Hey all. You've probably experienced Internal Server Errors somewhat frequently recently. It's been a frustrating experience for all of us, and I've been trying to fix the problem since it began happening quite a while ago. I thought it was some sort of configuration problem of mine, but signs now point elswhere.
Specifically, they point to the heavy load of comment spam we get: disabling access to the commenting script seems to solve the problem completely. I remember hearing news that other servers have had to remove MovableType because comment spammers were causing it to crash their servers. It seems the same with us. There is a new version of MovableType with better spam fighting features, but it'd cost me a few hundred dollars.
So here's the deal: I'm going to migrate people to use WordPress instead of MovableType. It's nifty. It also has something called comment moderation; comments will not appear unless the owner of the blog tells them to. Once approved, theoretically the person who posted the comment never has to be reauthorized on that particular blog again.
I haven't heard too much of WordPress spam crippling servers, and with comment moderation it's not really a in the spammer's best interest to attack WordPress, so hopefully this will work.
I'll set up a communal test blog for you all to check out soon.
Hey all. You've probably experienced Internal Server Errors somewhat frequently recently. It's been a frustrating experience for all of us, and I've been trying to fix the problem since it began happening quite a while ago. I thought it was some sort of configuration problem of mine, but signs now point elswhere.
Specifically, they point to the heavy load of comment spam we get: disabling access to the commenting script seems to solve the problem completely. I remember hearing news that other servers have had to remove MovableType because comment spammers were causing it to crash their servers. It seems the same with us. There is a new version of MovableType with better spam fighting features, but it'd cost me a few hundred dollars.
So here's the deal: I'm going to migrate people to use WordPress instead of MovableType. It's nifty. It also has something called comment moderation; comments will not appear unless the owner of the blog tells them to. Once approved, theoretically the person who posted the comment never has to be reauthorized on that particular blog again.
I haven't heard too much of WordPress spam crippling servers, and with comment moderation it's not really a in the spammer's best interest to attack WordPress, so hopefully this will work.
I'll set up a communal test blog for you all to check out soon.
I've been extremely busy lately. There have been several blog entries that I've been wanting to write, but for now, I'd like to share with you a very cool optical illusion. Link from Keith Devens.
Last Saturday, I and eight other UW students travelled with Prof. Stuart Reges to Western to compete in the regionals. It was a lot of fun, and I definitely plan on trying this again next year. Our team, now the Nanobytes, placed sixth out of thirty-ish for that site, and 20th out of 70ish for the region. One of UW's other teams placed sixth for the entire region. Woo! I was actually pretty disappointed with my own performance and I hope next year will make up for that… I'll probably talk more about the competition in a later entry.
If I ever get around to it, I'm going to split my blog up into two sections. One personal, one public. Technically, both will probably be fully public and accessible, but there are some entries I would like even complete strangers to read and some entries that seem very weird to "announce" to everyone.
My old laptop no longer gets power. It appears to be a motherboard problem, which is apparently very expensive to replace for a laptop. It was also getting sluggish for no particular reason that I could identify, and loudish. So, I got a PowerBook, which I have been saving up for a few years for. Its name is habla, which kidangel thought was Hungarian for "apple", but it apparently does not apple. I will devote an entry later to this as well. That entry deserves video ;)
I should probably post my "new" address and schedule. If only because I always forget one or the other.
Actually, David tells me that I'm not the Easter Bunny. But I get to hide Easter Eggs on FallenEarth. Yay! I have some ideas already, but if anyone has other ideas, tell me! Hee hee. This will be fun. I haven't made a blog entry for a while, so people tell me I should talk more.
In my last blog entry, I got lost. But Julie sent thought beacons out and the rishu and I were able to find her. She has a cave! And we built a corn fortress. I wonder what the farmers thought about it. But then we had to leave.
For Halloween, I dressed up as a pirate. Arrr! And the rishu dressed up as me. It was very funny. And then we stole some candy. But just a few pieces, from David and some of his friends. They had too many. I would take pictures, but it's hard to find a camera good enough to take pictures of figments. They're very rare.
I think that is it for now. Remember to send me Easter Egg ideas!
My blog has been moved to a better location. Muahaha! I think the takeover is going well. *scheme scheme*
I have a rishu now! For those of you who don't know what a rishu is, it's a magical creature that is very good at adapting and mimicking things according to how it is treated. It also changes colors according to its moods. The first mood ring was actually a specially adapted rishu that attuned to the emotions of the wearer. Poor rishu, in ring form. Rishu used to be very popular among to evil wizards of the time for such evil tasks as defeating knights and terrorizing the populace. The wizards would torture the rishu and teach it mean spells so that they would grow big and hateful. Then, there was a big push to use technology instead of magic and they decided to kill most of the rishu. It's a very awful history.
I'm being nice to my rishu, so it can be happy and helpful. I rescued it from a boy who thought it was a bouncy ball; they look like spheres when they are just a few weeks old. It was black, which meant it was almost dead! But, I stole it mid-bounce and healed it with a spell. Then, it turned white because it was afraid of me, but it became more green and happy. I had a hard time finding a good place for it to live, though. It likes caves, but it likes warm and friendly caves more. So, I hid it in Madge's cave, but she found out. But, Madge is nice and let the rishu live there even though there are no pets allowed in Olin. Thanks, Madge!
The rishu is very musical. I played it the harp and guitar to keep it happy, and now it can make guitar and harp sounds. It played some Pachelbel's Cannon, and it can play parts of Happy Together by The Turtles. The rishu is also very good at playing hide and seek, 'cause its mischievous/fun mood is clear. Right now it's in a snake form, but somehow it can jump.
You're supposed to feed the rishu magical jelly beans, but supposedly they only sell those in Europe. I fed it 11 that I got from a pawn shop, but now I feed it regular jelly beans and magical goodberries. It seems to be working out. Madge said that it likes applesauce, too.
I've never had a pet before, but it is great fun. It was also a lot of work figuring out what it likes to eat, and you have to be very careful with it because rishu are very impressionable. I bet if I meowed at it enough, I could get it to meow. But, that's all for this blog entry. Bye!
