Blog House

I’m going to upgrade this site so it may be a tad wonky for a little while.

I’ve saved this page in static format so it should work but some of the links may have problems. Since all of the posts are on the front page, if you are looking for payment buttons or service info, just scroll down.

I’ve got a WP client who I have admin access to and had left my own email address in the admin section. So, needless to say, I get the moderation queue notifications. Recently, that blog has been getting postively harrassed by permutations on one theme. They all go to something-top-pharmacy (dot net), and I’ve seen hundreds of permutations of it. It was this particular client who inspired me to go and change the moderation.php to make it check ‘delete’ by default, instead of ‘do nothing’. I got tired of clicking.

So, I did a search for this bottom-feeding-scum-pharmacy along with the term “comment spam” to see if anyone had gotten tired enough of them to come up with some sort of block (from the site, not just via a blacklist or moderation queue). Didn’t find any, but boy did I find blogs, mostly MT blogs, with lots and lots and lots of comment spam they’d never gotten rid of.

So, I’m offering a new service. Call it “blog cleaning lady, if you will”. If you have a blog with spam problems, or know someone who does, please read on. And if you like the idea, please link, so I don’t get tempted to start spamming blogs with ‘remove your spam’ offers.

read the rest

This is for a move from MT to WordPress. I can also do moves to/from other blog software, prices may vary. Just ask!

1). Install WordPress, including setting up a new database (or insuring WP won’t mess up your old one if you are on a host that doesn’t allow multiple databases), uploading and running the install and setting you up a cron-based daily database backup if your server allows (I just throw that in because it can save your butt – it did mine once – and almost no-one does them). $15, unless you are on a host with a really odd setup.

2) Moving the database: $20 for the first 1,000 posts, $5 for each extra 1,000 (or portion thereof – though I won’t charge extra for a few over). That’s because I have to make sure the database (both comments and posts) is ‘clean’ of things that can mess up export/import. So the bigger the database, the longer it takes. I’ll throw in the necessary .htaccess redirects from MT to WP (if possible, if you aren’t using MT default links, it may not be without redirecting each page), and a plugin to help with category redirects. I also use my own export/import method to make sure post ID#s remain the same.

3) Translating your design to WP, straight out. $15. New design… depends on how fancy you want to get. Use of the default WP style or one of these styles is no charge. Note that using the default or one of these designs means that you get to put all your links and suchlike into the template. All I do is setup a default page.

4)I’ll also install extra plugins, for anything from $2 to $5 each, depending on whether they are ‘plug and play’ or need some reconfiguring of templates. If I have to write a plugin just for you, we’ll negotiate…

The server will be moving (physically) sometime after 8pm PST time this evening. It will be down for about 20 minutes. Please don’t panic. It’s just being moved from one area in the server farm to another area that has been upgraded (better capacity and such). [UPDATE] All done!

If you can see this at bloghouse.net we are back. The problem only affected this site and the subdomains. My apologies.

If you can see this at bloghouse.net we are back.

They have a new licensing structure for MT 3.0, which is leaving people with the choice of either using MT2.661 (or earlier) forever or moving to other software.

Just looking at some of the people hosting here and pricing if they want to upgrade. Quick check of Harry’s Place counts 4 authors (maybe more), that would be $120 for them. Dodgeblogium has 3 who post regularly and several more who post occassionally, $120 minimum and probably $150. Horizon has only two, so they could get by with just $70, as could On The Third Hand.

And here’s a cute one, from their free license (the only one I can read):

Making Copies
You may install the Software on only one (1) computer or server having a single CPU. You may make one (1) copy of the Software in any machine readable form solely for back-up purposes, provided you reproduce the Software in its original form and with all proprietary notices on the back-up copy.

The bloghouse server, just for your information, runs on 4 CPUs. Every other decent host on the Internet also uses multiple CPUs. Cute, eh? I’m hoping they aren’t really being that sneaky, that they copied some license stuff from other software and didn’t think to fix that (yet). However, at this point I’m not sure.

There are plenty of alternatives out there, both pay and totally free. I will be looking into which ones have scripts and/or guides for migrating MT to their program. I know already that there is help available for WordPress (which is completely free). PMachine has a script for conversion also, I’ll see what I can find out. If anyone knows of other alternatives to MT that offer reasonably easy conversion, please leave a comment!

Nucleus looks good but has no conversion scripts. Sigh.

I will be offering services to anyone who wants to convert to other software. Not free, but definitely cheaper than MT’s new “special offer” $69.95 license.

[update] I’ve found instructions for migrating from MT to Drupal. I’ll probably try that as a test for my own MT blog. I absolutely love Drupal (it’s what I run the design area on). I’ve also found instructions and script for migrating from MT to Textpattern. [update 2] Having looked further at the Drupal instructions, I think I’ll stick with WordPress or just start OTTH anew…

Thanks to Deb, in the comments at On The Third Hand, for this link to an update on Mena’s blog. Turns out that CPU thing, as I thought it might be, was an error and has been removed. They’ve made some other changes/improvements, as well.

