Plugin: Import New Blogger To WordPress

Update #3 (26 April 2007): This plugin has been broken by changes made to feeds on Blogger, and is pretty much unusable anymore. The download links are still there so if you want to try it anyway you can do so. Try to see the method described in TechCounter (the last one) for a good method. Theoretically this would work but I have not tried it. Good luck!.

Update #2: Only 500 posts can be imported via RSS (Blogger limited the RSS feed to only contain 500 max posts). Check out comment 181 and 191 below for suggestions.

Update: This plugin is now known as Blogger RSS Import instead of New Blogger Import.

Back in December, I created a stand alone script to import Blogger Beta to WordPress. I didn’t really expect that many will benefit from it until I received so many comments and bug reports. So here is the improved version, as a plugin. Many improvements were done especially at the database side where WordPress functions are utilized, and there’s no security issue anymore.
Continue reading Plugin: Import New Blogger To WordPress

WordPress 2.1

Wow! That was fast. WordPress 2.1 has been released. Users of my Blogger Beta importer, please be aware that the script might not work with WordPress 2.1

I shall have to look into it later.

Update: A kind soul tested the script to a fresh install of WordPress 2.1 and it still works.

Update: This blog has also been updated to WordPress 2.1 without many complications. Only 2 of my plugins failed.

Thanks, Daddy

Well, this post is not about my dad but about GoDaddy. Tonight, after my continuous disappointment with RegisterFly I decided to buy some domains from GoDaddy. I am still very impressed with their system. Top level automation. For my story I will need the following image to assist me.

GoDaddy

As their promotion mentioned: Private Registration just $4.99 or FREE when you register three or more domains!

Even though I didn’t really need private whois information, it was quite a good offer especially with .com domains priced at USD6.95. So I went and add 3 domains to my cart, clicking the “private” button. That went well – all of the private registrations (rows 4-6) were inserted with cost of 0. At this moment all three domains were at their full prices, so my total cart amount was USD23.64.

Next I simply added a .info domain which costs me USD1.99. Nothing special about it, just the low price but I still get the free private registration. My cart now holds USD25.88.

Next, I needed a simple hosting preferably with unlimited domains so I signed up for a year of budget Linux hosting. That costs USD43.05 (3.59 x 12). The most exciting part here is that the first domain I registered (row 1) became USD1.99 as they promised with the hosting package: Your Domain is Just $1.99 With This Purchase. My total then was USD63.97.

Going further, I was ready to checkout and pay with my PayPal but I remembered a discount code provided by BLAUGH. So I entered it and further obtained 10% discount (even though 10% should be USD6.397 I was given USD5.20 – must be some other calculations). It brought my total to USD58.77.

If I consider my hosting to be paid in full (USD43.05) I only paid 58.77 – 43.05 = 15.72 for my two .com, a .net and a .info domain 😉

I was (am) happy. I would really recommend this service to everyone. And immediately after paying, I can already check my whois, and manage my brand new domains.


www.godaddy.com

By the way, RegisterFly responded to my ticket about domains not registered (see related link), and they say it was a problem with traffic load being too high. That’s a bad excuse.

Malaysian Bloggers Sued

Yes what you heard is right. Sued. Jeff Ooi and Rocky were served separately by a group of the same people for what else but the contents of their blogs.

I am very unfamiliar with law terms, and in the area itself so I am not going to comment much.

However seeing the situation I do feel that since this is now in legal proceedings, bloggers are being taken a lot seriously in Malaysia. I feel sorry for the fellow bloggers of course, but let’s not take this matter to the extreme. After all we are all professionals and can think on our own.

A Sneak Peek at WordPress 2.1

I do keep track of the subversion repository and the latest I just updated from the server is 2.1 beta4. I can see lots of improvements for the management interface although I don’t have the time to take a look at the internals yet. The interface runs smoother and faster – or is it just psychology? 😉

Anyway one of the most obvious upgrade is the image uploading form – feel likes AJAX. I say feel because like I said I didn’t look at the codes. Navigation of images are insanely fast, better than the current inline uploading used by 2.0.x series. Here’s a snapshot:

WP2.1 Upload

I love it!

I think version 2.1 beta4, like its counterpart 2.0.7 also fixes the FeedBurner problem as I no longer receive feed medic alerts. Thumbs up to WordPress.

WordPress 2.0.7 Security Update

There’s a new update for WordPress: version 2.0.7

Most of you who are currently using WordPress would be able to see it on your dashboard. This is a very minor upgrade, involving these files:

  • wp-admin/inline-uploading.php
  • wp-admin/post.php
  • wp-includes/classes.php
  • wp-includes/functions.php
  • wp-settings.php
  • wp-includes/version.php

Download it now.

Connect To Me Via LinkedIn

There’s a new service in town: LinkedIn

It’s a connection building site, more or less the purpose is like those of Ringo or Friendster but targeted to the professional community. It have a paid option where you can see more business information about other people in the community. The site looks professional and the system works really well.

If you ask me, this is a very good opportunity for you to get linked to others and find out if anyone is interested in your expertise. I does not matter if you’re still a student – the system supports it too. Maybe you’ll be able to secure a job after graduation, or even find a place to do your industrial training. As for me, well if there are opportunities to work abroad or remotely I would certainly be interested 😉

Connect to me now: http://www.linkedin.com/in/romantika. Drop me an invitation using my email ady [at] romantika [dot] name

This is not a paid post, and I will not gain anything from this except for valuable networking and contacts.

