Lots of New Pictures in the Gallery
I have posted TONS of new pictures in our Picture Gallery. It had been quite a while since I had updated the gallery with new pictures but I finally have gotten all caught up!
I uploaded so many pictures that they go over to the second page so make sure you click through to the next page to see all the pictures!
New Eagle Crest Vacation Rental Domain Name
Stephanie and I have owned our Eagle Crest Chalet for three years now and it has been a great experience. Everything was going along very smoothly with lots of happy renters and great success until we got a little too successful for the Eagle Crest Resort to handle. Seems we made it to the top spot for a few search terms in Google and Eagle Crest got jealous. As large companies do when they can’t win playing fair they resort to lawyers.
We have been forced to change our domain name and then of course our business name because they felt Eagle Crest Getaway violated their trademark. Not noticing the fact that there are tens of other Eagle Crests out there including eaglecrest.com and eaglecrestgc.com which are neither owned by the Eagle Crest Resort! We felt that the name Eagle Crest was merely a location and that location was where we owned our home and ran our Vacation Rental. We never pretended to be the resort and made it VERY clear on our home page that we owned and operated a single vacation rental that was located in the resort. But alas we have neither the time nor the money for a legal battle and when trademarks are concerned the big companies always win (can I get a Sam Buck’s Coffee please? … Not Any Longer).
Long story short now for the big reveal …. the new name of our Vacation Rental is …. Central Oregon Getaway! We wanted to keep the Getaway in the name and not have any more lawyers breathing down our backs so Central Oregon Getaway is the new name!
If any of my readers want to help feel free to paste any of the links below somewhere on your site to help get us back the three years we are loosing by switching domains.
<a href="http://www.centraloregongetaway.com" title="Eagle Crest">Eagle Crest</a>
<a href="http://www.centraloregongetaway.com" title="Eagle Crest Getaway">Eagle Crest Getaway</a>
<a href="http://www.centraloregongetaway.com" title="Eagle Crest Vacation Rental">Eagle Crest Vacation Rental</a>
<a href="http://www.centraloregongetaway.com" title="Eagle Crest Oregon">Eagle Crest Oregon</a>
If you do link send me a comment so I can return the favor 
Technorati Tags: Eagle Crest, Eagle Crest Getaway, Eagle Crest Resort
.htaccess 301 Redirect on GoDaddy Shared Hosting
I recently needed to change the domain of our Eagle Crest Vacation Rental website from www.EagleCrestGetaway.com to www.CentralOregonGetaway.com. I wanted to make sure that I did it in the most “search engine friendly” manner possible, every page matched up from one site to another, and it didn’t take forever. I decided to use the .htaccess file to redirect all the files from one domain to another.
Both of the websites were hosted on GoDaddy shared hosting plans on Linux operating systems. Here is how you create and then use the .htaccess file to forward all the pages in a domain to another.
1) Create a text file with the following text on a single line:
Redirect 301 / http://www.NewDomainName.com/
NOTE: Make sure you use a program like text edit or notepad and save the file in plain text formatting. Also make sure you turn line wrapping etc off.
2) Save the file as htaccess.txt (you will change the name later I promise)
3) Upload that file to the home directory of your web server using your favorite FTP program
4) Change the permissions of the file to 644 so that the server can write to it but the file is not accessible to the browser.
5) Change the name of the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess
6) Wait for the magic to happen. Depending on the configuration of your server it may take 15 minutes or so for any .htaccess file changes to propagate.
GoDaddy shared hosting plans DO allow .htaccess commands so performing a 301 redirect as I did with our Eagle Crest site is your best bet in both time of execution and effectiveness.
Technorati Tags: GoDaddy, .htaccess, 301, redirect
Encrypt and Decrypt Strings in mySQL sql Queries
Many times you need a quick encryption solution in a database but do not want the overhead of coding something more complex. mySQL provides you with a simple encryption solution directly in the sql query.
