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Installing RMagick on Debian Lenny

Just a quick reminder to myself on how I installed RMagick on a Debian 5.0.4 “lenny” VPS. All commands to be run as root.
Build ImageMagick from source
curl -O ftp://ftp.imagemagick.org/pub/ImageMagick/ImageMagick.tar.gz
tar xvzf ImageMagick.tar.gz -C /usr/src/
cd /usr/src/ImageMagick-6.6.6-6/
./configure
make
make install
Install the RMagick Gem
gem install rmagick
Bingo!
As an interesting aside, ImageMagick handles a lot of image formats via delegate libraries. I previously [...]

2010 12 25 Linux
Ruby Comments (0)

Migrating a WordPress database between domains

Occassionally I find myself developing a WordPress theme which will then require moving from development into production or otherwise having to move a blog between domains.
Apart from the transfer of the files, including plugins, theme and core WordPress installation, there is only 1 slightly gotcha: the database. I’ve never been quite sure why but WordPress [...]

2010 01 05 MySQL Comments (2)

MySQL database backup with remote storage

Prevent a disaster
After reading Jeff Atwood’s backup failure last month I decided to finally get around to doing something I’d been intending to do “one of these days” but had in actual fact been putting off for years.
Here’s the steps I took to ensure the databases on my webserver were backed up every night and [...]

2010 01 04 Linux Comments (2)

# shutdown -h now

I’ve just shutdown the beige box that was home to this blog for just over a year and a half until I started renting a VPS.
I had intended to shutdown this machine since the start of the year but never got around to it and after a techie chat on IM with Dave Dripps earlier [...]

2008 07 27 Linux
Meta Comments (0)

Building the brand – stevenwilkin.com gets a facelift

I’ve just released the latest iteration of my “professional” site, stevenwilkin.com.
There’s the possibility the designers I’m working with will think my design-fu is weak, but the site badly needed something as it has been barely put to use in the years I’ve owned it.
I don’t know how the Steven Wilkin web experience will evolve but [...]

2008 06 12 Me Comments (0)

Updating WordPress via Subversion: it works!

The last time a new version was released I decided to update my WordPress installation with Subversion with the idea being that this would make future updates easier.
Well, the good news is that this technique works
All it took was 3 simple steps:

$ cd /var/www/sickbiscuit.com/blog
$ svn switch http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.5/ .
launch wp-admin/upgrade.php via web-browser

To be [...]

2008 04 01 Linux Comments (0)

Updating WordPress via Subversion

I read a few months back that Stuart Langridge was using Subversion to keep his WordPress up-to-date and I thought: “that’s clever” and didn’t do anything about it.
Today I was talking to Matt and he mentioned updating one of his WordPress installations and I noticed I was due an update myself. I downloaded the latest [...]

2008 03 05 Linux
Meta Comments (0)

Site migration

I’ve just finished migrating sickbiscuit.com from my home development machine to my new VPS.
DNS records have been updated and decaf is now handling mail and web traffic for the domain allow the only thing I’ve copied over is this blog.
Hopefully this will give me the motivation needed to spruce things up a bit as the [...]

2008 01 04 Linux
Meta Comments (0)

ISP style mail server on Debian VPS

Last month I decided to invest in a VPS from VPSLink.
I had been considering this for a while, especially after my experience using an Ubuntu VPS with Infurious and after 2 power failures within as many weeks due to building work nearby to my home, my hand was forced. No more hosting on a Linux [...]

2008 01 01 Linux Comments (0)

ASUS Eee PC action shot

For nearly a week now I have been exclusively using an Eee PC. I promised an action shot and here it is:

Using this device I have went about all my regular activities, even a bit of web development.
The biggest hindrance I've found has been using a screen resolution lower than what I'm accustomed to and [...]

2007 12 28 Photo Comments (0)