RegisterFly Woes V2.0

Urgh… RegisterFly did it again. Although I have officially become a GoDaddy customer, I still have like USD30+ in my RegisterFly account so I decided to spend the money on some domains I have in mind. Guess what? I registered and paid for the domains on the 5th of January 2007 but until today there’s no sign of the domain in any whois and they remain free for registration.

So, if someone were to buy those domains from other registrars they still can. It’s so stupid and disappointing especially since they took my money when I registered, and now that I want to use it they don’t exist!

I sent them a ticket two days ago, and until now there’s still no reply. That’s normal even though they boast of 24/7 support on the top of their page. Maybe I should try calling their support number.

Things ain’t that bad as I registered some not so very critical domains… and I can always buy them somewhere else as they have not been registered. 😉

Useful WordPress Plugin: WordPress Suicide

WordPress Suicide is a useful plugin, particularly if you are running tests on your freshly installed WordPress.

Also, if you are trying to import your posts and comments from the New Blogger this could prove useful – if you are unlucky to have problems during your import. Some people succeed the first time, but some do have problems.

As for the importer, I am trying to find time to update it to include features that were requested by users. Currently I can only fix important bugs, if found. It’s currently in version 0.5.

If I had found this plugin earlier I would have recommended it too.

First PPP Payment

I have just received the payment for my first 2 posts with PayPerPost:

PPP First Payment

So now I have my proof that PPP is real. If you have not joined, why not start now? Click here to join.

However as I stressed out before I will only write on sites that accept neutral posts, or positive ones if I really have positive opinion about it. 🙂

This is not a sponsored post.

Down Again

Looks like my excitement this morning was short-lived. The connection is down again.

Received a call from TMNET and they asked me to check my connection when I return home. If the connection is still not OK they suggested I wait for tomorrow morning. I immediately jumped at the caller and said “tomorrow??? tomorrow???”. And she quickly asked me to call if I still have problems.

What kind of service is that? This morning they even asked me whether I have done the stupid steps they always ask customers to do (create dialer, flush DNS, etc.). Last night I was still willing to go along with their low level technical skills. Today I am not so patient anymore.

Obviously as a network and firewall engineer I have checked all possible causes on my side and when I call I am sure it’s not my equipment’s fault!

That’s what always happen with TMNET – I play good and they bit by bit test my patience. 🙁

Cable Fixed?

I lost my Internet connection at about 6.00pm local time yesterday, and according to my logs Internet was restored at about 2.30am today.

This morning I tried to ping some sites and the speed is good. Has the submarine cable been fixed already?

-(~/:#)-> ping yahoo.com
PING yahoo.com (216.109.112.135) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from w2.rc.vip.dcn.yahoo.com (216.109.112.135): icmp_seq=1 ttl=45 time=425 ms
64 bytes from w2.rc.vip.dcn.yahoo.com (216.109.112.135): icmp_seq=2 ttl=45 time=415 ms

--- yahoo.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 415.794/420.556/425.319/4.806 ms

-(~/:#)-> ping bbc.co.uk
PING bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.131) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.131): icmp_seq=1 ttl=114 time=240 ms
64 bytes from rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.131): icmp_seq=2 ttl=114 time=231 ms
64 bytes from rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.131): icmp_seq=4 ttl=114 time=237 ms
64 bytes from rdirwww-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.224.131): icmp_seq=5 ttl=114 time=232 ms

--- bbc.co.uk ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 4 received, 20% packet loss, time 4027ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 231.551/235.507/240.924/3.875 ms

-(~/:#)-> ping performancing.com
PING performancing.com (216.251.243.173) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from vip (216.251.243.173): icmp_seq=1 ttl=100 time=337 ms
64 bytes from vip (216.251.243.173): icmp_seq=2 ttl=100 time=337 ms
64 bytes from vip (216.251.243.173): icmp_seq=3 ttl=100 time=338 ms

--- performancing.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 337.500/337.795/338.171/0.727 ms

There are no particular announcement about restoration of the International link in TMNET’s website yet, though.

Move Complete

This site has been moved to another hosting server. Some of you might have received an error message from the old server, if your DNS has not been made aware of the server change and still have the old IP address. Sorry for any inconveniences. This is normal for any DNS change.

Additionally, WordPress have been upgraded to 2.0.6

Update: Since my previous hosting uses MySQL 4.0 and the new server uses MySQL 4.1 there seems to be some kind of confusion. Many UTF-8 characters such as the ” character were displayed as ? instead. I spotted this problem when receiving errors from FeedBurner.

A dirty quick fix is to open up /wp-includes/wp-db.php and look for these:

function wpdb($dbuser, $dbpassword, $dbname, $dbhost) {
$this->dbh = @mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpassword);
if (!$this->dbh) {

And add an additional line:

function wpdb($dbuser, $dbpassword, $dbname, $dbhost) {
$this->dbh = @mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpassword);
$this->query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");
if (!$this->dbh) {

I am sure WordPress guys will not agree with this quick hack 😉

This is due to how MySQL 5.0 handles collations.

I found the fix here: http://blog.jtam.org/…