This is post is about getting Wordpress to properly work with WAMP.

I often use WAMP , a full-featured web server with MySQL and PHP  and phpMyAdmin to test out website changes and development on my own machine – one of the best things out there for free.  When running Wordpress in WAMP, one of the features of Wordpress is using search-engine-friendly url’s. An example of how this url looks would be http://www.foo.com/this-is-my-latest-blog-post

However, WAMP out of the box will not word properly with this feature of Wordpress. Luckily, this is easily fixed.

0) Get Wordpress installed in WAMP – instructions for this are at wordpress.org, so I won’t repeat that here.

1) In wordpress, change the permalink setting to /%postname%/

2) In WAMP, make sure the apache module alias_module and rewrite_module are running.

3) If you are running multiple sites in WAMP, you’ll need to make sure that in the httpd-vhosts.conf file the Allow Override line is replaced with AllowOverride FileInfo Options.

4) That’s it! Restart WAMP and it should work.

I stopped in my local Best Buy in Windsor, ON, Canada, and they reduced their cd area to roughly two aisles. It previously was about four aisles. This eliminated around twelve thousand cd’s according to someone there.

What are they going to do with the extra space? They are going to display big screen tv’s with gaming systems, such as the Wii, Xbox, and PS3 to push more gaming systems. This appears to be Best Buy finally responding to trends, although it is a little sad to see.

I have decided I am unfollowing approximately 500 people this weekend on twitter. Do I want to? No – I don’t want to do this at all. I’ve had great conversations and banter via twitter with some of them, but certainly not all. Will I catch some fire for doing this? Probably.

Why

I am unfollowing the people that are not following me, even though I may like them. But more importantly:

• To those people, unless I am talking directly to them with @yourname they will never see what I say otherwise
• They will never retweet what I say because they will not even see it, unless the tweet is about them.
• If I’ve conversed with them and they still don’t feel it is worth following me then I don’t want to waste their time or mine
• It is a hassle to do this, so I need to do it as I go along
• This is social media, why not join the party?

What does this do for me?

I am trying to do the following with this announcement:

• I like retweeting. I like connecting people. This allows me to focus on connecting the people that are interested in hearing what I say. I may disappear in a sea of timelines that have multi-thousands of followers, but it still is a better chance than none.
• Prevent this. I haven’t done this yet, but am about to – so take the two seconds now and follow me here if you want to. By the way, follow my Facebook page here, by clicking on the “Like” button.
• I can also focus more on this website and also at http://windsor-financial-advisor.com
• I am hoping that I won’t have to unfollow as many people. Again, this is a pain to do.
• I hope to follow more people at the same time that will offset the ones I have unfollowed.
• This also forces me to focus my energies on people that are giving back to social media.

PS: the highest percentage of my non-followers list social media in their profile.

My Potted Vegetable Garden and Herbs – including Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Cucumbers.
Just wanted to see if I could grow anything! View to take the tour, lol.

I play drums, and love a good groove or something that burrows a place in my soul. That said, here are ten great grooves. I’m staying away from really well known songs in an effort to turn you on to some different music. 

In no certain order:

1) Fifteen Minutes of Fame - Michael Cartellone – Damn Yankees.
A cool rock groove with a touch of funk with the bass drum. Michael easily could have played it safer, but I’m so glad he didn’t.  I saw Michael live before, and he is ” energy”.  Last time I checked, he was touring with Skynyrd.

2) Gypsy Train – Jeff Porcaro – Toto
I know a lot of people associate Jeff with Rosanna, but there are a lot of other songs with Jeff on it that are also phenomenal. This was Jeff wearing his rock cap on Toto’s Kingdom of Desire.  To hear Jeff stretch out at the end

This was Jeff’s last release with Toto before he unexpectedly passed away.

3) Dream in Blue – Los Lobos This groove is so infectious, it spreads faster than swine flu.

4) Fashion Fever – Level 42 – Live at Wembly, and/or Running in the Family. My jaw dropped watching Phil Gould in Level 42’s Live at Wembly. His grooves have a lot going on, and if you are checking it out, make sure you get one of these two versions – there are a few versions out there. He is a king of sublety.

5) 6:00 - Dream Theater – Mike Portnoy
This song is well known to any Dream Theater fan, but hearing it for the first time really got me excited about drumming again. I had the pleasure to meet Mike at a DT concert in Pittsburgh.

6) Till The End - Jeff Porcaro – Toto
It’s just a fun groove to play. When this was released, this woke me up to a whole new level of Jeff. Add in some one handed rolls ending in rimshots, and you’ve got a fun time with the drumsticks.

7) Last Goodbye – Matt Johnson – Jeff Buckley
Matt is probably the most underrated guy out there, and he was quoted as saying that had he known how big the album Grace was, he would have spent more time on it. Not to worry, Matt, it is great as it is. His fills punctuate a very sharp groove. I really like his hi hat and bass drum work. This song is a fave among Jeff Buckley fans. A lot of people only know “Hallelujah”, but if so, you’re missing out on Jeff’s secret weapon.

