Glitcheroony Fix – And Kudos to Aleksander

Interesting day.

Behind the scenes and a look into pseudo-retirement:  Wrote this  morning’s column – took Elaine and we B-bopped into town for #2 of the 3X annual tooth cleanings.  (Gum bacteria is statistically linked to dementia progression and ALZ onset so the APOE-4 duo is extra careful!)

A run through the store after (fresh watermelon and more steaks and salad fixin’s) and a manic  drive back into the woods just over stall speeds for a Beech A24-19.

About 1 PM I arrived in the office, ready to approve Reader Comments on (this morning’s brilliant) column.

Problem: No Comments

Confirmation: Tried to post a comment myself.  No go.  Got this lil POS error:

(“Well, shee-it,”  your writeographer muttered under his breath. “Caffiene and coding sweets!!!”)

Called online tech support at our Hosting vendor (https://hosting.com)

Where a really great tech who I have worked with before (Aleksander) and I walked through all the nightmare scenarios  – site blocking, CHMOD settings and  all that.  He even took the time to give me 3-4 test emails from their end, and when those got through (secret domain sauce) I knew the problem could ONLY be in one area: My WordPress implementation on the leased server space – where our CMS (content management system) lives.

CMS sounds simple, but so is “going to Mars” – if you say it fast enough.

And this is where all that crap I have been preaching and writing about for years (understanding domain knowledge and how to look in which domain (or software dumpster) for all the “bad smells” (of DNF software) gets useful.

It didn’t take much time to sort out that a server-side security product (a Mod protection) was the source of reader comments being blocked.  Mod flags tell software is a directory can be read, executed or written…which we all knew already, right?

Thing is, Mod protect software is a good thing.  After a few minutes, and Aleksander’s help, it became clear that the source of the issue was the recent core WordPress 6.8.2 update.  Because in another part of the server-side control panel I had declared the UrbanSurvival.com site to be on PHP Ver 8.1. ding-ding-ding….

In another time (and/or another universe) PHP 8.1 is still a good chaice.  You want everything (plug ins for speed, editing, RSS, and search optimizers for the CMS) to all work and play nicely together.  It’s a middle school math “lowest common denominator thing.”  Get it wrong, and shit blows up.

Because when a coder somewhere *(in the Himalayas) write the latest for ther Mod protection, it was assumed that everyone will already be on PHP 8.3.

Let’s see if you can guess: Who wasn’t?

And that, in a nutshell is why (if you posted a comment earlier and it didn’t get approved), it’s not out of personal malice (well, except for a few trolls, maybe).

Otherwise, this goes into the same bit-bucket as hypersonic airliner development and the Free Lunch congress has been trying to figure out for…um…centuries.

I have clean teeth, though. So does Elaine (our hygenist says Elaine was worth marrying for her teeth – no one has “Hollywood teeth like her…”  A bonus for being a “Downwinder”?  We got steak and watermelon, I got to brush up on my computer trouble/disaster-shooting skills.

And you didn’t want to read all that crap about the market dropping today into the close did you?

Drop by tomorrow – Mr. Ure is headed for the vodka for some germicidal germ rinses.  Then our gains for the day in the Lunch Money account will get a toast.

Well, make that several…

-ure