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!

I just installed the Flash based tag cloud WordPress plugin WP-Cumulus of Roy Tanck and integrated it into the tag-cosmos-page. That 3D-tag-cloud is really great! It functions properly and is easy to configure.
The only downer is Flash … but Roy can’t help it … the iPhone still does not know what to do with Flash and also search engines stop and do not follow links within swf files. But nevertheless – the 3D-tagcloud is really fun to use … just look here, so you know what I’m talking about!

Sources: WP-Cumuls at WordPress.org

Deutsche Bahn and T-Mobile extend their traveling WiFi HotSpot service at the ICE train routes. Now, also the route Frankfurt am Main – Hanover – Hamburg is covered with WiFi internet access (“railnet”). Overall, we have WiFi internet connection within the train on most of the ICE routes in Germany:

• Dortmund – Düsseldorf – Cologne (also via Hagen and Wuppertal)
• Cologne – Frankfurt am Main Airport
• Frankfurt am Main – Stuttgart – Munich
• Frankfurt am Main – Hanover – Hamburg

The service offers laptop and especially iPhone users an internet connection even if the train travels at a maximum speed of 300 km/h – more than 180 miles per hour! Im always impressed about the quite stable and fast internet connection even when traveling that fast. And the best thing of all: as a (German T-Mobile) iPhone user you don’t even have to pay for the WiFi connection in the train!

Source/picture: Deutsche Bahn

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.