Archive for the ‘ICDSoft’ Category

Website Updated!

In my last post, I mention how time flies. Well… time flew by again! LOL!! Here I am, three more years later, and posting on what’s going on in my Self-Publishing life.

My first blog post was 12 years ago!

Over the years, many writers have abandoned blogging and have gone straight to just, well, writing. They’ve placed their concentration on the novel and marketing it. Blogging takes a lot of time, and doesn’t bring a lot of traffic. Thus, here I am, not posting as often as I had done in the past… but I can’t just let it go. I actually love the content of my blogs and I still want to visit, like an old friend, from time-to-time.

So here I am again, now having to have something to say to “my old friend”. I have finally upgraded my main website! It’s been a long time coming. It wasn’t mobile, tablet friendly, and it just looked very dated. Like 2008 dated old! I got the template from TheTemplateStore.com back in that day that came with a txt license from Sandy Bowen to place with the site. I loved this site! But change is a must. Sigh. So I had a good cry, and I let go.

I mean, I learned HTML and had to change from my very first website:

Then, I went on to this website:

And now for 2020, to go back to Guru, to find a web designer to help me with the newest website project. I was fortunate enough to find that the designer, who moved my website from ICDSoft to HostGater, was still on the site. She took down my ideas and went to work.

Little did I know that so much has changed on WordPress since the last time I logged on. I am currently type in, Block format? And there’s the BeTheme that was out of this world!

Well, back to the classroom I go.

I found a YouTube video on how to work around in BeTheme, and WordPress directed me to their site on how to use this new Block format.

Self-Publishing learning NEVER stops!

Now, I have a WONDERFUL looking website (If I do say so myself!) and I simply enjoy how everything flowed together from my old to my new site.

My web designer introduced me to UnSplash where I can get my visual candy for my site, and chose some awesome pictures. We also just added a few books to the main page, and viewers can scroll down the page, click to email me, and use the Menu to go everywhere else.

It’s sleek. Its precise. It’s easy to navigate. It’s…modern! I so just love the new look. It’s me….

Well, that’s all I had to say this time. I wonder when I’ll post again…. Hmmmm.

Until next time!

Whatcha Doing?

ProjectsSept2015I haven’t posted for awhile, and I decided to add something to this blog site after an email accidentally went out displaying my old content. And why did that happen, you might ask for those still subscribing to this site? Well…. What happened was….uh…. LOL!!

Changing Hosts!
Just kidding. What happened was that I was changing host sites. I’ve been with ICDSoft for hosting my website for years, and finally changed to Hostgator. Why did I change, you might ask? Well, I wanted another .com (domain) website, but I didn’t want to manage it with a completely different control panel (cpanel) and login and password. Hostgator has the “addon” feature, where I can create, thus add, another .com (domain) website and manage it within the same control panel (cpanel) as my other .com (domain) website. Get it? So, basically I want to manage two different websites under one management tool. ICDSoft didn’t offer that option, so I decided to change because…

…I kinda likes that feature!

So what’s the other .com website? Well, it’s just some of my (what some people would call) strange beliefs, which I had posted on this blog site. But it really shouldn’t be on here. Two different subjects should be placed separately. I’m a snail, you know, so I do make changes slowly.

I ran into some problems, as usual, with making such a huge change. Even though I went back to Guru.com to find someone to move everything for me, problems arose. I got a 500 Hostgator error on all my .php pages. I found out I had to change the permission on the files. Previously, they were 0644 on ICDSoft. On Hostgator, I had to change them to 0755. Then, some of my images, just didn’t show. But when you click them, I could see the image. I just replaced each and every picture link that had the problem. That required going through the entire blog and finding them. It wasn’t all the images, so that was good. Why that happened, I just couldn’t find an easy answer.

And why am I updating and fixing errors when I paid someone on guru.com to do the move? Well, I wasn’t quite precise on what I wanted and the job required a lot more time and effort than the description I gave. So, to make up for that, I just went ahead and fixed the little problems that did arise, though it took my hours to figure it out through searching in Google. Nonetheless, it got done.

