Okay, I finally took some time to fix my comment-spam blocking script. In the end, I decided to switch from the SecureImage plugin I had been using to the Captcha! plugin. SecureImage had worked before, but I think my hosting company changed some settings with ImageMagick and I just don’t have time to figure it out.

Anyway, now you can all post comments again. Of course, you may have all stopped reading my site as I’ve had little to say and no way for you to respond. Nevertheless, the lines of communication are open.

My stupid web hosting provider is once again experiencing problems. My domains were down all day yesterday, and the email was sketchy all week. I’m definitely going to hunt for a new service as soon as school is out. I’d do it sooner, but I just don’t have time to move everything before then. Anyway, if anyone has emailed me in the last week and hasn’t gotten a response it may be due to technical problems. Of course, I may just have been lazy.

Some of you may have noticed that my website was quite screwed up the past couple of days. It started with MySQL going down over the weekend. I contacted my hosting provider who quickly responded to my trouble ticket and fixed the problem. While they were messing around I took the time to do a complete backup of several of the sites I manage, including this one. As soon as they got the database server up and running again, two of my WordPress based sites were just fine but this one was all messed up. I kept getting the error:

‘Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/tmwright/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 283′

Over and Over again. In fact, Google was kind enough to cache my site with the errors. Now I searched and searched for any help on this problem and I came up with nothing useful. What stumped me was the fact that two other WordPress sites on the same server were fine but mine was down. In the end I finally just backed up my database and customized pages, deleted everything on the domain including the database, and then uploaded everything again. I didn’t change a single line of code or a single database entry, but that seemed to do the trick. Technology is 90% voodoo.

Stupid webhosting providers. I got an email from my hosting provider (orystes.com) two days ago informing me that they are closing up shop. That means I have to find another reselling provider and transfer all my domains over to a new server… again.

I switched to orystes.com a few months ago on the recommendation of a friend that had been with them for some time. Actually, I’ve been pretty happy with them. Sure, there have been some technical problems - but they always responded quickly and things got resolved. Nothing I couldn’t live with considering the price. All that is beside the point, however, as they are no longer in business.

Anyway, I’ve spent the past two days reading reviews and browsing discussion forums looking for a new provider. After spending considerable time on WebHostingTalk.com, I had narrowed it down to HostGator.com or HostingLite.com. I submitted questions to both and both responded pretty quickly. Taking price and features into consideration, I’ve opted for HostingLite.com.

I just set up an account a few minutes ago and things seemed to be going pretty smoothly. I found their automated telephone verification system interesting, even though it couldn’t pronounce things correctly. I was really excited to have immediate access to my reseller control panel so I could get right to creating new accounts and getting things moved.

That’s when I hit the first bug - the system wouldn’t let me create new accounts. I got onto the 24/7 Live Chat support program and was talking with support within 30 seconds. After a little discussion, they advised me to submit a trouble ticket and provide more detailed information. I got the impression that this was a problem that others had been experiencing today, so the solution should be quickly coming.

At this point, I’m waiting for support to let me know what’s up. Given my interaction with support thus far, I’m pretty hopeful that this will be corrected soon. I definitely hope things will get taken care in time for me to do the transfers this weekend. With school starting next Wednesday and all the printing orders I have to fulfill, I don’t want things dragging out.

Hopefully, the next time I post it will be from the new server. If you don’t hear from me soon, I’m lost in irritating cyberspace.

I have finally managed to get the SecureImage plugin to work so I am going to start allowing comments again. Hopefully, I will not have to worry about the stupid spambots now. If they do start up again, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I hate having to moderate stuff like this. I’m just too busy. Anyway, if anyone out there actually still visits me here I hope you’ll say hi from time to time by posting something.