Hacked!!!

I was hacked! Someone brute-forced their way into an account and did something that took the entire site down.

I had reports of a high number of failed log-in attempts, but hadn’t made it a priority to look into. So they finally got through before I looked into it.

It’s really pathetic that someone would go to all that effort to get into a site that is basically dormant and hasn’t seen an new post in months. But they use bots to do it, so they don’t care.

Usually, it is done to gain some kind of advantage in website rankings. Google and other search engines look to see how many other sites mention (link to) a site and boost the rank accordingly. So they like to hack sites to put fake links in to them to make it look like there is a lot of buzz about their page.

They also use links in comments to do the same thing. I have all comments held for approval, so they don’t show up. I cleared out several hundred spam comments yesterday.

So I got the site back up and running. They couldn’t really do much to it, but found a way to make it look like it was offline. I’ve changed passwords on every account and the one they got into no longer has any privileges. I can see what logins they try to use, so I know what they are trying. The obvious ones are gone. Let them fish.

And for what it’s worth, this page is so little used, if it becomes a problem, it will just vanish.

Catching up

 

 

Playground at Golden Hill SP

Playground at Golden Hill SP. I can’t believe I didn’t get a photo of our campsite.

I’m long overdue for posting here. So much so, that it may take several posts to cover everything.

My hopes this summer was to get out and do a lot of camping with the A-Frame trailer, but it didn’t quite go as planned.

I got the trailer out of storage, but in the process, I somehow hurt my back. I can’t put my finger on any one thing that did it. There was no snap or pop, I just got home and was really in pain after a bit. There is nothing rigorous about the little trailer. Putting the roof up isn’t that hard and I’ve done it many times without a problem. The tongue jack is electric, so no problem there. The four leveling jacks, which I use an electric drill to run up or down are also not difficult, but involve bending over. I think the final straw was when I tried to cheat the tongue to the side a bit as I dropped it onto the ball. The flat foot on it doesn’t move easily like the old wheel did.
Continue Reading…

Dear Religious Nut Job

God Hates USAIs there something about me, something about the way I look, or a mark on my face, the way that I walk, that says I am a heathen? That says I am in need of salvation?

Is it just me or do those people standing on street corners and at every public event think we all are headed straight to Hell? That their little tract will make a difference and send us on the straight and narrow?

If you’re one of those people, let me tell you with love in my heart, not anger, that you really piss me off. You don’t know me. You don’t take the time to get to know me and learn my religious views or background, yet you make a judgement that I need your saving. That your beliefs are correct and mine are not. That I cannot possibly be saved from eternal damnation without your assistance. Continue Reading…

Wallenda Walking

Nikola TeslaNik Wallenda (no relation to Nikola Tesla, right) has been practicing the past two weeks for his soon-to-be-attempted wirewalk across the Horseshoe Falls on June 15th. His last scheduled practice run is scheduled to be tomorrow, Tuesday May 22nd. I went to watch today.

My choice for getting there was to drive to the little LaSalle Park near the Grand Island bridge and ride in the bike path on my Trike. I’d ridden there before, but this is the first time I parked there.

The park was kind of small and not much to see when I was there last year, but a nice location and not a bad place for a picnic by the river, maybe combined with a little fishing. There always seemed to be a few people there enjoying it. When I pulled in this time, I wasn’t sure I was in the right place. I thought, at first, I had pulled into a parking lot for some apartment complex next door. But no, they’ve redone the whole parking lot and it’s first-class now. Continue Reading…

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