I just upgraded the version of PHP on the server running this blog, and popped over to /wp-admin/site-health.php to check for any errors. There were a few, the main one which caught my eye being The REST API encountered an error. For the Google results, that error message in text is: The REST API request failed due to an error. Error: stream_socket_client(): SSL operation field with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages: error:14094410:SSL routines:ssl3_read_bytes:sslv3 alert handshake failure stream_socket_client(): Failed to enable crypto stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to ssl://words.samtarling.co.uk:443 (Unknown error) (http_request_failed) ...

Okay, I know we’re not upgrading Apache, but y’know what I mean - let’s upgrade a Debian web server using PHP 7.3 to PHP 7.4! I’ll also cover some pointers on if that web server is running WordPress. 0) Assumptions I’m assuming: The server runs Debian 9 (Stretch) or Debian 10 (Buster) with Apache version 2.4.38* (though it should work for other versions) Apache is using the PHP module, not PHP-FPM You have sudo and SSH access You’ve made backups and any sites you’re hosting can tolerate downtime 😉 * You can get this info by running /usr/sbin/apache2 -v ...

I’d recently been having some issues with my Google Pixel 3XL - I’ve had the phone a while, so it’s fairly common for some little issues to crop up nearing the end of a contract (just as the warranty expires of course..) This however was a bit of a shitty one. The bluetooth and WiFi would suddenly turn off (normally when I’m driving somewhere and relying on the bluetooth for Waze) and just would not turn back on. ...

Laragon is local WAMP development server (and a much better one than XAMMP..) - I use it for most of my development work. Recently I’ve moved a couple of my ongoing projects over to PHP 8, and was caught out slightly by some unexpected behaviour. Laragon makes it pretty easy to add a new PHP/Apache version, but it makes a slight mistake when generating the mod_php config. You need to change ...

I’ve actually got a draft post which I started yesterday about Technical SEO to finish, but something caught my interest today - Google announced the roll out of their December 2020 Core Update. The December 2020 Core Update is now rolling out live. As is typical with these updates, it will typically take about one to two weeks to fully roll out. — Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 3, 2020 Like any Core Update, this is going to be a large change to their search and ranking algorithm, and the Panic! has already begun 😁 ...