Posts

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An issue with One Click SSL

Wordpress
Image by Werner Moser from Pixabay

I was posting a review post to my food blog, when it both failed to post and I couldn’t upload the photograph I was going to use in the post. I thought this was strange.

When I uploaded the photograph I got an error message. When I tried to post the blog post without the image I was redirected to the One Click SSL plugin page and the post wasn’t posted.

I did wonder if I had an SSL issue. My annual subscription goes through this month, but that was all fine, it had gone through three weeks ago.

As is demanded and expected these days, my various WordPress blogs are protected by SSL. I have a SSL subscription with my hosting company, and use the One Click SSL to enable the SSL on the blogs.

I tried to use one of my other blogs, and found I couldn’t log in using the WordPress credentials, as this is a IONOS supported WordPress site, I was able to log in using my IONIS credentials.

I had the same issue as I did with my food blog.

So, it was looking like all my blogs were impacted by this issue.

I did try and update the One Click SSL configuration, but that didn’t work. I deactivated and reactivated the plugin and that didn’t work.

I still had SSL, just that posting and uploading wasn’t working.

I wondered if it was a hosting issue, but why was the error then redirecting me to the One Click SSL configuration page on the WordPress dashboard.

I checked the plugin page, and saw that it had been updated to version 1.5 on the 26th August (yesterday) and my site had automatically updated the plugin.

I realised I probably would need to sort this out. I did wonder if I could downgrade the plugin version, but couldn’t find a simple way to do that.

In the end I deactivated the plugin.

I checked the site, it was working fine, and I still had SSL. The plugin One Click SSL configures the SSL for the site, but isn’t necessarily needed for SSL, as that is a hosting thing, not a WordPress thing.

I then checked, I could now post to the site. I left it for a while to confirm that deactivating the plugin did not deactivate SSL. I still had SSL and my site was working. I did the same fix for all my other blogs and I was finally able to post that food blog post.

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You blocked this channel

screenshot of Apple news saying "You blocked this channel"

I am pretty sure that Apple News doesn’t understand the meaning of blocked.

I blocked a channel in Apple News, now as I understand the reason I blocked the channel was because I didn’t want to see articles from that channel in my news stream.

However despite blocking the channel, the stories still appear in the stream.

I can still see the headline, the only difference is that the story picture has been replaced with the words You blocked this channel. The story is still a live link, yes you get a warning, but I am not sure that this would count as blocking.

The way I would like it to work, is that when I block a channel I don’t ever see it again. There could be a list of blocked channels, in settings, but otherwise I wouldn’t want to see it.

If I hide photos in Photos then I don’t see the hidden photographs, but I can access them if I need to. I don’t believe I can hide channels in Apple News.

So, though I have blocked stuff, I still see it, what is that about.

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Number seven

Saw my seventh Funky Cat in the wild. This was a white model with a black roof. It was in Weston-super-Mare, and I saw it after a couple of minutes after leaving my house.

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Solitary Charging

ORA Funky Cat charging

After getting my Funky Cat back from the dealer (after three months), without the CarPlay update I should say; a few days later it needed a charge. I had planned to use the Revive chargers at Worle Station, but changed plans and didn’t go to work in Bristol. So needing a charge, rather than use the MFG chargers close by, I headed down to Tim Hortons to use the Instavolt chargers there.

It was in the evening, and for most of the charge I was the only EV charging. Though a Tesla arrived later. I went for a walk, and then stopped at Tim Hortons for a coffee and a doughnut, well why not.

I only did a 85% charge, but this was from a starting point of 15%. 

Instavolt EV chargers

The process was nice and simple, though at 85p per kWh is not the cheapest place to charge. I did read that in September that they are introducing off-peak pricing. It will be 54p per kWh, between the hours of 10pm and 6am. Might be able to take advantage of that, I think for a top up charge, considering the location of the chargers in Weston.

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It’s back

funky cat headlight

I finally got my car back from the dealers.

I took it in on May 24th for the CarPlay update.

Unfortunately the update failed for an unknown reason and essentially bricked the head unit in the car. The head unit needed to be replaced, and it had to be sent from China.

Eventually the part arrived and was installed.

After all that they still didn’t do the CarPlay update.

Now spending time re-learning how to drive the Funky Cat, remembering there is no clutch nor a gearstick.

 

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Roaming across Europe

This summer I travelled to Germany, taking the ferry to France, travelling to just outside Paris for a few days before then setting off through Belgium and Luxembourg to Germany.

Following issues with using data in Portugal last summer with excessive data usage on my iPhone, I followed the same process I had used last October when I went to Amsterdam.

So before we boarded the ferry at Newhaven, I went into Settings -> Mobile Data and turned off virtually all the apps which could use mobile data. Took me a while as there were a fair few. I turned off mobile data for virtually all my apps and also specifically iCloud Drive and iCloud Backup. I am pretty sure they were the culprits for my excessive data usage whilst in Portugal.

As and when I needed to use apps, I either used the campsite wifi, or switched on mobile data for specific apps.

Arriving in France I was able to roam without any issues, of course as I travelled across Europe I switched networks, first in Belgium, then in Luxembourg and finally in Germany. In the end I used four different country networks. Each time I switched over without issue as I crossed the border.

In Portugal I reached 80% of my 12GB limit within the first twenty four hours. I did wonder if I would reach the fair usage limit on this holiday. As it happens I did six days into the trip, with two days left. It was relatively easy to purchase a 1-day Data Passport for £6 for the two remaining days of our holiday rather than pay silly prices for data on a pay as you go basis.

Though difficult to tell, I think the main data culprits were Waze and Amazon Music, which were used extensively as we drove across the continent.

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Black Cat in the Wild

Walking around Ealing I saw a Black Funky Cat.

This is the sixth cat I have seen in the wild. As I post to the blog when I see one, it’s easy to know how many I have seen.

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Flaky Waze

Having arrived in Dieppe on a travelling holiday I started Waze and was a little annoyed that it was quite laggy. My position on the map didn’t reflect the reality of where I was.

It was challenging enough to drive in France anyhow, but without a working navigation tool, it was a little more difficult.

However the next time I started Waze it worked fine.

It is illegal to use a speed camera detection system in France, but this was easy to turn off in Waze.

Routing avoiding toll roads was also relatively easy.  It was a much nicer and more interesting journey. Yes it takes longer, but I found the driving experience so much better and more interesting than when we came back through Belgium on their motorways (no tolls).

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European Travels

I had intended to blog about my experiences of driving the Funky Cat from the South West of England to Newhaven, taking the ferry to Dieppe, driving to a campsite outside Paris, then driving to Germany, visiting Cologne, Luxembourg City, before heading back home cross the Channel between Dunkirk and Dover.

However…

The Funky Cat is still with the dealer being fixed after the CarPlay update went wrong. In the end I had to take a petrol courtesy car across with me.

It had CarPlay and that worked well. I had planned a charging route, but relying on an internal combustion engine meant that this was thrown out! I had to re-apply for a range of low emission zone certificates, stickers and registrations, having already done that for the Funky Cat. I also had to change a range of bookings for the ferries and campsites with the different car registration.

It was a good trip, but I think I would have preferred to use the Funky Cat.