These services, like the design services , are available to anyone.

Here’s a list of some of the things I can do, many are small jobs that no one else really wants to do.

New! We now offer moving services for those wishing to change their blog software (MT to Wordpress is primary but others can be done). There’s a price list for the MT to Wordpress move now available.
• Set up Cron jobs (assuming your host allows them) to run shell scripts to back up your database on a schedule and gzip it. That can be done as a daily backup which writes over the prior day, for just $5 (includes testing), or a more complex script can keep several backups and roll over, for a few dollars more (depends on how number of backups and complexity). We can also one that e-mails you the backup each day (if you really want that).
  How much is it worth it to you to not lose all your data? Do you really want to go into your CPanel daily and download an SQL backup? Like me, before I set it up for myself, you probably only do that when you were about to upgrade (if then).
• I can also set up Cron jobs for other things. Some of the PHP blog software uses Cron jobs to do things PHP isn’t allowed to do. I’ll happily set them up for just a few dollars each!
• Have you got bad spiders/robots eating up your bandwidth? I will do a robots.txt to tell the good robots what you don’t want them caching (your images or cgi-bin, for instance). Then I can install you a simple bot trap that bans bots who follow banned robots.txt links from your site, along with an .htaccess file that bans already known ‘bad bots’. Just $10.
  I can also install a slightly more aggressive ‘bot trap’ to catch bots that ignore robots.txt altogether. That one includes the simple bot trap, and is an extra $5.
  I’ll warn you; though, once you ban some bad bots, your page hits may look a bit less flattering. I was appalled a couple of years ago at how many of my readers were e-mail-harvesting bots rather than humans.
• I’ll install software for you (if it’s legal). Have some script you can’t quite get working? Let me tear my hair out while you relax. All you’ll have to do is wait for my notice that “It works now!” Price on these depends on complexity, but it isn’t much!
• Got some javascript (or Perl or PHP script) that does almost what you want? I’ll take a look, and won’t charge you a penny unless I can tweak it to do what you want — or stop it from doing what you don’t want.
• Been getting spammed and want someone to check all your old comments and delete spams you might have missed? I’ll even do that boring job for you. Make an offer.
• I can set up SSI or PHP (or even ASP )includes for static pages — very handy if you have static pages and start to run out of disk space. They can be used for banners, footers, sidebars, and other things that you may want on every page, but not want to go edit in every template whenever you change things. This service may require a host that allows you to use htaccess to tell the server to parse html (as PHP or SSI or file) or renaming of files and an htaccess redirect to get old links to work.
• Have a corrupt Berkely database? I’m becoming an expert on Berkeley database fixes (even to the point of editing them by hand). Having a problem moving because you can’t get your mySQL database moved? Inserts timing out? I’ll do the boring work of splitting it up and putting it in in chunks your server can take. This one will cost some money. It’s a time consuming job.
• Want to move your blog without the hassle of doing it all yourself? I can do that too! Just answer a few questions, and sit back and relax. Price depends on the size of the site and size of any databases (see above comment on SQL timeouts)
• Please check out my design services too! I don’t do only full site designs. I do tweaks, adjustments and other ‘little touches’ that aren’t enough for many designers to bother with. As well, I’m experienced in translating templates from one software to another (geocities excepted…). I’ll set up alternate skins, and/or alternate templates (such as for PDA browsers or printers). Anything from adding a border on up to a complete site design! No job is too small!
• Oh, and if you need tutoring on something I know about, I can get on chat and walk you through it. I don’t know everything but I know quite a bit about computers (UNIX and Windows; you Mac people are on yer own…).
• If there’s something I haven’t mentioned here, ask! Make an offer. If I can do it, we can deal!
• Oh… and I also have a lot of old books, most of them SF. So if you are looking to fill in an old series or get that one book you can’t find by a favorite author, ask me. I might have it. (Warning, all my books are in well-read condition. I won’t sell them if they are really badly damaged, though.)

Ladies, Gentlemen, and others:
We now have easy payment buttons. They are through PayPal but you can pay by credit/debit card if you don’t have a PayPal account, as well as directly through your PayPal account if you do. Just click the button for your account type. You can pay for multiple months if you wish. One note! If your account at Paypal is not an e-mail account that I’d recognize you by, or if you are paying on behalf of someone else (we’ll assume all anonymous accounts are being paid for by benefactors…), please send blogmeister (at bloghouse.net) a separate e-mail and let me know which account to credit. Thanks!

SubDomain Accounts:

Domain Accounts:

Special Billings For upgrades, extras, non-hosting services, design — and all other one-time payments – you fill in the amount.

