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WordPress doesn’t create thumbnails

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Imagemagick-logoI had an interesting issue hit my site recently, that I still can’t figure out WHY it happened, but after a few days of troubleshooting, I have figured out what happened, and how to fix it.

First, let me say that my site runs on a Mac Mini running Mavericks (10.9.5). So, all of this MAY come down to some update Apple released recently, I’m really unsure. I also run my site behind Cloudflare, which I also was curious about. It seems to have cropped up on/around the time WordPress 4.2 was released, which is what I thought the issue was at first (and why I was involved in the wordpress.org forum thread here). The issue is basically that WordPress, in my case, wouldn’t generate thumbnails for JPG image uploads, but PNGs would. The issue cropped up right around the time that wordpress 4.2 was released, so the natual causation logic seemed to point to WordPress being the issue. Interestingly, it wasn’t. After banging my head on this for a while, a coworker finally found a note that WordPress defaults to using ImageMagick (imagick.so) for image processing if it’s present, otherwise it uses GD. So, I found a “plugin” that forces WordPress to use GD, and that fixed it. So crap, the issue is my ImageMagick install. The problem is, WordPress is failing silently, and not throwing ANY errors.

So, I added a simple script to test imagick using some code I found on php.net hoping it would actually throw an error. And it did throw an error:

PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'ImagickException' with message 'Wrong JPEG library version: library is 70, caller expects 90

There we go. So, the issue is ImageMagick is being compiled against libjpeg version 9, but when it’s going to run, it’s being handed version 7. So, I was able to do an “mdfind” and see I had version 9 and 8 installed, as well as 7, both in /usr/local/lib, and with my PHP install. So, knowing I installed both 8 and 9, I removed 8 and 9, so only 7 was avaible, and then recompiled ImageMagick, and uninstall and reinstall imagick.so. Then, I ran my test, and it worked!

Fitbit Aria

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Fitbit Aria-WhiteBeing, obviously, a Fitbit fan, I picked up a Fitbit Aria a bit ago to track my (and the rest of my family’s) weight. I had been waiting patiently for them to update the Aria to support something a bit more modern than 802.11b, but sadly, that didn’t seem to be in the cards given their lack of response on the forums to requests for such functionality.

The scale itself feels and looks very nice. The top is glass, and the screen is easy to read at any distance. Unlike my previous scale, you don’t tap it to wake it up, but rather just stand on it and it takes your weight. Setup consists of powering the unit on with 4 AA batteries, and then running an application on your computer (I believe you can also use the phone app, but I haven’t tried) that finds the wifi network being broadcast from the scale, then telling the scale to join your home network, and to associate with your Fitbit account. Once that’s done, when you weigh yourself, it will say weight, figure out your body fat (assuming you’re not wearing socks or shoes), and then generally figure out which account the weight belongs to. If someone new steps on the scale, it assigns that weight to a “guest” which you’ll be able to see on your fitbit account as “guest” and be able to assign them to either another user ((at which point it generally hides the weight unless the user has decided to share their weight)) or yourself (or just delete the measurement). You can invite others to use the scale (up to 8 total users), though I have found you have to use their actual fitbit email account. If you use an alternate account, the fitbit invite accept never seems to work. So, I’ve since added my wife, and my son to the scale ((interestingly, even though I can’t put in my 21 month old son’s weight into the Fitbit app as what it actually is (claims it’s invalid), the scale can weigh him and that does get put into his profile accurately)).

Now, the bad part. It seems that Fitbit had a bad run of these scales in the 2014’s. Judging from some online research, it seems to be a problem caused by sloppy wire routing at the factory. Looking on their forums, it seems Fitbit has been really good (as usual) at replacing malfunctioning scales and since the early 2015’s, the issue seems to have been resolved for most people getting replacement units. Mine started exhibiting this issue relatively recently, and after talking back and forth with Fitbit’s Aria support, they agreed the unit was defective, and would get me a new one (even though I no longer had the receipt). I don’t have to send the defective unit back, so I hope to attempt to repair it after the new unit arives. My hope is that I can use a couple scrap cat5e cables, or maybe some phone cable to replace the wiring, and provide some extra protection for the wiring. An initial opening of the unit (which I did after getting notice they’d be replacing the unit) didn’t show anything horribly broken, but it still does occasionally wake up on it’s own, or error out during weighing. =/

That aside, and assuming the new unit works as expected, I would definitely recommend buying one to anyone that asked… although I’m still hoping they update the unit to support at least 802.11g, if not 802.11n. That said, the unit is only really on the network once it’s powered on, so the fact it’s 802.11b isn’t THAT big of a deal. =/

[xrr rating=4.5/5]

Fitbit Zip

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Fitbit-ZipI recently picked up a Fitbit Zip at a Radioshack store closing for a heck of a good deal with the idea of giving it to my 2 year old son to see just how many steps his short legs make in a day. Obviously he didn’t need a One, or a wrist band style Fitbit, so the Zip seemed perfect. It still clips to clothing, and the battery reportedly lasts about 6 months (a CR2025, I believe), and best of all, it syncs over BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). In the first few days I had the unit, it counted well over 8,000-10,000 steps a day (often beating both my wife and myself). The only issue I found was that it didn’t Sync quite as reliably as the Fitbit One. It seems that in order to get the 6 month battery life, they have the unit go into standby after a bit of inactivity. So during the night, when we’d remove the Fitbit from his clothes, it wouldn’t sync. I had to actually place the unit much closer to the receiver to get it to sync during the night (I’d just leave it on my desk which is where the receiver is). Other than that issue (which will come back) the unit is great. It’s small, does a good job, and we loved it.

Then, sadly, the unit seems to have fallen off him when we were out shopping one day. And because the unit goes to sleep with inactivity, you can’t use something like Lightblue Bean (or any other BLE scanner) to find it. It just happily sleeps away, with no ability to say “oh, it’s in this store/parking lot/etc”. Sadness. I’ve since contacted Fitbit to see about a replacement, but at this point, I’m unsure. Hopefully a new one will show up, and we’ll get back to counting. =)

As a product though, it’s great. I’d suggest one in a minute for just about anyone. And if Fitbit could update their firmware to have the unit wake up once a minute or so, just to “ping” a BLE signal, so that you could see if it’s anywhere near you, that would be a great addition for finding the unit. Sadly, I think someone picked it up and didn’t turn it in to lost and found. =(

[xrr rating=4/5]

UPDATE (5/11/2015): I just received a replacement Fitbit from Fitbit in the mail. Awesome job guys, thanks so much!