April 1st

And so, another International Day of Japery and Shit Tricks/Jokes/Pranks.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.

 

Normal programming will be resumed tomorrow.


6666

When I logged in today, I spotted this…

d4d_6666Nothing special to it, but I did like that nice balanced figure for the comments…


Somewhat Calmer

Over the weekend, I’ve been working on reducing the impact of whatever/whoever was attacking D4D™ (and many others, I’m sure)

Looking at log files, it became apparent that a number of the issues were related to a particular site primary user-name that’d become known. Not massively surprising- it wasn’t the strongest in the first place, although the password was- and while it hadn’t been cracked/opened, it was getting hit so many times that it kept on getting locked out. And because it was the primary user-name (which I used all the time) it meant I was getting locked out as well.

As a result, that user has now been massively demoted, and I’ve created a couple of others with more-secure usernames and similarly secure passwords.

It’s not been the easiest of processes, and I’ll be keeping an eye on it over the next few weeks – but at least things now seem to be calmer and less slogged-down with hassles and shit.


Under Pressure

For whatever reason, D4D™ has been getting hit hard this week, by a combination of spam-bots, brute-force log-in attempts, and a whole heap of other shit all flying my way.

I’m pretty sure it’s just an attack on WordPress-driven sites – and I’ve got a pretty decent security set-up anyway – but it’s thrashing the network and server quite impressively, which becomes quite frustrating.

Anyway, I’m working on repelling attackers, but it does mean that things may be a bit slower and sparser here while I do so…


An (In)Auspicious Start?

This first complete week of the year has been both good and bad.

Up until yesterday, it didn’t feel all that great, particularly with the dose of Ick I’ve had for most of the week. I hadn’t got done a lot of the work I wanted to complete, and there was a bundle of organisational stuff that still needed doing this month.  Which was all fairly bad, and not exactly contributing to the “start as I mean to go on” intentions I’d begun the week with.

Then yesterday I started sorting out the organisation stuff – chasing up a couple of things that’d been annoying me and hanging over the Christmas break – with positive results, as well as sorting out things like the car’s MOT, and a couple of other bits that needed doing.

There’s also been a dollop of good news today that means life is going to be chaotic – but profitable – over the next three months. I’ll write more about that over the weekend, I think, but it’s all good.

So while the first bit of the week was shit, it’s ended on a pretty good note. So all told, I’m currently pretty optimistic for 2015…


Ick – Temperature Control

One of the weirdest things about the batch of illness I’ve had this week was how much it messed with my body’s temperature. In some ways it almost went feverish, with extremes (or at least wider-than-normal ranges) of temperature from hot to cold.

It’s something I’ve had issues with before – although usually as a reaction to ridiculous stress-levels – where I overheat, and end up sleeping for about 18 hours. It’s been a long time since I had one of those episodes, thankfully. But each time I’ve had one, the verdict has been to take some paracetamol, which apparently helps to reduce core temperature. (That’s only on reported understanding, don’t quote me on it)

Anyway, this last couple of days I’ve been running hot enough that I wondered whether I might end up sleeping 18 hours again, but this time it hasn’t happened like that.

I don’t think there’s any real point of information on this, it’s just me dumping my brain onto a keyboard again.


Ick

There’s not been much written here this week so far – and that’s for a fairly good reason. I’ve been unwell. Not man-flu, nor anything life-changing etc., but just unwell.

More dramatic souls would probably attribute it to food-poisoning, but I’m not so sure. It’s just been a generally unpleasant bug – thankfully no puking, but all the other usual effects.

It started Sunday night, and lasted ’til this morning – and in that time, I lost half a stone. Today has been more about gentle recovery, letting things come back to a semi-even keel.

I’m tired, and feel horrifically unproductive, but OK. It’s just that it all meant I had priorities other than writing. Mainly getting to the facilities in time…