WordPress missed schedules

I have a couple blogs that use WordPress. I used to use Blogger, but WordPress offered certain features that Blogger simply didn't have (which I won't get into right now). It seemed to work great for a while, but at some point WordPress decided to start ignoring my scheduled posts. When it would come time for one post or another it go live, it would shrug, label it "missed schedule" and go back to sleep. This seemed like the kind of problem that should be easy to solve with a bug fix from some developer, except nobody in the WordPress community has been able to fix it. Instead, the only solution they have is to disable the WordPress cron and set up your own command via cron to get it to work.

Which is great if it would work. But it doesn't. Well, at least not all the time. It worked once on one of my sites, but not on another. Anyway, if this happens to you, just remember one thing: SCHEDULED POSTS WILL NEVER WORK RELIABLY. No, not ever. They won't. Please don't try to find another solution. There is none. Especially not a plug-in that claims to fix the problem. It actually required another plug-in that will very easily break WordPress and every other site on tour server. It just happened to me, and I had to figure out how to disable the plug-ins via FTP to get everything back online.

So for now the solution is to post stuff manually. With no scheduling. Sorry. There is no solution.

Syncing files: THE SOLUTION

So after much frustration in trying to sync files on two flash drives, I finally discovered the solution: I had been ripped off. Yes, I bought my second flash drive on eBay, where the seller claimed it was 64Gb in size, but in reality, it was a 4GB drive that had been HACKED to APPEAR to be 64GB in size. The file sync programs I was using weren't at fault at all — they simply had no way of knowing what size the flash drive actually was, copied what files they could, and then got terribly confused as they continued to write data to places that didn't exist.

So the solution turned out to be surprisingly simple: caveat emptor — buyer beware. If you see a 64GB flash drive on sale for $10, you didn't get a deal. It's like a $20 Rolex. It's fake, and you'll be sorry. Pay an extra $15 for that in-the-box flash drive from Kingston instead of the no-name drive from China. Trust me. It's not worth the hassle.

Syncing files: SO DAMN HARD

So I have a USB Flash Drive for getting stuff done, namely graphic design work. Yes, I'm aware of the existence of Dropbox, but I'm the only one using these files, and I've had no problem working on them via a separate, tiny flash drive. Like any sensible person, I want to back these files up so I don't lose them when my flash drive inevitably falls out of my pocket and through a sewer grate.

This, apparently, is a ridiculously difficult task that no one has ever done before.

No, really. I have a second flash drive the exactly same size as the first. I can copy files between the two with a drag and drop, right? In theory, yes, but then Windows Explorer freezes and crashes for no reason or otherwise gets interrupted. A better idea would be a file synchronization program. You know, one that looks at the files and folders on both drives and then copies only what's needed from one to the other. Then I could pick up right where I left off, right?

Ha! I only wish.

Sure, I googled around for a free file synchronization program. You know, like FreeFileSync. I gave that program a try or two. It took ALL NIGHT to mirror my 30 gigabytes of files. But no problem, the hard part is done, right?

Except that it didn't copy all the files. See, I checked the "properties" and it looked like it had filled up the drive nice and neatly. But then when I did some more work and needed to sync to keep everything up to date, it acted like I had left half the drive untouched. I checked and I found whole folders left COMPLETELY EMPTY on my destination drive. I backed up again, which took a couple HOURS, and then I deleted one or two tiny GIFs so I could test a third backup. Result: FIVE MORE GIGABYTES TO COPY. This was a fail.

So I went to Synkron, a nice little app (when it runs and doesn't fall asleep into that white-out "Not Responding" mode). At the moment, it's syncing the same folder (I've given up on trying for the whole damn drive) that FreeFileSync couldn't seem to figure out, and it's very slowly copying all the same damn files that FreeFileSync had supposedly copied YESTERDAY.

So while I'm waiting for that charade to wrap up, I find out that Microsoft has a tool called SyncToy, which does pretty much the same thing the others do. I give it a run and discover that my destination drive is now completely full. This means that SyncToy will just have errors as it tries copying files to a drive that's already full, but SHOULDN'T BE because it's the same size as the source drive which ISN'T full. My suspicion is that one of the sync programs decided to spew a bunch of invisible files everywhere and fill up space, but none of the sync programs has the ever-so-useful option (as rsync does, which is NOT available for Windows) of DELETING files that shouldn't be there before trying to copy anything. Wouldn't that be nice?

So what's the solution? REFORMAT the destination drive and start all the hell over again. For the THIRD TIME.

Encryption unsuccessful (AKA, your phone is bricked. Buy a new one!)

So I woke up last night at 3 AM with my phone (a ZTE AWE N800) screaming Virgin Mobile's horrible launch tones, happily announcing "Encryption Unsuccessful" and I have to do a factory reset and wipe all my data. Well that's just fine. I get to reset my damn phone and re-install everything, right? All my contacts, apps, everything, right? No problem. I have backups.