No Surrender – Alan Jackman – The Outfield
A cool sixteeth note pulse with some creativity mixed with some great cymbal groovin. It feels magical somehow. This song really takes off on the creative chorus. It was recently announced that he rejoined the band after being away for several years. Looking forward to seeing what he comes up with again.

9) Operation – Bryan Holmes -The Producers
The entire You Make The Heat release in the eighties was a testament to Bryan Holmes’s playing creative drum riffs to very melodic songs. The whole drumset gets used in a pretty cool way, especially in this cut.

10) Friends, Lovers or Nothing – Steve Jordan – John Mayer
Steve closes the Battle Studies release in 2009 with this mid-tempo blues number. Great swingin groove, longer beatle-esque fills, and Steve being blues-pop Steve, which he does so well.

What are some of your own favorite hidden groove gems on drums?

I happened to find a pretty addictive site.  By now, a lot of people are familiar with the Google car that has a camera on a tripod, attached to the roof of the car.   The site contains photos of oddities and random things, but there is a lot to look at.  I finally had to pull myself away from  it, in fact.

As the Google Street View car passes by, it is constantly taking pictures (and until recently, collecting wireless information).  So… it is pretty obvious when you see this vehicle that you know what is going on.  It’s been through the city twice here.  It appears that even people in Portugal know what the vehicle is.  Keep on the lookout for the Google Street View bike – which I hadn’t known about before.

There are a ton of photos in this site’s collection.  There are photos of  people waving, people flipping off the camera, but the funniest ones are when people don’t notice the vehicle.  There are multiple photos of people caught urinating in bushes or alleys, photos of guys checking out women, a drug deal, a fight, and people pulled over by the police. There also is one of a very pregnant women smoking, and (believe it!) a mother holding her baby daughter above a storm sewer to go to the bathroom.  This collection is from all over the world, so that in itself is pretty interesting.   People can submit their own findings on Google Street View also.

Cool stuff.

http://www.streetviewfunny.com

I am taking a departure from tech talk to discuss the new Lifehouse cd, “Smoke & Mirrors“, which in my opinion, is an extension of the incredible musician-songwriter Jude Cole. Kiefer Sutherland is also connected in all this, which I will get to in a moment.

Jude Cole is known for the 90s hits, “baby it’s tonight”, “house full of reasons”, “compared to nothing”, “believe in you”, “worlds apart”, among others. Jude was always surrounding himself with the best talent, from Jeff Porcaro (Toto, Michael Jackson) to Pat Mastelloto on drums, and guest appearances by Tommy Shaw, Jack Blades and others. The production on his stuff was always great, and his mid-nineties stuff sounds as fresh as anything today, but without the squashed overcompressed sound.  Jude Cole’s most recent release of his own can be checked out here .

Jude’s footprint is seen all over this Lifehouse cd, “Smoke & Mirrors”. Guitars, keys, background vocals, and co-songwriting are all classic Jude, from the Led 7eppelin-like Nerve Damage to the dance rocker All In, it feels like you have blessed with a Jude Cole release. Also, you have Chris Daughtrey co-writing and singing backgrounds on a song “Had Enough” . Jason Wade does a great job, and the band has never sounded better.

So how does Kiefer Sutherland fit in? Jude and Kiefer are best friends, and Kiefer’s Strat always made an appearance on Jude’s stuff, and Kiefer does spoken word on a Jude Cole song called “Joe”. Kiefer named his daughter Sarah Jude.

Once Kiefer started making big bucks with the tv show 24, he partnered on a recording studio with Jude, Ironworks Recording Studio.

It is by far my favorite release for the year.

I read a really good book recently, and thought I would mention it. It is called Crush It, written by Gary Vaynerchuck. 

It is a really good read at approx 170 pages, and basically it was a “Here’s how I increased business by 10x by creating a personal brand, using blogging and social media.”    The author has close to a million followers on Twitter, and over a hundred thousand fans on his facebook fan page.  Based on that alone, it peaked my interest.  I went out and bought it at Chapters for $25.99, although it can be found on Amazon for less.

I read it in the span of two days, and I thought it was filled with great nuggets, as well as free tools and sites that worked for him. Sometimes it takes someone connecting the dots like this. There are ways I hadn’t thought of that can make all the difference in the world.  It gave me excellent ideas on some things, and it made an immediate difference.

If you are looking at building a personal brand, increasing your sales, blogging, or using social media at a corporate level (or individual level) – be sure to check it out.

One of the nicest stories I had heard in awhile…

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Buddy the German shepherd was hailed Friday as a hero for guiding Alaska State Troopers through winding back roads to a fire at his owners’ workshop.

“Buddy is an untrained dog who for some reason recognized the severity of the situation and acted valiantly in getting help for his family,” Col. Audie Holloway, head of the troopers, said Friday at a ceremony for the 5-year-old dog, who stood quietly before an adoring crowd.

