The Fix for Kenny…

Well, the audience has spoken, and an overwhelming number of contributors voted for “Yes, because he won’t act on it either way”. I would like to take this occasion to specifically thank the voters from the Northridge, CA region (two of them), and our friend ronru/notkeith/keith from the Bangkok, Thailand region.

This article will detail not only how Kenny can fix his broken blog, but in fact also illustrate how incredibly easy the fix would have been, and by corollary how incredibly incompetent Kenny really is… but, enough patronizing – Let’s get started.

Those of you visiting Kenny’s blog will have noticed how all the pictures that used to grace the front-page have, somehow, gone missing:

This also applies to Kenny’s CSUNECON.COM website, which is housed on the same server (almost worth a double-LOL), which CSUN keeps reimbursing Kenny for (so it could be argued that Kenny is still using CSUN resources for his hooker blog, but that’s a debate for another day):

At first, it appears as if the images that should be there, are gone — eradicated from or “lost” from Kenny’s server. In fact, I’ve repeatedly pointed that out to Kenny, deliberately sending him chasing down the proverbial primrose path, if he actually were investigating this (of course, he wasn’t).

In fact, the images are all still there, in the respective directories, where any self-respecting blog would expect them to be. Taking the “Thailand Never Changes” article as an example, the image expected is right here:

I found this by extracting the actual image path from the gobble-dee-gook of the actual link, which is this:

http://bigbabykenny.com/wp-content/themes/comfy-plus/scripts/phpThumb/phpThumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/s_v10ab7ncrfq0964.jpg&w=100&h=70&q=95

This link, actually, contains all the information that could have helped Kenny track down this error, but by just forcing a display of the image into a new window, like so:

The problem, and subsequent solution, becomes glaringly obvious to anyone competent enough to run a website/blog – this results in a page that does not show the expected image, but a screenful of error messages. In fact, all the same error message:

With the relevant and most important message being – I’ll highlight the item that matters:

“/var/www/vhosts/BigBabyKenny.com/httpdocs/wp-content/themes/comfy-plus/scripts/phpThumb/phpThumb.php” on line “152”, dumping error message as text:**

Deprecated: Function eregi() is deprecated in /var/www/vhosts/BigBabyKenny.com/httpdocs/wp-content/themes/comfy-plus/scripts/phpThumb/phpThumb.php on line 152

with the bottom of the error message displaying the name and version number of the script causing the error:

phpThumb() v1.7.9-200805132119

So, what do we know so far:

– the broken images are caused by a failing script, not by missing images.

– the script causing the error is called phpThumb.php (let’s guess it’s a script creating thumbnails)

– the error is caused because his new and shiny server is running a new version of the php scripting language, and his script is outdated and thus breaks.

– the script is part of the theme he is using, called “comfy-plus”, which a quick check of his theme directory reveals to be running at version 2.1.

/*
Theme Name: ComFy Magazine Plus
Theme URI: http://deluxethemes.com/comfy/
Version: 2.1
Author: Ahmad Fouad
Author URI: http://deluxethemes.com/
*/

Since there is no newer version of the theme existing, the solution is blatantly easy – upgrade phpThumb.php

As his site reveals far too easily, he is still running version 1.79 of phpTumb.php, dating back to 2005.

The current and correct version of the phpThumb.php is 3.0 (from 2009, so yeah, those fixes had been available for over 2 years). Download it from here and copy it on Kenny’s site to here:

/var/www/vhosts/BigBabyKenny.com/httpdocs/wp-content/themes/comfy-plus/scripts/phpThumb/phpThumb.php

or, alternatively, to here (same location):

http://bigbabykenny.com/wp-content/themes/comfy-plus/scripts/phpThumb/phpThumb.php

(oh, and yes, there’s a specific way to copy the files, but I’m not going to go as far so as to hold Kenny’s hand all the way – either figure it out, or hire me to fix it for you).

Thus, in summary:

• – His installation told him what the error was.
• – it requires updating a single script to a newer version.
• – alternatively, install a new theme that is actually supported by its author.
• – Kenny’s as incompetent of a “webmaster” as he is a blog autheur, or an econ teacher.
• – Oh, and fake NotKeith is full of crap, with their claims of elaborate “hacking” of Kenny’s site – as usual.

What remains to be seen, now is:

• how long will it take Kenny to follow these simple directions
• will he acknowledge who saved his bacon? Again.
• will he get a clue?

Let’s all get ready for a hearty HaHaHa HeHeHe HoHoHo!!!