Cpanel decided to do an upgrade and many servers are being affected by Invalid Lisc File errors. This is causing problems with email since the cppop server is written for cpanel and control panel access. Or, in plain English, your mail is getting there, you just may not be able to pick it up through the pop e-mail.

This is affecting every cpanel provider and is being worked on. Cpanel may also be down on and off till we get this fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[update] It should be straightened out now. Until Cpanel does another upgrade. (Usually they are fine, but once in a while…).

Seems they are having problems. Their DNS server is down so the sites are up but you can’t get there from here (or anywhere else). They are doing their best, I’m sure, to get things up and running again. But if you can’t get to many of the blogs this morning, that’s why. (Instapundit and LGF are both on Hosting Matters, among many others).
[update 06:30 Eastern time] Still down, and judging from the server status page, things there are getting worse, not better.
[update 07:00 Eastern] Appears to be up again. For the moment, at least.

There is a vulnerability in MT’s send-entry program (that is used by blogs that want to have an ‘e-mail this article’ option) that could allow spammers to use it.
MT’s article may be found here.
They have issued a fixed mt-send-entry.cgi file (the file affected). All the MT users hosting here at Blog Househave been upgraded. I decided it would be easier just to upgrade everyone than to bug y’all to do it.
However; MT recommends that if you are not using the send-entry option that you remove that file entirely. I would second their recommendation, since their upgrade is more secure but not completely secure.
Many thanks to Wizbang for the warning.

Sorry about the lack of connectivity this morning. The servers were up but there was a router problem upstream of our datacenter.
The info I got was that there was a bug in the cisco IOS that their routers were using that caused a line card error, so they had to do an emergency IOS update on their routers. Now you know as much as I do.
I suspect the problem was caused by a DOS attack since that is reason for the latest IOS update. Our datacenter updated its routers’ IOS a few days after the update came out, so please excuse me while I go cuss out that upstream who should have done the same.

We’ve had a server problem and will need to reinstall some modules necessary for MT. We should be back to normal soon (I hope). Sorry!

[update] Still working on it. You haven’t been forgotten!

[update] This is caused by a (automatic) CPanel update that has messed things up. We are still working on it.

We now should be back to normal. Let me know if you have any problems!

The Cisco routers and switches to our server are being upgraded due to a security vulnerability (to DOS attack) that was found by Cisco.

More information here for the techie types.

If you’ve been unable to reach your site, this is probably the cause. The sites have not been down, just unreachable from some places.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

My e-mail program (the one I use at home) has been having a few problems. I’m pretty sure I haven’t lost any e-mails but I had some previously invisible ones suddenly show up when I fixed it.

So, just in case… if you sent me an e-mail and I haven’t replied, please send it again or leave a comment here! Thanks.

If you happen to FTP into your mailbox and see what appears to be an e-mail that says:

This text is part of the internal format of your mail folder, and is not a real message. It is created automatically by the mail system software. If deleted, important folder data will be lost, and it will be re-created with the data reset to initial values.

Please don’t delete it! It really is part of the mailbox, and deleting it could cause problems.

• perl: /usr/bin/perl
• sendmail: /usr/lib/sendmail
• Your server Path (for domain accounts):
  /home/username/public_html
• • URL: http://yourdomain.whatever/
• Your server Path (for subdomain accounts):
  /home/blog/public_html/subdomainname
• • URL: http://subdomainname.bloghouse.net/

The paths to Perl and Sendmail are common defaults. You should rarely have to change either.
Note: If you set up your own subdomain, your path would be like the subdomain accounts above, except you would substitute your username for ‘blog’.

I’m using WordPress to power the front page at least partly because it’s very easy to set-up. However; there may be some others on GPL that may be more attractive to an end user, even if the setup is more confusing.

Drupal and geeklog, for instance, both look very complex. Has anyone used them as an end user and liked them? How difficult are they once set up?

Nucleus looks interesting but I seem to have problems with its zip file and my ancient version of Winzip (I also got errors on an old PKunzip DOS attempt). Anyone have a link to a nice, simple, tar.gz version?

Anyone blogging on anything else that you’d recommend?

If this move works, you’ll be seeing this on the front page. You’ll also be able to leave comments, questions, suggestions and such, thanks to a program known as ”Word Press“, which is on GPL and is thus legal for me to use here. Runs nicely, too.

So, we have at least one GPL blogging software I know Blog House and I can fully support! Since it’s the ‘official’ branch from b2 (cafelog), I’m fairly certain that one should also run fine here.

The information that was on the front page is now on the ‘About’ page, which you will find a link to on the navigation bar immediately below the top banner.

I’ll be starting a set of FAQs, which will be posted initially on the front page, so everyone can comment and suggest.

As you’ll note, we do have some new links on the right. There are more coming but they aren’t quite ‘live’ yet.