Category: MT/WP

Server Woes

Posted on by Dana

I swear, one of the first things I am going to do come March is move to a new server. I don’t know why my server has to be such a pain in the ass. On the one hand, I feel I shouldn’t complain, because my server hasn’t ever been down that I know of, and they generally try to help. On the other, they upgraded to new servers without giving me a reasonable warning (my “warning” went into my junk mail folder — I didn’t get it for a few days). They told me they had configured MIME type on the server to render CSS so it would properly render CSS in browsers besides IE, but they apparently still haven’t done that, because we had problems when 1) I tried to intall MT 3.14 and noticed the user interface was whacked, and 2) Steve tried to install a new style sheet on his true crime blog. By the way, if you have this problem, a very simple line of code exists to work around it. At the beginning of your style sheet, put the following text: <?php Header (“Content-type: text/css”);?>. That will enable all the smart Firefox users to see all your pretty CSS instead of plain text. By the way: I don’t know if that messes up validation or anything — frankly, I’ve given up on trying to make sure this site validates.

So why am I complaining now? My server has Perl 5.6 instead of 5.8. I don’t have Storable perl, so I can’t use a buttload of the coolest MT Plugins. I put in a help ticket with my server host, but considering they acted like they didn’t understand what I was talking about with the MIME type, I’m not holding my breath. DreamHost gets such praise…

What do I like about my server? Unlimited bandwidth. Very, very reasonable prices. You just can’t leave those two very important variables out of the equation.

I just wish they knew what they were doing all of the time.

Shoot. I feel bad even complaining, because I know they’re not native speakers of English. I’m sure a lot of the problem is the language barrier.

I guess I’ll wait and see what happens with the perl upgrade. I’m thinking if they can’t get that figured out, then it’s adios Maxipoint.

Related posts:

MT Plugins/Eudora/My School on the Web

Sticker Shock

Movable Type 3.2

Upgrade

Posted on by Dana

Okay, upgrade to Movable Type 3.14 seems to be successful. So far, I like the new features. An upgrade was necessary because I just couldn’t take advantage of the new plug-ins with 2.66. Also, 3.14 has more safeguards against comment spam. To that end, from now on, comments will be moderated. Unless you sign in with a TypeKey registration, your comments will not be automatically posted. However, you no longer need to type in the number “captcha” in order to sign the comments, which eliminates the need for JunkEater — seems like too many spam comments were getting past them, anyway.

I am indebted to Learning Movable Type: TypeKey Authentication for Comments, The Tweezer’s Edge: A Replacement for <MTCommentFields>, and AnziDesign: Migrate Your MT 2.x Blog To Movable Type 3 for valuable assistance in this conversion.

Soon, I will be implementing further spam-protection measures as described in MT’s Guide for Fighting Comment Spam.

Why am I telling you this? Things may be wonky around this site until I get it all fixed up, and also I thought you might like to know about the change in comment policy. I hope it doesn’t inconvenience anyone too much.

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Gravatar

MT Amazon and Book Queue Too

Server Woes

New Comments Policy

Posted on by Dana

Many of my older entries’ comments are closed because I was having issues with comment spam, as is is the case with so many other bloggers. Therefore, I instituted a policy of closing comments after a week.

However, I have recently upgraded to MT 3.14, which has more advanced methods for dealing with comment spam. Henceforth, all comments are moderated. If you have a TypeKey ID, you can log-in, and your comments will post immediately. When you comment on this site, your comment will be placed into a queue and will not appear on this site until it is approved.

So that means I am going to try to leave comments open on future entries. We’ll try it this way and see how it works. Of course, I reserve the right to go back to closing comments if I continue to have problems. In that case, you can always e-mail me (remove the (AT) and replace with @).

I have the right to decide which comments will appear on this site. Continuing to submit comments hoping I will approve them will get you banned. Plus, that also means you need to get a life and bother someone else. If you leave behind derogatory or insulting comments, especially if they are signed by a false and insincere “God Bless” supposedly meant to wash away whatever nasty thing you just said, you can bet your comment will not appear. If you submit a fake e-mail address, your comment will not appear and you can also rest in the knowledge that you are too cowardly to stand by your words.

