*Connection Issues*

The hosting server is having some issues, which prevented me from using Movable Type to update the blog. Rather than make a mess of things by hand coding, I’m putting the posts in a queue for later.

In the meantime, my intrepid IT department — i.e., my friend Stephane — is setting up a new host. We should be transferring the site by early July, which hopefully will solve all these problems. It’s going to be a little more expensive, though, so if you see an ad that intrigues you, by all means help out and click.

We’ll have new posts online soon enough — thanks for sticking around!

Status

Sorry about the slow updates. I’m trying to finish the Warrior models for my Tyranid fleet. It’s slow going — lots of greenstuff work. Pictures coming this weekend, for real this time.

Technical Issues

As you might have figured out by trying to post a comment, we’re having some connection issues. It’s preventing me from updating the blog, which is why you’re seeing bursts of entries rather than regular postings. I think it’s related to why I need to change hosting providers, but I’m not entirely sure.

Good thing that Movable Type creates static pages for all entries, at least — that way the blog is still readable at all times.

Hosting Update

We’re going to do a DNS change on Friday to try and forestall the hosting switch-over for another month. The site may not be accessible until Monday — sorry about that.

Host Hunting

In my ongoing quest for a new host for VectorSphere, I’ve sought advice and suggestions from various contacts and colleagues. Here’s the list as it currently stands:

http://www.devermore.net
http://www.rpgshelf.com
http://www.GoDaddy.com
http://www.Bluehost.com
http://www.1and1.com
http://www.Dreamhost.com
http://www.HostGator.com
http://www.hostdepartment.com
http://www.ixhosting.com
http://www.internic.ca
http://www.powweb.com

Before I start contacting people for quotes, any warnings? Places I should not even bother asking about?

UPDATE: I started shopping around for prices, and boy, I’ll have to really start pushing those ads… Either that, or start writing a new RPG that I can serialize here to take the Web site’s cost as a business expense. [grin]

All Good Things Must Come to an End

My good friend Stephan, who has generously hosted my personal Web site on his home server for the past four years, is having issues with his ISP. As a result, he unfortunately has to close down his friendly hosting spot, which leaves me until the end of the month or so to find a new place to stick VectorSphere.

Anyone has suggestions or recommendations for a good Web host? I need the followings:

- Easy access and upload (I like to put in new pictures often)
- 100 MB of storage (not there yet — just 19 MB — but I will eventually be)
- No real idea for traffic; maybe 500MB/month? It’s probably much less, but I want to be able to scale.
- Important: support MovableType blog engine (any version, preferably free — I’m on v2.666)
- No need for email (I use Gmail and Hotmail), so email accounts matter little
- Not too expensive

I would be most grateful for any suggestion… I don’t think I’m ready to run my own Apache server at home (if it’s even possible with my ISP).

Connection Issues

I’m having trouble with my Internet connection this weekend, so updates have not been possible.

Using a spare laptop, I’ve managed to eliminate the ISP, modem, and Ethernet cable as possible trouble points (I’m typing this on the laptop right now). I re-installed Windows on my desktop, but it still won’t talk to the other end. Very strange, since we didn’t change any settings or install anything new; it just stopped working Friday night.

Updates will likely be slow until this is fixed, alas.

And... We're Back

Seems the system is back up. Posting will resume tomorrow if all goes well.

Not Dead

…just not very bloggy this week. But I’ll get better.

4th Anniversary

I couldn’t post it on the actual anniversary (last Monday, October 8th), but I’ve been blogging for four years now.

Again, much thanks go to Petergun of Coffeehaus for generously providing the server space!

New Category: Technology

I just added a new category, called Technology. I dump way too much material in “Cool Stuff,” which should really be reserved for truly weird or fun links or essays.

Technology will cover robotics, vehicles, weapons, etc. Not sure yet if I’ll take the time to reclass previous entries, however.

1000!!!

