So, it's been a little while, hasn't it? See, Wednesday I did my show on WoW Radio, ended it on time, then went to bed because I worked Thursday and Friday at 7 AM. This left me tired, agitated, and only interested in beating the hell out of a nice strong 4x4 piece of lumber. This was made especially worse since I chose Thursday night to stick around in the freezing wind for 3 hours trying to get a shot of one of the many amazing sunsets I see often while on the clock, but failing to do so because the sun decided to be a bitch to me. I got some good shots, but nothing like the sunsets I have seen on several occasions. Tonight was day 3 of 6 in a row, and after the last 24 months of 35% time spent unemployed, and the other 65% sitting at a desk for a job, this job is proving tougher than I expected.
January 2005 Archives
As there appears not to have been a major bug in MT for awhile, or it was just fixed now, there is a new version of Movable Type, 3.15, that need to be download by every user of the software all the way back to 1.0. They also have a plugin available if your version doesn't have a copy with it built in. The plugin has been tested with 3.x and 2.661, though may or may not work with older versions. This, as described by movabletype.org, "fixes a vulnerability in the mail sending packages for all Movable Type versions which allows malicious users to send email through the application to any number of arbitrary users. All users should install this update." As I write this I am in the middle of updating my version of MT(after backing up) and hope all MT users do the same. Thanks go to Aine, at her new location, who tipped me on this.
Ok, we're doing pretty good so far. We have all up to the end of January 2004 back in, with the rest accessible in archives around the net. For this, I want to send my thanks, though it is unlikely the sources will ever notice. Google, Wayback Machine, Bloglines, and Yahoo. Wayback brought me to the end of January 2004, Google for February(though I found out later I already have local archives of files up to mid April), Yahoo from beginning of April to the end of July, and Bloglines for the rest of the way. There is a shit load of work ahead of me, but even more would have been necessary without these sources, if I could have found the data at all. Lastly, we now have Typekey working again, so you can all go back to that form of comments.
The makers of the Suprnova replacement eXeem have, as promised, released the software to public beta. Version 0.20 has already had a few problems, but it still promises to be one of the best known p2p software apps on the net.
Ok, so as you might have noticed, the site is slowly getting up to date. I was planning to bring back the old layout but my buddy Jim advised it might be better to just use the default and tweak it a little. Also, after considerable searching of CD after backup CD, I found archives that went form the beginning of Geek Blog, just 11 days after September 11, 2001, until roughly 1 year ago. I then proceeded to get the comments that had arrived since into the one post that has been the most popular, about 2 years ago and me talking about caffeine withdrawal. I have now imported those files, and will begin to slowly bring the rest of 2004 forward to you all. I am not fooled into thinking this will be some simple task, because it won't. Wish me luck.
As I have not heard from Blogomania about my offer, I assume it is revoked. I have looked over the Wayback Machine, and note that it is missing about a year, thus my ads aren't saved. The good thing is that Bloglines has about a year worth of archives, so I am good in that respect. I should, I think, be able to grab almost all of my blog posts, and at least some of my comments. I am not sure if this will include the marathon post on the topic of caffeine addiction and withdrawal that was, by far, the most popular post I ever made. I suppose at the least I have emails to replace comments if it comes down to that. Sadly, while I will endeavor to get the archives back as quickly as possible, it is unlikely they will be back in the near term.
I just wanted to thank Jim, a long time friend over at Mindstorm Hosting, who has time and again shown himself to be a great friend. Once again he was kind enough to pull my ass out of the fire and host me when the account at Blogomania was suspended. He has allowed me to keep my agreement with my advertisers, and work out a pay schedule. If it weren't for Jim, you'd all be staring at a 'Account Suspended' page in front of you, and I'd be pulling my hair out imagining the money it was costing me. Now, if you don't mind, I have over 500 emails to peruse and sort because I was stupid and didn't set up my mail clients right once the move was made.
I was reading the paper a little during my break at work today, and I took note of a few things. It is ironic how the US government approaches foreign policy these days. Example #1 Afghanistan. Example #2 Iraq. Example #3 South Asia. In 1, they attacked in revenge, and liberated people from the Taliban, turning the country over to drug farmers and letting the people fall back into the old rules and old policies. In 2, they attacked out of... well, out of whatever the hell reason they made up this week, killing thousands of Iraqis and freeing the people, leaving them to the whims of Haliburton and other members of the FoB Club. In 3, they have donated less money than they paid to the FoB members for Iraq, and are trying to get out as early as possible.
In Afghanistan, they cornered their target, bin Laden, and then left to prepare for a war against a backwater country that had no major weapons left(they destroyed those they had in response to UN inspectors), was no threat to anyone, but which sits on a nice patch of oil. The World Trade Center tragedy on September 11, 2001 saw the lost of life in the 4 digits. In response to this, the US spent billions of dollars in war and relief. The loss of life from the Asian Tsunami has cost lives in the 6 digits, and in response the US has pledged a few million, and not even a month after the Tsunami hit, the US wants to pull out. The one place in the world that needs those soldiers, that needs some good done, and the US wants out in days, while in Iraq they have been there for over a year. Nice priorities.
As you know, I found my site through Blogomania suspended a few days ago. While I am working to bring back the old data, there is much I am missing. I have advertisers expecting to see their ads displayed, all of which I need to recreate from emails unless other methods can be found. I have a favor to ask of you all in that line. In order to get to my data, I need to begin making payments to Blogomania. The first payment will necessarily be a large one, with smaller recurring payments thereafter. I can handle the recurring payments, but it is the up front payment I need help with. Below you will find a PayPal Donate button. If you can spare, though I know there are many causes ahead of me and it is less than a month after Christmas, please donate what you can spare.
As I said, I know there are other causes, such as the victims of the South Asia Tsunami, who have no homes, and very little to live off of but our generosity. In this regard I am planning a few things. Anything above and beyond what is required for the cause I addressed above will go to Tsunami relief. As well, I plan to donate half of all profits I make off my Cafe Press store from Monday on. Items will have adjusted prices, with some prices going up, some down, and some remaining the same. I will endeavor to make the prices on items fair as can be. As for ads, I will also donate half of all proceeds, after hosting is taken out, to Tsunami relief as well, so if you are interested in donating to both causes, advertising here would be excellent form. Thank you for your time.
As you may, or may not, have noticed, the Geek blog site hosted through Blogomania has died. This is through no fault of theirs, only my own. I want to thank the staff over there for their patience and their understanding. Sadly, while I was not canceled, only suspended, I do need to put ads up so those who paid me money get their money worth, and hopefully those same people will continue to advertise with me, even possibly expanding it. For now, I have to head to work soon, but I will be trying my damnedest to get this as close to the old template as I can, unless I somehow decide to change it all up since I am from scratch anyway. Thanks for your patience everyone, I'll be back ASAP with whatever I can scrounge from archives and such.
