The New Era

Posted: March 23rd, 2011 under writing.
Tags: Five Rings, write, writing

I’m sure by now I’m your favorite website … You know, that site that always has topics that say ‘hacked again’? Yeah … I didn’t think so.

The good news is–for those of you who’re still out there (Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)–these attacks haven’t sapped my will to write. And I’ve learned a lot about protecting my site from maliciousness.

*A sinkhole at the grocery store parking lot just down the street. I guess people thought ramming grocery carts down it was funneh. :)

Ahem. From tragedy comes change. A new era is beginning!

What’s New:

1. My diet has changed, radically!

I cut my carbohydrate intake down. WAY down. Not Atkins down, but less-than-100-grams-a-day down.

Should this matter? Maybe not. But I’ve felt more … energetic lately, writing more, coding more, doing a better job at work, even doing more chores around the house. Maybe it’s just a placebo effect, but it’s one I welcome with open arms.

2. I started a rewrite of Five Rings.

I bet you’re thinking “D:” right now, but lemme explain: I’ve thought much about the reception I received when I shared my chapter one a few months back, and I’m pretty sure a little puppy died inside of me that day. It’s not that I’m scrapping my work, it’s just … it wasn’t good enough, so I’m aiming to make it a whole lot better.

3. I’ve got something of a new layout in the works, coded in PHP, and it’s looking a lot slicker than the one I made 4 years ago. Plus I’ve got a PHP-SQL testing environment up and running on my local computer, and Dreamweaver CS5 is making sweet love to it.

4. I’ve been doing writing sessions with Brian.

I’ve done … six or seven of them, now? Anyway they’ve been great. Each time we gather under the common flag of writing, we get very productive.

5. I jumped on the smartphone wagon.

Lots of advantages here, I can edit Word documents on the go, keep up with social networking more easily, and even make posts off the wire (For some reason Twitter and WordPress run slow on my main computers. icydk they are woefully outdated).

6. I’ve been giving some serious thought to moving the site to a new web host, under a different domain.

The reasons for this are many, but the attacks are definitely part of it. I mean, my software was up to date, my passwords were plenty long with lots of squiggly bits in them, and yet I got hacked–Not once, but twice. One can’t help but wonder what the web host has been doing to help prevent these attacks.

So, that’s what’s news. Thanks for sticking around ;)

« « Hack me twice… | What to do when your WordPress blog’s been compromised (Round One) » »

12 Comments »

Good to hear you’ve tackled them hacking gremlins! Fingers crossed it won’t happen again!

[Reply]

Comment by J.C. Martin — March 24, 2011 @ 2:33 am
Hey, I’m still around-ish. And terribly ashamed to admit that I haven’t done any serious writing since our last NPI. I mean, sure, the fanfiction expanded to ridiculous length, but nothing serious. (On the other hand there is a lot of life-changing stuff in my personal life, like I’ve become an aunt, so it’s not like my head was really in the writing.) I’m glad to see that you have so many things to write about. Especially that you’re working on your novel and that you’re working creatively. Smartphones, though? I hate them on principle because everyone has them. So I suppose the day I get myself one they’ll already be terribly out of date, heh. I’m a late bloomer, I know.
See you around!

[Reply]

Comment by packsister — March 24, 2011 @ 3:41 pm
@J.C. Martin:
I think I scared them off. :)
It’s kind of difficult to find info on what to do after you’ve been hacked. Maybe I should make a post about it…

@packsister:
Grats on becoming an aunt! I was with you on the whole smartphone thing, believing that phones are basically for talking on, and I wasn’t willing to pay extra. But an opportunity came along to get one for basically free, and, well, this little thing has replaced my main camera, helps me with my diet, allows me to go on the net anywhere I go; It’s changed my life in a million little ways.

I can’t wait to get threaded responses on here….

[Reply]

Comment by Nick Enlowe — March 25, 2011 @ 4:36 pm
On the other hand, the batteries never hold longer than one day, one scratch – and the screen is gone, drop it and it shatters, PLUS it attracts thieves like honey flies. My best friend had two iphones stolen within half a year, you know? And I’m thinking to myself: I don’t want to have internet anywhere I go. I wouldn’t stop being online, and sometimes a person needs to be unavailable, too. But I do need a phone that I don’t have to recharge for three weeks. (Nokia is great for that!) So I’m still strongly against those smart things.
Njehehe, I have a strong opinion. Anyone else? Don’t worry, I ain’t a bully ;)

[Reply]

Comment by packsister — March 27, 2011 @ 3:46 am
Passionate! I’m not here to convince you (Nobody can convince me of the worth of an e-book reader, for instance), but I should dispel at least one thing for you: I’ve got a Droid X. The battery lasts about 8 hours per 10% of charge with normal daily use. This amounts to almost 3 and a half days off the charger. My old cell phone barely lasted a day off the charger.

Not sure what they’ve done with battery tech lately, but I’m pretty impressed.

[Reply]

Comment by Nick Enlowe — March 27, 2011 @ 4:57 pm
Funny, I must have had incredible luck with batteries and Nokia. Even my oldest phone, like 4 yers old, held two weeks at normal use. Three days is better than one day, of course (I’ve been asking every iphone user I know how often they recharge and they all said – one day) but still completely not practical for my personal use. I’ve listed my reasons for not having a smartphone, and you’ve listed yours for having one. Each to their own, of course. I mean, sure I’ll get myself such a thing – the moment they can assure me the battery holds at least two weeks. I think it’s fair.

[Reply]

Comment by packsister — March 28, 2011 @ 7:28 am
wow, don’t think I have any device that lasts that long…

[Reply]

Comment by Nick Enlowe — March 28, 2011 @ 12:54 pm
Personally? I’m just getting over the flu, trying to write my May 5 & The Assassin serial, trying to edit ‘Ran Red (ugh), and trying to start a new book.

To be honest, I think I need beta readers on ‘Ran Red – I’ve lost my way on that one, and need a fresh new look on it, May is going well enough though I’m not sure anybody reads it (hehe) and my new book started great, then I got way too busy and then sick… boo.

Other than that, bidniss as usual.

[Reply]

Comment by Ryan G. Sanders — March 31, 2011 @ 12:16 pm
By the way, are you thinking of doing another NPI in the near-future?

[Reply]

Comment by Ryan G. Sanders — April 4, 2011 @ 12:29 pm
@RG: The goal was to get on a new domain and automate the whole NPI thing with the help of PHP and SQL. Doing it manually is tough, plus it would be pretty cool, don’t you think?

[Reply]

Comment by Nick Enlowe — April 5, 2011 @ 4:15 pm
I think that would be excellent, just don’t let it detract too much from your own writing!

Allowing people to input their own numbers, or even allowing you to do so and having it all calculated and databased would save you an arse-load of time, mate.

[Reply]

Comment by Ryan G. Sanders — April 5, 2011 @ 5:37 pm
I want to have users able to sign up for an account. Then they’ll get an email when an NPI they’ve signed up for is about to start.

They’ll enter their timezone and a virtual calendar will be there with all the days greyed out, except for ‘today’, with a 24 hour gap to fill in the wordcount on that day. PHP engine will calculate things like your avg words per day, how many reprieves you’ve got left, etc. Plus it will keep track of how the whole group is doing, in realtime.

Thanks for worrying about whether or not it’s distracting me, but I think I’ve stricken a pretty good balance between working on this and writing.

[Reply]

Comment by Nick Enlowe — April 6, 2011 @ 6:30 am