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:

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

Here’s what that user suggested :

use phpmyadmin,

Check:

1. Login to phpMyAdmin.
2. Select the database and click on ‘Structure‘ tab.
3. Right under the list of table there is a “Check All” link. Click on it to select all tables.
4. From a “With selected:” drop-down menu right next to it, choose “Check table“.

Repair:

1. Login to phpMyAdmin
2. Choose the affected database. If you only have one database, it should choose it by default so you don’t need to do anything.
3. In the main panel, you should see a list of your database tables. Check the boxes by the tables that need repair.
4. At the bottom of the window just below the list of tables, there is a drop down menu. Choose “Repair Table”

The Result

I did follow the above instructions and with all of my plugins still disabled proceeded to use the “upgrade automatically” button again and the result was successful!  The resulting image of the fix is below:

I then re-activated my plugins and all seems to be fine for now.

Summary

For me it seemed that my database table or tables needed to be repaired for some reason beyond my skill set but however on other wordpress upgrades I do remember being asked to upgrade the database after the upgrade finished but this time around with 2.8 that did not happen. Is this a glitch or other? time will tell…

Comments or suggestions appreciated…

Wordpress 2.8 Video

Having had a few problems with my upgrade was only a few fixes away but I want to take the opportunity to thank all of the Wordpress team for bringing us new tools and releases. The following video is from Wordpress and shows you some of those great features with this release.

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!

1,570 viewers accessed the webcast over the hour with traffic coming mainly from Ireland, UK, USA, Netherlands, & Australia. We had a chat box enabled on the site and at one stage there was 144 active users chatting . Below is a screen shot of the Ustream Metrics for the broadcast.

Getting the Traffic

Part of the success of this webcast lay in pre-planning. A  group of the people involved in this project posted the gig details on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace & Bebo also SMS Text, Forums, Email and traditional word of mouth. I also created a YoughalOnline.com Facebook group and also a Facebook App for people to install so they could watch the webcast from within Facebook.

Why not check out these links:
YoughalOnline.com Facebook Group
YoughalOnline.com – Live Web Cast – Facebook App

The Facebook traffic was very good with a lot of app installs and a good community to inform of the upcoming broadcast. It’s become a lot clearer  that you have got to use the social networks  in order to reach wider audience.

Watch The Playback

Un-edited playback as it was broadcast on the night. Time 57 min 32 secs watch it all or scrub through.

Pre-recorded playback of “Little Big Man” webcast

Originally recorded 29th January 2009

Conclusion

*Note to self: Aim for better results next time, always try harder and always learn from the past

The Hotel opened by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2007 and closed its doors December 2008. This is a short documentary about that time, it was created by Supplevideo On YouTube…

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Test

Today I tried encoding for the new wide screen format and uploaded a few test short clips to figure out what would be the best settings and came up with the following as the one that worked for me.

Using Premiere Pro CS3 I exported my final footage as follows:

Export to Adobe Media Encoder
NTSC
23.976 fps
HDTV 1280px X 720px
H.264 format

I used these bitrate settings as follows:

VBR, 2 Pass
Target Bitrate [Mbps]: 6
Maximum Bitrate [Mbps]: 10

Click here to view the embedded video.

Viewing the video above as an embed you will not see the full effect so heres the link to the clip http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=vUxhg2Q7Ojs

You Tube Wide Screen Embed Code Example

<object width=”500″ height=”307″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/vUxhg2Q7Ojs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/vUxhg2Q7Ojs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”500″ height=”307″></embed></object>

The Drawbacks

There are a couple of drawbacks so far, for one the file size in terms of MB are pretty big. My successful wide screen clip weighed in at 24.4MB for a 33.06sec video clip also the widescreen format is only viewable on the YouTube website itself.

Tips/Tricks

I have also discovered that uploading clips to You Tube in the H.264 format (.mp4) will grant you the watch in high quality option. In theory clicking that link will load your video clip at higher quality (&fmt=18) and you will notice better video and audio than standard view, there is now a trick to get even higher quality again by appending &fmt=22 to the end of a You Tube video url this has the effect of loading your video in HD (high definition) and you will really see and hear the benefit of this in full screen mode.

Try these links to test same video but different quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUxhg2Q7Ojs (Standard View)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUxhg2Q7Ojs&fmt=18 (High Quality View)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUxhg2Q7Ojs&fmt=22 (HD Super Quality View)

Note*

You need to upload a video file in 1280px X 720px format in order to view in HD using the &fmt=22 trick above.

Just because I like it….

www.myspace.com/midlake
www.worlds-fair.net/midlake
www.midlake.net

Embedded Video

Tags: midlakehead home headhome www.midlake.net youghal youghalonline www.youghalonline.com texas denton sxsw official

An interview and live music performance with James McGrath & Band will start @ 9:00pm for 45 minutes (approx). This will be the first of many live web casts planned for artists & musicians that will feature on www.YoughalOnline.com

Filming & Web Streaming by Youghal Online Productions, Audio & Recording by Claycastle Recording Studio

For more info on James McGrath visit:

http://www.myspace.com/jamesmcgrathmusic

www.jamesmcgrath.com

(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