Blog Rebirth

Posted on By Tom 4 Comments on Blog Rebirth
Miscellaneous

The deed is done.  Not since I switched from a home-built ASP-coded blog to WordPress has RandomConnections undergone as many radical changes.  None-the-less, here you are…the New and Improved™ RandomConnections!

I finally got completely fed up with my old hosting company, AccuWeb Hosting.  The service was locked down so tight that I couldn’t use even common features on WordPress.  I had to do work-arounds to get things posted, and that was a pain.  Yet, even though they had everything locked down so tightly as to what and where you could post things, they somehow couldn’t keep viruses off of their servers.

I knew I was on an older version of WordPress that had some vulnerabilities and limitations.  However, when I asked my hosting company about migrating to a newer version of PHP so that I could upgrade, they told me I would have to change my service plan and would most likely lose most of my content.  I’ve got nearly 10 years of blogging here, and didn’t want to lose any of it, so that wasn’t an option.

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Blog Existentialism

Posted on By Tom
Miscellaneous

Dear Readers:

I’m having MAJOR problems with the blog and with the hosting company, Accuweb Hosting. The latest is an apparent virus attack on the blog. I have the Akismet plugin which is supposed to block spam comments. However, something keeps disabling that plugin. Therefore, until further notice all commenting on posts has been disabled. I’m hoping to get that fixed soon because I enjoy the feedback from these posts.

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Audio Sharing with Chirbit

Posted on By Tom 3 Comments on Audio Sharing with Chirbit
Internet, Music

MWSnap024 2012-01-20, 08_11_44

Some time back I posted a wish list for audio file sharing. I was looking for something analogous to YouTube, but for audio only. I found two services, Audioboo and SoundCloud, that seem to work well, and I’ve been using those. However, a third one has come onto the scene. Chirbit is about audio hosting system, and it seems to meet most of my wish list items.

Chirbit as many of the same features as Audioboo and Soundcloud. It appears to be set up more on the Audioboo model, which allows user an unlimited number of files, but restricts the length of of those files. Accounts are free, but there is an upgrade to a paid version which allows longer files. Here’s an example using my traditional test file, my reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabel Lee…


Check this out on Chirbit

As with the other services, you can upload various audio files, or you can record directly into the service from your computer’s microphone. Chirbit offers two other options. First, you can strip the audio from YouTube videos to upload to the service. You input the URL for the video, and it uploads that to Chirbit.

MWSnap025 2012-01-20, 08_12_00

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McCormick County Photo Trek

Posted on By Tom 14 Comments on McCormick County Photo Trek
Family, History and Genealogy, Photography

Mount Carmel Presbyterian Lomo

Houston and I had a day off in common, so it was time for one of our mid-winter photo treks. I really like exploring the area south of Abbeville, McCormick, and Edgefield. That part of the state is rather remote and rich in history, including our family history. Even though we’ve been down that way several times, I never seem to cover all of it, so it was ripe as another target.

Our exploration group was larger than usual. In addition to the two of us, Houston’s wife, Lynda, was coming along, as was our sister Glynda. The plan was to meet Houston and Lynda Sunday morning in the parking lot of Calhoun Falls Pentecostal Holiness Church. From there we would head south and see what we would find. Our route would take us past paddling venues, ghost towns, fire towers, and several important genealogy spots. It had the makings of a perfect day.

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