Attacked
Posted: Sat 22 April, 2023 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky 2 Comments »Over the last week or so, D4D’s been getting attacked from Sources Unknown, which has made things into a real Pain In The Chuff.
More worryingly, it turned out that my hosting company haven’t been keeping decent backups, and managed to not notice a bundle of key files being changed (repeatedly) on the sites I have with them.
Now OK, I’d been slack, and had a lot of those domains all under one username/file-owner , which was lazy of me, and shouldn’t have been done. (On the other hand, having to remember a different username/password for each site/domain is… complicated, and leads to people writing down far more stuff than they should. Swings and roundabouts)
So there’ve been a number of remedies and updates I’ve been going through, but there were still facets that weren’t working – mainly because of those key files that got over-written, and that either weren’t backed up, or weren’t backed up regularly enough. (Needless to say, that’s now changed – I’ve got backups in various places, so it shouldn’t happen again)
It’s ended up with a scorched-earth strategy, where I’ve effectively changed everything that’s possible – new username/password, new file-owner name and password, new folder location, and then reinstalled everything in a completely fresh clean copy of WordPress, and only then updating the config file to use the same database as before. And even the database tables have had their references changed.
It’s now all back and operational, and there’s been a fair amount of learning/remembering along the way. But honestly, I’ll be very happy to not have to do that again for another decade or so!
Mileage Averages
Posted: Sun 1 November, 2020 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Geeky Leave a comment »Having had the car MoT’d this month, it means I’ve had the poxy thing for four years now. And, with the online MOT record, I decided to have a look at the recorded mileages, just because I’m interested in useless information like that.
As it turns out, I’ve been pretty consistent…
| Year | Start Mileage | End Mileage | Total Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 – 2017 | 76,252 | 95,557 | 19,305 |
| 2017 – 2018 | 95,557 | 117,947 | 22,390 |
| 2018 – 2019 | 117,947 | 140,086 | 22,139 |
| 2019 – 2020 | 140,086 | 157,831 | 17,745 |
| Total for 4 years | 81,579 | ||
So even with my mileages being much reduced (because of more local contract etc. etc.) I still usually do around 22,000 miles a year. This year’s an (obvious and understandable) anomaly, but still comes in as being more than the “average” person does in a year.
I know it’s not really interesting to anyone except me, but still, such is life.
Sequential
Posted: Fri 1 November, 2019 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Geeky Leave a comment »Over the last week, I’ve had two significant (to me) numbers come up on the car’s odometer. I missed one, and managed to capture the other.
So the one I got was this
And the one I missed was (the even better) 141414 . That’s annoying, because obviously it’ll be another 10,000-ish miles before I even get a chance on that one.
I know these things are silly, but they amuse me along the way.
Zapper
Posted: Fri 20 September, 2019 Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Getting Organised Leave a comment »Back at the start of July, I finally caved and bought one of the big bug-zappers, to see how it worked out in comparison to the other devices I’d purchased in previous years that proved to be far less successful.
And I have to say, I’ve been really pleased with it – it’s not 100% perfect, but that’s mainly because flies and bugs are stupid, and don’t just dive straight into the zapper. However, it’s been a lot more successful in its body-count than any of the other devices.
Even better, it’s been pretty good (surprisingly so, in fact) on power – considering how much it’s been in use, I think it’s added a pound or two to the summer’s bill, but that’s it.
Really, the only downside for it is that it’s somewhat… explosive. The fly/moth bits can pop outside the case/grille of the zapper, so I’ve had to use the hoover a couple of times to just clean up the bits. And sometimes the zapping itself is noisy – occasionially, the bugs get caught on the wires, and sit buzzing away for a surprisingly long period of time. Even the usual zaps can sometimes be loud and sudden, if it’s been quiet for a while beforehand.
Regardless though, it’s been a good buy. I hope I won’t need it as much between now and next Spring, but we’ll see.
