First off, this is what I did:

• Set up my Facebook application
• Installed the Simple Facebook Connect plugin
• Activated plugin “Simple Facebook Connect – Base”
• Configured the plugin with the Facebook API key, Facebook Application Secret, and Facebook Application ID I got from setting up the Facebook app
• Activated the plugin “SFC – Like Button”
• Activated the plugin “SFC – Share Button”

The site showed the Facebook Like button but would not show the Facebook Share button. If you viewed the page source, the html xfbml code was present. This really threw me!

Finally, after much unproductive searching on the web, I used the Firefox Firebug add-on to see if I could find out anything. As a part of the page makeup I saw an iframe with an error about a url not being present. Since I had just recently set up the Facebook application, something clicked in my memory. When you are logged in to Facebook to see your application, under “Edit Settings” and then “Website” there are two settings, “Site URL” and “Site Domain”. I had set up the “Site URL” with “http://www.mysite.com/” and I did not have anything entered in the “Site Domain” field.

“Site URL” is your site’s address, simple enough. However, I entered it with the preceding “www” and my WordPress blog lists all my pages as “http://mysite.com” – without the “www” at the beginning. Guessed it yet?

If you look at the help text to the side of the “Site Domain” field, it says, “If set, Facebook will enable authentication on all subdomains (e.g., “example.com” will enable *.example.com)”.

So, I set “Site URL” to “http://mysite.com/” and set “Site Domain” to “mysite.com”.

I refreshed my blog and, voila! The Facebook Share button was now showing.

I realize that Facebook changes the specs and their edit screens for logging in and editing your applications often, but I hope the basic logic of this post is still helpful if you have this problem. Please leave a comment if this helped you out, or if there is anything additional to add. If I’m still set up with a Facebook Like, show me some love.

I moved the site using VDaemon to a new server and started getting the error message.

Old Server:
VDaemon: 2.3.0
OS (from command “cat /etc/issue”): CentOS release 4.5 (Final)
Apache: 2.0.46 (Red Hat)
PHP: 4.4.2

New Server:
VDaemon: 2.30
OS (from command “cat /etc/issue”): Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon Update 9)
Apache: 2.0.63 (Unix)
PHP: 5.25

The problem was in the vdaemon.php file in the function VDValidate().

There are two specific instances in the function where the line “$sErrMsg = VD_E_UNSERIALIZE;” is setting the error message.

There is a string comparison on the “if” statements before each line. From old server to new server the value being returned by the PHP “get_class” function in the “if” statement is returning a different case. My old server was returning a strictly lower case value and my new server is not.

The surest way to handle this error no matter what case your environment delivers the results is to force a comparison of same case to same case. I used the PHP “strtolower” function to convert the “get_class” result to lower case and *then* compare it to the string listed in the “if” statement. The text strings being compared (“cvdvalruntime” and “xmlnode”) were already in lower case on my distribution of VDaemon but if they are not strictly lower case in your code, change them to lower case.

Here are the two lines that I changed:

Before: if (!$oRuntime || get_class($oRuntime) != ‘cvdvalruntime’ || !is_array($oRuntime->aNodes))
After: if (!$oRuntime || strtolower(get_class($oRuntime)) != ‘cvdvalruntime’ || !is_array($oRuntime->aNodes))

Before: if (get_class($oRuntime->aNodes[$nIdx]) != ‘xmlnode’)
After: if (strtolower(get_class($oRuntime->aNodes[$nIdx])) != ‘xmlnode’)

This fixed it for me.

If this helped you out, leave a comment!

Configuration:
As of this writing, I am using WordPress 2.3.3 with release 4 of the K2 theme. I have the following active plugins: Akismet 2.1.3, Gravatars2 2.7.0, Gravatars2 WP-Cron 1.1, Subscribe To Comments 2.1.2, WordPress Database Backup 1.7.

Background:
I was configuring the K2 Sidebar Manager with the modules I wanted displayed and the order in which I wanted them displayed. I was working with three columns and also had one custom “Text, HTML, and PHP” module that I was using for Google Adwords. As I made changes, I was flipping over to another browser tab to take a look at my site. I think I had just removed a sidebar module and changed the order of existing modules – to tell the truth, I don’t remember the last change made. However, the site stopped displaying correctly. In Firefox you could see the top header and the three column format and the text on the page. The page background behind the text had disappeared displaying the site’s black color background throughout everything. I run a three column format with the posts in column 1, site navigation modules in column 2, and Google Adwords in column 3. Everything but the site search had disappeared.

