Blog News

Computer Issue

There hasn’t been a post today because my computer decided (without my permission and over my objections) to upgrade itself to Windows 11. It’s been a bitch. The “upgrade” changed all sorts of stuff. My browser now says it’s being managed by my organization and I need to contact an administrator to change anything. My search engine is now Yahoo as a default, and many things have changed, right down to my bookmarks being reset to a version from 6 months ago.

It’s going to take a bit to fix all of this.

By Divemedic, ago

Spam

I just banned an entire IP address: 104.165.169.245

A fake user registered from that IP and spammed this site with over 200 comments last night. They were deleted in moderation before they were published, but that is annoying. If you are using that IP, you won’t be able to comment on this blog.

By Divemedic, ago

Security Upgrades

Now that we have registration, there has been a large number of users attempting to register from fake email domains, and there are even a few that have registered from government accounts in the Ukraine. I went through and deleted a large number of fake registrations. If I deleted you by mistake, please let me know by email. I got an alert from my server that someone attempted to install malware on the site, so I am going to tighten security a bit.

I have installed a number of security plugins that should be invisible to readers, but will greatly enhance the blog’s resistance to spam and to malware. Email me with any concerns or problems.

By Divemedic, ago

SPAM

Recently, I activated a means for registering for this site as a means for combatting spam. The spam to this site has become ridiculous, with almost 100 spam comments a day- everything from pharmaceuticals, to porn, to comments in Chinese and Russian. So I thought maybe having people register in order to make comments was considered.

The problem now is that I was getting about 20 spam accounts trying to register everyday. It was bad enough at that level, but today I had over 100 fake accounts register. They all come from the same email domain: imailfree.cc.

There are numerous solutions to this, and I am not sure where I am going to go with this, but SPAM has become a major problem that I will need to find a solution for.

By Divemedic, ago

Registration

For those that have had problems registering on this site: It was my error in the way that I set up the SMTP server. I sent emails to everyone that has tried to register so far. If you didn’t get one, please comment here and let me know.

That should fix the registration issue, but I am continuing to work on it. Sorry if there are still speedbumps. When I had to fire my old IT guy, I have had to learn all of this on my own. Everything from running the blog to the email system and the server is new to me.

On top of that, I started my new job and have been spending my days in training to learn everything from new medical charting software to new equipment and all of the typical HR stuff. So, I’m busy.

The email will come from wordpress (at) sectorocho.com. That is an automated and unmonitored email account, so don’t try replying to it.

By Divemedic, ago

New Features

This one is just for EN2 SS. He requested that he be able to save his credentials on the site, so I am enabling registration here. You can save your name and email address if you want. This is completely voluntary. You may continue to post comments as an unregistered user, and I am OK with that.

If you want, simply click here to to access the login page, and click the link for “Register”:

I am also trying out a sidebar to see if that makes the site more navigable. Let me know how you feel about both in comments.

By Divemedic, ago

Out of Pocket

The blog has largely been on autopilot for the past three weeks. I have been out and about, doing stuff. In the last three weeks, I was in the Dominican Republic, Bermuda, and New York. We walked in the door less than an hour ago. Now that I am back home, I can spend time on getting stuff done around here. It’s tough running this site on a cell phone.

I would have mentioned it sooner, but we all know that there are some loons out there that will take advantage of us when we aren’t home.

I got selected for “random” extra screening on both of the US legs of my flight. The second time, they swabbed me for explosives and spread my luggage all over the place. It seems that my checked bag was also randomly tossed and inspected by TSA. Random, my ass.

By Divemedic, ago

Technical Details

I spent the morning trying to get Tactical Hermit’s blog moved over to my server. He had an XML backup of the text, but all of the files, pictures, media, etc. are no longer accessible from the old blog because it was nuked.

My advice to all of you is this: As long as your blog is on a server that is owned by an entity that does not respect free speech, it is at risk of being lost. Every day that your blog is on WordPress or Blogger, it is at risk. XML backups only restore the text of the blog, not the pictures, videos, etc. Those are still on the old server.

Moving your blog before you get cancelled will preserve your stuff. Even if you don’t move your blog to here, move it somewhere that will preserve your blog. Every day you wait places your data at risk.

As long as you don’t violate the rules here, I won’t touch your site. I only have one rule with respect to content: Your site can’t be a porn site. Other than that, your site is your site.

By Divemedic, ago

Welcome

I want to welcome thetacticalhermit.com to our server. His blog was nuked and we were able to get him back up and running. He will spend some time getting things organized, but we won’t be silenced.

There is still room to share this server. The cost to host a blog on this server is $15 per month.

I will import blogger or WordPress to this site for the cost of the software license. (it isn’t much, and is free in many cases.)

The only rule that I have is: no porn sites. I am not interested in having porn on my site for two reasons: they are resource hogs (both storage space and bandwidth) and I don’t feel like having to expend my own time and energy defending porn distributors.Even if you don’t contact me, find an alternative server now, or your blogs and podcasts may be gone forever.

If interested in having your blog hosted here, the email is Divemedic@sectorocho.com.

By Divemedic, ago

It’s Over

If my attacker doesn’t take any other action, I’m not going to do anything else. I said:

 Let it go. As long as you keep this going, it keeps going. Or you can keep throwing your temper tantrum and stalking me, and we keep posting about this. 

I meant it. If she lets it go, I won’t respond further. I’m not an asshole. If she learned her lesson, we are done here. I’m only defending myself from an attack on my livelihood, an attack that was made because I expressed my opinion.

So, I’m gonna end it. If someone comes to me with evidence that she continues to try to come at me, or if I hear from her again, that will be a different story, but until that time, I’m done with it. I have other things to do than fixate on this.

By Divemedic, ago