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A new server – a fresh start

mark — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 02:33:38 +0000

Like most people I like new things. And after a couple of years of running virtual servers here and there but wanting to move back to a server of my own, some recent developments have expedited the process.
So, if you’re reading this, welcome to my new server! It’s faster, better and shinier than the one(s) before

The server is colocated at a data center in Amsterdam by the good people at ColoClue, a colo…well, I guess “club” or “association” is the best word, but mostly they are a most excellent group of people I’m quite proud to have joined.

On the danger of downloading themes

mark — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:46:41 +0000

This is something I had not bumped into before, but today I downloaded a free WordPress theme to adapt to my own wishes (which usually involves a whole lot of hacking and slashing), but this one took some extra time because it was riddled with invisible links to several commercial sites, apparently to boost them via the bots that usually visit blogs. The crappy part was that the code that published the links was actually encrypted to prevent removing the links. This particular creator even went so far as to change the default WordPress ‘Meta’ links to his own site.

Translation: if I hadn’t been hacking my way through the code I wouldn’t easily have found the semi-hidden links, so anyone just downloading and using this theme or one like it will inadvertently aid these somewhat immoral practices and end up with a slightly crippled blog.

Update: After finding that all of their themes have these links etc. I’ve decided to name and shame: the free templates came from wpthemescreator.

Update 2: Some more investigation even found some hidden encrypted code in the theme that inserted links to the creator’s site quasi-randomly in the blog’s links and probably the footer as well. Yechh. I’ve decided to still use the cleaned up theme but remove any link to the creators, even though that is normally against my principles.

New brooms…belated New Year’s resolution?

mark — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:36:40 +0000

Ahh…it’s always nice to clean house every once in a while, I upgraded the server a bit, upgraded my WordPress, changed the theme…and also to sit down to do some write-ups on the ol’ blog after just not finding the time for such a long time. Here’s what I’ve been up to since the start of 2009:

- Working a lot (quite some stress, but we’re getting there)
- Teaching (great fun)
- Following The Big Bang Theory, Fringe and Chuck (very funny, intriguing and quite funny respectively)
- Playing a lot of Rock Band 2 with my good friends Robert and Liesbeth (first 100% for a bass line on Expert!)
- Playing way too much Rome Total War…thanks for getting me hooked, Rob!

Gimme powerrrr

mark — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:17:42 +0000

There was a power failure at the NIKHEF data center tonight, one of the (if not THE) biggest AMSiX hubs. Ouch! All connectivity lost to the super data center my little server is in. So…server doing fine, data center doing fine, upstream data link dead. Damn.

Back up inside two hours is pretty good though, tip ‘o the hat to the engineers over there.

Small theme update

mark — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:16:12 +0000

I did just a small visual update to my theme (which I still quite like) today, mainly introducing a background slightly darker at the top to more emphasise the start of the page, changing the logo at the top and changing the font for headings and the tabs to the left to Georgia, a nice serif typeface to introduce a bit more variety to the blog, and changed the text color scheme to a more classical feel. I also added a small ‘about‘ page.

I quite like this theme

mark — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:18:38 +0000

Yes I do.
My old theme, however cool-looking, depended very heavily on A) a huge wide banner image at the top and B) dynamic image replacement for the post titles. Result: long loading times. And of course I sometimes have the attention span of a stressed hamster on meth,thus I got bored with the look.

This theme, by the way, is called GenkiTheme 1.0, and is available right here. Of course I’ve edited it here and there, but I kind of dig the cleanliness while still looking colorful and…well…cheery.

Hope you dig it too.

Virus writers must die

mark — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:29:39 +0000

Let’s tie them up together with some spammers and script kiddies and throw them in a lake.
Any blog writer will know by now that the comments get jammed with oodles of spam automatically, but today I have some new comments in my Akismet spam queue (love that Akismet!) that post a link to blogsrate.net, which is a site just for distributing viruses. I run AVG Free 8 (a very nifty virus scanner…and it’s free!) which was kind enough to warn me:

The page you are trying to access has been identified as a known exploit, phishing, or social engineering web site and therefore has been blocked for your safety.

In fact, the site tried to push a download virus/trojan to my PC. The bastards! Ah well, another asshole is thwarted by up-to-date virus scanners (hint righ there, people! UPDATE!). And here’s the asshole in question:

Domain Name.......... blogsrate.net
Creation Date........ 2008-06-22
Registration Date.... 2008-06-22
Expiry Date.......... 2009-06-22
Organisation Name.... Michael Cautillo
Organisation Address. P O Box 99800
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. EmeryVille
Organisation Address. 94662
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. US

Current Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
IP Address: 68.180.151.31 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
IP Location: US(UNITED STATES)-CALIFORNIA-SUNNYVALE
Lock Status: clientTransferProhibited
DMOZ no listings
Data as of: 14-Jun-2005

Well, Michael Cautillo of EmeryVille, CA: You’re a jerk, Cautillo. A complete kneebiter.
Words are yet to be invented to describe what you are, but you are one. A total one.

Getting my brain detailed

mark — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:33:09 +0000

The blog is low on updates now, I’m getting my brain detailed on a VMware training this week.

In case you’re wondering: it’s pretty good. Good teacher, and I’m actually learning some new facts and features here and there. Plus the lunches are good

WordPress 2.5.1 is out.

mark — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:14:07 +0000

The first update for WordPress 2.5 is out, aptly numbered 2.5.1. Get it and upgrade, it’s quite painless

Upgrade to WordPress 2.5

mark — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:24:00 +0000

The long-awaited WordPress 2.5 was released this weekend, and of course I just had to try it.

The upgrade process is as easy as always:

Make a backup,
Deactivate your plugins,
Overwrite your current WordPress directory from the downloaded TARball,
Login and run the automatic upgrade scipt,
Activate your plugins,
Done!

The admin interface is quite different when you log in, but the new dashboard is easy to get used to and use, so no major learning curve ahead. I found all the features I used before very quickly, and everything works fine as expected. For my blog the upgrade broke nothing in my customisation, so the upgrade was extremely painless.

Get the upgrade.