cloudinit breaks connections from localhost to Plesk-operated web servers

I don’t know how or why it is even installed – perhaps part of the provided Ubuntu image from my VPS host – but cloud-init (a.k.a “cloud-config”) is a bit obnoxious. At [re]boot time (best I can tell), it resets /etc/hosts based on some random template it has (/etc/cloud/templates/hosts.debian.tmpl in my case, even though that… Read more

How to install ImageMagick 7 for WordPress under Plesk Obsidian on Ubuntu 22.04

The ImageMagick logo: a stout blue-robed wizard, with huge white beard and moustache, point a wand up and to the left where the words "Image Magick" arc across, surrounded by gold stars.

Why should I do this? WordPress relies on either ImageMagick or GD for its ability to read & write images. It prefers ImageMagick, as ImageMagick supports a much wider range of files, tends to be faster, and some assert that it produces higher quality files. ImageMagick 6 was superseded by ImageMagick 7 nearly a decade… Read more

No more Dark Mode support

For about a month I was using WP Dark Mode. I don’t really recall how I thought upon it to begin with, but I vaguely recall choosing to install it because it seemed kind to support dark mode. Even though I don’t use it myself, it does seem to have a non-trivial following. And I… Read more

Image workflow for WordPress

Screenshot of the Image Tool+ main window, showing a bunch of image format conversions in progress

These are the main tools and procedures I use for publishing images through WordPress. In case it’s helpful to others. My input images generally fall into three categories: Some of these formats can be published directly into WordPress – mainly PNG and JPEG – but not all, and neither PNG nor JPEG are the best… Read more

Swift code syntax highlighting in WordPress

ContentsBaseline: XcodeCommon limitation: no Light/Dark mode supportThe contestantsCode Block ProPerformanceProsConsCodeColorerPerformanceCode Syntax BlockPerformanceProsConsEnlighterPerformanceProsConsHighlighting Code BlockPerformanceProsConsPrismaticSyntax-highlighting Code Block (with Server-side Rendering)PerformanceProsConsSyntaxHighlighter EvolvedPerformanceProsConsUrvanov Syntax HighlighterPerformanceProsConsThe winnerWhat are other websites using? The built-in “code” block for WordPress (the CMS I use for this site) is virtually useless – it’s just a <pre> block, essentially. The appearance may vary depending… Read more

Blog like it’s 2005

Screenshot of my .Mac website as it now appears in my resurrected version

On a bit of a whim – a silly tangent off of migrating to a new web host – I resurrected the ‘frozen in time’ copy of my iTools / .Mac / MobileMe HomePage website. You can find it here, for better or worse. My old website dates back to at the latest September 2005… Read more

Migrated hosts & out of the subdomain

Mainly just a note for posterity – after many years of wanting to do it but procrastinating, I’ve finally migrated to a new web host. While I was doing that, I figured it was high time to drop the subdomain, so now it’s just https://wadetregaskis.com, instead of https://blog.wadetregaskis.com. Blogs are so last year. Previously I… Read more