After updating WordPress and redesigning thew0rd.com this weekend I started to get an error message similar to the one below on the WordPress Admin Dashboard:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 1966080 bytes) in /home/user/public_html/wp-includes/class-simplepie.php on line 5353

I was able to solve this error by editing the wp-config.php file and adding the following line:

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');

What this effectively does is increase the amount of memory that WordPress can use on your web server. You can alternately modify the php.ini file to increase the memory limit, but many web hosts do not allow users to change these parameters. I hope this tip helps people having the same or similar errors on their WordPress 2.9.2 sites.

Spiceworks, my favorite tool for managing IT networks, has released a new version. Spiceworks scans your entire network and audits the devices in you infrastructure. Not only does Spiceworks create a comprehensive IT inventory, but it also monitors the health of vital systems. It can alert you when certain conditions are met, errors are found, systems run out of hard disk space, printer ink is low, and much more.

Another cool feature is to have Spiceworks scan multiple sites, and report back to a central collector. This is great for me, as the company I work for, is an outsourced IT Helpdesk for several medium sized businesses. We’ve deployed Spiceworks at all of our clients with more than 10 PCs. This allows our business to be proactive in our approach to IT instead of reactive.

Don’t even get me started on how good Spiceworks has been for License Management.

Spiceworks 4.6 brings a host of new features include:

• View and Kill Processes Remotely
• Ability to discover virtualized servers on VMware (vSphere & ESX/ESXi), showing all the virtual machine data and configuration details
• Better Helpdesk ticket management
• Network mapping improvements
• See network alerts and notifications in your Spiceworks Toolbar
• And more…

If you have never tried Spiceworks, you should. It is free, and after you use it, you will be converted. Oh yeah, did I mention it’s FREE (As in BEER)? I used to work for a software company that developed one of the premier Enterprise IT Discovery platforms, and believe me, Spiceworks can do a lot more than even some multimillion dollar Enterprise platforms. That was always the “dirty little secret”. Anyways, check it out, you’ll love it.

Some of you may not know, but I drink a lot of coffee. And when I say a lot, I mean like around 100 fl oz per day. I’m also a bit of a coffee-snob, meaning that I won’t drink any old swill you get at Dunkin’ Doughnuts (umm yuck!). So even a large (venti) black coffee at Starbucks costs over $2, and a couple coffees per day (even with free refills) adds up fast.

The recession and a new job have forced me to re-work my budget. So I decided to make coffee at work, but I’m the only one in the office who drinks coffee. So if I were to brew a whole pot, it would go to waste, and I’d be spending about $14/week on beans. So I decided to get the Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System for the office.

I’m not going to use the K-Cups that most people have to buy for the Keurig. Instead, I’m going to grind my own coffee and use the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter. This will allow me to only use 1-2 lbs of coffee per month at work. This will actually save me somewhere between $50-70 per month on my coffee expenses.

Now for the review of the machine. I’ve been using it for almost a week at this point. Overall I am pleased with the quality of coffee it brews. The trial K-Cups that came with the brewer were pretty bad, not anywhere near up to my standards. However using my own coffee with the reusable filter makes a pretty good cup of java. You need to grind the coffee about as fine as you can (think espresso grind) in order to get good extraction and a dark cup. Be sure to tamp the grounds down lightly into the filter too. The coffee it brews is akin to a French Press, this is because the reusable filter is metal, and not paper. This lets all the flavorful coffee oils flow into your cup. Great for taste, but can do a number on your stomach, so be careful.

As for care and maintenance of the machine, it’s pretty easy. The only major pain is cleaning the reusable filter, but for the money savings, I don’t mind it. All in all I would suggest this machine to anyone who wants fresh coffee often, where brewing an entire pot isn’t economical. So work out the math, and if it makes cents (har har), get one!

I am not a huge fan of OSX, but I have to support it for users at my job. I’ve had several people recently ask me how to permanently disable the bouncing icons in the dock/taskbar. The solution is simple. Open a Terminal window and type the following commands:

$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE
$ killall Dock

This will permanently disable the jumping and bouncing icons in the dock bar. To re-enable the bouncing, change the above command’s ‘True’ argument to ‘False’

Have fun with that.

Last night I had the opportunity to visit the Gizmodo Gallery in NYC and check out all the cool exhibits. By far the coolest was the Singing Tesla Coils by ArcAttack. The Tesla coils are programmed to emit various tones and pitches to make music, mostly video game music. The Tesla Coils are backed up by a robotic drum kit too. Check out the videos below for an example. If you ever have the chance to see ArcAttack live, I highly suggest you do, you wont regret it.





(Apologies for the crappy audio and sub-par video… I shot this with my digital camera.)

I don’t usually shill for companies, but when a product wins my affection, they deserve a shout-out. This is by far the BEST iPhone case I’ve seen and used. It has saved my phones from many tumbles. It’s especially important to be able to protect your iPhone from a drop, because you can’t get insurance on an iPhone through AT&T.

The Seidio Innocase II has a textured rubber like feel in your hand, but is made of hard plastic. This allows for some grip when holding the phone, so it doesn’t slip out of your hand. The inside of the case is lined with a velour-like felt, which protects the iPhone from scratches.

In addition to the phone protector, if you are like me and love a good holster, you’ll love this. The holster is made of heavy duty plastic, and has sturdy double springs to hold the phone. It allows for quick one-handed release and insertion. The iPhone faces inward to protect the screen from any damage. The holster is also lined with the same velour-like felt which protects the screen from any scratches.

I’ve been using Seido phone protectors for my last 2 phones, and love them. They are worth every penny to protect your phones. Check it out and get one, you won’t be disappointed!

Some of you may have already seen this video, but I thought it would be worth posting as many may have missed it (I know I didn’t see it back in March when this video hit). The video shows what Microsoft predicts the future will look like in 2019. The geek part of me drools, the paranoid privacy/security advocate in me is freaking out. Either way, it will be an interesting decade if one of the richest companies in the world wants it to be this way. Please watch the video and leave some comments about what you think of this possible future. I’m truly interested in what you think.
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