Well, that was fun
[NOTE: I’m bumping this up so it stays at the top for today.]
Today I had a lovely experience. When I came to the blog I discovered it had been “temporarily suspended.”
That word “temporarily” was all that stood between me and meltdown. It turned out that the problem was very serious although fairly easily remedied. It involved a hacking—but before paranoia reigns, let me just say it was almost undoubtedly not targeted at me or my blog specifically.
Nevertheless, very nerve-wracking while it lasted. I believe all is well now, and should be for an indefinite time.
These are thrills and chills that I can do without, thank you very much.
Glad you’re back!
Tom: you and me both.
I was worried there for a few.
Late last year I had a horrid hacking experience (my email and my facebook), made about 1,000X worse by the unbelievably bad customer service at both Windows Live and Facebook. It took me a month to get my hotmail account back (they would not shut it down when I asked them to) and I never got my facebook account back and had to shut it down and start a new one.
In sum, I sympathize. The blogosphere today felt like a melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.
But on the French coast a light glistens and….. whoops…. is gone.
I saw that word “suspended” in the title bar when trying to access your blog earlier. It brought to mind this uneasy feeling i have that the future probably will reveal a time of increased attacks on conservative’s communication capabilities. All for the good of civil discourse in the country of course.
Yep.
Welcome back.
Nevertheless, very nerve-wracking while it lasted.
I felt similarly when a hard drive disconnected from the budget RAID array that holds my laboriously ripped music collection. It took over a day and a half to rebuild. Meanwhile I wondered if the system was wiping instead of restoring.
(The problem was probably caused by a power fluctuation. I plugged into the surge-protected UPS that I should have used all along and, knock on wood, things have been okay since.)
This was a warning to you and you should take it seriously. Next time, you SHOULD care about Weinergate, or you will just have to live with the consequences. Ha ha
Glad you are back also. Withdrawal symptoms were just beginning…
I’ve just noticed that I enjoy your commenter’s as much as your little essays. I don’t know how you’ve been able to cultivate such a motley crew of thoughtful as well as witty blog-followers.
I must admit that upon seeing the ‘temporarily suspended’ notice this morning my immediate thought was……uh-oh someone forgot to remit their payment! LOL!
It feels like the there have been a lot of online glitches lately of which Weinergate is only the most conspicuous.
Hopefully the ruling class will not use them as a pretext for clampdowns on cyberliberty. That is, hopefully the ruling class will not succeed: I’m quite sure they’re trying.
Welcome back.
We really, really don’t want the government controlling the Internet.
Dustoffmom: would that the problem had been that simple.
Perhaps it is time to offer an email signup form for neo-neocon. It wouldn’t restrict anything, but if you did lose your blog permanently, you could reestablish communication with your readers. Or you could set up a “Twitter account” so people could follow you. If the blog shut down, you could tweet a new blog location.
Well, you now know that you’d be missed.
gs Says: It feels like the there have been a lot of online glitches lately of which Weinergate is only the most conspicuous.
There’s also the story that OMG! OMG! China could be using the Internet to spy:
The State Department’s cyber coordinator, Christopher Painter, called cyber security a diplomatic priority for the United States as it seeks to defend itself from threats ranging from freelance hackers to militants to potential rival states. (p)”The most important thing is to build international consensus….It’s not just China that we need to engage with. It is an important part of our agenda with every country,” Painter told Reuters on the sidelines of a London conference.
They have an agenda, all right.
NB: I am not denying the existence of national security threats via cyberspace; I am asserting that the US ruling elite is corrupt, power-hungry, shameless, and incompetent.
Mapa:
But the “Twitter account” could be hacked! Just ask a certain congressman from New York City about that. 🙂
Neo, in the spirit of due diligence: presumably there are ways to back up blogs and web sites, and presumably you are utilizing one regularly.
glad to see it’s up and running
must be weiner’s hacker
gs is right: back up, back up, and back up.
Yes, it’s backed up, although it might take quite a while to restore it.
And if it ever goes down again, I can still post on my old blog, if anyone thinks to go there.
I’m actually a longtime bluehost customer, so when I saw their name on the “Suspended” page I actually didn’t worry too much. My experience with them has been very positive. I figured it would be something that got worked out reasonably quickly. Their tech support has always come through for me when I needed it.
Gringo:
Great- now Neo is going to get suspended again …
I’m sad to hear about the hacking/attack. When you were having problems with your URLS, I suspected that WordPress might have been compromised, and knowing how difficult that can be, I was happy when you fixed it with little trouble.
Hopefully you’ve got backups of your WordPress SQL database, as that’s the only real way to know that you’re safe. If not, there are some great WordPress backup plugins that are easy to install and email you a copy of your database weekly.
Glad you’re back! You are one of my favorite daily reads.
(Somehow missed the comments above about backups. Glad to see you have them!)
Since you were hacked…. Where are your underwear pictures? Are they not associated with hackers?