From this first post on October 8, 2003, I’ve now written one thousand entries on the VectorSphere blog, averaging a new post every 1.385 day on average. (A bit misleading, since I tend to blog in spurts.)

We currently have 485 comments, averaging a little less than one comment every two entries. Come on, folks, don’t be shy!

And, as always, a big shout out and thank you to the good master of Coffeehaus.com, who’s generously hosting this blog on his own server.

975

This is post #975 — only 25 more to go, and I’ll have a neat thousand posts in my blog, spread over almost four years.

That’s either awesome or a little sad, I’m not quite sure which.

Back from Vacations

Posting will resume momentarily.

For Sale

I’ve just added a “For Sale” page to the site (you can see the link in the right column of the blog). I’ll use it to — hopefully — unload a few items (mostly gaming-related, along with novels) without having to spend hours making listings for eBay.

Will it work? Beats me. But the listing’s free, at least.

Drive Issues

I think I have a hard drive issue. When I just started the computer, I was told that it had to use a Registry backup file to do some repair.

Also, about one in three times, the computer needs to “check the C: drive for consistency” right after startup; when that occurs, I lose my Firefox bookmark file about 10% of the time. I have a backup but it remains annoying.

Anyone has any idea what could be going on?

Not Dead

Just busy and sick. Regular posting will resume soon.

April Fool

No jokes on this site, I’m afraid. I’m not a fan of April Fool, and it’s a pain trying to get real news on this day (have you read Gizmodo and Slashdot?), so I’m not about to add to the problem.

The Scanner Is In

You can expect more pictures in the future. I also want to scan all the pics in the Resources page to get increased quality.

Scotty, We Need More Power!

Cooling power, that is. It shouldn’t be a problem anymore:

Temperatures across the board are now under 40 degrees Celsius even during peak use. Excellent! Next stop, a new scanner. Pictures and sketches galore!

Technical Problems

Sorry about the slow posting, folks. My computer is suffering from a bad case of overheating, due to the large amount of dust and dog hair stuffed in its innars.

I’m cleaning it up, but I still need to get some thermal paste to get the heatsink seated properly. Back soon.

UPDATE (March 2): just the clean-up didn’t work. It’s now actually worse than before, with a heat-caused(?) shutdown midway through the boot sequence. I’m afraid the computer’ll have to go in the shop tomorrow. Good thing it’s still under warranty.

Sidebar Update

I did some work on the blog sidebar, at right. After some Web research, I’ve been able to add an automated Categories link section. I also switched the cumbersome three years’ worth of archival links to a simple one-line pull-down menu (Javascript, sorry). Now all I have to do is properly re-categorize all my old posts.

Third Blog Anniversary

I just realized I missed the third anniversary of VectorSphere, which was started on October 8, 2003.

Update

Sorry for the low posting rate. Not dead, just on vacations and trying to minimize online access.

Model Links

I just added links to pictures of some of my models. You can find them on the Resources page.

Spam Assault

My host just got hit with a massive spam attack. How massive? The database crashed, that’s how massive.

We’re turning off comments for the next week, just long enough to ensure that the subhuman larva can’t do anything more until he gets kicked off whatever server(s) he’s on. Surely you can’t spam on that scale without pissing someone off. As usual, many thanks to Petergun for his assistance.

(And here I wanted to start a new post series on spaceship design. Oh well, might as well get busy and build a lead.)

UPDATE: Of course, I can always be reached at my usual address, vertumne99 (a in the circle) hotmail dot com.

Back Online

Sorry for the missing week, but the server was having some issues (and thanks Petergun, for whatever you did to fix it).

Then again, considering my current workload, keeping me from blogging was perhaps a blessing in disguise…

Shortcut Icon

I just added a shortcut icon to the root directory. You should be able to see a little “VS” beside the URL. It will also appear in your Favorites if you add this page to them as a bookmark.

