To see what version of Python you have installed on your machine, type the following at the command line:

python -V

(Capital V, kiddo)

I’m running a WordPress MU (3.0+) installation for a cluster of websites and the Thesis theme works great out of the box.  Unfortunately, you need to hack Thesis up a little if you want the sites to have unique styles.  After searching around for a little, I stumbled on Kristarella’s awesome WPMU + Thesis tutorial.  Exactly what I was looking for.  It only involves changing a few lines of code in the functions.php file (found in your Thesis theme home directory) and allows you to then customize the style for each of your WordPress blogs.  I highly recommend you check out her tutorial and other excellent Thesis how-tos.

There were two changes I needed to make to Kristarella’s code because

1. I didn’t want to use blog names (I used blog domain*) for the subdirectories, and
2. I’m using Thesis 1.8 which has some slightly different syntax compared to version 1.7 and below.

So here’s the 3 things I changed in /wp-content/themes/thesis_18/functions.php (which varies only slightly from her guide):

Change this line:

define('THESIS_CUSTOM', STYLESHEETPATH . '/custom');

by tacking on a variable (we’ll define $blog later) so that it looks like this:

define('THESIS_CUSTOM', STYLESHEETPATH . '/custom' . $blog);

Next, find this line:

define('THESIS_CUSTOM_FOLDER', get_bloginfo('stylesheet_directory') . '/custom'); #wp

and add $blog to the end here as well:

define('THESIS_CUSTOM_FOLDER', get_bloginfo('stylesheet_directory') . '/custom' . $blog); #wp

Finally, define $blog at the top of the file (N.B. do this at the very top of functions.php, right below the intro comments) like this:

$blog = "/" . str_replace("/", "", substr(get_bloginfo('url'),7));

[Basically, what I'm doing here is removing the 'http://' as well as any trailing slashes.  Then I'm adding a leading '/' so that it plays nicely when it gets concatenated with the other two strings above].

Save that file, and create sub-directories beneath /wp-content/themes/thesis_18/custom for each of your domains that you’re running (e.g. /wp-content/themes/thesis_18/custom/example.com , /wp-content/themes/thesis_18/custom/examplepart2.com).  Another note on this, is that depending on what you put in Site URL under Settings > General in the WordPress admin, you may need to include a “www.” in front of your domains.

Copy over everything from the custom directory into each of these new subdirectories, and before you go, don’t forget to chmod each of these like you do each time you do a fresh Thesis installation!  Set the cache directory to 775 and layout.css to 666.  And don’t blame me if you kill your sites.

*Only do this if you are mapping domains to unique blogs.

When using the Thesis Theme (versions 1.7, 1.8) in WordPress, to remove the header image that you’ve installed, select “Header Image” under the Thesis menu in the admin, and hovering the mouse over the image gives you the option to “Remove Image.”  Ah, one long run-on sentence and now back to the old text header.

After upgrading to Magento 1.4.x, you may notice “<span>…</span>” HTML tag being displayed around price information within the “Additional Information” section on product pages.  This is a known bug introduced in the most recent releases of Magento.  While it will probably be fixed in the next release, who wants to wait around for that?

To fix this bug, fire up your text editor and open /app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Output.php, then add the following to the end of the “If” statement on line 106 (Magento 1.4.0) or line 123 in later versions:

 && ($attribute->getFrontendInput() != 'price')

This will ensure that the <span> disappears.  Now back to work.

To find the version of Ubuntu that you are using, from the shell enter the following:

• lsb_release -a

It will print out some niceties that you are looking for.

Setting your default timezone in PHP is a very easy task and may be needed for some applications.  If you fall into this bucket, all you need to do is….

1. Open up your default php.ini file (or the one you wish to edit).  I can help you find your default php.ini file, if you don’t know where it is.
2. Find the line that says ;date.timezone
3. Uncomment that line by removing the semi-colon, then set it equal to the appropriate timezone.  For instance:
   • date.timezone = America/New_York
4. Save the file and restart Apache

In case you’re wondering… I write these how to’s to help me remember.  Might not be so helpful for everyone else, but maybe.

Looking for the primary php.ini in Ubuntu to change some default settings across Apache?  No problemo.  Here are three different options for finding it:

• Try running this <?php phpinfo(); ?> through your PHP interpreter.  This will show you where your main php.ini file is.
• Or you can try searching for it in the shell:  find / -name php.ini

• If all else fails, give it the old college try, and see if my setting works for you:  /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini (I’m on Ubuntu 9.10 – karmic).

This should just about do it for you, old chap.

Last week I had the delight of being interviewed by Mike Buechele and Trisha Lyn Fawver for their Affiliate Marketing Fanatics podcast on GeekCast Radio.

They’re currently conducting a series of interviews with some speakers at the upcoming Affiliate Summit East (8/15 through 8/17 in NYC).  In the interview, we discuss my work at Adknowledge, APIs in the affiliate space, plus some Lewis Carroll trivia.

If you’d like to give it a listen, please head on over to GeekCast.fm.  Let me know what you think on Twitter.

You may want to consider changing your default DNS server on your Windows 7 computer to Google Public DNS.  There are a few reasons why you’d want to do this:

• More speed
• Enhanced security (debatable)
• Perhaps most importantly, goodbye sponsored DNS error pages from your ISP.

You’re running Windows 7, so you’re either fresh off an upgrade or have a relatively new computer.  Either way, now is the time to switch over to Google Public DNS.

DNS (Domain Name System) is the Internet’s lookup system whereby easily remembered domain names are translated on-the-fly to cryptic IP addresses where the content resides that you’re trying to access.  In an effort to speed up the web, Google launched a free DNS service in 2009.

To switch over to Google Public DNS on Windows 7, please follow these instructions (or check out Google’s):

1. Click the “Start” button
2. Click “Control Panel” in the menu
3. Click “Network and Sharing Center
4. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS (I recommend doing this for all connections)
5. A prompt will open showing the connection’s status, click “Properties”
6. Under the “Networking” tab, double click on “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” beneath “This connection uses the following items”
7. IMPORTANT: Make note of the current settings (write them down!) and also write down Google’s Public DNS telephone support numbers which are 877-590-4367 (inside the USA) and 770-200-1201 (outside the USA).  You’ll need this stuff if you mess up.
8. Select “Use the following DNS server addresses:”  (Note: do not modify the IP address section)
   1. Change the “Preferred DNS server” to 8.8.8.8
   2. Change the “Alternate DNS server” to 8.8.4.4
9. Click “OK”
10. Click “OK” again (on the Connection Properties window)
11. Repeat these steps for all connections you wish to enable Google DNS for (wireless, LAN, etc.)
12. Restart the computer

After this, you’re all good to go!  Remember, if you want to use Google Public DNS on future connections (at the office, for instance), you’ll need to configure it for each new connection.  Just remember to use the DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.   The steps above can also be roughly followed on other versions of Windows, but the prompts may be slightly different.

If you run into problems getting Internet access after making these changes, Google Public DNS telephone support can be reached at 877-590-4367 (inside the USA) and 770-200-1201 (outside the USA).

If you’re like me and did a hasty install of Citadel and didn’t pay much mind to the manual, you may have found a few quirks here and there.

For instance, you may have found yourself able to configure the mail server to receive mail without issue, and allow users to connect via a POP3 connection.  But you’d be stymied if you tried to make a similar connection to send outgoing mail via SMTP.  And that’s why you’re probably on this page.

So without further ado, the answer is in the command line, my friends:

sendcommand IGAB

If the user account is configured, that should just about do it for you.  Four words for you:  Initialize Global Address Book.  Then again, I’m the most novice Citadel admin on the planet.