All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

I updated this blog to WordPress 2.2. However, the theme keeps reverting from K2 to Default. I don’t know why.

If you can offer any help or point me in some direction, that’d be awesome. (I won’t be home for a few hours, so I’ll be out of touch until then.)

These are the plugins currently installed:

Updated 6/20/07 8:30am - Other than the database, I deleted and uploaded everything again. The plugins were reinstalled essentially from scratch, meaning I went to each website and redownloaded them. I cut even more out, because some of the developers didn’t seem to have updated their plugins to support WordPress 2.2.

The following are installed:

Akismet 2.0.2, Bad Behavior 2.0.10, Disable WordPress Widgets 1.0, FeedBurner FeedSmith 2.2, Full Text Feed 1.03, Remove Dashboard Feeds 1.0, Subscribe To Comments 2.1, Taragana’s Del.icio.us mp3 Player Plugin 1.0, WordPress.com Stats 1.0, WordPress Database Backup 2.1.2.

I think the problem still remains. Now what?

Update 6/20/07 8:40am - I wonder if it’s this bug ticket, #3907 “WP reverts to default theme on file access collision”. It’s four months old, though!

Update 6/20/07 6:25pm - In WordPress Support, this is an unresolved issue. Other than the forums, it’s weird that I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere. The workaround for now is to rename the folder of the theme I want to use to “Default.” Done. Things seems fine again.

Yesterday, I had a problem with editing posts. I’d click “edit”, then the next page would load blank.

Solution: Disable Clutter Free (by Mark Jaquith), which “is a plugin that lets you hide portions of the WordPress posting interface that you rarely (or never) use. Instead of being minimized (and still taking up room), they’ll be completely invisible.” Mark Jaquith will be gone until May 11^th, so until then, I’ll have do without it.

I haven’t changed any core WordPress files, and this was working fine for awhile. Maybe my host updated something that broke this.

Note: For future reference, this post was written in WordPress 2.1.3.

Since the beginning of April, anybody I’ve emailed at Yahoo says they haven’t gotten any email from me, or they don’t reply (when they normally would). The exception seems to be my web host’s Yahoo email address. Yes, it’s odd, isn’t it?

My email is being blocked by Yahoo! Mail. What can I do?

Talking with my host and looking at the mail server logs, they’re delivered successfully. Some of them will say “421 Message from (205.134.225.50) temporarily deferred.” A few seconds later [in the mail server log], it’ll say “250 ok dirdel” which means it’s all good.

I’ve been bugging my host about this, but if I don’t have to, I need a reason to believe everything is okay except for these few people who don’t check their Bulk Mail folder. (That would be another issue.)

Any ideas? If you want to help me test, email me with your Yahoo address and I promise to email you back. The more the better. Thanks!

Update 4:20pm 4/29/07 - Thanks to Connie’s help, at least I can verify that my emails are going directly into the Bulk Mail folder. What now?

Update 8:25pm 4/29/07 - My last email to Connie went directly into her Yahoo inbox — but she added me to her address book beforehand. Is there anything I can do?

Update 10:16am 4/30/07 - Carlo (who emailed me from Yahoo-Inc.com) emailed me through a co-worker that saw this blog post. Carlo, if you’re reading this, I emailed you back at 9:30am and haven’t heard back.

Update 10:43am 4/30/07 - From Carlo: “I’ve updated our database to reflect the correct category for your sending IP; the changes should take full effect in a few hours. If you continue to receive reports of your emails going missing or into your recipients’ Bulk folder thereafter, just let me know.”

Lastly, refer to Why am I getting “451 Message temporarily deferred” or “421 Message from x.x.x.x temporarily deferred” errors when sending mail to Yahoo!? and fill out the form if you’re having the same problems.

Blogging is cool, especially if important people actually read it. All should be back to normal soon enough — whatever that means! Special thanks to Carlo and your co-worker informant!

I’m not sure what’s up with my computer, but I have reason to believe that it’s in its final stages. This past week, software that’s been stable isn’t anymore. (e.g. Firefox, iTunes 7, Internet Explorer) Then, it’s been throwing random Blue Screens of Death. Today, I even tried formatting and clean installing Windows, but even after that, without any additional software installed yet, the computer continues to crash.

I’ve tried the following:

• Ran MemTest86, twice, and found no errors
• Ran SpinRite 6.0 (Level 4)
• Clean Windows XP SP2 install

I haven’t changed any hardware. So, it’s something on the motherboard. (That narrows it down nicely, huh?)

Hopefully, I’ll get a replacement computer tomorrow night from a relative. (He also works in IT.) I’m not sure about the specifications, but he mentioned that it’s a clamshell Dell Optiplex GX270 with 1GB DDR RAM. Not sure about the processor speed, but I’m running an AMD Athlon 1600+, so it’s likely to be faster than what I have right now.

I’m not sure what to do with the old computer. Who knows if the power supply is starting to go? What if the video card is starting to go bad? I’m glad I backed up my data to the external hard drive, but I’m still uneasy.

For my next computer, I want a small form factor machine. This Antec case is a beast, so I’ll either sell it or store it away towards building a PVR system for home. It’s tough to troubleshoot a large computer because it’s a bit tougher to pickup, turn around, and so on. I’ll have to save for awhile, of course.

Or, should I get a Mac?

Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot further? I’d love to hear it!

Note: I’m on the trouble machine writing this. I booted off an old Knoppix Live CD, writing this. It’s running fine. Any ideas on that? In emergency cases like this, it’s probably a good idea to download and burn a copy of Knoppix. It runs pretty well.

Update 12/12/2006: I got the new system, and installed everything last Thursday. Back to normal? Basically! It’s a Dell Optiplex GX270 (clamshell), so it’s not the most customizable system.

• Pentium 4 2.39 GHz
• 1 GB DDR SDRAM
• 24x CD-RW
• Integrated video
• USB 2.0
• 56K modem

He had a 60GB hard drive installed and ready to go, but it was manufactured in 2001. I was a bit scared, so I replaced it with my current 120GB hard drive, which I bought earlier this year.

For now, I’m going to stick with using USB 2.0 instead of Firewire. I’d have to buy a low profile Firewire PCI card if I really need it. At the moment, my iPod syncs just fine, and I don’t mind if synchronizing my external HD takes a bit longer.

If I want to use my Lite-On 52x CD burner, I’ll need to buy this Bytecc BT-200 USB 2.0 to IDE cable adapter. I’ll probably buy a DVD burner from Newegg, too. In any case, my CD burning speed will stink until then.

So, my system isn’t crashing anymore, and I’m happy!

I’ll still save up for a new system. I don’t love the one I’ve got right now, since I don’t have Firewire capability. I’ll most likely save up to build my own PVR first, then possibly get a Macbook.