Another Anthology Project
I’ve been asked to be part of another anthology. I’ve got my 2nd draft done, and I’ll get it edited soon after one more look over. The deadline for the completed work is January 2016, so I have time to get everything done…with my slow self. I have been asked to do an anthology before, but it unfortunately got canceled. That’s how I ended up with Tirna Magique. With this new project, and new short story, I figured if things don’t go as planned, I’ll just make a book of short stories. I have plenty of them just sitting around for years and years and years, so why not put them all together and share them with the world! Even if this anthology project doesn’t get tanked, I figured I should put together those short stories anyway. That will be my next, easy, project to complete, since novels take much more time these days.

Another Irid book
I’m currently working on another book within the Irid world. Have I mentioned this before? I don’t remember… Anyway, this one is placed a few hundred years after the first novel. It’s coming along…uh… I’m half way through it…being that I started it around November 2013. Yeah…I’m slow.

I’ve got one more thing I’ve finished working on, and its been a long time coming. But, I’ll post that update later.

Until Next Time!bite





Movable Type…Again…And Going to Natural Hair

So, I’m continually figuring out little ways that I can do to market online, without having to spend too much time, since currently I just don’t have the time. As I do my baby steps towards marketing, that will be one last thing I need to do when I do have the time.

One thing I learned on my internet research is to put your Second Skill to work. If you put your Second Skill out there, you can drive more traffic to your First Skill. For example, my First Skill is writing and I do have a Second Skill, which is my job, of programming telephone systems and call centers. If I created another blog and/or website about my knowledge of my Second Skill, then on those web pages I can direct traffic to my First Skill with just a link/click away.

But, I’m not going to use my Second Skill, since I consider that “work”. I decided to open up another blog page about my new project: Transitioning from Relaxed to Natural Hair. Remember back when in 2008 I was looking for a Blog site? Well, I put my adventures on this page: Finding a Blog…. And I noted how much of a difficult time I had with installing Movable Type that I placed my own instruction on the internet on how to install Movable type to maybe help someone else.

So, why am I talking about Movable Type since I had such a hard time with it two years ago? Well, since I already had that blog uploaded on the net, I decided to use that for my blogging for my steps from transitioning from relaxed to natural hair. I mean, it was there and not being used, right? I had forgotten how difficult it was to even manipulate the thing. That blog was pretty plain, and so I had to figure out, ALL OVER AGAIN, steps on how to make it more personable. It took HOURS! And when I finally figured SOMETHING out (after resizing a picture file using Gimp, figuring out html tables and widths, learning where the header and banner and styles and widgets for columns were and what they did), I was only able to add a little picture and a short list links.

Then, MORE HOURS went in to figure out the RSS Feed for Movable Type (remember my I thought I knew blog). Well, I didn’t quite understand Movable Type atom thing (which is basically like rss), thinking some mysterious icon will magically appear on my header for people to click — something that indicated “Hey! This Page has RSS” button. No magically RSS button appeared, and I finally figure out that it was just “formatting” for people who use an actual software, or their webpage, to pull in the RSS on their browser. So I went to my Google Feedburner, made a thingy there. And copied a nice little path to make me a RSS button and link back to Google Feedburner, adding it to my Movable Type Banner Header. Side Note: I still have no idea how the atom thingy works since that is somehow directed back to my own webpage. Sigh.

Then I found out I had to UPGRADE the Movable Type thingy!! YIKES! That took me TWO WHOLE DAYS to figure out and complete. Duh! Naturally, I typed up instructions on how to Upgrade Movable Type as well. And along with that, I updated my instruction on how to install Movable type, because, 1) you basically have to reinstall the entire thing in order to upgrade it and 2) my first instructions were back in 2008 and outdated. Man! Uploading and Downloading files took 20-30 minutes. And I did it THREE TIMES because I didn’t see the BIG RED WARNING sign to NOT COPY MOVABLE TYPE FILES WHEN UPGRADING.

I’m SO GLAD that Word Press upgrades are now just a Click of a Button.

Don’t ask me why I’m making myself suffer through learning all this stuff. I don’t know. I get into something, thinking it won’t be a big deal, and get stuck. Then, since I can’t let it go, I have to figure it out until it gets solved. But hopefully, in the long run, what I learn will benefit someone else. That’s what I love about the internet, because that’s what I did to learn about how to transition from relaxed to natural hair. I gathered all the information together, and put it in a structure that suited me. And now I’m sharing that information on my other blog site. And as for “Marketing” I put a Big Sign up top:

Websites! I Like!