Graphics on a Diet

I just redid all the headers in GIF format, tweaked to save space. The complete headers went from 150KB down to about 60KB, which should help the site load faster.

I’ll see if I can compress them a little further down, but for now it should help.

New Layout for Blog is Up (duh)

Wow, that was fast. Good prep work on my part, I guess.

Now I need to recode the templates for the archives, but that shouldn’t be long.

Weekend Works

Posting was a little lean these past few days since I’m still working on the complete site revamp. I did manage to port over most of the pages, cleaning up old material as I go.

I’m still not 100% happy with many of the new sites’ graphic elements, but what can I say — I’m a writer, not a graphist. The nice thing about the Web is that you can always change things later on if you want, so I won’t let that stop me for the time being.

I’d say I should be ready to go live in about a week or two, depending on how much time I can spare.

Then the real work begins… eheheh…

A new template, part II

Continuing on the previous entry, I dug further into the code. I had a devil of a time correcting for some weird interactions between the HTML and the CSS, but after some Web research I figured out a way.

This is what this blog would look like under the new template. (APRIL 8 UPDATE: You’re seeing the new layout now.)

If you don’t use a standard browser (IE, Firefox, Opera, etc.) and it’s broken somehow, let me know.

Lazy Sunday and Blog Upkeep

I had a ton of stuff to do this weekend, and ended up doing virtually nothing. Mostly, I surfed the Web, got caught up on recorded TV shows and played some more Civ4 (whaddyaknow, the higher difficulty levels are beatable if you learn a few tricks).

I did add a “Science-Fiction” category to the blog structure; the “Cool Stuff” one was getting a bit crowded.

Rise and Fall of the Traffic Empire

My wife thinks I’m dumb for caring about what others think of me, but I do. What can I say, I’m vain. So it’s with great distress that I saw the traffic diagram at the TTLB Ecosystem. The spike corresponds to my blogging about my Pod past and the series on the federal elections. The last time I had traffic like that was when I got a minor footnote from Instapundit.

So I must conclude that people only read my blog when I’m controversial.

Maybe I should start a series of posts on lesbian sci-fi, naked mecha pr0n, teen gaming heroes and the like. (grin)

(But seriously, I do have game design ideas that I need to clean up and post.)

Merry Christmas!

And happy holidays to all!

I started my (well-earned) vacations yesterday, and it does a world of good.

I’ll be doing my best to stay away from the Web for the next few days, so don’t be surprised if posting is lean. Gotta recharge the batteries somehow, can’t be ranting all the time at the state of the world!

So I got a pile of new sci-fi books to catch up with, ehehe…

Attack of the Killer Robots

We seem to be suffering from an onslaught of chinese spambots (at least I think they are chinese).

I’m deleting the spam as soon as it comes in, but as a result of the attacks I’ll be closing the comments sections on the affected posts. Sorry about that.

I’ll try a new defensive thing this weekend that I saw discussed on another blog. In the meantime, you can always email your thoughts to me if the comments are not available on a given entry.

At Home

By the way, the increased attention on the blog is caused by the fact that I’m home “supervising” (like they need my help) an urgent repair project.

Posting Will Resume

Very sorry. I was in Paris all weekend with very little Internet access.

Pictures may follow later.

And We're Back

As you might have noted, this site was near impossible to access over the past ten days. The problem has been resolved and posting will resume.

Scroll down for some new entries.

Heat

The humidity is 98%, the temperature is over 35C. Because we have to keep the balcony covered from the rain (it leaks), we can’t use the air conditioning.

I have stuff I want to post, but I can barely work in these conditions. Might watch the newest Galactica episode instead.

Upcoming: another essay on game design for tabletop RPG.

Spamalot

Not the musical, the situation in my comments.

I’m getting hit with a dozen comment spams a day, all from the same spammer (given the similarities in style). All from zombies, of course — none of the IP addresses match.

