When I woke up this morning, I noticed an email from this site, congratulating me on setting up a new blog. Wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean, I went to this site, only to be greeted with the WordPress install page (wp-admin/install.php), as if no blog existed.

I figured the MySQL on this server had crashed. I wasn’t too worried about it as I’d backed up all my data late last week anyway. I figured I’d give it an hour for the host to sort out and check back later.

By the time I got to work, the site was indeed back up. I logged into WordPress and immediately noticed that the blog title that usually runs the top of the dashboard was now some long URL with words like “casino” and “gambling in it. All my posts seemed to be there, so I poked around a bit and noticed that the admin email had been changed to a hotmail address.

I quickly fixed this and continued to snoop around, but didn’t find anything else out of the ordinary.

I’m figuring that early this morning, some bot attacked all or a few of the WordPress blogs on my server, ramming it with requests until MySQL bailed. Then, it used the install.php file to try and create a new blog and change the password/contact address. Of course, it failed for the most part, but still…

So, no harm done, but I’m definitely wiser. After an initial blog is created, there’s no reason to keep install.php in your files. I deleted that as well as put several restrictions in place. Much Better.

Here’s a decent list of things you can do to harden and lock down your WordPress install.

This evening, I made a switch to a new plug-in to handle my Technorati Tags. Since the move to WordPress 2.0, I’d been having problems with my old tag manager, Bunny’s Technorati Tags and Ultimate Tag Warrior came highly recommended, so I decided to give it a try and see. Immediately I noticed that it was in a much bigger league and even though Bunny’s has just recently been fixed with 2.0, I made the call and switched.

So I’m liking this new plug-in and everything looks sunny and joyful, except for the fact that all my tags that were assigned in the past via Bunny’s are no longer around. That sincerely blows, but whatever. There’s a way to rescue them, but as of this moment a bit to A.D.D. to manage it slogging through help files and forums. When I do get it down, I’ll note how I did it here. For now, I just wanted to post something, just to see UTW in action. Sweet.

Update:

Now I am seriously impressed. Within ten minutes of posting this entry, the creator of UTW popped on by and clued me in on how to rescue all my old tags. That is way cool. Thank you Christine D. UTW is a great plug-in and it’s developer made my day!

I just finished installing what’s aiming to be the final release candidate for WordPress 2.0. I’ve been waiting a long time for this update to come out and after quickly playing around with it I can say that installation was no more troublesome that previous updates. A few minutes of uploading and about 3 seconds upgrading. Everything seems to be working and already I’m seeing a lot of cool shit I like.

The whole revamp of the post writing GUI is definitely the most advanced and just plain fucking cool shit I’ve seen in any blog software. The collapsing menus help keep things from getting cluttered while the GUI that handles the actual formatting and input has been simplified to echo any rich text editor. If you’ve sent and html email or used an MS Word-like editor, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory. Instead of squinting at your posts, trying to read a paragraph, all broken apart by links and image urls, the post input box now displays
One of my more favorite improvements is the addition of a post preview using the actual CSS formatting from your live site so as you write your post, you can see it as it would appear on your site live. Instead of squinting at the post text box, parsing slowly through links and image urls as you try to write your post, images now appear directly in the draft as you type it and links are simply highlights blue and underlined. It’s perfect. Everything’s all drag and drop, it’s mind-blowing. I immediately had to start this post to test it out.
I’ve encountered very few issues. most I am sure are there due to the fact that I still need to go over the changelog and browse the documentation. However, my favorite FireFox spell-checking plugin, ASpellFox will only perform if I turn off the rich editing in the post. It’s not a big deal, though. It still works. Of actual WordPress plugins, I notice that only two so far that are not working well and need to be disabled until a future version update. Any disappointment over quirks or learning curves are smothered by sheer coolness. This is a good update.

##Update##
The domain name has transferred and everything seems to be up and running correctly. Please let me know if you encounter errors.
#########

Please bear with me over the next couple of days as I once again change webhosts. I’m setting the new site up today and the domain transfer should be finished in 48 hours or less. It’s likely that the whole move will be unnoticeable.

