FWIW: I’m currently using fuitadnet.com to host this site, and we were using vizaweb.com to host luchawiki.com. They’ve featured unexplained downtimes and other goofiness, and I wouldn’t recommend them at all.
This reminds me that I ought to mention they’re moving thecubsfan.com from one server to ‘a better, more secure one’ (perhaps with less hackers) sometime this week, so things may be goofy the next day. The best case scenario is, everything blog post I make for the next couple of days has to be done twice (as does anything I do to the lucha db). That’s the best case, the worst case is everything going kaboom and the system backup not working (again), causing me to collapse in a heap and curse all electronics. I say it’s 50/50.
HEY! I guess I should explain the hacking
It wasn’t really a hacking. Well, it wasn’t really a hacking I was impressed by.
How to be a slightly impressive hacker:
1) Find out what software hosting companies usually use
2) Keep track of updates for the software
3) When there’s a patch for a security flaw in software, read the description of what was previously unsecured
4) Write a program to exploit that flaw
5) Use it at will on companies who haven’t kept up with their upgrades
How to be lame
5) skip to the last step, and use the work someone else already did, searching for unsecured machines on your own.
I’m pretty sure the latter happened. Either way, it was anti-personal, even for the ‘net – I just happened to be on a machine that hadn’t been patched and was vulnerable. It’s bad they didn’t keep up with patches – that’s sort what I’m paying them for – but it’s worse because the same hacker hit another server in the hosting company shortly before. Not sure if it’s horrible oversight or plain laziness, but that’s awful service.
What I have learned is you should pretty much ignore all offers of downtime rebates from hosting companies, because even if you do beat it out of them after downtime, they’re not actually going to pay you, they’re just going to give you another month of their service. Utterly useless.
My hosting contract for fuitadnet (thecubsfan.com) comes up on 12/30, and when the site got hacked just a week after luchawiki went down, a good part of me was thinking about the trouble of running this site far outpacing the reward from getting it. That not actually going to happen – between my o/c and net addiction (if such thing actually exists), I think the day you stop seeing me post on the ‘net, I’m dead or running for my life. (I do keep meaning to do one of those things.) When the site is like normal, everything’s may not always be easy to do, but at least it’s a problem I can eventually fix myself. When it’s completely up to other people and I can’t do anything but hit reload every five minutes and see if the site’s back, it’s incredibly frustrating.
I’ve lost my point somewhere in the whining. Sorry.
I’m using http://www.downtownhost.com/ right now for the luchawiki. They’ve been helpful in moving the site and getting a few things up and running; I’m hoping I’m still liking them a month from now, and can move this site over there as well, but it’s too soon to tell. The site’s moving again before the end of year, either way.
What else?
– just to complicate everything, I upgraded MovableType to 3.3; I was hoping it’d save me time from dealing with spam, and so far so good. The upgrade went fine once I read the instructions, but I don’t it works well with flat files, if you’re still running it that way. I think I’ll re-implement trackbacks, though I don’t know of anyone who actually uses them. The tag functionally is real nice, so I think I’ll insert it into the template somewhere, but I don’t expect to make any other changes to this page. (And if something’s broke, you can tell me to fix it.)
CMLL Blog’s getting overhauled still, though. The super secret plan is to unveal it around 1/1/7 (though the server move, and analog life plans around those days might push it a couple days around), and I have at least one grand dumb idea for that.
– the tag interface in MT3.3 is about what I wanted to do for an expanded article management system – but there’s always a project that’s more immediate and requiring less work refilling older entries to make it work, so I still haven’t really done it and don’t know when I am.
– I’m recapping Heat at this point because it’s a battle to see who’ll quit first and I stand half a chance of winning. I will put another show in it’s grave, even if I have to watch a dozen more Special Episodes. I feel like I should spend energy to write about something someone may care about, but there’s nothing I’m really excited to write about (in addition to all the lucha stuff I’m writing about, which is definitely a factor.)
– though, really, Numbers following the episode with them catching a guy in the act of shooting up with steroids with an episode where chemical waste underneath grade school parking lots thanks to bribing everyone has really blown my mind. I’m scared to check what was on this week’s episode.
– I wish there was more feedback, but I can’t think of a time where I didn’t wish there was more feedback.
Nothing about the Cubs going on a semi-spending spree?
Feedback is good. I’d provide it if I had anything to say, but that’s very rare. I DO read though, so know that much.