Anyone know a way (legal, please), I can screw with them? :)

Almost Back on Line

Got my new computer. I had some difficulties setting it up — no one had warned me that I needed to install drivers to let the motherboard talk to the hard drive. When I picked it up at the store, I did ask the clerk if it was “ready to install?” just for stuff like this. Grrr… And now I can’t get it to talk to my modem. Maybe it’s the firewall. And I also need to find a way to make sounds work.

So much work… And people wonder why I don’t change machines more often.

In other news, minor spamming attack in the comments. Taken care of now.

Access Issues

Slight access problems, folks. It’s been resolved, though, so I’m bringing in the new updates now.

Still Alive

My computer, however, is not.

Now that I’m back to work and have a new hotrod machine on order, I should be able to post again.

Stay tuned.

Computer Woes 3: Revenge of the Boot Sector

Computer still won’t boot.

So I run all these diagnostics on the various components, they come out clean (except the minor errors on the RAM, but I swapped this with no change whatsoever).

I brought home a Knoppix (Linux) CD, it runs flawlessly (but it won’t run my Internet connection program, even under WINE). It accesses all the files on the HD, etc. etc.

Got a Windows 2000 Pro CD, complete with serial numbers. I stick it in the drive last night, hoping to perform a “repair” function. It starts setup normally, begins loading files… and then gives me “Disk I/O error status 00000100” followed by “press any key to abort.” Idem on any repeat tries.

(sigh)

Googling the error message leads me to several boards and several sources, but the answer seem to come back to “the boot record on the HD is corrupted and it’s screwing up everything. That, or the HD is about to fry.” Which makes me confused, since it’s a boot CD and shouldn’t involve the HD anyway(?).

So these are the options I’m considering right now:

1) Plug in my backup USB external drive, unplug internal drive, install Windows on external HD, replug internal HD, run fixing whatever programs on internal HD. (Not sure it’d work, wary of using my backups for a risky ops.)

2) Use DOS boot CD to format internal drive, then perform a clean install. (Not sure it’d work if the HD is busted, and I’ll have about a day of work re-installing and re-configuring software.)

3) Bite the bullet, buy a new, faster computer altogether. (Expensive, and I’ll have about a day of work re-installing and re-configuring software. But it gives plenty of time to tinker with the old box…)

Thoughts? I would prefer to fix the current issue, but I’ve pretty much run out of options. I mean, if it won’t even boot from a Windows CD…

Update

The main computer is still down, so access is spotty at best. Please excuse the lack of updates and info.

Big news coming at the end of the month. I can’t say anything right now, but check back in early July.

Last but not least, comment spammers are at it again. Please ignore them — commercial comments are removed as soon as I see them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Computer Woes

Posting has been impossible since last weekend, when my computer decided to give up the ghost on Sunday night.

It started in the afternoon. The computer spontaneously rebooted while I was online. No power surge in the house, and I checked the power cables and they were correctly plugged.

I kept working and it rebooted again an hour later. This time it ran a checkdisk. Annoyed, I let it go and resumed working.

Then, in the evening I was checking a Final Fantasy walkthrough (to help my wife get past a puzzle) and it rebooted again. This time, though, it tried to start and showed me a blue screen with explanations about a “Stop” instruction, and advising me to check my software and hardware. It was impossible to continue or reboot (even the power switch refused to go off). I had to use the master switch to reboot. I tried Safe mode, but after blocking on loading, it rebooted itself. I used the master switch to keep it off, and came looking for advice.

I used a boot CD to run some diagnostics and virus checks. The HD appears fine, there are minor bugs in my RAM (swapped it out for a new stick — still doesn’t work), the case temp is acceptable… But booting in normal or Safe mode doesn’t work: in both, the computer reboots itself right after it starts Windows. I can’t even get to the desktop.

The IT guys at work think it’s either a power supply issue, or a motherboard one. Another friend wants me to put in a Linux CD, see if it’s a Window issue.

