Category: Uncategorized

About two years ago I switched my web host to HostGator. HostGator is really cheap initially, so I got a 3-year intro deal that was pretty amazing for essentially unlimited shared web hosting. It was unlimited enough that even Jeb got in on it and we host under the same account now.

It had been over a year since I had last updated the Mediawiki software that runs the Flashlight Wiki and Mediawiki makes it a pain to do an update by having to manually copy files, updates extensions and skins, and maybe update the main configuration file (whereas with WordPress you just push a button in the dashboard). So I was running version 1.30 of Mediawiki and now they had released 1.34. I downloaded 1.34, figured out which extensions I needed that weren’t included in the standard installation, downloaded those, pared down the skins that didn’t seem to be supported anymore and then copied over my images and settings file. Tried it out and it said Mediawiki requires PHP version 7.2.9 and I was running 7.1. PHP is something installed by the webhost, not the end user, so that means HostGator. In my HostGator control panel, I can choose which version of PHP I want to run, but my only choices were the default of 5.6 or 7.0 or 7.1. Their technical support information said you should be able to choose 7.2, but I didn’t see that as a pick.
Continue reading “Hostgator, Mediawiki, and PHP”

When I got my first Android phone a couple of years ago, I wound up using an app called Writer Plus to keep track of my notes. It is pretty simple, but allows use of folders to keep things organized and some formatting using markdown. I was able to use an app called Dropsync to back up the text files to Dropbox (I think the Dropbox app does this now, but Dropsync works fine).

On Friday, I got a line on the screen of my fairly new phone that wouldn’t go away, and one way to troubleshoot that was to wipe the phone. So I backed up my notes folder to my SD card before wiping, but I forgot to back up my passwords file, an encrypted keepass file. Then of course I needed that file, but it seemed to be gone. That didn’t fix the screen (I hope it’s not from my homemade Clorox wipes), I sent it in under warranty (hopefully the will replace it since the glass cover over the camera is cracked too). I just had to move my SIM card and SD card over to the old phone and I was back in business pretty quickly.

It still bothered me to lose my passwords, so I looked on Dropbox to see if I had put a copy there. It turns out that the keepass file had been stored in my Notes folder which was backed up daily to Dropbox, so I actually had the latest file all along (not sure why the Find feature didn’t work, but maybe I was looking in the wrong place). Pretty clever of me to leave it there where it would be backed up, but it makes sense because I used to keep the passwords in an encrypted note on my iPod Touch, so it was note-related in a sense.

I first joined the Disney Movie Club in 2016, getting 5 Blu-rays for $1 and having to buy 3 more at full price. While I have been able to get a lot of other movies for $5.99 down to $1, Disney movie prices don’t usually go on very good sales (Black Friday being one of the few exceptions), but DMC lets you pay on average $7-9 per Blu-ray instead of the usual $18-25 at stores. And Disney has great movies with new ones coming out all the time including from Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel.

This week I cancelled my fourth membership and a couple of days later enrolled again, picking five more movies plus getting my first full price commitment for only $12 and my second for $20. That left me with one more commitment and the next day I pre-ordered Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker for $25 (doesn’t come out until March 31, plus it is temporarily marked down $5 for being new, and you can’t ever get Star Wars movies through an enrollment, only as a full price commitment). So that is 8 movies for $58 plus tax, less than $8 each on average.

More about the best way to join here.
Continue reading “DMC Enrollment 5”

I have been writing these for a while, so here goes . . .

I watched the Oscars last night. As far as the awards go, I think it played out mostly as expected for the main awards except that Parasite won Best Picture and Best Director instead of 1917 and Sam Mendes. Even that wasn’t terribly unexpected. I didn’t see Parasite. It started playing at my local theater in the last few weeks, but I didn’t get around to watching it. I’m not sure I like the idea of a foreign film winning best picture. I am sure there are a lot of movies made all over the world that are great, but if you can’t understand it in its native language, you are missing a lot, and I would hate to think that every best picture made in every year until this year was in English. Maybe just let the rest of the world have the foreign film category and people who want can explore from there. Federico Fellini won Best Foreign Language Film 4 times, but was never even nominated for Best Picture. Oscar nominates enough small movies already without opening it up to every small movie in the world, but it kind of looks like that is where things are headed. I’m not saying this because I don’t like or appreciate foreign films, just that I don’t see how foreign films can get a fair shake, even if they are allowed in to the category. Who is going to compare the best movie in Poland with the best movie in Brazil and decide if they are better than the best movie in America? Like I say, I haven’t seen Parasite, so maybe it really is that good, and the year seemed a little weak to me anyway. 1917 was my highest rated of seven movies I saw in the Best Picture category and it was number 7 on my Top 10.

Not having a host works fine. Steve Martin and Chris Rock did fine (not great) in the opening monologue as the non-hosts, and that was about all that job was anyway. The opening number was good despite Janelle Monae’s *two* wardrobe malfunctions right off the bat (a missed button in her blouse that she fixed, but she never did get her Mr. Rogers sweater buttoned). She recovered quickly and it was a very good way to start the broadcast. It was great seeing Brad Pitt get his first acting Oscar and even though it was only as a supporting actor. He was the best part of that movie.
Continue reading “The Oscars”

For years as I bought cheap flashlights and parts, mostly from China, I was amazed I could buy something for only a few dollars and get free shipping from China. eBay is the same way. I bought a phone case for $1.50 from China and got free shipping. Sometimes there were even stamps on the envelopes and I know shipping is never really free. I figured maybe the Chinese government was subsidizing Chinese businesses by giving them a special low rate in order to increase exports. It certainly was a nice benefit and made the 3 week wait a lot easier to take knowing I was getting a great deal.

In 2018 while the trade war with China was flaring up, there was a story about how you can buy things shipped from China for less than it would cost to ship the item in the United States (even if the item cost was nothing). The article I read at the time said there was an international organization called the Universal Postal Union that set rules on international shipments and its members (everyone) agreed that poor countries like China wouldn’t have to pay high shipping rates to developed countries, which is very progressive of them. So it wasn’t actually that China was subsidizing their businesses, but the United States Post Office that was losing money on the whole deal because they were taking in much less than the price of delivery on Chinese imports. Anyway, the Trump administration was saying this was an unfair system and they were going to withdraw from the UPU and start charging higher rates unless the UPU fixed the problem within a year. Economists seemed baffled at the time because it wasn’t a huge amount of money at stake, but it made sense to me.

It is more than a year since that happened. In the meantime the UPU held an emergency meeting and developed new rules. Whereas currently China pays 20-30% of US domestic shipping rates for items that come into our country, the new rules would allow countries to start charging more in 2021, eventually up to 70% of the domestic shipping rate. Big economies like the US could potentially start charging anything they want as early as July 2020. So maybe cheap goods from China are coming to an end. The US trade representatives touted the victory and said the United States would save $300 million per year. But like with a lot of the tariff stuff, what will really happen is those companies will start charging for shipping to the United States or increase the price of their goods. So the end user will actually pay. Though it makes more sense for me to pay for shipping of my flashlight parts than for the United States Postal Service to pay.