Occasionally I would happen to notice strange wiki entry references in the logs. I never put two and two together until today. Using Google Analytics, I saw where Google had a number of spam appearances attributed to my domain. So I scoured the logs more thoroughly and found the wiki server had been set up to allow “unauthenticated” posts. Amazing, and even more so is that this is the default!?! I couldn’t believe it.

The “unauthenticated user” had created a “Publications” entry back in 2008. Again, WTF?!? (And that isn’t a reference to the CIA’s “WikiLeaks Task Force” either… ) There were, for the most part some that appeared to be legitimate posts. A lot of the entries had photos that added to the story. There were over 20 pages, each with many posts, going all the way back to 2008. They were posted with somewhat frequent regularity. The latest was posted last night at 02:00 or so.

A quick Google search really didn’t reveal a canned, step by step fix. I did see reference to how this configuration is a spam magnet. How true…

I decided to dive in to the configuration and see if I could figure it out. I don’t know if this will work, but since my address has been a regular target, only a day or two will tell if I have been successful.

In the end, I deleted the offending wiki and blog. I created a group that has permissions to make / edit a wiki post (and I hope this rolls to the blog entries, too.) Essentially, since this is a small server and it isn’t difficult to manage. On a larger scale, an automated configuration should be created. In essence, I just added authorized users to a group that allows wiki posts. The next step was to configure the wiki server to only accept posts from that group of users. (It was here in Server Admin that I finally noticed the ‘Wiki Allows Posts by Everybody’.

Sheesh! For folks like me, I would sure appreciate the default to explicitly reject posts by everyone and require specific permissions. It make me wonder just how many other compromised installations may be scattered around the Internet. Even more interesting, it make me think of some of the Google links I have followed… Some of the posts buried in my wiki / blog server looked suspiciously similar in style and content to ones I have visited.

Sure the idea is to drive traffic to your server… But this is NOT the right method!

So, after all this time, I find that I don’t use 3G. I didn’t even “subscribe” this last month, and barely used tens of megabytes out of the 2GB I receive for $25USD from AT&T.

I thought that 2GB would be nowhere near enough. I have found, and again verified this month (via the data use on the iPhone 4), that it is probably enough (in most cases.) I used somewhere around 1GB on the iPhone, to date, for November.

So, does that hold true for the iPad. I reason that you could (if that was the only device for surfing, etc.) certainly use more than 2GB. I will do a test, starting at the first of the month, to see the “realistic” data use I could expect. I’ll activate 3G again, and take it from there…

Of course, your mileage may vary… But I will check back at the end of December to see where I end up.

– Posted from my iPad…

Location:Anchorage, Alaska

I was running fine previously. I know the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But that never stopped me in the past, and I wasn’t going to let it stand in the way this time either.

So I utilized the (actually pretty cool) automatic upgrade feature of WP. That has worked in the past for minor upgrades, so had confidence it would work now. The first step is always, make a back-up. Sure, I’m sure I have a back-up, so I don’t want to waste time on that now. I probably didn’t skim the instructions since it is all “automatic”, why bother. I can always read them later if I have trouble.

Trouble I did have, too… The upgrade sputtered and stalled. I kept forging ahead, and trying a few times. Finally it seemed to work. Then there was the matter of plugins. There was some overlooked instruction (probably right after the ‘back-up first’ statement) that I failed to notice. Mind you, I don’t know if that was the culprit, but I think caching and other nuances may have been involved.

I struggled to upgrade the plugins, with the same spit and sputter as the core modules. Finally I gave in and closed the admin window, and attempted to start the blog. It was then I realized that I messed up, big time!

The blog was just a white screen when opened. There were no errors, but there was not a speck of content either. I pondered what could have gone wrong and struggled to back out. Finally I gave up in defeat and headed for bed.

This morning, I decided to try again. There was no way to login, no way to access administration or configuration pages. No errors, but nothing was displayed. I logged on remotely to the server. The files “looked” fine, but looks can be deceiving. I finally stopped wasting time, and decided to restore from my backup that I was sure would make everything whole.

I restored from a point, yesterday at 18:00. That was before I started monkeying around. Still no blog. I continued back in time to noon. Still nothing. I went back to midnight of the day before; absolutely nothing. Sure the files were there, but there was some deep underlying issue. I then attempted to use my SQL database backup that gets mailed to me every 12 hours. I went back to the morning before my upgrade (since nothing would have changed) and it still wouldn’t work after importing the DB.

