There’s a post over at Boing Boing about Occupy Wallstreet Photos taken by Boing Boing reader Eddie McShane. In my opinion they’re great photos and a documentation of American history currently being made.
How I Changed WordPress File Upload Location
I’m not a fan of the default location for file uploads in WordPress: wp-content/uploads. If a web user grabs the location of an uploaded image, the path is just ugly. It also makes it tricky to back up the WordPress files since, in theory, an install could house hundreds of megs of photos. I wanted to simplify my install as much as possible, so I created a subdomain called img.nickalpin.com. This will allow me to house images in one location, enabling me to post images to forums and blogs without having that ugly path containing ‘wp-content/uploads’.
By default, it seems that WordPress only references locations within the install itself. This is a bummer but I’m sure there’s sound reasoning behind this. Being a Mac and Linux user I’ve used symbolic links a number of times and thought this is a perfect situation to use one. A brief description of a symbolic link is a ‘ghost folder’ in a location which redirects the user/OS to another location. This could help you avoid having multiple copies of files or from altering an operating system file… the uses are endless. In this instance, it allowed me to house uploads in a location outside of the WordPress install. Since my host uses Linux, here’s the command I used to create the symbolic (or symlink) link:
ln -s /home/username/img.site.com/folder /home/username/site.com/wp-content/folder
So you’ll see the command ‘ln -s’ which creates the symlink. I’m sure a Linux-related site will offer a more intelligent explanation of the command and any associated switches. Then you’ll have the target destination, in this case a subfolder in the subdomain I created. There’s a space and then the location of the symlink. I changed the media uploads location to the symlink name, so even though WordPress and the OS think that ‘wp-content/folder’ is an actual location, everything is routed to ‘img.site.com/folder’.
Another benefit is that I can upload files through the WordPress uploader, having it automatically resize images, making it easy to embed an image in an email, forum or blog post. If I wanted to be a tyrant I could limit the domains allowed to link to images in that location, but that won’t be necessary.
Although this information is rather basic, I hope it helps someone with a similar goal.
Nikon FE
To anyone who has visited the site within the last few months: my apology for not updating/finishing the site. This site is still in a testing phase.
I’m posting a few images taken with my Nikon FE, my almost-main walkaround camera. It’s quite fun to shoot with although manual focus isn’t very fast and a few shots have been missed.
Happy New Year
Happy New Year everyone, have a prosperous, etc. 2010.
I’ll be updating the site soon.
Orlando Homeless
Meet Shawn J. Smith, one of Orlando’s homeless. I met Shawn while shooting sunrise photos in Downtown Orlando with a friend. We witnessed some people being ejected from a spot underneath an I-4 overpass. Shawn and his friend had come up to see if the coast was clear; they had to leave all of their possessions, including their food, behind. Shawn says that police often harass them and even threaten them with tasers if they don’t move fast enough.
My knowledge on the subject of The City of Orlando vs. The Homeless Population is limited, but I do know that there are no solutions on the horizon. Now that Downtown Orlando is being converted to an urban hotspot, the city seems to have decided to move all of the undesirables as far away from the high-rent areas as possible. The result is an absurd set of laws which have resulted in the arrest of persons attempting to feed the homeless. Yes, you read that correctly: in a city in the United States someone was arrested for feeding fellow citizens. In a country waging war in distant lands in an effort to spread democrazy (what I call it) and freedom, sharing food has become a crime.
I’m sure many people would make a variety of comments about most of the homeless being drunks, drug addicts and criminals. Shawn himself said that the group of people he was in were just people trying to make their way, hoping to get a new start. He’s made some mistakes and after a 7-day jail term he got out to find that he had been evicted from his home. His companion is unable to get a proper ID because she doesn’t have an address, a catch-22 I’m sure many of these folks experience.