I look after a few blogs, and one of them started giving some trouble that had me baffled.

Every time I logged into the Admin section, all I got was a white screen.

Seeing as I had no access to Admin, it was very difficult to diagnose what was wrong.

The first thing I did was to check my .htaccess files, and also did a check to see if there were any files there that had been inserted.  All was fine, so I was fairly sure my site hadn’t been hacked.

The second thing I did was to upload a new version of Wordpress.  This hopefully would overwrite any files that had been modified.  Still no joy.

Just in case there were any additional files that had been inserted, I then deleted my Wordpress files [with the exception of wp-config file and wp-content directory] and reinstalled.  I was reluctant to do this, as it’s a live site that gets quite a bit of traffic.  It didn’t clear the problem anyway.

I trawled the Internet, and the main suggestion seemed to be that a plugin may be at fault.  I renamed the plugin directory, and tried again.  Still no joy.

I eventually found the solution to my little problem, and I must say I was surprised, and more than a little annoyed, as it’s a Wordpress bug that should be addressed.

The following are a Before and After snapshot of my wp-config file.

Before

After

Notice the difference?

Note the line numbers.

Apparently the addition of white-space at the end of the file was sufficient to muck up the system.  Why, I don’t know but deleting the three blank lines was enough, and the site is now working perfectly.

Very strange.

From time to time, vague thoughts cross my mind.

The latest vagueness is to ponder whether this site could do with a change of name.

It started out as a sort of joke, to counter the madness on Head Rambles, and ‘The Other Fellow’ was part of that whimsy.  However, I wonder if it could do with a change?  Could it do with it’s own identity?

I have been mulling over various names, and have set out some little rules for my mulling -

• It would be nice to have a name starting with A?
• It would be nice to have a name that reflected the contents of the site?
• It would be nice to have a catchy name that people (mainly myself) could remember?
• Something that would grab searches would be nice too?
• It must be a name that can be registered as a domain.  That’s a hard one.

Maybe it’s just too much bother?

Maybe it could revitalise the place?

What do you think?

I am not a great believer in pills or tablets.

They have their uses, and I will take them if absolutely necessary, but even then, I take the minimum dose and take my chances.

One form of pill I avoid like the plague is the supplement.  As far as I am concerned, they are a device to part hypochondriacs from their money and in general do fuck all that a good diet won’t do in the first place.

Recently, I was persuaded against my better judgement to try one of these supplements.  I was given a bottle of magnesium and calcium tablets that were the size of small torpedoes.  Because I like a quiet life, I thought it would be simpler to take them than to chuck them out, so I started taking one a day.

It might be the warmer weather?  It might be a simple case of remission?  Or it might be the tablets, but I can tell you that life has been improving rapidly when it comes to the RLS.

Normally, the RLS would start up in the early afternoon.  It would start off with the mild electric shocks, followed by a feeling of heat.  This would be followed by the twitching and the general major irritations.  All of those have gone. Now I get the mild twitching late in the evening which still builds up to bedtime when I have to take my prescription medication, but the relief during the day is great.  No only that, but I feel a lot more active.

Could it be that supplements actually work?

If so, they are expensive, but worth every cent.  

I wrote just over a week ago that this site didn’t exist as far as the world of search engines is concerned.

It transpired that it had been hacked, and a couple of lines of code inserted which redirected search engines to another site.  Naturally, I removed the hack and then had to set about undoing the damage.

It appears that my efforts have been successful.  Traffic has started to filter in from searches, as is plainly illustrated by Google Analytics -

It’s not much, but it’s a start.

At least the site is no longer being ignored!