Okay, this weekend has been a very...frustrating maddening infuriating affair.

After moving everything over to the new hosting, an automatic scan done by them found massive infections in several of my domains. In response, my account was locked and I could access it only from a single IP address so I could access the files and clean out the infections. I had to wipe and reload every domain. I am currently still rebuilding all of the little stuff in my domains from that.

Lessons learned:

1) Make sure all software is up-to-date. That is your CMS (Content Management System, such as WordPress or Joomla!) software, all of the extensions/add-ons you may use, AND the servers software. If any of these are not current you most likely have serious security holes.

2) If you can afford it, use a Virtual Private Server or full Private Server. My domains don’t generate any income, so I can’t afford the $20+/month to pay for a VPS. With a shared server, if one domain on that server isn’t up to date, an attack on that domain can spread to every other domain on that server, even if you’re secure.

3) Backup, backup, backup. Make sure you do regular backups of your configuration, content AND database. If you have all three, restoring will be a whole lot easier. When tape backups was current technology, I would tell my clients rotate three tapes, one on-site, two off-site in different locations, and read from the tapes once a month to make sure the tapes were still good.

4) Know how to recover. Having a backup is useless if you don’t know how to use the files to restore back to your last KGC (Known Good Configuration).

By the way, the Joomla! test site that wasn’t working, is now properly working now that I am using PHP 4.5. I managed to do more with it today than I did with it all last week.

Having to wipe and reload. I'll be back.

I just finished (hopefully) getting this straightened out. I had to download all six of my domains, then upload them to the new hosting, create and rebuild the MySQL databases, then repoint all of the domains. I am posting on all of the domains, then viewing them through the root domain to make sure these posts are hitting the right blogs. I will check the domain URLs in the morning.

I've added some additional ringtones and I've added a column that shows when I've released the ringtone. I have also updated the zip files for both the mp3's and the m4r's. Enjoy!

My apologies, there is a link below the header I didn't put there. I will take it down as soon as I can. In the meantime, please ignore it.

UPDATE: I don't know how it happened, however some code was injected into what looks like my CSS files. I deleted and reloaded my theme and it went away. I guess this adds onto the other 396 things I am supposed to be working on, trying to tighten up security on here. *sigh*. If you know of a way to give up sleep without going psychotic shortly thereafter, please let me know. I need it.

I collect ringtones. They show my nerdy side. When someone is bothering me, I whip out the "Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time" ringtone. or the "I've been ionized, but I'm okay now." I have a ringtone for just about anything. And I'm going to inflict them on you. They are here, or click on the "Ringtones" in the black header bar above.

In my job, my hands are busy but my mind is mostly idle. Letting my mind roam free is a very bad thing. I have 729 songs in the playlist in my iPhone, which means I go through all of them in less than a week.

So, I looked into some podcasting. I found a Masonic one, Whence Came You. I have been doing a total binge on this, and I am currently on episode 76. I have 103 to go before I am "current." I have added the website for the podcast, as well as Midnight Freemasons, where Brother Johnson is also a contributing writer. I have added both links to my bar to the right. Enjoy!

I have been wanting to post, however I have had a bunch of irons in the fire and just haven't had the time. I'm putting in 40 hours a week at work, running the lodge, helping my bride with her issues and a ton more stuff. I do have several articles "on the hook" that I am working toward finishing and posting them. I have more research to do before releasing them.

I started this blog over eleven years ago on Blogspot. A few years later I moved over to my own domain and WordPress. I started with WP 3 (I think), and have kept up with it.

In the course of exporting, importing and backing up, some of the data it seems to have been stripped off. I was trying to find an old post for another reason, and found out that a lot of the over 2,300 posts I have made are "Uncategorized," which just bothers the stuffing out of my CDO (that's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD, in alphabetical order, the way it should be). So, adding to my already overloaded project list, I will be spending the next 3-4 months going back through all of my old posts and assigning categories to them.

Maybe I'll find that post I was looking for.

Drive wiped, Windows reinstalled. Internet connection re-established (duh!). Now I'm on to update Windows before I install anything.

I finally got hold of a bootable DOS disk with format. So, I started backing up my hard drive last night and this is my last post before I wipe my drive.

I should be back on line by this evening, the biggest headache will be installing all of the updates after reinstalling Windows. Once that is out of the way, I can take my time over the next week discovering what I have and what I need. When I need something, I'll take the time to install it. That should simplify my Start menu.

While perusing my referrer logs, I found one from Blogshares. It's a fun website where you can buy and sell shares of blogs. Think fantasy stock market. If you've got some time to waste, wanted to dabble in the stock market or whatever, try this.

Here's the link to my stock.

Have fun!

PS, I woke up late, so no news analysis this morning, maybe something when I get back tonight.

Well, I normally stay cowered under my covers until 8:30 or so but since my Abilify is waking me up starting at about 5:30, I decided to get up an hour earlier. This will give me extra time to produce stuff to go with your morning caffeine. I hope you like what I write.

My IE is crashing on almost every page, so I have had to go to Netscape for a browser. Well, I'm having problems with Netscape as well. All of the help and the link managing windows open for a second, then close again, being very frustrating. If you can offer any help, with a working browser or knowledge of Netscape, I would be grateful.

Until I can get this mess managed, posting will be spotty. Sorry.

