It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

To celebrate the recent move, here's a good game for a change. :)

I loved these books, but haven't actually played the games yet... I plan to! I've heard only good things about them, and I have 'em all.

So, if you wish, grab your own free copy of this particular one here.

One copy free, first come first get it! Game info here.

After all these other trips, it was time for a digital one.

I've moved the site - and all of my other sites. After 18 years with WHB, it's time for a new chapter, CDB is now loading from a new host!

You may have noticed the move, despite my best intentions to keep it seamless, since the main page briefly (for an hour or so) showed nothing but a 500 error earlier this week, as I scrambled to figure out what settings I'd missed to adjust in the transitioning process... turns out it was the directory structure. Some plugins/settings store the full server-based directory structure, rather than a relative path, and though domain-based paths stay the same even with a new IP the server structure does not.

Why store the full path though? Do they really have to? Even when linking to files that all exist within the public directory; under the branch of the main domain? It seems unnecessary, but that was the one thing I missed anyhow, I fixed it, and the site has been running... relatively OK since.

Loading times do seem to vary a bit throughout the day, and I'm not yet sure if this is a host-related issue or a me-related issue.

The new firewalls are different than the old ones, the server architecture too, not all the same PHP extensions are enabled or installed - and some are that weren't previously. The database is newer, the control panel is different... there's a lot of new to go through! I'm experimenting a bit with server-side caching and settings, but it seems sometimes the site loads blazingly fast - faster than it did before, and sometimes not so. Sometimes it's aggravatingly slow. But it works. The uptime so far is 100%.

I'm not sure I'll stay with this host, and so I'm not revealing any details as to who I'm using yet - if I do I'll write a proper review in time, but let's give 'em a shot and see how it goes shall we? I'm also intrigued to hear how you experience the new. Is it faster? Is it stable? Is something else buggin'?

Now then, how about a long-form rant on why I'm swappin' servers...

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I've changed my backup plugin. Finally.

I didn't plan to really, even with the ongoing issues.

However my settings with BackWPup disappeared with the recent move.

I first tried to dig up some information on where these backup settings were stored in the database to restore them - if they were stored there at all, but couldn't find any information thereof, so... I figured maybe it was time to start fresh and try their new version. The one they claim now meets all user demands, fourteen versions after the trialed and tested 4.1.7 that I've stubbornly stuck with, that still worked so well...

So how was this new 5.1.3 variant? Not good.

Why? Well let me tell you what's currently wrong with it; what they have not fixed - or rather what issues currently plague the plugin, despite their ongoing and increased attempts to right all wrongs:

1. When you install the plugin, you're forced to go through a configuration wizard to get started. There's no way to skip this - I consider this a major usability flaw for anyone who's already used the plugin, or just doesn't need a wizard. But it gets worse...
2. Once the wizard's complete, the plugin makes a complete backup of your account! There's no way to skip this either. A complete backup for me currently weighs in at ~24GB. I don't want a complete backup - I manage those via the server! All I want is a regular database backup, or selective file backups, with only files that have actually changed.
3. The settings you toggle via the wizard don't work either. If you try to change '15 revisions' to another number - both with file and database backups, nothing happens. (You can change these numbers later, but this initial toggle is completely broken.)
4. The option to select either database or file backup - or both - doesn't work either! The plugin generates a complete backup regardless, and both settings are turned on - even if you toggle them off, until said first complete backup has been generated, and further setting adjustments and toggles start working.
5. The UI is a mess. The most useful options are hidden away, the controls are big and clunky, they've opted for a custom font that further increases load time, and the design overall is just... very unprofessional and unnecessarily 'bloated'. The old was better.
6. Finally - and this is the big one - the 'Backup Now' button does not work either! On their support forum they recommend you uninstall, and reinstall, and reactivate the plugin, and then it should work. But no, it didn't! I tried this. All I got was another full ~24GB backup.

I wonder if this could've had something to do with my performance issues with the site this week, that I assumed had to do with the new server...

There are still options missing compared to the more usable 4.1.7 release, too. And you still can't use a backup directory outside the public_html directory, which is a 'feature' they introduced after version 4.0.1.

'For security reasons', they wrote then.

For what, for worse security? To let users potentially download your backups when they're stored in a publicly accessible directory?

It seems a bigger security risk to have your backups located within this directory than outside it, if someone somehow manages to get around whatever directory protection this reliable plugin has implemented to keep people out of it.

I don't understand their reasoning.

I don't mean to keep beating a dead horse here though. That was just the first problem I had with this plugin - or rather the first downgrade in functionality I noticed, and there are still problems...

I tried downgrading to one of the earlier versions of the plugin after my failed attempts at using the new version, but faced some time-out issues with the server then (possibly related to a sudden increase in data and resource use?), and saw it as a sign it was maybe time to leave this be.

I tested a few more backup alternatives since the last post too, but I think I'm done now. I settled for Updraft after all - the by far most used backup plugin available - even though the feature set's comparatively limited.

So far it's worked great though. No bugs! No problems.

At least not big ones.

The cron wouldn't work properly for a while, but that may have been a server migration issue too. Or even a BackWPUp-related thing...

I like the Updraft interface too. It's simple. Not clunky. And they have some useful maintenance/server tools included along with the backup stuff.

Currently, Updraft seems like a safer; more tested alternative than BackWPUp - although version 4.1.7 of the latter is still good. BackWPUp was extensive, though inevitably will also fall behind in terms of security and framework updates now, if you refuse to use the newer versions.

Anyone up for starting a branch on that version? And further developing it as it should have been developed, with the full set of original features and functionality intact?

For posterity, here's the list of changes BackWPup have gone through since the last time I posted about them:

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Sometimes the most unexpected correlations somehow make the most sense. :) Who would've thought...

Source.

After Tirana and Banja Luka there was this!

A week-long trip - for the third year in a row - to our idyllic maybe most popular in-country ski resort haven eight-hours-by-train from Stockholm up to the Northern parts of Sweden: Åre.

We went for lots of walks, some of us skied a bit (I really need to learn to), played board games, celebrated a Birthday (and two others retrospectively - and another a bit in advance), I worked from a distance one day, we ate good and overall just had a blast at this location.

I mean how can you not when you have a view like this?

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