Megabytes

I have been using Word Press blogs for a couple of years now. This past year, I began modifying blog skins (themes). Because Word Press blog uses php and a MySQL database, you need a local testing server if you want to make changes and preview them locally.
So, I set about figuring out how to set up a Word Press blog on a local server. I found a great, step-by-step tutorial for just that: Installing Wordpress Locally Using MAMP. This is a 15-minute instruction written by Michael Doig back in December of 2005. Age aside, the instructions are still valid.
I ran into one stumbling block involving the file path that was easily corrected. In short, the steps are:
1) download and install MAMP
A MAMP Pro version is available which allows for easy configuring of an unlimited number of virtual hosts and dynamic DNS access.
2) get host, user and password from MAMP start window (Of course this link won’t work unless you have the server running!)
It’s so simple to install MAMP. You are running the server within minutes of downloading the app.
3) download Word Press and move the files to your htdocs folder
The htdocs folder is in the MAMP folder which is in your Applications folder.
4) edit the config file
Here’s where you edit the name of the blog, the user, password, and host if necessary.
5) change config file name
Mike doesn’t mention this, but it is in the Word Press docs. You’ve got to rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php.
6) run WP install
This is where I had a problem. The link Mike provided for the install didn’t work for me. I had set the Apache and MySQL ports to their defaults when I installed MAMP for a class I took earlier this year. Mike lists 8888 as the MySQL port and I had 3306. It turned out I didn’t need to include the port as part of the URL. I installed from this URL.
7) generate the password to admin account
An important piece. Word Press generates an unwieldy jumble of letters and numbers as the initial password (which you can change of course.) Copy and paste works best here.
8) login and play
Then - all of a sudden, you’re done!

I did a daytime sketch and a nighttime sketch while at the OSP. The above artwork was drawn while I was on duty at the junction of 800 and 802 spur road. This is a Newtonian reflector telescope, the type invented by Isaac Newton. It is also called a Dobsonian mount after amateur astronomer John Dobson of San Francisco. Dobson is still doing sidewalk astronomy in SF and has been since the 1970s.

Below is my sketch of a segment of the Lunar surface at the terminator. Viewed through my 8″ reflector, using 17mm eyepiece at about 70x , 8:55pm on 8/16/07. This particular segment is the middle section of the visible crescent.

What has made this trip, my tenth, to the OSP unique among the other nine, is having internet access. Nomad ISP owner, Kelly Hogan, is an astronomer and a Linux developer. He wrote a program that uses a satellite dish to bring internet access to the wilderness. He wanted it here at the OSP to support his astronomy habit. That’s how Nomad began 5 years ago.
Today, they have over two hundred networks at campgrounds, marinas, and RV parks across the United States and this year have plans to expand to Australia. Why Australia? I suspect because Kelly wants to observe under Southern skies! <grin> Good choice, Kelly.
When you are RV-ing, camping or boating around the country, bring your laptop along with your sleeping bag and stay connected to your global family and friends.

Last night, as dusk was falling, I stared with apprehension at dark, ominous clouds that stretched from the eastern to northern horizon. Fearing rain, I put away my table cloth and everything upon my campsite table and battened down the hatches as much as I could. Even with this afeared pending rain, I dressed for a night of observing as darkness fell.
Getting up to the observing area, I noticed many telescopes were still under their silver blankets. It was a partly cloudy sky after all. I eyed the thunderhead that appeared in the distant east-southeast. Many other parts of the sky were dark and star-filled. With hope for a miracle that the storm would pass us by, I sat on my stool and re-accquainted myself with the night sky.
There’s Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Scorpius. Well, parts of Scorpius. Can’t see much of Sagittarius at all. The Summer Triangle and its respective constellations Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila, were looking crisp and clear at the zenith.
Oh, look! While I had been greeting the rest of the night sky, the thunderhead had either dissipated or moved away! And with this good turn of events, I uncovered my scope, adjusted the Telrad on Polaris, put in a 25mm eyepiece and observed til 3am.

The Oregon Star Party is an event for astronomers or anyone with an interest in dark, non-light-polluted skies, held once a year in the Ochoco Mountains of Eastern Oregon.