Nowhere Blog

As I warned a couple of times, the site would be down, and for most of today it was. A problem inherent with my installation remains, however. It probably stems from the fact that my WordPress installation dates back to version 2.0.2. Ten years ago MySQL was converted to a newer version to be made compatible, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that added to the trouble. It seems I’ve hit an update wall.

Bluehost was nice about setting me back to run on an outdated version of the PHP interpreter. As I expected, there was also a problem within the .htaccess file for the HTTP service. That was the immediate cause of today’s problem, and Bluehost has fixed that, with my thanks.

To keep the blog running as it should, eventually I must force myself to install a new instance of WordPress from scratch and see if it’s possible for the MySQL database to be restored onto it. Perhaps another conversion will be required. My plan is to do all of that with a complete up-to-date software installation on my primary desktop PC, and then migrate it online. It’ll require a lot of work and head scratching, which is why I’ve been putting it off.

Ziggy Pop

Iggy Pop’s masterpiece, with a sound akin to Lou Reed. The claim is the song was inspired by car rides with David Bowie.

Another classic song about car cruising. I first heard this demo tape in high school on WBCN. FM radios in cars were a relative rarity back then, especially the older cars driven by kids. So it made sense that Richman loved the AM sound, implying WRKO in Boston, rather than WBCN.

The 3.0 Advantage

Cable TV companies have also been Internet service providers for over 20 years. Next Generation over-the-air TV, IP-based ATSC 3.0, will give many more cable customers a reason to drop TV from their service.

In 2009, when ATSC 1.0 was finally mandated by the FCC, TV’s with compatible tuners, or converter boxes for older TV’s, were required. The same will be true of ATSC 3.0, but 1.0 should be around for at least another five years after the switch is ubiquitous. Boston doesn’t even have any stations yet transmitting a 3.0 signal.

Tyler, the Antenna Man on YouTube, has a clear explanation of what’s going to happen. Note that the flat antenna Tyler holds up is not a Mohu model. My experience with a Mohu Leaf has been very good, and Tyler gives Mohu a good review in another video.