An easy way to keep plugins and themes updated in multiple WordPress installations

In this article: Introduction, Prerequisites, How my file system is structured, Creating the repositories, Linking to the repositories, Recap, Common problems and fixes, Maintaining your repositories, Using this technique with ZenPhoto and other CMS systems, Additional resources, Comments and feedback

Introduction

WordPress is a wonderful blogging platform and, in certain situations, a good choice for a general content management system (CMS). It is easy to end up with several parallel installations of WordPress—one for each major topic you want to discuss. Everything works great at first, but after a while, the constant barrage of updates to the main application, various plug-ins, and the themes becomes something of a management nightmare. The more blogs you operate, the more time is spent maintaining the blogging environment and the less that is available to actually blog.

If you host your WordPress blog on a Linux-based server (BSD or most any other Unix-like operating system should be able to do this equally well) and you have “shell access”, I might have a way to ease your pain. In a nutshell, you will create a central repository containing every WordPress plug-in that you use in all of your blogs. You create a separate repository containing each of your themes. Next, you create symbolic links (think of them as shortcuts; more about them in just a moment) from each installation of WordPress to your central repositories. From that point on, you only have to update your plug-ins and themes once, and the change will take effect instantly across all your sites. It’s a very slick trick!

This trick works probably works well on many other CMS systems that use plug-ins and themes; I have started using it with my ZenPhoto installations, too. In addition to helping keep things updated, it also saves disk space since you are only maintaining a single copy of the files on your server.

I will provide step-by-step instructions and some quirks for which you need to be aware. One quick word of caution: mistakes, bugs, and goofs can also instantly affect all your sites, so be very careful as you work, take your time, and always backup your files and databases before you start.
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CRITICAL – Buffer overflow in VML used by IE and Outlook

Summary

Threat Level: Critical Zero-Day Vulnerability

This threat is currently active and spreading in the wild. Most Windows-based computers, even if fully up-to-date with all the official Microsoft patches, are vulnerable right now unless certain actions are taken to protect yourself (see below).

What it does: Various websites, including advertising sites that generate advertisements appearing on trusted websites, become infected. These sites use a specific type of attack to slip through your computer’s security, leaving a big hole for your computer to be further attacked. Since some versions of Outlook and Outlook Express use Internet Explorer to display some types of e-mail, you can become infected just by displaying infected e-mails you receive.

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Secrets Often Stay on Cell Phones and PDAs

It seems people swap cell phones, smart phones, and PDAs about as frequently as they change their smoke detector batteries. These miniaturized devices hold a large amount of personal data inside their tiny silicon brains. So what happens to all that data when you trade in your cellular phone for a new one? Or what if you sell it on eBay to help offset the cost of your replacement device?

If you’re like a lot of technologically challenged people, you don’t even think about purging the memory before you hand it over, and if you do think about it, you might not know how to erase the data.

If you are a bit more tech savvy, you might delve into the manual (you didn’t throw it away or lose it, did you?) or search the Web for instructions. It’s not like most devices have a big red “ERASE ME” button on them. It’s kinda tough to delete all your data. And for good reason (I’m referring to the technologically challenged button pushers that can’t resist big red buttons).

The scary thing is that after finding out how to delete the data and pushing the right menu options, the data still might not be completely gone! According to an AP story reported in the Dallas Morning News, secrets often stay on cell phones even after the data is supposedly deleted. That might be good news if you accidentally erased everything, but it would be bad news if you are a government official, a cheating spouse, or just someone who doesn’t like people snooping through their personal information.

Read the article. It’s a bit shocking, has a touch of humor, and it just might help people to “decide whether to auction their used equipment for a few hundred dollars – and risk revealing their secrets – or effectively toss their old phones under a large truck to dispose of them.”

Preventive Maintenance Plans Are a Very Good Idea

Preventive Maintenance Helps Safeguard Data
Most of our clients find the information stored on the hard disk is much more important than the hardware that stores the data. Taking steps to protect this information makes sense. That is what preventive maintenance is all about.
Preventive Maintenance Improves Security
Regular virus and spyware scanning is critical to keeping your data safe. Security patches and software updates are released several times each month for a variety of software. Some notify you, but others do not. All are important if you wish to stay protected. System and security logs give a wealth of information about the state of the equipment and the network. By checking the logs, we often spot potential problems early and avoid emergencies by fixing problems before they become noticeable.
Preventive Maintenance Improves Performance
Some aspects of computer systems degrade in performance over time. This has even given rise to the colorful term of “Windows rot“. Preventive maintenance helps improve the overall speed of system and network performance in these respects.
Preventive Maintenance Saves Money
You’ve heard the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It may be trite, but it’s also true. Avoiding problems saves you money in the long run, compared with laying out cash for new components or repair jobs. Emergency repair procedures can consume your IT budget at alarming rates. Most preventive maintenance procedures are quite simple, compared to troubleshooting and emergency repair procedures. This saves you much time (and stress!).