“Installation Failed” Fix for WordPress 2.8 Upgrade

Bits Of Code, Oddities, Personal, Software 9 Comments »

Great news today that WordPress 2.8 “Baker” is available to upgrade for my blog. I am running a few WordPress blogs that were currently at version 2.7 so took the plunge to upgrade and noticed a few problems along the way. The following is summary of the problems I faced and the work around I used to fix it.

Please note this fix worked for me on 2 upgrades but does not promise a fix for your own problem, these tips may help you but do so at your own risk! Before proceeding with any of the following please back up your site and database!

The Problem

On previous occasions I used the easy”upgrade automatically” button option with no problem but this time around I kept getting this error in the below image:
Installation-Failed-Wordpress2.8

I then de-activated all plugins and re-tried the auto upgrade but still got the same error as the above image, this was not making any sense to me so I searched through the WordPress Forum querying terms such as: Installation Failed, Could not copy file, upgrade failed etc. There was one interesting reply on this thread http://wordpress.org/support/topic/277858?replies=10 that suggested accessing your database using phpMyAdmin and repair your tables.

The Fix

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Backup, Backup, Backup!

Humour, Oddities, Personal, Rants 4 Comments »

backup back up backup

My Dell Inspiron 1720 Laptop recently was me giving trouble where by it started to hang for no apparent reason. One minute I’d be working away contently with very few applications running, next “Bang!” it would freeze with a constant (Vista) spinning icon and a screen that turned opaque white. Nothing I could do to rectify it only to wait… and wait… and wait… by running Windows Task Manager I noticed the CPU Usage was running at a near constant 90% all the time which was pretty high. I tried all sorts of tips from registry defrag to killing unnecessary startup processes even being suspect of Firefox sucking up resources but no luck to be had.

It finally ground to a halt and would not boot up so with the laptop still in warranty I called Dell to arrange a repair, strangely enough they sent out a repair tech a few days later who discovered the problem was a screwed up motherboard which was replaced. It was also recommended that I format my hard drive and re-install Windows (Bloody) Vista. At this point I decided to back up my laptop data to an external hard drive via USB. I left it transferring all files overnight and presumed all was ok with no error messages that anything went wrong with the transfer, having backed up I was happy to prepare for formatting the drive and re-installing.

Dell arranged a phone call and a talk through of the reinstall. All went well and at last the laptop is back to peak performance so tonight it was time to hook up my external drive and transfer my stuff back . BUMP! nothing there! yes there was a c: drive backed up with full windows directory etc. but no “My Music” – “My Videos” and worst of all no “My Pictures” aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!

No pictures!!!  over a years worth of photos… nowhere to be found. Family snaps, birthdays, events, creative pics… all gone… thank f**k I had uploaded a few of those pics to my flickr account…. and all for the sake of a couple of backup DVD’s!

Lesson learned? shit happens… (note to self)  from now on always check an test your Back Up, Back Up, Back Up!

Popularity: 8% [?]

CERN Large Hadron Collider – Explained in 3 minutes

Humour, Oddities, Personal, Videos No Comments »

First beam of the Large Hadron Collider

[MEDIA=1]

(via CERN)

Geneva, 10 September 2008. The first beam in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator at 10h28 this morning. This historic event marks a key moment in the transition from over two decades of preparation to a new era of scientific discovery.

Large Hadron Collider – Simpler Explanation


Popularity: 13% [?]

3V.ie Online Account Security Weakness – Beware!

Oddities, Personal, Rants 5 Comments »
Image via payzone.ie

Image via payzone.ie

I may have identified a possible security weakness with the 3V.ie (online customer account) service. This occurred recently while trying to retrieve my own 3V account details, this weakness would allow any person with prior knowledge that you have a 3V account coupled with your mobile phone number to access your 3V “Online Customer Service” browse your balance & purchase history etc. Here is a summary of user tasks taken from their website:

Online Customer Service

Sign on to the new Online Customer Service section of this 3V website using your email address and personal password to:

  • Receive again the security details for any Voucher.
  • Check the balance and transaction history on your 3V Vouchers.
  • Redeem money left on your 3V Vouchers to your bank account.
  • Transfer money from one Voucher to another Voucher.
  • Request a replacement 3V Customer Card.
  • Update your personal details or password.
  • Change how you receive the security details when you buy a 3V Voucher.

You can also find the balance and transaction history for any 3V Vouchers quickly by clicking on the View Transaction History link on the left hand side of this page.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Google: I Want Your Soul – Food for thought?

Oddities, Videos, YouTube No Comments »
YouTube Preview Image

Popularity: 12% [?]

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