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Now on multi-site server

ShawnReed.Com now resides on an Nginx server that can host other types of sites. It wasn’t entirely difficult, but still a learning experience.

Server Configuration

These were helpful:
Ghost Installation Doc
Deploy Ghost Blog on Ubuntu Server and serve it to subdirectory using Nginx

I’ve been setting up sites on this server over the last month that were primarily low-traffic domains, with a healthy level of php support.

My normal document root seemed a bit out-of-place, because my experiences with ghost on both Bitnami and Digital Ocean prepackaged Ghost images used ‘ghost’ as the document root. In hindsight I’m not sure if that was worthwhile, but regardless.

Configuring Nginx to use a different document root wasn’t difficult, but getting the proxy settings to work wasn’t fun.

When ghost did finally run (by checking it’s standard port directly), I changed my DNS settings. For a while things still didn’t work properly on port 80. When I removed the document root index file names the issue was cleared up.

Had to revert to a previous theme to resolve some issues with disqus, a project for another weekend.

It was good to see the family on two wheels with me this evening 🙂

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Take off the earbuds!

This morning’s ride was a cool 18.46 miles of cool-breeze and sunny skies, thanks to our mid-south location and climate change.

It was also an experience in frequent stalls, stops, and near-misses:

  • If you jog, don’t cross the line. When we’re saying “on your left”, it doesn’t make much sense if you can’t hear us.
  • Many walkers bring their dogs, which is great. Many dogs also like to go wherever the fun is, which isn’t too difficult to navigate as well. However, if your dog makes contact with another dog (which is also expected) that is also being walked by another being zoned out by earbuds it can result in two leashed dogs completely blocking the path. one of you needs to remove the tunes in order to hear what is going on
  • Parents with kids. I wish I brought my son on the path early like you, but a child that you can’t hear is an accident waiting to happen. Even if they are already riding your support will be needed. Leave the music at home, a child’s happiness should be enough
  • Riders experiencing fatigue need to be aware of their surroundings. Some will manage their energy and stop safely, but if you frequently push yourself to the limit it is important to understand how your reaction time is reduced when distracted. Listening to the latest music is fun, but can lead to an overall unpleasant ride and accidents if you are aggressively training. Motorcycle Riders learn reaction time variables in basic training.
  • Stopping in blind curves is something everyone is cautious about, but today’s listeners aren’t aware of their surroundings. It seems that those listening for long periods exhibit a perception that one part of the path is no different than another. If you find yourself stopping without stepping off, that a risk for others

The solution is easy, either turn down the volumne or leave it at home.

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iPod Replacement

Over the Independence Day Holidays I was out running errands in my FJ Cruiser and hit a pothole. The experience wasn’t bad (it never is in a FJ), but believe that it may have been the final blow to the 80gb iPod Classic that has been with me for several years.

The device had been in sitting in gloveboxes of my personal and company vehicles the majority of it’s existence; and run non-stop over countless hours and miles. If I wasn’t on a conference call or intense phone discussion, it was either blasting rock music or providing pleasing background noise. My theory is that the pothole in the road bounced the device enough to jam the hardisk. It would display, but wouldn’t sync with iTunes – even after several ipod resets.

30-pin iPods aren’t difficult to find, but most are used or low-capacity models. There were some refurbished possibilities, but their prices weren’t far from new options. It seems that the 4th gen market hadn’t grasped the idea of owning a lot of music. Many retailers returned their unsold inventory when 5th gen models were common. My old iPod also sat in the drawer of a repair shop for a week without being touched; representing an entirely separate saga.

The iPod Classic is available in a 160gb version now, and has the 30-pin connection, but uses the older hardware that contributed to my device’s failure. The price is better, but not enough to warrant the risk, a newer device is flash storage is best. The old device also had formed some rust on it’s side, and had an air bubble in the display, representing a couple design flaws that weren’t worth reliving.

I thought about dropping Apple reliance altogether. Google Music is very cool and a joy to use on my Nexus 7. There are some new Android Phones that support storage additions, allowing for the download of an entire library. It would retire several of my acessories (which will likely EOL eventually as Bluetooth options are picked up).

Minimizing accessory purchases was a motivator to sticking with Apple and buying the latest iPod. However, I also felt that leaving large amounts of content in a separate device was still a good practice for me. For many, it will be better to just sync to the cloud and download to your phone.

It wasn’t easy to find, but after looking through cases a 64gb iPod in Black/Slate was among several versions. Even on a USB 2.0 port the sync is taking a while. There are over 3600 photos and over 1800 songs on my PC; along with Outlook Contacts and Calendar. With three Google Apps, there is already just 36gb free on my new device.

Despite my Android/Linux preference, the new iPod is a positive experience. Wrapped it in a Zagg invisible shield and Survivor skin. It’s small, light, and fun to use.

The Lightning to 30-pin Adapter cable works on my Bose ipod player, that I rarely use. Hopefully it work work as well in my FJ. The bose controller didn’t seem to be effective at first, but got the hang of it again after a while. Shuffle mode was refreshing on the Bose.

Didn’t turn on iCloud storage during the setup, wasn’t a need for two cloud-storage providers.

That old iPod feels like a paperweight 🙂