Month: December 2015

DoS Attacks on Servers

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date December 31, 2015

Linode, the company that provides the server I use for my sites has been under constant DoS (Denial-of-Service) attacks for days. Right at this moment, I can access my site and the Linode manager, but the London servers are supposedly all down. Tomorrow, the Dallas servers may get hit, again.

We haven’t heard why there’s such a persistent attack against Linode. The company maintains status updates, but isn’t providing any details.

I’m not leaving Linode. That would be like giving assholes a win. However, access to my sites may be erratic for a bit.

In other news…we didn’t get flooded because of the Missouri rains, though we did lose access to our plumbing capability for a few days. Our back yard was a wet and soggy mess, and our personal river and waterfall, River des Powers, was flowing freely. We were very lucky compared to many surrounding areas, where homes were flooded and freeways and roads shut down. House Member’s co-workers had commutes that hit 3 hours, one-way, last night.

Right now plumbing works, ground is dry, floods are receding, and I can write to my site again. Not a bad way to end 2015.

Happy New Year!

Tags site, weather

Breather

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date December 27, 2015

Thankfully, the cold front dipped and we didn’t get all the expected rain last night.

Because we had a breather, the load in the sewer system has gone down enough so we can use our plumbing again.
Working toilet…hot shower. Seems so mundane, but no pretty jewel or cool electronic gadget is as nice as a working toilet and a hot shower.

I’m just sorry so many people have lost homes and lives because of this freak, climate-changed enhanced weather.

The weather cast states we’ll be getting inundated tonight, but we’re ready this time. Thankfully, I believe the more severe weather may be over.

Just Shelley

New Incarnation

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date December 25, 2015

I always make major site changes during the Christmas holiday. Traffic to my sites is at its lowest, and it just seems a good end-of-year task.

I wasn’t quite expecting that the Linode server where my site lives would crash right in the middle of the upgrade, but life isn’t exciting without the little challenges.

I decided to switch from Drupal to WordPress about the time when I decided I no longer had time to pursue PHP and CMS software tweaking, since my tech interests are focused on JavaScript, Node, Internet-of-Things (IoT), mobile, and DIY (microcomputers and microcontrollers). WordPress requires less time when all you want is a site where you can publish your writings.

Tags site

Burningbird

Archiving Drupal…Hello WordPress

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date December 22, 2015

In the next week, I’m archiving these Drupal-based web pages, and switching over to WordPress. It’s simpler to just archive the old pages than to attempt to get two dissimilar data stores to work together.

This post will be part of the archive, and provide a link to the main page for the new pages when finished.

I’m using Karen Stevenson’s approach to archiving a Drupal site. I have found it works nicely without being complicated. The only difference is I’m merging the archived pages back into the site, and running WordPress around them. Hopefully this will minimize broken links.

Burningbird

Drupal to WordPress…and Donald Trump

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date December 15, 2015

I’m migrating this site from Drupal to WordPress. WordPress makes more sense for my needs. And it’s not as complicated to make a static archive of a Drupal site as it used to be.

There, I said it. I’m moving from Drupal to WordPress. It used to be when we made these pronouncements in the past, there’d be great debate about the political implications of choosing one CMS over another. Now, saying we’re moving from one CMS to another is right up there with, “I’m switching from mint flavored toothpaste to bubblegum.”

Drupal fans won’t be offended, and WordPress folk won’t rejoice. It just is. A bit of tedious work, most likely some broken links no one will notice, and what is is, and continues, because we find stories now via Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Or Google, and Google doesn’t care as long as you’re using HTML5 and proper mobile technologies so it doesn’t drop you from search engine results. (“Please, Mr. Google. Please don’t drop me from mobile search results!”)

I’m moving from Drupal to WordPress. No excitement. Well, not unless I mention “Donald Trump”.

Maybe that’s the key.

I’m moving my site from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders.

Now, I’ve done it. I just offended the Drupal people.