tony spencer

I was setting up Drupal 4.6.5 on a new employee’s machine today which also required a fresh install of Apache, PHP and mySql. Unfortunately Drupal has done a lousy job of testing their new releases on the latest stable versions of the apps it depends on. Here are the two issues I ran into and their solutions:

1. Attempting to import the database script (database/database.mysql) results in an error:

REPLACE blocks SET module = ‘user’, delta = ‘0′, status = ‘1′

Line no.:803
Error Code: 1364 – Field ‘pages’ doesn’t have a default value

BLEH!

Come on guys. Test before you release! The issue is something to do with mySql 5.0 so you need to instruct mysql to behave as 4.0. Go to your mysql.ini file and edit this line:

SET GLOBAL sql_mode=’MYSQL40′

2. You finish installing Drupal and load up localhost in the browser and are disappointed to see junk like this in your page:

{head} {styles} {_BLOCK_.header.logo} {_BLOCK_.header.site_name} {secondary_links}
{primary_links}
{_BLOCK_.header.blocks}

The old XTemplate themes are not compatible with the latest version of PHP5. BLEH!

Solution: Install phptemplate engine and choose a phptemplate theme to get rid of the junk.

I was in K-Mart today getting some keys copied and saw the new Google ceiling fans that just hit the market!

I’m just thinking out loud here but everytime I run into a mention of John Scott’s Internet Marketing blog (www.internet-marketing-blog.com) I can’t help but think the URL looks really spammy. It always reminds me of one of my first sites: 1-a1-best-price-viagra-store.com

Come on John. 301 that sucker to something with class!

It happened. After 5 days of calls to the Apple store in NY I discovered that they received a shipment of Macbook Pro’s this afternoon. I got the fix I needed. I hopped on the R line and prayed the stock would last long enough for me to reach SOHO. When I arrived, a very friendly sales rep named Jeremy told me they received a few hundred just an hour ago and their were only 10 left. I was lucky enough to snag a 2.0 Ghz model. Here I am sealing the deal 10 minutes after walking in:

I was very anti-social and immediately left my friends that came with me to SOHO and took this sucker home for NotSleepy configuration.

Here is a photo of the machine booted in my hotel on the last night of the SES conference:

I need a name for her. Any suggestions?