WordPress 2.8 RSS problem – caused by rouge plugin

In my previous post on WP 2.8 I mentioned the RSS Fatal error problem.  I have found the cause of the problem and it is a plugin I use for the Lifestream page I have.  The plugin in question is SimpleLife – the version I am using is 1.3 which seem to be the latest.  The one on the WordPress.org site shows version 1.2 and the maintainers site gives a 404 error. 

I have disabled the plugin and now the RSS feed on the Admin Dashboard is working fine with no Fatal Error.  This has broken my Lifestream page.  Will go and find a similar plugin to populate the Lifestream page.

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WordPress upgrade to version 2.8

I have 3 blogs and upgrading them was a mixed bag this time around.  On my blog at http://www.mariusb.net/blog/, I used the automatic WordPress upgrade and that went flawless.  With my second blog at http://www.marius.za.net/blog/, I used the upgrade with the CPANEL of the hosting company and again the upgrade went as expected. I use both these blogs as testing ground and not my main blog.  So having upgraded both those, I ventured into upgrading this one. 

It was problems from the start.  The first problem I ran into was:
Download failed.: name lookup timed out
This was something to do with curl and following http://wordpress.org/support/topic/225535 (at the bottom) and installing the Core Control Plugin and following the directions, I managed to get the ZIP file downloaded. 

The next problem I ran into was something about the ZIP file that cannot be UNZIPed.  I could not find a resolution for this so went the route of manually upgrading my blog.  This went as expected and my blog seem to be working.  If you do find things that does not work as it should be then please let me know.  With all the issues, I do not know whether I trust the upgrade.

On the outside everything looks good but in the admin part I get the following when it tries to retrieve feeds for the DASHBOARD:
Fatal error: Please call SimplePie_Cache::create() instead of the constructor in /home/mariusb/public_html/blog/wp-includes/class-feed.php on line 13
I have not managed to find a solution for this.  Suggestion will be appreciated.

Having done lots of WP installs and upgrades, I must say that this one is the most problematic and error prone. I am sure an update will come out soon, so my suggestion is that you do not upgrade just yet.

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Searching for new theme for this site.

Over the past couple of days I was searching for a new theme for this site.  Looked at a lot of them but none is really what I have in mind.  My main requirements are as follows:

  • Must be fluid width — ie not fixed width.
  • 2 column with a sidebar on the right
  • Also have a footer sidebar — does one call it a sidebar or footbar 🙂
  • Must be widget ready.

If you have any ideas or suggestions then please let me know.

RSS Feed update – 4 November 2007

It is Sunday evening and it is raining cats and dogs here in Cape Town. Not that I complain about the rain but I had enough.  Summer where are you?

Some things a busy changing on the work front.  More about it later when things are finalized.  Suffice to say that I am currently doing 2 jobs.

Onto tidbits from my RSS reader:

What the new Greenpoint stadium will look like:
Sky View of the Stadium

RSS update – 27 October 2007

Tidbits from my RSS reader:

Table mountain

Kimi F1 champion or NOT & RSS feed update – 22 October 2007

What a last Formula 1 GP held in Brazil yesterday.  Kimi won the race with Alonso 4th and Hamilton 7th.  This gave Kimi enough points to win the World Championship by 1 point.  But did he win?  There is some dispute about the fuel temperature of BMW Sauber and Williams.  These teams were cleared but I am sure that McLaren will appeal this.  If the appeal is successful then Hamilton will move up to forth and have enough points to take the championship.  Waiting with abated breath to see how this will pan out.

Onto my RSS feed tidbits:

The V&A waterfront in Cape Town with the bay and Blouberg in the distance:
V&A