Problem: After updating the blog to WP 2.7 everything was running smooth. But when opening some of the plugin setting pages the server responded with a “500 Internal Server Error” – especially when using plugins like “XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress” or when uploading pictures. When I activated the “StatPress Reloaded”-plugin non of the admin section was accessible anymore.

Diagnosis: PHP is running out of memory.

Solution: If you are running your own root, dedicated or virtual server this is an easy bugfix: You just have to change the php.ini of your server and provide more memory to your PHP installation. On a shared hosting server – like at the webhosting solutions at 1and1 you often don’t have access to that central php.ini. But there is an easy workaround:

Create a text file and name it “php.ini” (without the quotes ) and with a single line of code in it:

memory=20MB

This file has to be placed into the directory /wp-admin/ within your WordPress installation.

That’s it!

Florian published a long list of plugins and tutorials for the en vogue JavaScript framework jQuery on drweb.de (Sorry the lists are only available in German ). It’s quite interesting – not only for Ruby-on-Rails developers – for just every web developer who wants to take a close look and work with the elegant JS-framework. I had the chance to watch the presentation of Yehuda Katz, member of the Plugins-Team of jQuery at the RailsConfEurope 2008 … it was really great! Take a look at his presentation file online. It’s really worth it!

Thanks again to Florian for sharing these great links!

The development team of popular open-source blog-software Wordpress just released the security update 2.6.2. It is highly recommended to install the update to eliminate some security issues within the WordPress installation – especially for blogs with open registration.

The update fixes a security issue caused by the weak implementation of the php function mt_rand() in many popular php-distributions. The function is used for seeding the random number generator. It also addresses the security risk of MySQL and SQL column truncation vulnerabilities. Stefan Esser reported both security-issues which are probably relevant to a lot of other php-based open-source projects. Thanks, Stefan!

Beside the fix of security issues, the WordPress version 2.6.2 also implements some minor bugfixes. Therefor the upgrade to the newest version of WP is highly recommendet to everybody using WordPress.

Pratik Naik from the Rails core team just published the announcement for a new Ruby on Rails hackfest: The person with the most patches merged into the core at the end of the month wins. In August, O’Reilly will handout a free pass to the RailsConf Europe. Keep on coding!

From Sept. 2nd to Sept. 4th 2008 the Ruby on Rails community will meet at the RailsConf Europe. It’s the third RailsConf in Europe and it will located in Berlin/Germany again. Last year, more than 800 Rails enthusiasts joined the conference – a great developer community event – and always the chance to drink your coffee besides one of the creative minds of the Rails Core team There is nothing that can replace the face-to-face communication within the community. So, I can warmly recommend joining the conference in Berlin to every Rails developer who is able to get there. And all those, who want to develop elegant web applications and do not work with Ruby on Rails yet – they should join us more than ever.
But there is an other group I miss a lot on Ruby on Rails conferences: Designers. Why? Because great application and interaction design and good web-application usability can only be achieved if developers and designers work closely together. That is why developers need to know something about design and designers need to know something about development.

So, I’m really happy that my  proposal, focussing on that issue, was accepted at the conference. In my double role as a designer and developer I’ll talk about

DESIGN ON RAILS FOR USABILITY … Or why designers should start to understand code and developers should start to sketch and use design methods.

I’m really glad be a part of the conferece in September – and to meet all these interesting people – and hopefully some codedifferent-blogreaders, too And please don’t forget to join Bratwurst-on-Rails on the evening before the conference starts.