My current host, hostinglite.com, is completely unreliable and it’s one of those things where at least once a week, something on their end fucks up. They’re cheap as hell, so I guess I’m getting what I paid for, but I need a site that works and is not consistently down because of SQL problems and nameserver issues, so if I have to pay more, so be it.

This time I am taking the easy route and selecting the host at the top of the recommended list on WordPress.org. If I pay a year up front, it’s only a dollar more than what I pay now for my lame-ass service. BlueHost.com, let’s hope they pull through.

I was just reading this chick’s post about the lifecycle of bloggers and it’s true for the most part, I feel like it’s missing some key points. Her list applies to most bloggers, not this one. Therefore, people of Earth, I present to you:

The Lifecycle of Blogging Losers

1. You start reading blogs because you’re a twisted, lonely shut-in.
   Maybe it was your parents neglecting you. Maybe it was all those years you spent with your mouth duct-taped to the end of a bong. End result, you’re a neurotic, anti-social, freak-a-zoid that has spends all his time locked away alone with the shades drawn, mumbling and twitching with no real friends. Living like that, eventually, you’re going to start reading blogs, sure. Shoving a lit stick of dynamite up your ass works too.
2. You start a blog because it beats talking to real people.
   People, you can’t shoot them, you can’t talk to them and you certainly can’t keep their heads in jars to keep you company. So what do you do to pass those slow nights when you’re just burning to tell someone about the bugs that are crawling beneath your skin? Hell, you start a motherfucking blog! Somebody, somewhere is interested in what you have to say. They just have to be! Right?
3. You become giddy with self-perceived false blogging power.
   You are so witty. What will you say next? Somebody in Cambodia reads your blog like once a month! You deserve awards, chariots and laurels, but for now, you are content to keep up with the daily gems of brilliance. Someone will notice your genius and shower you with cash, bitches and a neverending weed supply any day now. You are part of an elite group of uber-hip people.
4. The cold, hard truth sets in. You’re a blogging loser.
   No one gives a fuck about your blog, much less you. It’s too late though, that obsessive trait that defines you has found a new outlet. You are compelled to post. If you don’t post, you are an even bigger loser. You realize that all those times you casually dropped your URL in conversations resulted in people visiting your website and rather than seeing your blinding intelligence, they saw you for the addled nutcase freak you are. Yes, that’s why all those people don’t talk to you anymore.
5. Your blog bites you in the ass and leaves teeth marks.
   Somebody, your boss, your grandmother or possibly the Pope stumbles across your blog and reads that post about how you inhaled all the freon out of the refrigerator and ran naked down the street tearing invisible rats from your body and throwing them at pedestrians. You get fired/disowned/excommunicated. However, this does not stop your manic blogging, it only serves to further twist you and seperate you from all those stupid humans. You feel compelled to wear tinfoil clothing around the home.
6. In a fit of despair, you take down your blog, only to restore it. Rinse, repeat 50x.
   Life is pointless. You have nothing to say that isn’t monosyllabic. The tinfoil hat can’t block the evil rays beamed at you. How can you possibly continue this blog? So, you face that bleak, grey vista and tear that blog right the fuck down. You are king of this castle! Unfortunately, something like five minutes later, you realize that unless you either go outside and interact with real people or start that blog right the fuck back up, you are going to tear you eyes out and glue them to your fingertips. So, the blog goes back up. This cycle can go on for years.
7. You execute a short-lived attempt at having a point.
   You’re getting old, you must have some purpose by now. You must! Unfortunately, the only point you have is that losers like you are pointless. So much for that.
8. The meltdown
   After a particularly dark night of the soul coupled with some bomb weed and bad sashimi, you give up all your mortal possessions and flee to the mountains. Living in a cave, you grow a big-ass beard and subsist entirely on roots, grubs and small forest critters. You discover a certain profound truth to this austere, rugged life. You begin speaking to the animals of the forest. You hang with Sasquatch. At last, you feel complete. Yet, if you’re so complete, why can’t you stop writing “posts” to your “blog” by smearing feces on the cave wall? With the realization that you cannot escape your pathetic blog, you return to civilization and to the internet.