Due to abuse of the registration system at this blog recently, I have disabled user registrations. If you want to have an account (don’t see why you need one, but whatever; you can still comment without an account), you will have to contact me. Otherwise, I’m decreasing my headaches now.
Archive for the 'Random Ramblings' Category
My host will be upgrading PHP5 on all their servers tomorrow. What does that mean for us? Well, hopefully everything driven by PHP on my sites, including this blog, the wiki, and the forum (not to mention the main site, whenever I finish re-writing the code) will experience better performance. However, since most people will have been too incompetent to read the Dreamhoststatus.com blog, they will complain about some of their softwares not working any more. Fools!
Apparently the blog is working again. That’s always good news.
The reason it broke (forgive me if I go into technical terms here, and I don’t stop to explain) is because I had some older versions of plugins running on this site. When Wordpress did its nightly update, the functions that these plugins were using became obsolete. Therefore, it had to wait for the current version to update first.
Now, we’re running the bleeding edge (v2.2) of Wordpress. It may crash occasionally, but I will do the best I can to remove the software that causes crashy behavior, because I really hate seeing ANY of my software inaccessible.
You may have noticed some intermittant downtime on the mattfast1.com site.
This isn’t my fault.
Seems Dreamhost’s network is cracking at the seams as they try to integrate two different datacenters (in the same building), cope with LA’s power grid and the Garland Building’s backup systems which break every time they’re needed, and then their core router starts developing problems which may mean an $80,000 replacement needing installation.
Not a great month for Dreamhost, especially the last week.
It’s nice to know that we’re not the only ones having problems. It seems Myspace has its datacenter in the same building, so they’ve been having to deal with the same kinds of problems. They pulled the plug on all their servers after the last power outage, because there was no cooling system in the building and servers like cooling. A lot.
If you have any problems accessing my site, or Myspace, check with http://www.dreamhoststatus.com - that is the off-network status site for Dreamhost, which may help you figure out what’s going on. I’m on baht, if you care.
Well, Livejournal still refuses to update my feed. I think it’s something wrong with their software, but I do need to download the source for their software and see what’s going on. Of course, if I get the software up and running on this system, I may have to experiment with it. See if the base software is better than Wordpress or Moveable Type.
Turns out my feed has not been updating LiveJournal with my comings and goings for a while. Apparently, my feed isn’t validating their system… even though everything is completely RSS 2.0 compliant. */geekiness*
The post that’s causing problems is the last one on there, though. So hopefully, it will update next time it checks. Otherwise, I’ll have to find some other way to fix it.
So, now that I’ve finally figured out what website keeps spamming me (unitedpharma - online . com - spaces added to prevent automated linking) with their referers, I’ve done something about it. Anytime someone refered from that domain wants to come to my website, they get a big fat 403 error. Not only that, but the files and directories they are requesting? Well, those will dump anyone who tries to visit them out to Google so they can find something they were looking for. It’s not like I’m hurting my users, since those files and directories DON’T EXIST and never will.
More on this later, as I collect results from my current experiments. However, as of my last stats run (about an hour ago), I have 1,611 code 301 redirects listed, where I had none on this domain before I implemented this. I hate to spam google… I need to find a place more deserving of recieving my referer spam… any ideas?
This blog, which is starting to sag in places (like a well-loved sofa, for instance) is going to undergo some renovations over the next few days. Rest assured, everything will still be here - It’ll probably change places, or look somewhat different, but it will be here. That I will make sure of.
This could take a while. Don’t be scared; read the feed! Add mattfast1blog to your friends list on LJ or GJ, or simply point your newsreader to http://blog.mattfast1.com/feed/. This will keep you informed… on everything.
Apparently, nothing.
Seriously, I really need to update this more often.
I haven’t updated in a while because I’ve been far too busy to deal with such petty things. I might consider updating more often, but don’t count on much.
As anyone who runs a site with any kind of exposure (especially if they offer comment forms) knows, once you get the exposure you get the spambots by the thousands. Now, although I am running Spam Karma 2 (with the Akismet plugin) on my Wordpress install, which does cut down on the spambot visits (no point sending them to a site that won’t take their crap), I needed a more… bulletproof… solution.
Therefore, I an instituting a new policy on links: If a site appears in my logs without having a link to me, I will immediately and permanently ban them from all areas of my site. What does that mean for you? Well, it means server performence may suffer slightly as it tries to determine if you’re coming from a site that’s known bad. Every referral that comes from one of these sites will be sent back to where ever they came from. No warnings. Either have a link on your site, or don’t send your spambots to me.
And no, damnit, I’m not blocking LiveJournal. Well, not yet at least.