Big Stupid Tommy has hosted the latest Volunteer Tailgate Party, where members of the Rocky Top Brigade offer posts as contributions. I'm happy to be part of the party! Check it out!

I would have posted the last entry this morning, but Blogger has been down until now. Maybe someday, when I get enough hits to warrant it I'll open up a tip jar to cover the expenses and move this over to its own domain. Until then I'm at the mercy of somebody else's servers.

…In a good way, I think. Despite my voluminous vocabulary, Mr. Spike managed to use a word I didn’t know. He used his pretty word to say that my Conservatism stems from my mental illness. I left him a comment on the subject.

Check him out: Spike Magazine. Who knows, I might add him to my blogroll...

So as I was welcomed, let me welcome these fine blogs:

Dagley Dagley Daily.
Voluntarily in China
Smijer

Sit on the couch. Have a drink. Kick your feet up on the table, you’re family now!

With my addition to the Rocky Top Brigade, I have an expanded readership and I wanted to explain a few things to all who manage to find my blog.

I was an IT manager until I had a negative reaction to a drug that exacerbated an undiagnosed Bi-Polar Disorder. I am actually now a Fast Cycling Bi-Polar. A “normal” person who suffers from BPD can spend months or years in a manic or depressive swing. I can switch in a matter of minutes. I have gone from manic like Robin Williams to suicidal faster than you can spin around. I have no stability in my emotional control and must take care about getting too excited or depressed. I am taking a variety of psychotropic drugs that have “smoothed” out my swings, but I still suffer from them. I am doing my best to stay slightly depressed so the manic swings aren’t too bad.

There are times I get overstimulated. This is where “closet time” comes in. This means that I am out of control of my thoughts and emotions and the only thing I can do is crawl into my small hall closet, close the door behind me and scream, cry and whimper for a couple of hours in the dark.

My mental illness has cost me my career, my home and my family. I can no longer work in the fast paced IT industry, I would have to spend my lunch hour whimpering under my desk. With the loss of my $50k job, I could not keep my piece of the American Dream. My wife and son held on to me for as long as they could, but in the end they had to cut me loose for their own survival. My family lives on my disability and I work part time driving around people who also suffer from mental illness.

This gives me plenty of time to think. And I am imparting my thoughts and what I go through to this blog. This is one way the people in my life (friends, family, case manager) can see how I am doing so they can catch me if I get too far out of kilter. I’m been pretty lucky, it’s been a year since my last hospital stay. That’s the longest I’ve stayed out since I became sick 5 years ago.

It’s been a scary roller coaster ride so far and there is no end in sight. It’s taken me this long to find any drugs that had any effect on my condition at all. I’ve been through most of the drugs that treat BPD, and I am currently on a combination of “last-resort” drugs and those brand new to the market.

Wish me luck. I need it.

I just found out via checking my referrals page that I’ve been accepted into the Rocky Top Brigade!

It’s a rather long list of wonderful blogs that I am now part of. I am putting up the flag on my sidebar that will take you to the above link, but I am deciding if I will also put the entire list up as well. My initial thought is to compromise, check out all of the blogs and link directly to those who I’ll be reading.

Thank you for the wonderful honor!

I came up with the idea of “The Conservative Zone” back about 1995 when personal web pages had just started to take off. This was when 28.8k modems was the fastest you could get. I wanted to make my web page based on The Twilight Zone. I tried coming up with a graphic similar to the Twilight Zone, but I am not an artist. I cobbled together a graphic of a flag, coupled with some text and a gif animator. I made one for the front page, and a banner ad because I was part of the Link Exchange network at the time.

To give the CZ a TZ feel, I had the following header:

(Say it like you know Rod Serling would)
Submitted for your approval. A small corner of a global network of information. A place where the cornerstone of society is the belief that you are responsible for your own actions. A society where you are treated according to how you treat others. A world where you have the freedom to starve as well as succeed. You have entered…The Conservative Zone.

This was also about the time of Hillary’s “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” rantings, so just to yank her chain, I proudly put the “charter member” bit.

For your amusement, I decided to include my banner, which as soon as BlogSpot decides to start selling ad space once again, I just might put into the rotation.

Enjoy.

When I do my research for posting, I need absolute silence. If my Conures yak too much, they end up in the bedroom. I have re-acquired my taste for Glenn Beck so I have spent my mornings tuned into him. Like I said, I can’t stand distraction, so I can’t concentrate on my research. I’ll try to do some research for something to blog after I walk down the street and pick up some things.

That was a lot for me. Read and enjoy.

Sorry for the lack of bloggidy goodness, but this morning was a real problem getting out of bed. I got up 40 minutes late, did minimum morning stuff, then climbed back into bed to cower until the last possible moment to go to work.

Nothing tonight because there was some rule changes to MechWarrior:Dark Age that affect the metagame (certain tactics that take advantage of game mechanics are no longer viable, things like that) and I’ve been thinking about them and how to keep an effective army in the face of these changes. I’ve been asked by the game designers (well, everybody has) to play with these new rules and BattleMasters are supposed to report on the effectiveness of these rules on Monday, so I’ve got to develop an army (actually two) for Sunday so I can give a learned opinion.

Posting will also be spotty for the weekend, but will be back on track on Monday.

Sorry about this, Tuesdays I work an extra hour, and the family needed to go shopping tonight, so no time to search and post. I’ll be up bright and early tomorrow to bring my usual analysis.