For over a week, I’ve been battling with Bloglines to get my site feed to update properly. According to them, it hasn’t updated since before the start of the year. At first I thought this was related to the WP Super Cache problems from last week, but I’m pretty sure that’s no longer the problem as I have actually disabled the plugin trying to get things working again. I emailed Bloglines a few days ago to seek assistance and have heard nothing back. I’ve forced pings and still nothing.

I feel bad because I know some people are subscribed through Bloglines and I hope they don’t think that I’m not writing. If they aren’t handling my feed correctly, I wonder how many others are not updating either. So I exported my entire list of subscriptions and imported them into Google Reader. And I must say that so far I am really happy with the switch. Google Reader updates faster than Bloglines does, and I actually enjoy their layout and added features. I haven’t found a good way to list everything into a categorized blogroll, but that’s a minor issue. I think this switch may be permanent.

It has come to my attention that there has recently been a problem with my site feed. Apparently, it was not working in Opera, Safari, or in Bloglines. I’m pretty sure this boils down to a wordpress plugin that I installed not too long ago that I hoped would improve performance, WP Super Cache. This plugin creates static html pages for viewing instead of the more resource heavy dynamic php pages. I’ve been fairly impressed by the performance benefit so far, has anyone else noticed faster loading pages? But I guess this plugin was destroying the feed. To fix this, I added “feed” to the list of Rejected URIs in the WP Super Cache settings, and deleted all of the existing cache files. I know this fixed the Opera and Safari issues and I’m hoping it will resolve Bloglines as well.

I installed a home security system into the house last night from SimpliSafe. We had always tossed around the idea of having a system installed, but were put off from the high costs associated with companies like ADT or Brinks. When I first read about SimpliSafe, I was immediately impressed not only with the low cost, but also with the ease of customizing/expanding the system and the simple look of the system. The setup couldn’t have been easier with the great setup guide on the computer and the wonderfully wireless components already equipped with sticky tape. And any time I’ve run into a question or issue, their customer service has been top notch responding almost immediately and doing everything possible to please. I am highly impressed with everything so far and I would definitely recommend this system.

Another day with some downtime for the website. My apologies for this one, as I cannot blame it on Comcast or any outside source. My hard drive filled up completely on my server. I had absolutely no space remaining. I’ve been looking into buying some more drives or possibly getting a NAS setup. I’m still reading up on this though, so feel free to add suggestions. For now, I need to remember to move some files that don’t need to be on the server off of it and onto my other PC. I hope I can get to that tomorrow.

Last night, I noticed that the Wii was not connecting to the internet as it should. I checked my computer and sure enough the internet connection was down, though all lights on the cable modem and router looked okay. I gave up on it until this morning, hoping that the issue would resolve itself. Well it didn’t, so I first removed the router from my connection and plugged my PC directly into the cable modem. After refreshing everything, my connection was working again. So I was able to get onto work, but I really needed to get the router back inline so everything else would work.

So after awhile, I plugged the router back in, restored the factory settings, did a hard reset, and still no internet. I was baffled! So I started to think that maybe the router had gone bad. I even went so far as to look for a new one online, which I could pick up during lunch from Best Buy. I then remembered all of the open source firmware available for the router, Linksys WRT54G, and decided to try one of these out. I figured the worst I could do was completely break the router, which was already not working for me. After consulting with my adviser, I opted for DD-WRT and quickly got it installed. Incredibly, it worked right away! All I had to do from there was re-configure all of my port forwards, wireless security, etc. I don’t know why the official firmware wasn’t working for me, but I’m glad this one is, and I’m really liking the advanced functionality.

Something crazy happened to my webserver today and I’m still not sure what it was. All of the categories used for posts suddenly disappeared and then i couldn’t even open the site. I got a database connection error, so mysql might have something to do with it. Perhaps my hard drive is full, I know that both drives in the server are very close to full capacity. But now everything seems to be working again. I’ll check into it tonight when I get home.

I’m not sure if this was big news around the nation or not, but a guy used a jet pack to fly across the Royal Gorge yesterday. It was widely covered by the local media, and you can even see some video of the ride on denverpost.com or YouTube. I was scared just crossing the bridge earlier this year and cannot imagine actually flying over the gorge. The aerial tram ride that is offered might be the closest thing to the jet pack ride, though the jet pack took just over 20 seconds to cross the gorge and reached 75 mph, while the tram tops out at just over 10 mph. The video footage doesn’t do a good job of showing the massiveness of the gorge, but it’s thrilling nonetheless.

So I’m in the market for a new cell phone, and today the Blackberry Storm has been released. Many of you may already know about this, with the amount of publicity it’s been given. I was seriously considered taking the plunge and getting this phone until I started reading some of the reviews today. I think I would really like having access to my email and the web at all times, I am just a little concerned about the specifics of this device. The push/touch screen was supposed to be a big selling point, but so far I’ve been reading very mixed reviews of it. I think I’ll try to get into a store soon to check it out in person before making a final decision. Or I’ve heard that there’s a money back guarantee through Verizon that may be worth looking into. And don’t try to convince me to get an iPhone, G1, or other device as I don’t plan to leave Verizon anytime soon.

Comcast decided to disrupt my internet service for the last 24 hours or so. I called them and complained and they credited my account, though I’m not sure how much of an adjustment will actually be made. I’m just glad that I am once again online. More tomorrow.

Has anyone downloaded Chrome yet? If you have no idea what I’m referring to, google has released their very own stripped down web browser. I know they announced it weeks ago, but you have to give me a little break as I’m still playing catchup from the trip. I haven’t downloaded it so far, but from a few reviews I can’t wait to give it a shot. I love the fact that each tab runs independently from others, so if you have a crash on one site it isn’t going to bring the whole browser down. One item that concerns me are some of the add-ons I use with firefox and the fact that I may not be able to function without them.