WordPress Has Gone Bonkers
What have WordPress done with their new version?
Two days ago, everything was working fine. In the last couple of years since the death of my wife and son, I have put nearly 4,000 posts into this blog. I have uploaded 3,500 images and a few videos and I have had virtually no issues at all.
Nearly, all of these posts have been on the same Compaq 6720s running Vista and Internet Explorer 8, that I have used since I bought it about four years ago. The few that weren’t posted in that way, have been posted in various Internet cafes on my travels.
As to the computer, it is a totally normal machine, with little added software, except mainly stuff that I’ve written myself.
So what has gone wrong?
Creating a Post
To create a post, I can get the Add New Post fine enough, but unless I switch from Visual mode to HTML mode and back again, I can’t type in anything meaningful.
Jumbled Tool Bars
The tool bars at the top of the window where I’m typing this, have got totally jumbled. The order at the moment is bold, ordered list, centre, italic, blockquote, spell check and so on. I said at the moment, as if you move the cursor over them, they all change. I did a video of it here. I would put a link on the word here, but I have no working link icon!
Editing Posts
I always edit in Visual mode, as I like to see what I’m getting. But to get that, I need to switch from Visual mode to HTML mode and back again.
Uploading Images
I can upload images to the media library, but that is all. I can’t put them into posts though, as after clicking insert Post, I just get a window showing Add Image with a X close button. If I close it to continue, the image disappears, although it is still in the Media Library.
If I use my Windows Iconia tablet computer running IE8, I can move the picture from the Media Library to the post, but that computer is only a toy with a small screen. I’ve also had a stroke and my hands aren’t good and find operating it difficult.
Inserting Links
I can’t do this in Visual mode, but I can in HTML mode. but as I said I prefer to work in Visual mode.
So what have I done to try to clear the problems.
I have put a few posts in the forums, and I have done some of what has been suggested like clear the cache and cookies. Others have been arrogant enough to suggest that I change browser. But then I can’t do that as I’ve written software that uses IE and I won’t be able to demonstrate that anymore.
I should say that no other software or web site is causing me any grief, but it does strike me that I might have caught some weird virus, athough scans run clear.
It’s all very puzzling.
I’ve just added this on another machine.
WordPress Going Bonkers
Look at this video of trying to edit a post on WordPress.
Every time, I move the cursor from icon to icon, the icon changes.
Is that a feature or a benefit?
If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It!
I have used WordPress for many years and their latest upgrade is so full of bugs, you could show it in the insect house at the London Zoo.
It has meant that I can’t upload any pictures to the blog and creating a new post is a real study of perseverance.
If you edit a post, the post or the toolbars don’t appear unless you switch to HTML mode and then back to Visual. These toolbars can’t seem to get their icons right and if you move the cursor over them, the function changes.
Links can’t be setup in Visual mode, but you can do them in HTML mode.
When they coined the name software, it could have been made for this version of WordPress. It’s not just soft, but very very soft!
It’s all total crap to what it was.
My Local Bus Stop
My local stop is just around the corner and has buses that go everywhere, as this picture shows.
Mildmay Park (Balls Pond Road) Spider Map
Note that the actual spider maps, like this one have more information than their equivalent on the web.
The stop also has a Next Bus Information Number.
Next Bus Information Number
Note in the picture, the local street map.
The stop also has a Next Bus Display.
Next Bus Display
I wonder how long we’ll keep it though, as for many people the text message system will be better.
It is too much to expect all stops to be to this standard, but all important ones should have all the information, travellers might need.
I’m using the system in several ways now.
- I often check before I leave home when the next bus is due, to avoid waiting in the cold, say when I have an early train out of Kings Cross.
- If I’m expecting a visitor, I often ask them to text from say The Angel and then I can be at the appropriate stop to meet them.
- If a suitable bus doesn’t appear imminent, then I might change plan and say walk to Daldston Junction.
The only prediction is that these systems will get better and better. You might for instance text the number with say Euston attached to find the quickest way to get to that station. And I still haven’t brought up the subject of a smart phone. But then who needs one, for this purpose, if you have a smart text messaging system.
Suppose to find your way home in London, all you needed to do was text the stop code like 59415, followed by your post code to 87287. You would then be sent instructions on which bus to catch and where to change to get home.
As children, my friends and myself would wander all over London on Red Rovers. Children probably don’t do that now! But it was great fun. Being able to text to get you to your home, could make it safer.
Zopa in the Sunday Times
Zopa is featured in an article in the Sunday Times today called “Become a Lender and Earn 15 %”.