I reserve the right to edit comments for grammar, spelling, and length.

If you can abide by the comments policy, then fire away.

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Movable Type Goes Open Source

Comments

Posted on by Dana

I know that the comments aren’t working (thanks, Cranky, for letting me know). It appears to be a problem with JunkEater, who filters the comments on our blogs. I don’t want to leave our blogs with no comment spam protection, but I don’t have time to fix it right now. If you wish to make a comment, might I suggest e-mail instead until we get it fixed? I will let you know when I think it’s fixed.

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MT, Spam, and Why I'm Up at 3:30 on a Work Night

Non-IE Users, Lend Me Your Ears

MT 3.2 and MT Media Manager

Non-IE Users, Lend Me Your Ears

Posted on by Dana

If anyone is looking at our blogs in a browser that is NOT Internet Explorer, please refresh if it looks like plain text with no CSS (that is, a white background, no colors or pictures; in other words, it doesn’t look how you remember it did last time you were here).

After you refresh, tell me what you see in the comments, and please tell me what browser you are using.

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Comments Spam 2

Comment Spam

Done!

MT, Spam, and Why I’m Up at 3:30 on a Work Night

Posted on by Dana

I have been playing around with MT tags — that would be Movable Type for those of you unfamiliar with the acronym. I decided to see how I like doing without the Blogrolling blogroll and found out how to create a simple one using a template module. Good instructions can be found here and here. The only thing is I had a graphic — — that was appended to links of blogs that had recently updated, pinging one of the sites Blogrolling takes data from (including its own). I searched, but couldn’t find out how to do that with my MT blogroll. Anyone out there know? I guess it isn’t a big deal. Half the blogs I read didn’t ever ping anyway, but I admit I thought it was cool. Don’t you know I spent a bit of time working on that graphic to make it match my site. But the main reason I wanted to ditch the Blogroll is that I couldn’t figure out how to make it work with the XHTML Friends Network, which I found on Nighthawk and rather liked. Go check it out and see if you might be interested.

My free email service provider said that the account I use for all my blog-related activities has been reported to their abuse entity because I have allegedly been spamming folks. As much as I hate spam, I can only imagine I ticked someone off, and they decided to mess with me and try to get me in trouble. May even be the person who hijacked my identity to get a bank account recently. I have said a couple of times that I’m not sure how they got their information. Maybe they know I’m linked to that email address. Of course, it could be a mistake, too.

I think Maggie has finally fallen asleep. I actually have to work tomorrow. Curriculum and planning. So I’m going to bed. Just as soon as I get that sweater I need to wear tomorrow in the dryer.

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MT Protect and Gravatar

MT Plugins/Eudora/My School on the Web

Posted on by Dana

Browsing MT Plugins today, and it’s like being in a candy store. When I have time to fool with thinking about it, I plan to get some.

I also downloaded Eudora today. Back when I had a computer running Windows 3.1, I used Eudora for mail. Then I switched to Outlook Express — probably when I got Windows 95, but I can’t remember. For about the past four years, I have only had web-based mail accounts. Now that I have a new mail account that comes with my DSL service, I plan to use it. I was using Outlook Express again, but encountered a problem every time my mom sent me an attachment. I got the same error message every time: OE has removed access to this unsafe attachment (or something like that). I think it was an OE problem. Of course, since MicroSoft makes it, all the geeks online hate it, so I decided to check out Eudora and see if I like it.

Since so many people have asked about it, I have decided to share the link to the school where I will be teaching. I have said some negative things about my former schools in the past, but I don’t plan to write anything in here anymore that I’m not very comfortable with anyone I know reading. I’m through going there.

The Weber School is a fairly new private Jewish school in Dunwoody, which is just down the road from Roswell. In addition, I have created a school blog which was already linked from PlanetHuff.com, but not from this blog. There’s nothing much there right now, but I plan to post assignments. I don’t know that you all would be interested in that, and I do ask that if you are, please don’t join the members. It’s only for my students and parents, and I’ll just remove you anyway, so you’d be wasting your time. It’s got a template I didn’t create, and it’s pretty plain, but it serves its purpose.

Related posts:

A Perfect Proposal

Identity Theft

PlanetHuff Down