ohryan.ca

A Web Developer in Winnipeg

  • The Best Way to Synchronize WordPress Uploads

    in ,

    One of the most annoying things about setting up a dev environment for an existing WordPress site is syncing the content. Pulling down the database is trivial, even a large site will have a relatively small database dump. I often use the WordPress Duplicator plugin. But a site with years of photos and other uploads can have gigabits of files and it’s not really ideal to have to pull those all down from the site.

    Today I came across a solution that made me feel stupid for not having thought of it. Iain Poulson posted 5 Ways to Sychronise WordPress  Uploads Across Environments, IMHO #4 is the only one you really need to use:

    
RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /wp-content/uploads/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://yourlivesite.com/wp-content/uploads/$1 [L,P]

     

    So for any file requested within wp-content/uploads/, that does not exist, it will serve the image from http://yourlivesite.com.

    The only minor downside with this approach is the lack of offline. If you lose access to an internet connection, you lose access to the live site files, obviously.

  • The Nintendo WiiUnderated

    The Nintendo WiiUnderated

    in

    For Christmas this year we bought Santa brought the kids a Nintendo WiiU for Christmas. I’ve been holding back this post until I played a few different game types on the system. As usual, Nintendo has done a great job of designing and prompting really fun gameplay. As has been the case with their last few consoles releases, the gaming press seems to be mostly ignoring the WiiU. As they’ve done over their entire history, Nintendo has continued to serve their target market – families – really well. They’ve gotten a lot of things right this time around. The WiiU is in full 1080p – infact, it’s our household’s only 1080p Netflix machine. Backwards compatibility with original Wii games and controllers is amazingly important to families, who’re often budget constrained and tied to old games the kids grew up with.

    Above everything else though, Nintendo continues to innovate in ways that Sony and Microsoft doesn’t seem to “get” (see: Playstation Move). The WiiU GamePad is highly, highly underrated. The ability to play games on the GamePad while the TV does something else is brilliant! Not only is it brilliant, it actually works! I was able to use the GamePad in bed, a good 10m and several walls away from the console. The GamePad’s universal remote feature makes switching from WiiU to Housewives of Lamecounty totally seamless.

    Also, the GamePad unlocks completely new gameplay. Having a game’s mini-map and inventory system available on a touch screen is such a natural user interface. The gamepad is also position aware, which means you can use it to control ingame cameras: ZombieU uses it as a zombiescanner/camera, Wonderful 101 uses it as a camera for building interiors – so you can look around inside a building – while the main gameplay is going outside the building on your TV. I’m sure there are all kinds of interesting gameplay ideas that could make good use of this system.

    Sure the system is underpowered and the graphics in Assassin’s creed look a little uncanny valley. But at the end of the day that doesn’t really matter.

  • How To: Find Out The Price of Bitcoin

    in

    What is the quickest way to find out what price bitcoin is at, you ask?

    Simple.

    WhatIsBitcoinAt.com

    Update.  I added a bunch of currencies and made tinyurls for them.

    USD – http://tiny.cc/BTCUSD
    CAD – http://tiny.cc/BTCCAD
    EUR – http://tiny.cc/BTCEUR
    CNY – http://tiny.cc/BTCCNY