TO ENCRYPT:
INSERT INTO users (user, pass) VALUES (’$username’, AES_ENCRYPT(’$pass’, ’secret encryption key’));
TO DECRYPT:
SELECT user, AES_DECRYPT(pass, ’secret encryption key’) FROM users
Fix osCommerce Write to Configuration File Warning
After installing osCommerce most users will get the following warning on the top of their newly created store main page:
Warning: I am able to write to the configuration file: /[SERVER_FILE_LOCATION]/catalog/includes/configure.php. This is a potential security risk - please set the right user permissions on this file.
It is a pretty specific error with an obtuse solution in the warning message. Upon searching many recommendations are to chmod the file to 666 but sadly this still provides write access to the file and the error remains.
The solution to the write to configure.php warning
Set the file to permissions of 444 which is the equivalent of RRR or Owner-Read ; Group-Read ; Others-Read using your favorite FTP program.
For those of you on a MAC using a FTP program such as FETCH you will need to Command Click (Right Click if you have a right mouse button) and then select Get Info. From there you can set the check boxes or type in 444 and change the file permissions.
Technorati Tags: osCommerce, configure.php
Setting Up osCommerce UPS XML Module w/ GoDaddy Shared Hosting
I recently had all kinds of problems installing the UPS XML Shipping Module on my osCommerce shopping cart. I (thought I) followed the setup instructions correctly but every time I actually tried to checkout a shopping cart the shipping checkout page would hang and then I would get a mySQL timeout error. This error made no sense because the mySQL database was mostly empty and the shipping query is not that intensive.
After much debugging and hair pulling I found the solution. Since the website is set up on a GoDaddy Shared Hosting plan, the curl call to the UPS XML api was failing. GoDaddy Shared Hosting uses a curl proxy and you must configure any CURL requests to go through that proxy.
Below is the solution, which I am sad to say I found at the very end of the readme.txt document included with the UPS XML package AFTER I figured it out the HARD WAY! DOH and DOH. I am embarrassed to say I stopped reading the instructions when I thought I got to the end but the last last step is how to make it work with GoDaddy Hosting. Hopefully this post will save someone similar frustrations by being able to quickly find the solution with a google search!
From the readme.txt file …
----------------------------
STEP 12 ** FOR GODADDY HOSTING ONLY **
----------------------------
A number of people using GoDaddy for their hosting have found that the UPSXML module times out when getting rate quotes. This is due to the fact that GoDaddy uses a special setup for the https connections, namely a proxy server.
In that case (haven't tested this, but this is a compilation from the postings and uploads) change a part of the code in catalog/includes/modules/shipping/upsxml.php
Line 662-670
**REPLACE**
// uncomment the next line if you get curl error 60: error setting certificate verify locations
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
// uncommenting the next line is most likely not necessary in case of error 60
// curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xmlRequest);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, (int)$timeout);
**WITH**
// BOF GODADDY STUFF
// uncomment the next line if you get curl error 60: error setting certificate verify locations
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
// uncommenting the next line is most likely not necessary in case of error 60
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xmlRequest);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPPROXYTUNNEL, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 120);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXYTYPE, CURLPROXY_HTTP);
curl_setopt ($ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, "http://proxy.shr.secureserver.net:3128");
// EOF GODADDY STUFF
Technorati Tags: osCommerce, GoDaddy, curl
Baby Richard Photos & Birth Story
You can see the first photos of Baby Richard in our Sipe Family Photo Gallery. Check back often as the pictures are sure to be increasing!
Richard’s Birth Story
We left for church Sunday January 20th with no idea that by the end of the evening we would have a new baby boy. Stephanie had been having false contractions for the better part of a month and was dialated at her last prenatal appointment but things did not seem to be moving along any further.
We went to Target after church and had some Burgerville for lunch then went over to the Harriers, Stephanie’s parents. As we were playing some card games in late afternoon Stephanie started having contractions and they seemed to be the real thing. We expected them to be far apart but after they seemed to be pretty quick we started the stopwatch.
