Category Archives: Rants

The problems with technology.

[FIX] WordPress Automatic Upgrade woes – “Installation Failed”

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WordPress is brilliant, undoubtedly, but there are some things that really drive me insane.

Ever since WordPress 2.8.1 was released, I haven’t been able to use the automatic upgrade feature in WordPress because it simply does not work. This problem has been identified by many other WordPress users, but I know that not everyone has the problem.

Here’s what I mean – every time I try to upgrade WordPress the following problem arises:

Wordpress auto upgrade

It is as simple as that. No error messages, no PHP warnings, just “Installation Failed”.

I’ve been searching everywhere for a fix but I can’t find one anywhere. It’s beginning to really annoy me now. I’ve just ignored it for a while and upgraded WordPress manually – but it really drives me mad having to take down GEEK! and then put it back up.

Has anyone found a fix for this problem?

Update 13.9.09: A big thanks to “lujcas”, who has posted a comment with a fix to this problem. I’ve tested it and it seemed to work for me. To make it easier for everyone, I’ve uploaded the file he added to the GEEK! download server, so you can download a copy here. You just need to unzip the file and place it in the wp-includes directory on your WordPress install and overwrite any previous file.

What’s the point in jailbreaking an iPhone/iPod Touch?

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It’s a little confusing really. I know that so many people love the advantages of jailbreaking an iPhone or iPod Touch, but I just don’t see them.

I experimentally tried jailbreaking my iPod Touch yesterday (yes, I am totally ashamed of myself – I will shortly be returning to official firmware), and it amazes me that Apple makes it so easy to jailbreak their devices. I mean there’s a simple procedure that takes about 45 seconds and that’s it, the patch is done.

It’s totally different to Sony – PSP users will know that Sony can’t help it but patch out every single hack and crack into the PSP firmware. Apple seem to be taking it very lightly.

It also makes me think what is the point? Yes, you can customize the iPhone/iPod Touch’s themes but it is such a faff – and none of them are particularly brilliant. And yes, you can install some random software, but honestly… I don’t see what is so fantastic about it.

And the amount of times that my iPod Touch has crashed since I jailbroke it. It hardly seems like there’s any point in it at all.

I know I’m often quite an “Apple basher” here on GEEK!, but this is the one thing that I like about Apple. Their firmware always works – it doesn’t crash and it isn’t slow. I can rely on my iPod Touch anytime I need it and I know it will be ready and waiting. I’m quite happy with my official firmware Apple for the long term.

Upgrading 3 (Three) Pay as You Go phones

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I have my ups and downs with 3 (Three, otherwise known as Hutchinson 3G) – just recently I was raving about their speedy customer service.

Sadly, today I have a small complaint to 3 – their handling of Pay as You Go phone upgrades. It seems to be non-existent. I called up 3’s customer service asking about upgrading my current Nokia 3120 Classic and I was told that there was no way possible of upgrading 3 Pay as You Go phones. I was also told that 3 only dealt with contract upgrades.

I am somewhat confused. How can you have a huge mobile phone company and not deal with Pay as You Go upgrades? Surely someone must have come across this problem before.

I’ve searched and searched across the net but right now I can’t find anybody who has tried to upgrade their pay as you go 3 phone.

I don’t particularly want to move to contract as I don’t like having to be subject to payments when I might not take full advantage of included texts and minutes.

I’ve emailed 3’s support team to ask why they don’t have an upgrade plan for Pay as You Go users. I shall await a response and see what they tell me.

Has anybody else had the same problem with 3?

The UK’s broadband REALLY needs to speed up!

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It amazes me – how does the government of this country get away with having such poor internet technology in this country? We are a very rich country (even in the economic downturn), yet the government still think 8MB broadband is good for most people.

OK, well I was reading Speedtest.net‘s world average speeds. The UK is currently (at the time of writing) 40th in the world for download with an average 4.99MB/s across the country. 40th? Yes I was a bit shocked to when I read this. And then you read what is ahead of us – Germany, Latvia, Sweden and Bulgaria are just a few of them.

Our average upload speed is even worse – we are 56th place! Our average is 0.68MB/s which, when considering countries like Latvia and Romania are miles ahead of us, is pretty poor.

Come on Britain – we are supposed to be up to date with technology – not on ancient copper cabling.

Is SPAM one of the most annoying things in life? I think so.

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There is nothing that angers me as much as SPAM. Email SPAM that is. I honestly can’t think of anything that bugs me more. My inbox was sprinkled with some disturbing emails today – here’s the line up…

SPAM

Please note the image shown above contains some mature content that may be unsuitable for younger readers.

Do you know why it annoys me so much? Because every time I get it in my inbox, it makes me think of the time I waste hitting the now worn-out Delete key on my keyboard. I must spend hours of my life deleting emails telling me about new “life changing pills” and “big savings”. And believe me, that’s the clean side of it.

SPAM really depresses me. The fact that there are people out there who like programming computers to use our emails to send us fake emails that are just booby-traps to more SPAM.

And, yes, there are plenty of SPAM filters out there that will rid the crud from my inbox, but I still feel terrible seeing my Junk folder fill up with thousands of emails monthly.

So yes, if you’re one of the many million or so people who hate SPAM, there’s not a lot we can do. But it does make you think, how much time, energy and money do we waste deleting SPAM?