Any suggestion on what I should do now to get the computer working asap?

Ecosystem

For fun, I just registered the blog on The Truth Laid Bear’s Blogosphere Ecosystem. Much to my surprise, I didn’t end up as a microbe — I have enough traffic and inbound links to qualify as a crustacean, eheh!

My current blogosphere rank is listed in the right hand column of this page, just below the Red Ensign flag. To help me rise further, simply link to this blog. That’s it.

EDIT: Going up in the world! Now a Lowly Insect!

Welcome, Please Don't Mind the Mess

To all new readers coming from the Carnival Of The Newbies, welcome!

Gosh, I wasn’t really expecting anyone so soon, so the place is a mess. Really. Been up for a while, so dig around in the archives if you like science-fiction and gadgets in addition to politics.

I’ll have more ranting on Canadian politics up soon, promised. (My wife is tired on hearing my rants, so she told me to type them down.)

Update

Sorry, not many posts lately. My copious (!) free time is taken up by a freelance writing gig, and the rest of the time is taken up by my secret project.

There is progress, at least.

Red Ensign

Always one to follow an interesting idea, I’ve added a Red Ensign to my sidebar. The Red Ensign served as Canada’s unofficial flag before we selected the modern Maple Leaf (which I like too).

The Red Ensign was the flag of a Canada with values, a country of entrepreneurs, travelers and explorers. We had one of the strongest armies in the world, but remained humble about it. We won huge parts of WWI and WWII, and did our duty in Korea and the Cold War. This old Canada was a place of science, too — consider the Avro Arrow, a supersonic fighter with computerized controls that was so in advance of its time, the American government had us destroy it for fear the Soviets would steal it!

I’d like Canada to return to those values of hard work, individualism, pride, and personal honor. Not likely, but it may happen…

(Granted, the contry wasn’t perfect then, either — no health insurance, lots of racism and some backwardness, and come on, lose the Queen. But you can take the good without the bad.)

Spam

They’re at it again.

Online poker sites polluting Web sites left and right.

There has to be a way to punish them for their transgressions. If I knew how, I’d probably be triggering DDOS left and right. Maybe someone can have their URLs taken away somehow?

At least HTML is disabled in the comments, so they don’t get a Google boost from me.

Return of the Spammers

I’m getting comment spam again, despite the protections set up in the system.

I’ve been removing them manually, but I’d like to know whether there is a way to identify IP ranges as belonging to certain countries or regions and blocking them.

(Also, if anyone knows of a way to remotely blow up a spammer’s computer, I’d like to hear about it.)

Experiments

I’m trying a few new things in the layout of the page. Don’t mind the dust, and please excuse anything that doesn’t line up as it should.

Nothing is fixed in stone just yet…

I have an urge to talk about gaming over the next few days. Bear with me.

Bumping

Hmmm… You know you don’t post enough to your blog when the template becomes all screwy because older posts are moved in the archives without new ones being added. I thus break my own self-inflicted vow not to blog at work to add this (near) meaningless post to the list.

Things are busy at work, with a couple of projects nearing completion and new ones starting up, including some big names. Very exciting times, especialy since the company is doubling in size. I’m moving to a new desk this Friday, too.

Much is happening at home, too, with the wedding preparations being (slowly) taken care of, and some preliminary house hunting being done. I’m on the verge of getting a new writing contract, too — wish me luck.

More later.

The Best Laid Plans...

I was planning on putting up an entry on our meeting with the priest — for the wedding — last Thursday, once we got home. As can be plainly seen, I failed to do so. (BTW, it went well — we’re officially approved as a couple now, on the way to wedded bliss.)

Given that I’m coming on my six-month anniversary at Airborne, I’m planning on posting a “state of the union” text real soon now. Stay tuned!

Don't mind the dust

We seem to have had a little technical problem, folks. First an error of access, then the most recent comment was deleted and authorship re-assigned to the default mode (Coffeehaus’ sys-op). Don’t know what happened, but I’m seeing him on Friday, I’ll ask.