Two statements about Zopa stand-out.
Zopa has provided £160m-worth of unsecured loans to consumers since it was launched in 2005 and accounts for more than 2% of such new lending.
If that is true, then they have become a significant player in the personal lending market. I checked with Zopa and they told me that it’s between one and two percent and sometimes up to the higher limit.
And.
Zopa said its default rate is 0.9% against an average 5% to 7% for high street banks.
I would go along with that as my default rate has not been at all high. In fact it’s significantly less than 0.9%.
BT Broadband/Vision and Virgin Media Compared
When I first moved, I went the Virgin Media route and subscribed to Sky Sports 1 and 2.
A couple of months ago, I threw the cable out, as Virgin Media couldn’t give me a working landline telephone.
I now have BT broadband, with which I use BT Vision to get the same Sky channels.
I don’t regret the changes one bit.
- BT is much cheaper. Not sure totally how much, as I haven’t had a bill with all my landline calls. It looks like it might be about £70 compared to £130 for Virgin.
- The BT service appears to be more reliable. Virgin cable seemed to go up and down like a whore’s drawers. Perhaps this was partly due to the state of their boxes in the street, which had had the doors removed.
- Since I signed up with BT, I think I’ve only had one spam e-mail or leaflet in the mail. Virgin still keep sending them, although in the last week, they seem to have stopped. Perhaps, they’ve got the message.
- With BT, if I lose broadband, I still have the TV without Sky through Freeview.
- I know this is personal taste, but I think the BT website is easier to use. The login is certainly better.
So bye-bye Virgin and never may you grace my door again.
I suspect though it will be all irrevelant in the future, who your broadband supplier is. You’ll get all your TV channels other than the free-to-air ones on subscription of some sort through it.
I suspect too, that you’ll be able to subscribe to advert-free versions of things like Sky. At a premium of course.
Banks and Trusteer
There was an article in The Times last Saturday talking about how some banks ask you to load software called Trusteer on your computer to protect yourself.
I won’t! And if my bank insists I do, there are plenty more other banks out there.
Just having the software on your machine, is an indication, that you may have secure data there.
All of my secure work is done on a machine, which is unattached to my network and nothing is written down, that would be any use to a criminal. That is unless he could find where my passwords are stored in my safe deposit box with C’s jewellery. And that is ten miles from where I live!
I’m not saying that I know more about security than banks, but I mistrust deals like this, especially, where keylogging is involved. The banks should follow Zopa’s lead and create an unbreakable and totally secure login, that is impossible for a criminal to use, as unless he is a mind reader, he won’t know answers to the questions they ask.
Masterseek Business Directory
I’ve had 52 e-mails from a group of spammers called the Masterseek Business Directory in the last 24 hours. They want me to pay $149, so that my web sites go in their business directory. There is an unsubscribe link, but I suspect that using it will just verify that the e-mail address was correct.
There is some more about this group of idiots here. He uses the well known advice concerning barge poles.
I have deleted them all.
The Zopa Login
Adnmittedly, I know the people at Zopa well, but is there a financial site, that has such a simple, foolproof and I think secure, login. All you need to remember is your e-mail address and password and know the answers to a set of personal questions, whose answers, most people would know about themselves.
So what would happen if you someone broke my login? They might find out how much I had invested, but they wouldn’t be able to withdraw any money without first setting up a link to their bank account and then authorising the link. Not something that is easily done without leaving a trail of evidence. I suspect too, that alarms would ring at Zopa.
Everybody, who designs a secure login could do no better, than build on the excellent work Zopa has done.
The Daily Express Annoys Their Jewish and Muslim Readers
According to the BBC this morning, the Express is giving away a voucher for a free gammon steak today.
I would link to the Express, but as when you access that website, it opens another window selling the viewer something he or she doesn’t want, I won’t. I wonder how many others hate that practice with as much venom as I do?
I did find the details on the excellent Money Saving Expert website. Here is what you get.
Just spotted the add in todays paper
Weekday paper is 45p, Saturday 70p, Sunday £1
Get from Budgens & Londis
Saturday – Gammon Steaks
Monday – Crumpets
Tuesday – Natural Yoghurt
Wednesday – Pack of Wagon Wheels
Thursday – Ocean Spray Cranberry & Blueberry Drink
Friday – Quaker Porridge Oats
What a wonderfully balanced diet! Especially for a coeliac like me. Cranberries are also banned if you’re on Warfarin.
They didn’t mention that you could tear the newspaper into squares and use it for toilet paper.
The Anonymous Widower 