We’re looking for someone with a broad range of WordPress, PHP, XHTML and CSS experience, basic server configuration experience, and in particular someone with outstanding communication skills.

Ideally we’d like to add someone who lives on the west end of the country¹ in order to have better coverage throughout the work day across all US timezones. However, we’re definitely looking for the best person for the job.

Providing great service is our number one priority, and we need someone who understands this inherently. Not only does the HelpCenter team reflect on Crowd Favorite, but we also have a responsibility to every affiliate plugin and theme developer who puts their trust in us. It’s also important to continue receiving good press and word-of-mouth recommendations.

See the job posting on the HelpCenter web site for more details and to apply. The position is open immediately and we hope to fill it within the next 30 days.

Questions? Post them in the comments and I’ll try to answer.

1. You can work remotely. [back]

We’re likely to make the move from SVN to Mercurial or Git in the next few months, for at least a segment of our development at Crowd Favorite.

I’ve been doing a bit of reading on pros and cons, but would appreciate real-world experience from folks that have it. In particular with a focus on many projects sharing libraries as externals and being worked on in a team environment.

Being able to stick code we Open Source on Google Code would be nice with Mercurial, however Github seems like a pretty stable alternative.

The white label program is very simple. We provide the servers and the software you need to run the system. You provide the service (including your support and recovery service) to your clients at rates of your choosing, while paying just 1/2 the standard BackupMoxie monthly rates. That’s it!

The premise is that you probably know the site you built for your client better than anyone, and you are probably the best person to handle a restore, etc. should something bad happen on the client’s server. The barrier to providing this service was a lack of turnkey backup solution that could easily be branded with your company – we’ve got you covered.

You can easily customize individual settings on the web site like the site name, the name and price of packages, contact email, alert notification email, etc. as well a wholesale replacement of the header and footer of the site and override CSS. You can style the site and make it your own – either a basic skinning job or more in-depth full content replacement changes.

The features of BackupMoxie allow you to provide great service for your customers.

• BackupMoxie provides 60 days of full snapshot backups, taken every 6 hours (Gold) or every 24 hours (Silver).
• If a backup fails for some reason, the backup is flagged accordingly and an email notification is sent to the address you specify. There is also an RSS feed of failed backups.
• The admin interface of the system allows you easy access to create web site profiles with multiple databases, excluding certain directories (cache, etc.) as well as reporting on backup failures (server timeout, permissions errors, etc.) for easy review and management.
• To restore a site, simply download a backup from the last known good state and restore the necessary files and/or database to get things back where they need to be.

If you’re interested in offering BackupMoxie (maybe branded as Your-Name-Here Backup Service), you can get in touch through the form on the white label page and we’ll get you all set up.

As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 ​as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

I’ve never been so glad to receive the same email 5 times (for each Google Apps domain).

I had a hard time tracking down this info so I thought I’d post it here for the benefit of others.

I recently added a Sony Blu-Ray player to my basement home theater system. I’m really pleased with the device; besides playing Blu-Ray discs quite nicely, it also supports streaming video from Netflix and Amazon. I had considered getting a second Roku, but this is fitting the bill nicely. The only problem I had was getting it connected to the network as it doesn’t have built-in wifi.

I had a similar problem with the PowerMac G5 I moved to the upstairs office which similarly doesn’t have wifi. Basically, I needed a way to get working wired connections to the upstairs and basement of my house. I knew this was theoretically possible with the hardware I already had (Airport Extreme base station and 2 Airport Express units), but I couldn’t find an overview of how to properly set it up.

So the first question is: fundamentally, can this work? The answer is yes.

Depending on how you have it set up, the Ethernet port can function as a LAN port (defined as either simple bridging or sharing your Internet connection via network address translation)… When it is set up as a WDS remote station, it can act as a LAN port.

I first tried to get an Express to extend the wireless network created by my DLink router. This will not work. While the Express will connect to a 3rd party wireless network for Airtunes, it will not extend a 3rd party network. In short, you can’t do what I want to do with a non-Apple wireless router.

In client mode AirPort Express does not offer itself as a wireless access point or use its Ethernet port.

In order to get the Express’ ethernet port live in extending the network, you must have it set up as a relay/remote on a WDS network.

A remote base station connects wirelessly to the main station and extends (or “rebroadcasts”) the wireless network to clients that are not in range of the main. A relay base station is like a remote, but it has the additional function of extending the wireless network to a remote which isn’t within range of the main. There can be only one relay between a remote and a main.

A couple of tips for setting up the WDS configuration:

1. You will need to copy/paste the Airport ID of each airport into the proper location in the admin panels. You need to enter the Airport ID of the relays/remotes into the Main and the address of the Main into the remotes.
2. You must make sure that the wireless network settings of the WDS relays/remotes match that of the WDS main. This means the network name, authentication settings, and the channel.

Once you have configured the Extreme as the WDS Main and the Expresses as WDS relays/remotes, the ethernet ports on the Expresses will also extend the network, just as desired. Works like a champ!

If you need to connect more than one wired device from the location of an Express, you can do so by adding a hub. Connect the uplink port on the hub to the Express, and the rest of the ports on the hub will now all extend the network.

Hopefully this will help someone with similar questions.

This release addresses two bugs:

1. The use of the native json_decode() function, required by the changes in WordPress 2.9 (version 2.1) created a problem for users with servers running 32-bit PHP. The json_decode() function treats the tweet ID field as an integer larger than it can handle, which causes the issues. Thanks to Joe Tortuga and Ciaran Walsh for sending in the fix. Of note: I haven’t had a chance to set up a 32-bit PHP install so I can’t reproduce this, but it appears to work for many based on forum feedback. Yep, I’m still dealing with the ramifications from this.
2. Typo-fix that should allow resetting digests properly (not sure when this broke). Thanks lionel_chollet.

The download and more information are available on my WordPress Plugins page.

If you have any trouble with this, please contact the WordPress HelpCenter (303-395-1346) or you can try the WP Support Forums.

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I’m torn between the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus. On the one hand, the Pixi is the form factor I prefer in a smart phone (going back to my Treo 600 days). On the other hand, speed is really important to me in a mobile device and one of my complaints about the Pre was speed (I’ve heard it’s been improved) and the Pixi has slower hardware. The reviews all say they’ve improved the keyboard on the Pre from the Sprint model, which is a good thing. I’m planning to play with the models in the store to make the final decision.

I’ve been primarily a BlackBerry user for the last few years, mainly based on the keyboard. The BlackBerry has been a great utility device for me, however my BlackBerry Tour suffers from horrible stalls and lag, takes 6 minutes to reboot and I’m tired of being on a platform that’s going nowhere. Getting off a dead platform is why I moved from the Treo to the BlackBerry in the first place.

There are some other interesting considerations as well. I currently have plans with 3 different carriers:

• Verizon for my BlackBerry. I use this for primary mobile data and voice. The Palm would replace this.
• AT&T for my iPhone. I use this for occasional mobile data.
• Sprint for MiFi. I use this when I travel, which has been more rare of late.

With a Palm on Verizon, I can add MiFi functionality as a feature for $40/month ($20/month cheaper than what I pay Sprint). In addition, I would always have it with me (I don’t carry the MiFi all the time), which would mean I could use it for mobile data for my iPhone. Canceling the AT&T and Sprint plans and adding the MiFi feature on the Verizon Palm would save me about $95/month, which makes the cancellation fees from the carriers a bit less painful.

I’m going to live with the Palm for at least a few weeks before taking the plunge on all the cancellations, but it seems a lot more sane than the current set-up.

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Logging this here for my own future reference.