On the plus side, I’ve IP-banned some spammers. One was in Austin, the other in China. Parasites.

Well, what do you know — 100 entries already. And time for bed.

UPDATE (April 28): Talked to Steph. Turns out there was a database corruption in the blog MT system, and he used to opportunity to upgrade to MySQL. This has the side benefit of allowing a new command that closes off older posts, so spammers can’t touch them. Bonus! (Alas, he had to manually repost recent entries, which is why they bear his name. We also lost one comment — sorry, Tony.)

This is a Test

Just fooling around with a new “quick posting” option on Movable Type, the engine that powers this blog. If it works (and I see no reason why it shouldn’t), I may be able to post more often!

Spam Assault

Some assholes out there have decided that my comments are a dandy place to put some spam. We have a set of blockers in place to prevent automated postings, and I’ll be deleting manually entered posts as soon as they appear. I will also ban the offender’s IP address, so if you find yourself unable to post it may be because you are within the same IP range as some evildoers. Sorry!

Geek Code

For the older Geeks among us, I’ve added my Geek Code to the index page of this Web site. Scroll all the way to the bottom.

(Can’t figure it out? Google for “Geek Code”, young Padawan…)

Web Site Update

Since I’m home this afternoon, I figured I’d get a few things done. Mainly, the Vectorsphere basic Web site. So come back and check it later this weekend.

Oh yes, and I have to post my short essay on wireless game design before it’s obsolete. Obsolete? Yes. Some of the development down the pipe (3D chip, 2GB 0.85” HD) will make cellphones as powerful as small desktop computers, and remove many of the limitations I’m discussing in there.

And write a post on GWB’s upcoming space program announcement, of course…

New Stuff!

Just pasted in a whole lot of posts written in haste over the past two weeks. Scroll down and browse.

Also, the main Vectorsphere page will get a bunch of new material soon (maybe tomorrow) as I complete the HTML coding. I’m old fashioned that way — that, and I haven’t gotten around to learn the more modern Web languages. Arhem.

Talk Back 1

This is an open-comment section, done as an experiment (and to answer the request of a reader).

Please feel free to post comments on any of my previous entries here. I only ask that things be kept civil — there are plenty of other blogs to get rough and passionate in. ;)

Just Another Face

Being vain and shallow, I’ve added a drawing of my mug to the right-hand menu of this page. It makes this blog feel less mechanical and more human, I think. Plus it adds a touch of color to an otherwise bland template.

The picture was done by artist friend Ghislain Barbe.

Comments and Contact

As I mentioned before in one of my first entries, I’ve disabled comments on this blog because I lack the time to patrol them and don’t find them much useful anyway (too much “me too!”-ism).

You can still send me your comments, praises and insults at (vertumne99 at hotmail.com) if you so desire.

Formatting

Wouldn’t you know it — I just realized that unless I keep at least four entries on the main page, the menu goes to Heck. Seems like a good reason to post more often.

Postings, or Lack Thereof

Looks like this blogging thing is harder to get into than I first thought. Maybe I ought to start carrying a voice recorder to get my rants down whenever I spout them out.

Oh well, practice makes perfect, right?

Comments

One of the things that I’ve decided on for this Web site is that I’m going to leave the comments option switch to the “off” position most of the time. It’s not that I don’t want to receive feedback — that’s what email is for. The thing is, on most blogs I read, the comments come in one of three formats:

1) “Me too/I agree.”
2) “Hi, I’m a troll — here’s an incredibly offensive post.”
3) “Good point; here’s a link/argument/footnote that I would otherwise have mailed you anyway.”

So I just don’t see why comments should be active, except for poll-like posts.

UPDATE (10/14/03): Here’s another good reason. Apparently, some spammers are now using bots to post ads to blogs’ comments. When these scumbags touch the bottom, they start to dig.