Thanks to Macenstein for letting me know about this awesome video!

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

The reason for this post is that the VaultPress team recently announced that they started accepting Beta testers last weekend. Although I am still in the process of awaiting my invite but I thought that I would put up my thoughts for possible uses for the service.

1. Automated and real-time backups of all the WordPress sites that I manage. This one is pretty obvious of course.
2. Real time intrusion monitoring once this feature is activated.
3. Setting up new blogs should be much easier as I can set up a WordPress install that will be my baseline settings and whatnot. I can then “restore” each new install from the VaultPress servers and new setups should be much faster!
4. I’m hoping that the service will allow me to also backup to existing services like Amazon’s S3 but only time will tell if they will allow this.

So for my fellow WordPress admins who read this site, are you planning on using this service? Have you applied for the beta and what uses do you see for it? Also, are there any features that you would want from a service like this?

On another note, I hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th. of July Weekend!

Update: Looks like my wait is over, I just got my beta invitation:

Today is your lucky day, my friend, as you are now in possession of a golden ticket.

Your golden ticket entitles you to sign up to for the VaultPress Beta and safeguard your entire WordPress environment from the ravages of hosting issues, server errors, hackers and alien attacks.

Before you run out to purchase a lottery ticket on this already auspicious day, please take a moment to visit VaultPress and complete your sign up.

Love,
The VaultPress Safekeepers
Demitrious, John, Matt, Meghan, Michael, MT, and Paul

I will keep you update in my experiences with the service.

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

The VaultPress site states that this service will cost around $20 a month for as many blogs as you want and that you will only need to install their plugin into your WordPress Dashboard. The service will also check all aspects of your blog in real-time and supposeldy to even include your dashboard settings along with posts, pictures, comments, and whatnot. Also, the service will eventually check your WordPress environment for zero day exploits (and other malicious attacks) and will work to patch these exploits and alert you to them.

Currently, the service is in beta but they are offering invites to bloggers. I have applied for the beta and I hope that I am accepted. I will let you know how I do but I am curious to know if your blog with WordPress and if so do you backup your content? If you do back your blog what service are you using?

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

This release has ,217 bug fixes and feature enhancements along with totally new additions such as a new default theme called Twenty Ten that replaces the previous default theme, Kubrick, which has been in use for 5 years or so. There are many other additions that you can learn about by watching the video below if you are so inclined!

I will be making the switch soon but I want to do some additional testing so I will keep you up to date on all of that. In the meantime I hope that your all enjoying the World Cup as much as I am!

Update: Ok, I am up and running on WP 3.0. The upgrade went without issue I am happy to report.

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

Update: Looks like the site was down for about an hour and a half. Everything seems to be working now but I’m not sure what caused the outage so I will let you know what is happening once I know more.

Update 2: Looks like I suffered some CDN/caching issues. Hopefully that will not happen again.

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

When I first heard that the man behind Lost and Fringe was planning rebooting Star Trek I was extremely apprehensive. I have been a fan of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek for as long as I can remember. I was introduced to the show when I was very young, as both of my parents had watched the original series. I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation mainly but I also grew to love the original series. As I grew younger my love the various Star Trek shows increased as I watched Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Enterprise and the last two movies tough made me afraid that I had seen the apex of Trek popularity and that Paramount had lost its way and desire to keep the franchise alive, I suspected that if they had resorted to hiring J.J. Abrams to try and pull popular culture into the franchise that I probably wanted nothing to do with the new movie.

Later on though I wavered in my opinion after seeing some of the first trailers that were released. The one that sticks in my mind is the trailer showing shadowy steel workers wielding together the frame of what appeared to be a Constitution class vessel and shot of a young man that I assumed to be a newer James T. Kirk watching a ship yard on Earth building a starship that maybe Mr. Abrams indeed did know what he was doing. I started to do some reach on him and realized rather quickly that he was at least a much of a Trekkie as myself and my hopes were raised a bit higher! I managed to attend a showing of the movie on the opening week and all my hopes were confirmed!

The movie takes place in an alternate time frame from the 23rd-century Star Trek of the 1960’s and all of the members of the U.S.S. Enterprise are still cadets at Starfleet Academy or very early in their Starfleet careers. An emergency occurs on the planet Vulcan and Starfleet has to rush all available cadets into service as the majority of the fleet is occupied in another part of space. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and company are assigned to the Enterprise under the command of another Original Series staple, Captain Pike!

Oh, and before I forget the Venerable Lenard Nimoy makes an appearance as a much older Spock, Live Long and Prosper Sir! I think I will stop here for those of you who have not had the opportunity to watch this excellent movie and give you my impressions of the film.
I must admit that I got chills watching it and I felt that the movie’s production team did an excellent job of creating a world that is modern and futuristic and yet still has the look of the 1960’s of the show that I grew up watching. The effects, of course, are fantastic as Abrams tapped George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic to make finish making the world believable and after watching the DVD special features and listening to the commentary It appears that ILM is full of fellow Trekkies who wanted to make this move the epic return of Star Trek to the big screen.

I personally think that Paramount has begun to redeem itself to die-hard fans such as myself after the failures of Nemesis and the far too short-lived Enterprise. I hope that Abrams makes a sequel as I think he has managed to channel the essence of Roddenberry’s dream of the future and has given the franchise a much-needed “kick on the pants’ that hopefully will make Trek available to a whole new generation of Trekkies to be!

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

I just wanted to wish every Douglas Adams fans a Happy Towel Day and to state that I always know where my towel is and hope that you do to!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about head over to this site to learn more. Ironically I just finished listening to The complete radio dramatization from the BBC today of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy,

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

Check out this video for more details!

Secret feature of Google Reader

Viva la Konami code! Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A!

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

Personally, I am routing for Kansas City, MO/KS but you can vote for your own city but I would appreciate a vote for KC!

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Randomness Redefined. All Rights Reserved.