I’m slacking…
Posts Tagged drzy
Cuss-o-meter
Nov 6
Wordpress 2.2
May 19
Wordpress has an upgrade out, and drzy has been updated to the new version. Apparently this is a pretty major release including many new features, RPC calls, and bug fixes.
As usual, let me know if any weirdness occurs.
new look
May 7
drzy has a new theme, as you’ve probably already noticed. I adopted the DarkMambo theme by rkcorp. It is very clean and I’ve gone back to a dark theme for the site. Very dark. Reasons for the change? My old theme was great but based on Wordpress code way prior to Wordpress 1.5. This made me have to hack it and hack it to get it to work properly or to use new features. This resulted in a cluster of unwieldy code. The choice came to be: either build a new theme from scratch, or adopt a new one.
When I first started using Wordpress, the theme choices were pretty minimal. I just chose one with all the features I wanted and adapted it to my liking. (The old theme was based off Andreas, which was based off a couple others.) I was set on making my own theme this time, but gave a look at the galleries of themes for some ideas. To my surprise the theme community has exploded, and there were tons that I tried out and liked. DarkMambo was among the best. I love its clean lines and form. It is rather “web 2.0″, but not overbearingly so.
So, over the next few weeks I will be tweaking the theme to work with everything drzy-ish. It was somewhat incomplete, but I have filled in things like a 404 page and a proper archive listing template, among other things.
Thanks to rkcorp for coding this little gem. He has some other great themes on his site that I also considered, so take a look. or peruse the very large collection at the official Wordpress theme gallery.
Wordpress hacked
Mar 4
My bad karma must not have totally eclipsed my general luck, as the one time I decide not to upgrade immediately to the new version of WordPress is the time that the WordPress download site is hacked and the code modified to include a PHP exploit!
from WordPress.org:
This morning we received a note to our security mailing address about unusual and highly exploitable code in WordPress. The issue was investigated, and it appeared that the 2.1.1 download had been modified from its original code. We took the website down immediately to investigate what happened.
It was determined that a cracker had gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, and had used that access to modify the download file. We have locked down that server for further forensics, but at this time it appears that the 2.1.1 download was the only thing touched by the attack. They modified two files in WP to include code that would allow for remote PHP execution.
Luckily, drzy has been sitting at version 2.0.9, due primarily to laziness, and compounded by the fact that they released a trillion versions within a week.
Is version 2.0 affected?
No downloads were altered except 2.1.1, so if you’ve downloaded any version of 2.0 you should be fine.
So, if you are one of the unlucky early adopters, click the first link and download version 2.1.2 to remedy your compromised site.
Now that the forums are at another lull, since most of us kinda dropped out of Urban Dead, I have been trying to decide what to do about the forum software.
PHPBB2 was a good product and was the top of the line free foum software for many years, but:
- the control panel has always left much to be desired
- mods are pretty difficult to accomplish and have to be redone at almost every update
- spamming is easily accomplished and the registration hurdles do virtually nothing to keep spammers out
Of course, I looked for free versions of forums. I had a friend try punBB, and while it is elegant, it is a little more simplistic than I’d like. I also checked out MyTopix and Phorum, but ended up falling for Simple Machines Forum.
It is very robust, has a pretty good converter, and is easy to update and modify. Best thing is that users are very easy to monitor and moderate.
The converter looked great but it failed in a few areas. Smilies didn’t get converted, and some people’s signatures and images had the first letter of the URL stripped off, making them just show the text of the link.
Otherwise, it seems to be working well. I’ll be tweaking it the next few days, and I already have a dark purple theme that I’m eyeing. But for now, for those that still peruse occasionally, just try it out and let me know if you see anything that isn’t working well.
The link to the forums is the same. But, I still have the old forums languishing around, so if there’s something that didn’t get ported over that you want or need, I can dig it up for ya.
Cheers!
The peeps at Wordpress decided to to fix a php vulnerability and was couple more things with a new release of version 2.0.7. They reported that 2.0.6 would be the last release before 2.1, but I guess it was severe enough that an immediate patch was warranted.
The 2.1 release is still set for the 21st of the month, so we’ll see how that goes.
drzy has been updated. Again, if anything looks screwy, see you in St. Louis send me a message.
New Webhost
Dec 22
I changed webhosts this week and just did the nameserver changeover last night.
Everything seems to be working, but if anyone sees anything awry, shoot me an email, leave a comment, or post in the forum.
Thanks.
straight to #1
Sep 1
I’m poor
Feb 12
If you feel the need or the desire to send me money, to make life a little easier…. feel free!
I promise not to use the money to buy chemical weapons, or to harm animals, or to support Republicans.
Blacknova installed
Oct 11
Blacknova is a game that borrows many elements from the old BBS game Tradewars. I have installed it on the website and you can play it by going here:
It’s web based and turn based… with new turns every 6 minutes. You can trade/build planets/make war/explore the universe. Take a peek at it.
Webhost Switch success!!
Oct 3
If you are seeing this message, then you are successfully accessing the new webhost. The switchover went pretty smoothly. I have to wait until the DNS updates in my area to work on the forum’s skins. Until then, the forums will look a little odd and some of you may not be able to get to them.
Also, if you do not see the menu at the left anymore, it’s because you don’t have Flash6 enabled in your browser. Just go to Macromedia, and let them install the plugin. It’s very small and should take less than a minute on anyone’s connection.
Ok, I just got the forum and the News tool Running the way I like. Sure they need tweaking and non-standard images, but at least the settings are all in place. Took me almost a whole night just to get the web page all indented how I wanted it. Without further ado, we are live!