The Joy of Tech
Posted: Fri 22 March, 2019 Filed under: Bankruptcy, Domestic, Finances, Geeky, Getting Organised, Rebuilding, Technology, Thoughts 3 Comments »Yesterday, while doing a quick shop on the way to work, I suddenly realised I’d left my wallet at home. Bugger.
I was just about prepared to take everything back to its shelves/locations, when it occurred to me that actually I was still OK – I had my phone with me still. That meant I’d got the ability to make a contactless payment – and because I’d also added the details of my Monzo card/account to the phone, it meant I had everything I needed.
It’s pretty amazing, the way these things have now become so much more mainstream than they were ten years ago, or even five. Since I got the Monzo card eighteen months ago (it’s the only one I have that also connects into my ApplePay account on the phone) I’ve stopped carrying cash except for specific occasions – for example, the car wash I use still only takes cash.
I still prefer to carry physical cards (hence usually having a wallet) but it was still interesting to realise that forgetting it is no longer the “Oh shit!” moment it used to be. (So long as I remember my phone, and that I can use it, anyway)
Ain’t progress grand?
Weirdly Consistent
Posted: Fri 14 December, 2018 Filed under: Cinema, Customer Services, Domestic, Films, Geeky, Single Life, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »When I moved here six-and-a-half years ago (and yes, that does still freak me out) I got a Cineworld Unlimited card, so I could see as many films as I wanted to. It’s a decent deal, less than £20 a month, so as long as you see more than one film per month, it’s paid for itself.
Because I’m a geek, I also started listing what I’d seen, with a separate sheet per year.
And it seems like I’m really quite consistent in how many films I see each year – not through any plan or schedule, it’s just the way it’s worked out.
The totals are
- 2012 – 26 films (although that’s in under six months, as I didn’t get the card ’til July/August)
- 2013 – 61 films
- 2014 – 64 films
- 2015 – 64 films
- 2016 – 54 films
- 2017 – 66 films
And so far this year I’m on… 62, with a couple of weeks to go.
Each year I think I’ll up my quality control a bit and see fewer films (when you’re not paying anything to see them, it’s remarkably easy to just say “Yeah, fuck it, I’ll give that a go”) And yet it all ends up being much of a muchness.
It’s odd, but I’m not going to complain. At least I know I’m getting value for money out of my Unlimited card. (It’s an outlay per year of £215 all told – so each film is costing me an average of £3.30, which is one fuck of a lot cheaper than the £10-ish for a single ticket!)
Dickhead
Posted: Fri 7 December, 2018 Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Music, Stupidity, Thoughts, Toronto, Travel, Weirdness 1 Comment »There are times where (as many people already know) I’m an absolute dickhead. This is the (fairly short) tale of one of those times.
One of the reasons I wanted to visit Toronto (which I finally did earlier this year) was because I’ve been a fan of a band called the Cowboy Junkies (who I’ve written about several times, and saw twice in November) for a very long time – since the first time I heard their “Trinity Sessions” album, in fact. The Trinity Sessions was an album that was all recorded at the Holy Trinity church in Toronto, with only one ambisonic microphone to pick up all the voices and instruments. It’s one of my all-time favourite albums. However, I’d never seen a picture of the church. (This is relevant)
Then, on the anniversary of the recording of Trinity Sessions, they put a photo on their Facebook page of the church
And I thought “I recognise that church“. It turns out we’d gone in and visited it while we were in Toronto, and I hadn’t even realised it was the same place. Indeed, we only went in because it looked interesting (and was hidden away down a little side-street, so we’d only glimpsed the place and its architecture) and it turned out to be a great little find, because it’s beautiful inside, as well as having an absolutely massive organ. (Fnarr) And I knew it was called the Holy Trinity church. I just hadn’t connected the two.
So it took me another six months to realise that I’d actually been in the place, despite all the clues that were there.
And that, in this case, is why I’m a dickhead.