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Code Help Personal projects

Common mistakes and solutions when setting up WordPress

The move from, shared hosting to personal VPS and the issues associated.

 

I moved the blog.alexcollie.com over to a personal VPS, which allowed for a greater deal of customisation.

However I was plagued  with issues. Like the php code not being able to modify the WordPress files. All of these challenges are simply solved, but do take a lot of googling.

Common mistakes I made

This error with trying to connect Jetpack

jetpack Please contact your hosting provider to enable PHP’s XML extension.

It seemed like no one else had suffered the same issue.

The solution was really easy just do.(php 7 code)

apt install php-xml

or depending on apt version

apt-get install php-xml

Every time you try and install a or plugin or upload an image or post it said

To perform the requested action, WordPress needs to access your web server. Please enter your FTP credentials to proceed. If you do not remember your credentials, you should contact your web host.

This was a permissions issue were the php code did not have the rights to modify any of the files. Again it a really easy fix

chown -Rf www-data.www-data /var/www/html/

Just change ‘html’ to where the WordPress file is located.

I can think this page for this solution

 

When I tried to crop img inside WordPress it could run into errors.

sudo apt-get install php-gd

or

sudo apt install php-gd

This adds a library which allows php to crop images.

 

Despite all of these errors. Linux/GNU is amazing.

 

 

Categories
News

New Site

New Site New Blog

I have finally moved over to a WordPress based blog, rather than a HTML page which I had to create each time.

I will migrate all of the other posts over to the new format and the look of the page might change, but the blog.alexcollie.com will remain where all my blog posts go.

www.alexcollie.com will remain for my portfolio and other larger projects.

 

Expect many more posts. Since it much easier for me to post here.

Please subscribe to my blog.

 

Categories
Personal projects Tech

My experience building a 3d Printer

Times are changing

So when I started building my 3d printer, I had an idea of what 3d printers were, and how they could be useful. However, after finishing it I have come to the realisation that 3d printers are so much more, there is nothing like the feeling of power, of seeing an object from a film or TV show and then just deciding lets build that object. Then, 5 hours later you have it in your hands. Calling it a 3d printer for me is too simplistic, since printers to me just creates objects to be viewed but a 3d printers on the other hand can create objects that can be interacted with. I prefer the term 3d fabricator, which has the added bonus of sounding like it is straight from a sci-fi film.

Building a 3d printer was remarkably easy for me at least there was no direct soldering, but a lot of bug testing when I thought I had finished the build.

I can 100% see a more refined version in many peoples houses in a few years. A 3d printer is such a practical object with so many applications. I found out the other day I that the international space station has now installed a 3d printer, so they don’t need to wait for supplies to install new hardware.

 

However,

As it currently stands 3d printers have a few limitations. They are big and noisy; they often require a lot of technical knowledge. They also, have a few material limitations plastics are currently the easiest the the most commonly available specifically, PLA and ABS. However, for wood and other materials it will might require a more specialised extruder head which can add the the already high costs of a 3d printer.

All things considered, it was worth me it was interesting peak inside the 3d printing world, and I hope to see lots more development in the future.

Here is a video of my 3d printer building the Gherkin.