Evidently, I’m under siege. Less than two weeks ago, I noted to myself that Akismet had blocked 200 spam comments since I converted the blog to WordPress (two and a half months ago). As I write this it is telling me:
Akismet has caught 1,626 spam for you since you first installed it.
That means that I’m now getting more than 100 spam comments per day! Thankfully, Akismet blocks these comments before they appear on the blog, but I still feel compelled to look them over, just in case a legitimate comment has somehow been flagged (so far, none have). As you can imagine, this is a bit of an ass-pain, so I’m now incrementally raising my defenses, hopeful of reducing the amount of ’spamments’ which are generated in the first place. The first phase of my plan was to install the Comment Timeout plugin which
automatically closes comments on blog entries after a user-configurable period of time.
Right now that ‘period of time’ is set at 60 days. This should vastly diminish the volume of ’spamments’. Fewer targets: Less spam.
I’ve also installed Bad Behavior which should keep the spam-bots from getting in in the first place.
I’m crossing my fingers.
Oviously.
Everything seems to be working fairly well. There are some formatting issues with IE, I’ve discovered. Shoulda tested first, but I never use it; I’m all Firefox, all the time! I’m sure some internal links got munged in the conversion process, so I’ll be hunting those down as I go.
If you see anything that seems broken, messed up, or just plain weird; please let me know (and be sure to tell me what browser and OS you’re using).
So, I found a script which will allow me to import the blog into WordPress. So over the next few days things may look a bit weird around here as I settle in.
Hopefully by week’s end, I will have everything switched over.
Once more, wish me luck!
This isn’t going to be about my ongoing game of “gasoline price roulette”. That’s a post for a different time.
I’m fond of saying that my bicycle runs on pasta, Little Debbie snack cakes, and bananas; which is true (to a point).
Well this blog runs on random things I find funny, stories I want to share, etc. Basically, the random output of my overactive imagination. And my desire to share this foolishness with a wider audience.
But there’s another, very important, somewhat less obvious ingredient: Comments! Give me your feedback! Call me names! Argue with me! Tell me I’m a genius!
Whatever, just share your 2 cents.
Otherwise I just feel like a lone voice of “whatever” vanishing into the vacuum of indifference.
Plus, I’m thinking that if the comment volume increases, I could institute some sort of Comment (or Commenter) of the month, with actual prizes!? How’s that for incentive?
So, sharpen your wit, shine up your sarcasm caps, and have at it!
Here’s the really crazy part of the whole sordid mess: At the same instant that I discovered that the importation process into WordPress was not going to work, and I began to curse Google/Blogger for raining on my parade; I smelled smoke.
Acrid, burning plastic-type smoke. As I sniffed the air, searching for the source, I saw smoke wafting out of the top of my file server, which promptly shut down. Pulling the cover off and peering inside, I wasn’t immediately able to find the source of the smoke, but there were traces of the thread-like soot that is characteristic of burning plastic scattered here and there inside the case. I disconnected the power, grabbed a flashlight, and searched for the culprit. Several minutes later, I found it. At the edge of the motherboard, hidden from view between a PCI card the edge of the case, two plastic jumpers had melted down and, evidently, caught fire.
Here’s the really, really crazy part: After I pulled the charred remnants of the jumpers off, I warily powered the computer back up… and it booted right up and ran (and continues to run) as though nothing had happened! Crazy! (And not exactly confidence-inspiring.)
Naturally, even though there’s absolutely no evidence of any involvement, I blame Blogger/Google.
Bastards!
So, I discovered that with the newest (2.05) version of WordPress, importing my Blogger posts and comments was actually going to be a breeze (famous last words).
Gleefully, I installed WordPress on my web-server and set-up the database. So far, so good. Then I attempted to run the importer. Nothing doing.
Login failed. Please re-enter your username and password.
But the username and password are correct. Apparently the problem lies with the beta now using a Google login, rather than the Blogger login. A little more digging around online and I found that I’m basically hosed. Had I not “upgraded” to Blogger/Google’s God-forsaken beta, it would have been smooth sailing. But, since I fell for the old “upgrade” ruse, there’s no reasonable way of accomplishing this task. I can either labor for days, cutting and pasting, or I can wait for WordPress to update the importer. I think I’ll wait.