Except it doesn't work. I click the button for a factory reset. I hear the horrible screaming tones again, and I get the same error. This is what's referred to as a "boot loop," apparently. I go online hoping for a solution. (Because Google is SO good at finding solutions to this stuff, right?) Apparently, you can reset into Android's fix-it mode by holding the power and volume down keys (holding power and volume up boot with the letters FTM in a white box and do absolutely nothing else). So, from this screen I can do such useful things as "wipe data/factory reset," which should be what I want to do.

But it doesn't work. Reboot, and I get "Encryption Unsuccessful" once again.

So what's the solution now? Go to Google again and look for more answers that aren't there. Maybe I should "root" my device, "re-flash" the ROM, or apply any number of useless initials to my problem. (CWM or TWRP, anybody?) There are plenty of websites with people experiencing the exact same problem with the exact same phone, but absolutely no answers for anybody other than crap like "Get the unbrick kit and try that or get in recovery if u have twrp" and "tried loading update.zip and it failed." This problem is so pervasive one page actually tried luring people in to throw scammy spyware alerts at them. Most pages, however, just have people stating the problem with no solution. Heck, even Virgin Mobile has a Q&A page with this problem, with hilariously ineffective solutions such as rebooting the phone or dialing *86 (which you could only do if you were able to boot past this screen).

After just a few minutes (hours, actually), I start feeling like I have to be a third-level hacker just to use a damn phone, and I'm starting to realize that I have no choice but to just go and buy another one. These things are pretty much disposable, right? Everyone has four or five old cell phone in a drawer somewhere. Maybe this will be a good time to switch over to FreedomPop instead and pay $32/month instead of $42. The new phone pays for itself in less than a year, and this time I'm getting one with enough room so that it doesn't yell at me to delete some apps every time I use Facebook.

Win, right?

Removing High-Pitched Noise from Canon Powershot Videos

I used to use a Canon Powershot A630 for all of my photography. Since it has a built-in video feature (as most digital camera these days do), it also became my default video camera. In the mid-2000s, once I had a memory card large enough, I found it completey unneccessary to use my little video camera at all, so I started recording all my video with this little pocket camera from about 2005 onward.

If you're ever used this camera for video, however, you may notice it had a high-pitched hissing all throughout every video it shoots. This was an irritation for me before I stumbled upon a website that explained how to remove it flawlessly using a free program called Audacity. It involves removing the audio, entering a strange, cryptic code into a NyQuist prompt to remove the sound, and then putting the audio back in with the video (I usually separate tracks using Final Cut).

Unfortunately, the web page that explains how to do this (located here) decided to lock itself behind a password for some reason. Fortunately, I was able to save the instructions, which I'll share here for anyone who wants them.

Using this tip on audio removal from the wiki for the software Audacity, I managed to figure out that the high-pitched noise has a frequency of 4290 Hz. I extracted the audio from the video using VirtualDub, and opened it with Audacity 1.3.4 beta. Like the Wiki page instructed, I used the Nyquist prompt and the command (notch2 s 4290 50) (yes the brackets are necessary), and this removed the noise flawlessly! All that needs to be done is now to reinsert the audio into the video file. I can combine this with re-encoding the video with a more size- (and web-) friendly codec.

Happy videoing!

Technology sucks

I think we can all agree that personal computers are quickly growing worse with every generation rather than better. Case in point: copying sections of a DVD. I have a bunch of home movies compiled on several DVDs, and I want to create a compilation by copying bits and pieces from them. This used to be simple with a free program called MPEG Streamclip and a $20 MPEG2 plug-in from Apple. Of course, Apple has since dumped all over their software and made their plug-in completely unusable.

Fortunately, I still have an older laptop that runs 10.5 instead of 10.7, so I can still get my work done. Maybe I should consider "upgrading" my newer iMac down to an older version as well.

Breaking up with Angie's List

So here's why email marketing doesn't work and why I'm putting Angie's list on my "blacklist" of emails and am not going to resubscribe to their crappy premium locked-garden review site anymore. I get this delightful little piece of spam this morning.

See that? "Great news!" What's the great news? "Gift memberships." Yeah, I get about ten of these a day from Angie's list, crap like $199 for $300 worth of floor planning supervision or something stupid that has nothing to do with finding out if the guy who's installing my furnace is ripping me off, which is what I signed up for in the first place. (And no, Gmail, it's not "important." Thanks for the useless label.)

So naturally I want to unsubscribe from this thing because I want my "special offers" to consist of nothing but buy-one-get-one Smash Burger or something like that. So I click through to unsubscribe, where I'm asked my email address to "confirm" the unsubscription. Yeah, ever notice how they don't bother ask your permission to send you spam, but they definitely want to triple-check that you're absolutely sure you want to tell them to go away?

Anyway, here's the result.

There. See that? The email address I entered did not match the information in their database. Oh yeah? Go back and look at the first screen cap. See where they sent the spam from the beginning? That's right. They have my information in their database, but they don't want to remove me from their database. They want to keep sending me crappy email "offers" I don't want.

So guess what happens next? I add their email to the filter that automatically deletes stuff from my email before it ever even gets to my Gmail funnel. Then I cancel their service, and when they refuse to do that, I start dispute their charges when they automatically bill my credit card. You guys at Angie's List ought to learn how to take a hint. Being this annoying isn't going to get you any more loyalty from this side of the screen.