Within about an hour we were headed to the hospital to hopefully have a baby! We passed the triage test even though the contractions nearly disappeared at the hospital as Steph was 6cm dilated.
Steph was very calm and walked around the birthing center to pass the time and help things along. Her contractions started to be very uncomfortable around 8:30pm so she decided to have her epidural. With the one she had during Kayla not working we prayed this one would do better.
It took a few returns by the anesthesia nurse to get thing dialed in and she just had a small hot-spot of mild pain. Around 11:30pm it looked like we were going to have a long road ahead since at 9:30pm she was still 7cm dilated. Boy were we wrong.
Around 11:32pm Steph’s hips were hurting from laying on the one side so the nurse and Richard helped her get flat. That was very uncomfortable for her and she had lots of pressure so we helped her get turned to the other side a bit. That was really not good and she started to feel ill. We got her the bucket to be ill in. She vomited a few times when we heard a small sound. Richard said “That sounded like a baby crying!!!” The nurse was luckily in the room and hurried over to lift up the sheet covering Stephanie …
AND THERE WAS RICHARD STARING BACK AT US LAYING ON THE BED!!! The pressure she felt that caused her to vomit was Richard getting into position for birth and moving down the birth canal. The nurse was excellent and quickly got the cord in position and cleared his mouth then hit the button to bring in the calvary. Within 20 seconds there were 6 more nurses and our midwife in the room.
Baby Richard was doing great after his quick trip into the world. The nurse and midwife took great care of him and Steph. Steph did have a little bit of tearing but nothing like before. No huge blood loss or anything this time.
We thank all our friends and family for their prayers for a smooth and easy delivery. Steph was very very apprehensive after her last near death birthing experience and those prayers made it possible. Steph’s grandmother woke up around 1:30am her time with the strong feeling to pray for Stephanie. Grandma Eggert did and within 7 minutes we had our baby (since that happened to be 11:30pm our time).
Again we had a very memorable birth of a child!
We are excited to the newest member of our family Richard Vance Sipe IV. He was born January 20, 2008 at 11:36PM, weighted 7lbs 2oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. It was a very different birth than Kayla’s. Both mommy and baby are doing amazing.
Tons of photos and more information to follow soon!
I recently left my position as Director of Online Communications at Pacific University. The nearly 2 hour commute each way was just becoming too much for my family. I had previously been working from home two days a week which lessened the blow but as that was coming to an end I decided I had to find employment closer to home.
I am excited to be working for Trailer City in Portland Oregon. I am now the General Manager for the Trailer City family of trailer dealerships. We have lots in Portland and Gresham as well as in Hood River, Oregon. I created the Trailer City website last year and it has been a great addition to the business. Trailer City has a great reputation in the community and carries great products.
I am working on some new marketing strategies and how I can use technology to grow the business. We are also working on using technology to increase communication between the different locations of Trailer City.
If you are in the Portland area and are looking for an enclosed trailer, utility trailer, dump trailer, or flatbed trailer; drop me a line and I can show you around one of our lots.
Portland Mercury Pre-Blogger Meet-Up
Never being able to pass up a generous offer of free beer and 4-square in a parking lot I stopped by the Portland Mercury building for some fun before the KATU sponsored Portland Blogger Meet-Up. The beautiful weather and promise of beer led to an above expected turnout of 3 bloggers and I think 6 Mercury staff and friends.
The PBR (Thats Pabst Blue Ribbon for you not in the know) in the case with ice on top and chips on the pavement was a classy touch that really set the mood. The Spider Man ball was rockin’ the 4-square court and things just were starting to get crazy as the time arrived for us to head across the street to the KATU studios. I did have time to give Matt Davis from the Mercury an impromptu Photoshop lesson where he created an awesome animated gif of the 4-square action. An experience he said was:
I should also mention that creating a gif image is about as satisfying as I imagine it must be to actually give birth to a real life, human child.
Check out my PDXMeetup Picts on Flickr