Buddy, whose good deed was caught on a patrol car’s dashcam video, received a stainless steel dog bowl engraved with words of appreciation from troopers for his “diligence and assistance.”

Buddy also received a big rawhide bone, and his human family got a framed letter documenting his efforts.

“He’s my hero,” owner Ben Heinrichs said, his voice breaking. “If it wasn’t for him, we would have lost our house.”

The dashcam video shows Buddy meeting the trooper’s vehicle, then dashing to their property about 55 miles north of Anchorage on April 4.

Heinrichs said he was working on parts for his truck when a spark hit some gasoline and ignited, lighting his clothes ablaze. The 23-year-old man ran outside to stomp out the flames by rolling in the snow, closing the door to keep the blaze from spreading.

Heinrichs then realized Buddy was still inside the burning building and let the dog out. Heinrichs suffered minor burns on his face and second-degree burns on his left hand, which was still heavily bandaged Friday.

Buddy was not injured.

“I just took off running,” Heinrichs said. “I said we need to get help, and he just took off.”

Buddy ran into the nearby woods and onto Caswell Loop Road, where the dog encountered the trooper, Terrence Shanigan, whose global positioning device had failed while responding to a call about the fire. He was working with dispatchers to find the property in an area with about 75 miles of back roads.

Shanigan was about to make a wrong turn when he saw a shadow up the road. His vehicle lights caught Buddy at an intersection, and the dog eyed the trooper and began running down a side road.

“He wasn’t running from me, but was leading me,” he said. “I just felt like I was being led … it’s just one of those things that we’re thinking on the same page for that brief moment.”

The video shows Buddy occasionally looking back at the patrol car as he raced ahead, galloping around three turns before arriving in front of the blaze, which was very close to the Heinrichs’ home.

The workshop was destroyed and a shed was heavily damaged, but only some window trim on the house was scorched.

The Heinrich family said they knew Buddy was smart ever since they got him six weeks after he was born to a canine-officer mother and that he was brave, twice chasing bears away while Ben Heinrichs was fishing.

But saving their home beat them all.

“Downright amazing, I would say,” said Tom Heinrichs, Ben’s father. “Maybe there was some divine intervention.”

Associated Press, By RACHEL D’ORO , 04.23.10, 09:42 PM EDT

It’s a done deal – Google has announced they are now using site speed as one of its 200 signals used in deciding search results.  Apparently they have been doing it for a while for testing, and made the announcement today.

I think that the focus on the user experience is a good idea, but this may not be the best implementation, depending on how it is implemented . Who knows the weight among the 200 signals that site speed has?

A couple of things come to mind:

• There are several great gardening blogs out there, http://www.gardeningblog.net/  for example.  What makes them great?  Not only the writing – but all of the great pictures!  So is a blog that works to show lots of timeline growth photos is going to be penalized by some degree? It sure sounds that way.
• Are blogs in general going to be punished?  Think about any blog or journal out there. Most of them have a long home page – because it allows the user to scroll down and read several entries sequentially.  Guess what – they will have a longer load time.
• A lot of web sites now rely on outside sources for content – eg:  Youtube videos and RSS new feeds.  These can also slow down speed, but overall enhance the user experience.
• Your web host - some are faster than others, and you won’t really know until you try them.  I recently setup a site where I paid for a year upfront, and then learned after the fact that the web host is slower than I would like, even though they are a popular host company.
• Reliance on Google’s own tools on your site can also slow down site speed, such as Google Analytics,  and Google Adsense. So, it is unclear if allowances for their own toolset is taken into account.  I hope Google doesn’t hold our left hand and slaps our right hand.

I would really like to see them use speed comparisons of similiar websites, instead of possibly using a benchmark of some sort.

Here are some highlights of some comments regarding the announcement:

Navi Arora said…

“Now i have to move my websites from Shared Hosting to VPS ”

john bishop images said…

“…My site (johnbishopimages.com) also shares resources on my webhost (bluehost.com) with other sites because this is what I can afford. Are you going to penalize sites because they can’t afford dedicated hardware resources? Kinda flies in the face of many of Google’s other initiatives!

How important will this signal play in page ranking? If it plays a major role, you are penalizing the little guy who is trying to get a start and rewarding the larger corporate sites because they can afford lots of iron and content servers spread across the countryside – not exactly a level playing field and one that, on the surface, this signal seems to perpetuate.”

scriptster said…
“I’m removing Google Analytics code from all my sites – it’s very slow and WMT always shows it as one area of improvement. Google AdSense code often renders excruciatingly slow. I guess, it’s gotta go, too.”

dianosq said…

“The least they can do in my opinion is to tell a webmaster if a page ranking or website ranking is affected by its page loading times.”

MagicYoyo said…

“Shame. Officially, Google set a ranking factor not to increase relevancy but to reduce crawling cost.”

“Guess it’s time for me to start looking into how practical it is to port Wordpress to C    “

So what are your thoughts?  Overhyped? Or are ya maybe overwhelmed?