What I tried that failed (not necessarily in this order):

• Going back to the K2 sidebar manager and adding and removing modules to reflect some kind of change in the page.
• Changing from 3 to 2 columns and back again. It didn’t work either way.
• Under K2 Options, deactivating the K2 sidebar manager. It worked without it! When I activated it again, it didn’t work anymore.
• Changing themes to my previous non-K2 theme. The site worked with the old theme! When I changed back to K2, it didn’t work anymore.
• Cleared all cache, cookies (pretty much everything) in the Firefox browser. Nope.
• Changed to Internet Explorer. Same problems except the interpretation of the CSS left me with the white page background so it looked better but the sidebar manager modules were still not working.

The fix:
Looking at the database tables for WordPress, under the table “wp-options” there is a record with an “option_name” of “k2sbm_modules_active”. When you look at the MEMO field under “option_value” this is where all of the K2 sidebar manager settings are stored. Mine was fubar’d somehow. I have several WordPress blogs that I  administrate. I was initially leery of just deleting the field so I copied the contents from the field of a newly installed WordPress with K2. This fixed the site. So, afterwards – now that I was comfortable I could fix things – I deleted the contents of the field. This worked fine. Afterwards I went back into my K2 sidebar manager and set everything back up the way I wanted. Everything worked fine.

What to do in the future:
There is a  “restore” and “backup” button at the top of the K2 sidebar manager. Once you have made changes in your sidebar manager, click the “backup” button. This will save a data file to your computer with – guess what? – the value of the “k2sbm_modules_active” field. To test, I saved my setup, went into the database and deleted the value manually, and then restored. Everything worked great.

Hope this helps somebody out! Leave me a comment if you find it helpful.

I’m awaiting a Comcast supervisor to call to see if they’ll *allow me* to give them $10 more per month so they can rip me off with substandard internet service.

Love it.

As he posted, we received the following support e-mail:

“Well it had to happen sOMETIME I THINK I ScrewED UP MY LAP TOP I Spilled glue on the left sIDE OF MY KEY BOARD NOW i get indicriminate letter flucuation’s UPPER AND LOWer casE Words IF THIS contin ues MY CUStomers Will thin i have a sEVERE CASe of a. d.d. this IS not going to wORK FOR ME IF THIS connot be deglued i wILL NEED A NEW L T”

And now the rest of the story…

We both thought it was a joke but found out the next morning that it was true. And the best part?

The user spilled the glue while attaching a lucky penny to his laptop.

100% true.

Here’s what I was looking for on the ‘net and did not find. Hope this helps someone else. Click any of the images for a larger image.

(1) There is a black sticker covering one screw securing the case. Remove this sticker (mine was more like black paint that chipped off) and remove this screw.

(2) On both the top and bottom of the drive there are plastic “catches” that must be pressed in to allow you to slide the outer case off the drive. See the next picture for a clear view of the “catches” with the case off. It may be tricky getting both sides pressed in at the same time to slide off the case. On my drive, I used a flat-head screwdriver to push one side in and a little to the side to lodge it just a little under the plastic case so it would stop popping back up again. Be careful not to push in too far and break the “catches” off.

(3) Slide the case off. In truth, easier said than done so don’t cuss me out when you try it. I had to use my fingernails and pry the edges of the solid black case away from the drive unit and just keep carefully working at it until I could get it to start coming apart. When you’re doing it, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

(4) Remove four screws securing the drive unit to the inner case.

(5) There is a small circuit board attached for the LED power light that you need to remove to make the drive easier to get out of the case. Remove the three screws holding it on and gently unplug it from it’s connection on the drive unit.

(6) Peel back the foil tape so that you can access the power and data connector on the drive. Unplug the connector attached to the drive. This is a SATA hard drive and can be hooked up to a desktop computer (that accepts SATA drives) or I’ve seen adaptors on the ‘net that you can plug into a SATA drive to turn it into a regular IDE drive (not exactly something most people have laying about though). I happened to have a DELL Optiplex in the office that uses SATA drives so I opened it up and hooked the second power connector coming off the main drive to my newly freed MyBook drive. I still needed a SATA cable so I “borrowed” one from another office computer to connect the drive to the motherboard. If you are unfamiliar with all this, just look at how the main drive is hooked up – it’s not rocket science.

(7) On my DELL Optiplex I had to go into setup when the computer started and enable the second SATA drive. Okay, I didn’t know to do this right off – the drive just didn’t show up and after scratching my head for a few minutes I rebooted and checked setup. After this everything showed up fine – there was ALL my pretty data. I attached my new MyBook and moved everything over. Note – over 350 gig of data takes a while to transfer.