So there you have it. More steps in my Self Publishing Process.

Until next time… and oh yeah! Happy New Year!

Installing Movable Type on ICDSoft

Even though I had problems with Movable Type, doesn’t mean that you will.
I modified the instructions a bit below that was provided by ICDSoft, to
make more sense to me; and it might make more sense to you.

You can find screen shots of Movable Type setup here.

http://www.superxm.com/2007/08/movable-type-4-installation-step-by-step-with-screenshots.html

NOTE: I’ve updated this page with newer instruction, since my first instructions were back in 2008. This is most rececent Jan 2011.

+++++++ HERE WE GO ++++++++++++

I hope these more “simpler” instruction might help some with their installation. Follow these steps to install Movable Type:

1. Download the installation from the site of the vendor. Movable Type can be obtained from:

http://movabletype.org/

2. Once you have downloaded the zip file that contains the installation, and uncompress it (unzip it) in

your C; drive, you need to upload the files in it to your disk space/hosting site.

Logon to ICDSoft, go to File Manage and create two folders

under the root directory: 1) mt and 2) mt-static.

For Instant, if your Blog Url is: http://blog.tomjoe.com

Then create the folders under: /home/TOMEJOE/www/blog/

I used CoreFTP to upload my files, but you can use whatever applications with FTP.

A free software suggested was here: http://filezilla-project.org/. But I’m assuming since you already have an account with ICDSoft, you know how to do this part already.

3. Using FTP, upload all of the files in the “MT-5.0-en” folder into the “MT” in ICDSoft folder EXCEPT for

“mt-static”. DO NOT UPLOAD the folder “mt-static” Also remember, you’re only uploading the files, DO NOT

UPLOAD THE FOLDER “MT-5.0-en”, just all of the files in it.

PATH IS: /home/TOMEJOE/www/blog/mt

4. Upload all of the files of under “mt-static” on your C: to ICDSoft folder “mt-static”. Remember, you’re only uploading the files, and not the entire folder. Remember: “mt-static” folder and “mt” folder are both under the root directory.

PATH IS: /home/TOMEJOE/www/blog/mt

PATH IS: /home/TOMEJOE/www/blog/mt-static

5. You need to create a MySQL database for the Movable Type application. From ICDSoft Control Panel, click

“MySQLDatabase”. In the “Create new database” Create the name for the database.

It should look like “tomjoe_blog” or “tomjoe_myblog”

In the “Collation” field, it should be: utf8_general_ci

Click the “Create” button

You will have to create a login/password called a “MySQL User” for this database. There will already be a login created, which is the “master” account. That is a default. You also need to create another MySQL subuser for Movable Type to use to log into your database. You don’t want them to use your master account since that’s the same one you use to access you host/website information.

Under “Create new MySQL user”

EXAMPLE:

Database Name: tomjoe_blog (use pull-down menu to selecte your database name)

MySQLUser: joetom

Password:

Confirm Password

Be sure to grant all privileges to the newly created MySQL subuser, by clicking/check makr all the words in the “Privileges” box. And click the “Add” button. And after you save it, make sure the ID has all of the permissions as listed below in the “MySQl users”.

Select, Create, Create View, Execute SP, Insert, Alter, Show View, Update, Lock, Alter SP, Delete, Drop, Create SP

6. Go back to File Manager and browse to the directory where the extracted files for Movable Type are located. Copy the file “mt-config.cgi-original” to “mt-config.cgi”. NOTE: Make sure to copy so you will have the original just in case you mess up something.

7. Click the file “mt-config.cgi” through the File Manager.

At the line specifying the “CGIPath” you need to enter the URL (web address) to Movable Type under your account. It should look similar to this:

http://example.com/mt/mt-version/ (Another Way: http://tomjoe.com/mt/)

At the line specifying the “StaticWebPath” use the address path for “mt-static”.

It should look like:

http://example.com/mt-version/mt-static (My ways: http://tomjoe.com/mt-static)

NOTE: Below I give an example of how the “mt-config.cgi” file should be configured for your MySQL database settings.