Damn!
So the Blogger beta finally became available to those of us posting via FTP and I decided to “upgrade”. Unfortunately, I realized too late that all of Blogger’s new “functionality” is strictly geared toward those posting to blogspot accounts and is actually more of a liability for those of us with blogs hosted elsewhere. I won’t go into the reasons why; suffice it to say they are manifold.
The worse news? There’s no way to go back.
So, now I’m looking at converting the entire blog to WordPress. I’m positive that this will be a Good Thing™ in the long run, but I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out how to import my posts while keeping all the URL’s the same; thus ensuring that all the links (internal and external) will still work.
So, anyway, if I don’t update for awhile, or things get all screwy-looking; that’s probably why. I’m hoping to make the switch sometime during the upcoming week, or at least make serious progress in that direction.
Wish me luck!
So, in composing my previous post I used the word “pedaling”. The Blogger spell-check software refused to acknowledge “pedaling” or “pedalling” (both perfectly acceptable spellings) and suggested that I was “peddling”… No, Blogger, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t selling anything, nor was I “paddling” my bicycle down the street, thank you very much.
This shines a light on one of my (many) pet peeves. People (particularly cyclists) who use peddling when they mean pedaling. The bike has pedals; not peddles! Stop it!
I’ve even seen clubs (yes, more than one!) on organised rides wearing jerseys stating they were “peddlers” of one sort or another. Either they’re in sales, and somewhat clever; or (my guess) they’re stupid. Seriously people, don’t implicitly trust the computer; use your brain, use a dictionary… put forth a little effort!
I was unaware of blog bites until just now. Perusing my raw server files (like I do) I discovered that I had quite a bit of incoming traffic coming from them, so I decided to check it out. Here’s a link to the ‘bite’ they chose from my post Monday. You can also find it on their home page, the top entry on 1/04/06.
Apparently, I’ve been blog-bitten!
Thanks.
So, John Walkenbach posted an entry on his blog which said (in part):
One thing that nearly all bloggers have in common is that they like to know when another blog links to them. Using a variety of sources, I think I have a pretty good handle on finding other blogs that link to J-Walk Blog. In fact, I think I find about 90% of them — but I may be wrong.
This is an experiment to see how “findable” blog references are. Put me to the the test, fellow bloggers.
Here’s the original post on the J-Walk Blog.
What the heck, I’ll play along.
So, one of the obsessive behaviors I indulge in is poring over the raw log files from my webserver. Every night, some time after midnight, I engage in this ritualistic behavior. I find the whole thing fascinating. Of particular interest to me are the search terms that people have used to find there way here to the blog, or to my photos. Often times this prompts me to do my own search, to satisfy my own curiosity as to what they were really looking for, or why they were looking (as I mentioned in this post about Elvin Bishop.
This post is basically just an experiment/diversion and probably of no real interest to anyone aside from myself. Although it does provide an interesting glimpse into how people are finding their way here.
Anyway… so far this month, numerous people have come looking for:
“Elvin Bishop” (because he’s on tour)
“Jimmy Thackery” (also on tour)
“Tab Benoit” (also touring)
“Preston Hubbard” (Possibly due to this post to Craig’s List, seeking gigs between tours) More on Preston on his website.
“Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown” (sadly, due to his declining health and cancer diagnosis)
“Ohio ECheck” (I’m sure they all left quite disappointed)
“Chester Frost Park” (I haven’t figured out why, yet, but it’s a lot of hits; something’s up)
“Rainbow Lake Signal Mtn.” (I think they’ve been doing some trail work recently)
“Toadstools” (Again, no idea why, but this is a fairly popular one, especially in the UK)
“Oprah +Peppermill” (apparently she had a guest on who makes peppermills)
And someone else searched for “Peppermill, America’s Test Kitchen” (I’m hoping my glowing, effusive review of my new peppermill was of some assistance to them)
So, now this post can serve as a jumping off point, a portal of sorts for these common search queries… what a thoughtful and helpful guy I am!