After reading and looking for others who may have suffered the same as me (I found none, of course) I read detailed instructions for the installation / upgrade. I decided to take some drastic measures and deleted all WP files on the server, short of my content, files, photos, etc. I then SFTP’d the new software to the server. After playing with and adjusting permissions, it “seems” to work now. The version has been upgraded, and all the plugins as well.

I’m going to run a backup now. At least I have a site that appears to be functioning at the moment. I might run into an issue here and there, but for the most part, it seems to be running fine.

Leave a comment and let me know if you stumble on any broken parts or pieces.

The other item of note is that this post is from my new iPad.

I’ve had the device since Monday, and really haven’t played with it that much. I did try to get it setup, added or upgraded a few apps, watched a movie via Netflix, and looked around for tips and tricks as well as productivity apps.

Still have a ways to go, but I will admit now that this on-screen keyboard (in portrait mode here) really works quite well.

Lots more to explore, but two thumbs up (and maybe a high-five if this posts!). I’m sure I’ll post more thoughts as time goes on.

– Posted from my iPad…

Really stumped, I looked at the files in the WP directory.  Thought the site may have been hacked, but all looked fine (as far as I could tell.)  Thought about a PHP problem, and potential PHP or other cache issues.

I was exploring my options, and thinking through a restore from backup.  I hadn’t restarted in a long while, so decided to give that a try.  This isn’t a Windows box, and so it really pained me to admit the restart of the server brought the blog back to life.

Oh well, sometimes you do what you have to do.  What I have to do now, is keep watch to make sure there really isn’t a true underlying problem.

But, I do have different flavors of M$ Windows running under VMware on my Mac.  I’ve dedicated an external FW800 drive for the images of XP Pro, Vista Business (32-bit), Vista Ultimate (64-bit), the Windows 7 RC (still not sure I want to pay for an upgrade), and Ubuntu 9.10.

Today, I applied some upgrades I held off with installing for quite a while.  My XP installation is pretty lean, and only used for the applications listed above, as well as for Outlook to my work Exchange account.  Since I work in the Mac all the time, it’s just easy to use this Outlook, as opposed to running my Dell while at home solely for the purpose of staying connected with that email account.  I find that not loading it up with a bunch of junk doesn’t bog it down, and for the most part is pretty stable.

Anyway, I took some time to apply the latest updates, and included the Windows Live applications.  It will never be a Mac (although they make a half hearted attempt with these applications) but I was curious.  The thing that caught my attention was the blog writing software.

So here I am, giving it a test with Jim’s New World.  It didn’t like my theme, and probably has limited functionality as a result, but it might work in a pinch for an offline editor.  This post will serve as a test.

I’ve done a few Google searches, but it always leaves me reading reviews that are from 2007 or before.  As technology advances, “that was then and this is now…”  Some of the apps don’t even exist in the form that was reviewed, if at all.

So I found a post from 2009…  Trying Qumana.  We’ll see how this test goes.  If you have any suggestions, they are much appreciated.  Please leave a comment…

(Yes, I left the footer in place, not only to give credit, but to see what it looks like in actual use.)

Tags: blog, WordPress, software, offline, Qumana, Blog Manager

Powered by Qumana

But in searching Google (thanks to folks that really know SEO) I was able to figure out a few little snippets that will hopefully help.  The first is an optimization that totally corrects the (what I will call a blatant) deficiency in the default setup of WordPress.  It’s unfortunate they choose the Permalink format they do.  But, I wonder if this is at the request of the search giants?  Huh, could it be…?  To lessen the traffic, or some other nonsense which I certainly don’t understand?

Anyway, I really mucked things up.  Links to every page were broken.  I don’t know if I “fixed” them, but it does appear I have Permalinks working now.  This was totally due to searching (again, SEO ‘wonderful’ links.  I was finally able to figure out why my .htaccess files on my self hosted Mac OS X (Leopard) Server were not working.  Check out this link to properly change your permalinks on OS X Server.

I think with Dean Lee’s highly touted Dean’s Permalinks Migration Plugin Version 1.0 finally working, and a good understanding of how to “manipulate” the Apache config with .htaccess files, I might be a step closer.

Time will tell…

One thing is for certain; there is no end to the coverage about Michael Jackson.  They appear to have explored all angles or maybe have run out of things deemed newsworthy.    One of the comments to the blog indicated, “Ghost or not, this is the only interesting piece of Michael Jackson “news” I’ve seen in the last ten days…” I tend to agree.

Above all however… the fact that someone has some really keen eyes and power of observation to catch the fleeting “apparition” in a short, shaky, CNN news video.