DEFINITIONS

Database: You need to specify the MySQL database you created for your Movable Type application.

DBUser: You need to enter the MySQL username you created at your web hosting Control Panel’s MySQL section for your Movable Type application.

DBPassword: You need to enter the password you assigned to your “MySQL subuser”.

You will also need to add the following line under the rest of the MySQL settings:

DBSocket /tmp/mysql5.sock

After that you need to delete ALL THE the lines in the file, which include the “POSTGRESQL”, “SQLITE” and “BERKELEYDB” database settings.

BELOW IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW “mt-config.cgi” file should look like

++++++++++++++EXMAPLE+++++++++++++++++++++++

## Movable Type configuration file ##

## ##

## This file defines system-wide settings for Movable Type ##

## In total, there are over a hundred options, but only those ##

## critical for everyone are listed below. ##

## ##

## Information on all others can be found at: ##

## http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/appendices/config-directives/ ##

################################################################

##################### REQUIRED SETTINGS ########################

################################################################

# The CGIPath is the URL to your Movable Type directory

CGIPath http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/mt/

# The StaticWebPath is the URL to your mt-static directory

# Note: Check the installation documentation to find out

# whether this is required for your environment. If it is not,

# simply remove it or comment out the line by prepending a “#”.

StaticWebPath http://www.example.com/mt-static

#================ DATABASE SETTINGS ==================

# REMOVE all sections below that refer to databases

# other than the one you will be using.

#======== REQUIRED SETTINGS ==========

CGIPath /mt

StaticWebPath /mt-static/

StaticFilePath /home/tomjoe/www/mt-static

TemplatePath /home/tomjoe/www/mt/tmpl

#======== DATABASE SETTINGS ==========

##### MYSQL #####

ObjectDriver DBI::mysql

Database tomjoe_blog

DBUser tomjoeblog

DBPassword suzietime1

DBHost localhost

DBSocket /tmp/mysql5.sock

#======== MAIL =======================

MailTransfer sendmail

SendMailPath /usr/lib/sendmail

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

8. Update the permissions of all cgi files (14 files) to be executable.

In the “Permission” column, change them from “664” to “775”

Do this for each and every file.

9. Rename the “mt-check.cgi” to “mt-check-unsafe.cgi”

If You don’t do this step, you will receive the following message below on step 14:

“The MT-Check report is disabled when Movable Type has a valid configuration file (mt-config.cgi)”

NOTE: This will allow you a direct access to the URL (mt-check-unsafe.cgi) for 10 minutes.

Once having confirmed the system information in step 14, don’t forget to rename it back to “mt-check.cgi” though it would be disabled automatically after 10 minutes.

10. In your web browser, type the path

http://blog.tomjoe.com/mt/mt-check-unsafe.cgi

The message “Movable Type System Check Successful” will appear at the bottom of the screen if the server has all the necessary libraries/modules for installing Movable Type.

11. Remember to rename “mt-check-unsafe.cgi” back to “mt-check.cgi”

12. In your web browser, login into Movable Type

http://blog.tomjoe.com/mt/

OR

http://blog.tomjoe.com/mt/mt.cgi

13. Create the administrator account. Click “Continue”.

14. Create the first website. Click “Finish”. Movable Type will then initialize the database with all the configuration options and settings specified. In the “Create Your First Blog” enter basic information about your blog, the name, Blog URL which is what people will type in the browser to get to your blog, and the string that will get to your directory of files.

15. Click “Sign into Movable Type”

16. Sign back into Movable Type, if asked

+++++++++++++++++

Important notice: You should monitor the site of the software vendor for any security updates of your installed application.

+++++++++++++++++

THAT’S IT. YOU’RE DONE WITH THE INSTALLATION. SO GO HAVE FUN MAKING YOUR BLOG SITE

+++++++++++++++++

Finding a Blog, Website, and other Online Stuff for Self Publishing

Soooo…
First I went hunting for a host and dug around the internet. There were tons of people with lists of (what people think were) the best Top 10 web hosting companies…and that list changed with every site I went to. So then I decided to search for any site that had issues or problems. I typed “reviews” after each hosting site that I researched.
Then I came across BestHostingRatings and really liked it! I had already reviewed other sites and this one had comments from people that seemed legit. Plus I had already looked at the one I was most interested in, and it had a lot of comments on it.