For the curious, all pics were taken with my Verizon LG8000 cellphone and quickly edited in Photoshop.

This weekend I was sitting inside talking to my girlfriend. She had a few files that she wanted to move off her computer but she didn’t want to waste a CD to do it. I told her if I hadn’t lost it she could use my USB flash drive and I explained what it was. She told me to hold on and walked outside. When she came back in again, she handed me a small grey piece of plastic.

It was the USB flash drive I’d lost in December! I pulled off the cover and it had a little dried mud just inside but otherwise looked fine. I plugged it into my laptop and everything was still there and worked great.

Turns out she found it the day before when we were doing some landscaping. It was in a pot at the front of the house that had been sitting in need of transplanting. She saw it and didn’t know what it was so just left it sit while we were working and then forgot about it.

The best I can figure is that in December I was coming up to the house and took my keys out of the same pocket where I put the USB flash drive and it fell on the ground. After this, either someone else walking up to the house picked it up and threw it in the pot or when I was shoveling snow, I picked it up in a shovel-full and somehow landed it in the pot.

In any case, it sat in that pot for almost 7 months through the rest of winter, spring, and part of summer – surviving freezing cold, snow, rain, and heat!

PNY technologies, Attache brand, 512 meg USB flash drive.

No brainer. Buy one.

Just put it on your keychain or something so you don’t lose it!

My girlfriend pointed out that I had been branded by my laptop.

Then she laughed and added, “Just like a cow.”

Anyhow… Here’s a press release I was jazzed about. I’m sure they won’t mind me copying it here. It’s free press, after all.

—begin free press for somebody else—

ST. PAUL, Minn., and SAN DIEGO, February 8, 2006 – CodeWeavers, Inc., the leading Windows-to-Linux software developer, and Linspire, Inc., maker of the easy-to-use desktop Linux operating system, today announced the release of CrossOver Office 5.0 for Linspire. Linspire users who purchase CrossOver Office can run dozens of Windows applications, including Microsoft Office 2003, Adobe Photoshop and Intuit’s Quicken and Quickbooks, natively from their Linspire desktop Linux operating system. For more information about CrossOver Office 5.0 for Linspire, visit www.linspire.com/crossover.

“Businesses tell us they want to switch to the desktop Linux operating system to reduce total cost of ownership or improve security, but it’s the thought of losing one or two software applications – like Quickbooks or Microsoft Project – that holds them back,” said Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire, Inc. “CrossOver Office is genius because it removes that hesitation from the equation. Yes, you can still use Quicken or Microsoft software on your Linspire machine, but you don’t have to overpay for a Windows operating system license to do it.”

CrossOver Office allows Linspire users to install popular Windows productivity applications and plugins in Linspire without needing a Microsoft operating system CD or license. CrossOver Office includes an easy-to-use, single-click interface, which makes installing Windows applications simple and fast. Once installed, the application will integrate directly with the Linspire environment – users just click the application icon or name to launch, exactly as they would in Windows. Any documents created using CrossOver Office applications may be opened and edited with other native Linux programs, such as OpenOffice.org or GIMP.

CrossOver Office has become the essential productivity utility for millions of Linux users around the world by supporting the seamless, dependable installation and operation of scores of top-name Windows applications natively within Linux. Microsoft Office, Outlook, Visio, and Internet Explorer, as well as Adobe’s Photoshop and Dreamweaver, Intuit’s Quicken and Quickbooks, and Lotus Notes, are just some of the many popular applications that can be used on Linux desktops via CrossOver Office.

“Linspire’s power and ease of use, combined with its easy retail availability, has puts it among the leaders in the fast growing Linux operating system category,” said Jeremy White, chief executive officer of CodeWeavers, Inc. “CrossOver Office for Linspire will make it even easier for potentially millions of Windows desktop users – enterprise and individual alike – to make the switch to Linux.”

—end free press for somebody else—

*SNIP* Okay, they don’t have to have me copy *everything*.

Photoshop… Dreamweaver… Hmm… that covers the most important stuff for me.

When I worked at [nameless souless big corporation] I remember a conversation I had with a guy from the business development department. I was working in one of the computer departments and he was telling me what he was promising to a potential client to woo their business to our company. I told him what he was promising was not possible. His comment back to me was, “My job is to catch the bear. It’s your job to skin him.”

Years later, now I’m in my own company. You do what you have to do to catch that bear. I just wish I had someone else to skin him.