I'm looking to put together a mini home photograhy studio in a corner of my basement. I'm imagining some cloths (white, black, and a dark green perhaps to start) that I can mount or drape over a 6-foot frame (three sides of a cube). I can construct a few soft lighting boxes pretty easily and set it on a table in the middle of this little studio for smaller objects. Two lights, two stands, an umbrella holder, and I'm just about set, I think.

I've read the articles at Strobist, and while I don't quite understand everything just yet, it's basically convinced me that I can get away with using simple shoe-type flashes to do what I need. I'd also gain some portability.

I still have my Digital Rebel XT, and for now, a tripod that will work just fine with it. But I need everything else. I'm not looking to break the bank, but I'm also not looking to take too many shortcuts or deal with cheaper equipment. I want something on which I won't hit my head for a long time.

The immediate use will be product shots for reviews done at The Sand Trap, but I'll probably mix in some photos of my family, items for sale on eBay, that sort of stuff. Golf bags are about the largest thing I'll photograph for awhile, but golf balls and other small items the smallest.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I don't know what lights to get, what umbrellas, what stands, where I might find suitable cloths (I assume a fabric store is fine), etc.