I chose ICDSoft, and then got my domain at NameCheap since it offered to place their company information in front of my personal information to keep my address and info private in WhoIs. ICDSoft didn’t offer that, but that’s okay. NameCheap calls it the WhoIsGuard. Though I’m sure there are probably other ways for people to get your information, I figure the more deterrents you have, the better. Everything was completed and done on September 12, 2008.

Soooo
I’m learning html and a bit of css while trying to design a website without paying someone else to do it for me. I was going to use a webdesigner for my webiste (Deana Zhollis) but got pointed to some templates. And I found one for like $30.00 and it was fairly easy to play around with at TheTemplateStore. The other thing is that I have a friend who I could borrow software to help me out with all of the design, otherwise the software to configure a website like this template would have cost me over $1,000 to buy them all. But updating the template was lots of hours and hours of fun. No. Really. I enjoyed figuring out GIMP, Dreamweaver (for FREE html software, try out Nvu. I downloaded it and it works great!–but not with this template site. Just with basic html from scratch, or simple templates), Swish and Adobe Fireworks. Lots of fun. But what I didn’t like, and what was NOT fun, was Movable Type!

I wanted to have a blog, even though I barely write online, but I’ve heard time and again, that it would help generate people to your site.
Which is what I want to do for my self-published book.

So on to researching free blog sites, and I came across Movable Type, which some people really loved. What I didn’t know was that those people who love it so much were Web Designers.

I worked hours and days trying to upload that sucker onto my host site, even with the help of my host IT at ICDSoft, who basically told me (after I tried to fix something they had already fixed out of the kindness of their hearts) that I was on my own and to start over. I don’t blame them. The stupid thing was horrible! A nightmare!
And then…HURRAY!…it was working. So then, to play around with it. The fun part, right? Wrong! You basically need to be a Web Designer (which, like I said before, I didn’t know) just to maneuver around in that thing! I can’t do a simply thing like move my columns around, cause I need to know more css than I do!

So I decided to scratch the Movable Type project and find another software where I can have a blog. I looked into WordPress, but before trying to install a “very easy” program as so many have already suggested, I still didn’t see if it would be as easy as it was designing my website with the template I bought from TheTemplateStore.com for $30 bucks.

On to looking at Blogger. Can I put in on my host site? Yes, they say. I can FTP the page. But they didn’t tell you it had to be a STANDARD TEMPLATE! What if I wanted to add some neat things to my blog site, to make it look pretty and different? Nope. Standard. And If I wanted to tweak the darn thing, I would need to know more of HTML than I do. PLUS I can’t delete my account, but I can put in bogus information in it and decide to never sign on to it again. So there’s another Blogger profile out there, no website, but just sitting on a server.

Sigh…

WhatToDo..WhatToDo..WhatToDo..WhatToDo..???

I went back online and did more research and found out that Word Press has things called “themes.” And then found a youtube presentation on how easy it was to implement one. Will it work? Back to downloading…

This time, downloading wasn’t so bad. It claims 5 minutes to do everything, but it still took some doing…about 15-20 minutes for me. If I hadn’t done the Movable Type, I would have never known how to setup my database. Then on to themes. Did some research and found one that I liked, and played around with it. It wouldn’t work with my widgets and columns, so I guess it wasn’t designed right. On to more templates/skins. Found another one. Not as fun as the first one, but it worked. Now to editting it to fit my needs. Very nice! Just like using the Dreamweaver template. Fun. Easy to figure out. A FUN to figure out, which is most important, and now I have to go along with everyone else who simply enjoyes Word Press!

However, I did read that because it’s popular, it’s subjected to lots of spam and hacks and bad people who just want to spoil the fun. So I went on to finding security stuff for it which told me about .htaccess files. Some of them worked, others just got in the way. Again. I’m not that familiar with web design and stuff, so the few things I was able to add and update, I only can hope they’re deterrents.
So, I’ll just cross my fingers and hope for the best on that.

Back to learning more on Word Press

…And having fun! 🙂