Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Wordpress, WP-Ecommerce, and fatal memory errors

One of my clients runs a modest sales site...

(cough! shamlessly promoting bathroomonkey.com! cough!)

...and today was apparently upgraded Wednesday. Both Wordpress (3.1.2) and WP-ecommerce (3.8.2) needed to be updated.

Problem 1: The Wordpress failed with "Fatal error: Allowed memory size of...".


I tried the php.ini trick (it had worked for me in the past - you just make a file named php.ini and put one line: "memory_limit = 64M", and then upload it to the root folder and wp-admin.). No dice this time.


Then I stumbled upon the plugin "Memory Bump". It was written for 3.0 but, long story short, it worked for 3.1.2 as well. Just install the plugin, disable all other plugins, and it worked like a charm. Last step (naturally) is to disable Memory Bump and re-enable your other plugins.


Problem 2: WP-ecommerce upgraded, but woulnt't activate.

This was a nail-biter for me, because at this point the client's site was up, but no products were showing.

Finally I found "The Miracle's" solution here:
http://www.gagugo.com/themiracle/updating-to-e-commerce-v3-8-errors-resolutions

Even the developer's support forum didn't have a solution, so I really have to give props to her/him for taking the time to post this. Especially since the blog appears to be mostly about music!

Monday, April 04, 2011

Write! Sing! Draw! Dance! NOW. You can do it!

There are so many reasons why I like Indexed. Today's post is just another example.


 Robert Fulgham wrote a great piece (OK, I happen to think he's written *a lot* of great pieces) on creativity and how limited we believe we are as we get older. You can find it here (not Mr. Fulgham's site, but the quickest link I could find), but here's one of the relevant parts:

Ask a kindergarten class, “How many of you can draw?” and all hands shoot up. Yes, of course we can draw—all of us. What can you draw? Anything! How about a dog eating a fire truck in a jungle? Sure! How big you want it?

How many of you can sing? All hands. Of course we sing! What can you sing? Anything! What if you don't know the words? No problem, we make them up. Let's sing! Now? Why not!

How many of you dance? Unanimous again. What kind of music do you like to dance to? Any kind! Let's dance! Now? Sure, why not?

Do you like to act in plays? Yes! Do you play musical instruments? Yes! Do you write poetry? Yes! Can you read and write and count? Yes! We're learning that stuff now.

Their answer is Yes! Over and over again, Yes! The children are confident in spirit, infinite in resources, and eager to learn. Everything is still possible.

Try those same questions on a college audience. A small percentage of the students will raise their hands when asked if they draw or dance or sing or paint or act or play an instrument. Not infrequently, those who do raise their hands will want to qualify their response with their limitations: “I only play piano, I only draw horses, I only dance to rock and roll, I only sing in the shower.”

When asked why the limitations, college students answer they do not have talent, are not majoring in the subject, or have not done any of these things since about third grade, or worse, that they are embarrassed for others to see them sing or dance or act. You can imagine the response to the same questions asked of an older audience. The answer: No, none of the above.

What went wrong between kindergarten and college?

What happened to YES! of course I can?
What happened indeed? Tell you what. If you promise to start creating, I promise to be excited and supportive and unjudgemental.

Go ahead. I'll watch.