respublica

16 years of blogging

I was curious this morning to see if the blogs and websites I linked back when I created this blog in 2004. It's hard to believe I began 16 years ago and have posted every day with very few exceptions. Those times were when we were kind of on vacation with no internet access or just really involved with current business. In any event, very few of the blogs I've linked on the side have quit. Many of them were blogs I began reading in 2004 when blogging was coming into its own. Many authors of these sites influenced me to get going.

Pretty neat.

One of the things I most enjoyed doing on this blog was writing up a fictional (but realistic) conversation I'd have with Dale on each week's Monday Etiquette column in the Belleville paper. However, after a few years of doing this regularly, I got a call from the columnist who was unhappy and hurt that I was seemingly belittling her. So I stopped. I don't like hurting people. But, this morning I started reading some of those posts and I still love them.

I don't know if this column still exists since we can't get that paper over here in St. Louis and its website is blocked unless you subscribe. I know newspapers are hurting right now, but to block out your website seems like a bad idea if you want readers.

A small data base error

Once again I got onto my blog site and tried to put up a post and found the dreaded, 404 page not found, warning. Looking at Typepad's Twitter site I found the explanation for why all blogs were down and up again, down and up again all night and into the morning. "A small data base error." Whatever that means.

These things have happened fairly often during the past 6 months.

Down again

Yesterday Typepad was hit again and all its blogs were offline for a good part of the day and evening. This, by my count, is about the 4th time this has happened in the past month or so. I've read some providers were asked for a ransom in order to get their hack fixed. Maybe Typepad has also, I don't know. Maybe they never pay up which is good, but also bad. In any event we're back up again.

Stay Rad?

After almost 24 or so hours, Typepad is finally  back online after being hit with a DDoS denial of service attack for the second time in a month. What this means is that 1000's of us who use Typepad for our blogs were out of luck yesterday.

Last night Typepad put up this tweet with update info: "We're working on getting things 100% and don't have anything new to share. We appreciate your patience though. Stay rad."

I have no idea what staying rad means, only that it meant nothing had changed.

This morning I saw this from them on Twitter: "Typepad is up; blogs are up. If you are encountering lingering issues, email support."

So we're back...until the next time.  While checking Google for news on this typepad attack I read this on Tech Crunch: " the typical scenario involves an initial demand for some sort of “ransom” once the site and its related services have been knocked offline. The amount first requested is usually small, but once attackers know they have a willing victim, they’ll often increase the amount."

So big hosting companies are threatened with being taken down if they don't pay a ransom.

The Family Omnibus is back

Our daughter has taken up her blog again, hopefully more regularly than recently when a new baby and a move back to St. Louis left her without a lot of time.

She has a fun post on Christian and Connor's first cross country meet yesterday and yes, 5 and 7 year olds are running cross country around here. Both did well. Christian wore a white shirt and red shorts, Connor a blue shirt and black pants.

Quite the link

I noticed this morning that one of my blog posts was linked by the Huffington Post. Wowser, that's quite the thing, a nice bit of news to wake up to. It was a post I did last week on new laws for Illinois and was at the bottom of a story that the HP did on the same subject. 

Merry Christmas

God bless all who have come here since 2004.  

Speaking of 2004, here are two pictures from that Christmas. As you can see Darren was here but Charlie was not. I doubt Katie and Charlie had even met and, it's amazing to count how many more family have been added since then. 2 son in laws, 4.5 grandsons, one great niece and a great nephew. 

One of the girls gave me a Barney dog that year, remember Barney the Bush family's dog who was a regular media presence? He met our dog Speaker. I still have Barney and he's still looking as new as Christmas 2004.

Certainly things have changed, we only live in that house occasionally and it looks totally different now. Speaker is gone and Ferdie has taken his place. One constant is the family dog.

That Christmas night we piled in the car and drove through the Way of LIghts at Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville. How do I remember this? I blogged it. Blogging is a nice trip down memory lane.

Here's a look at Christmas 2005, family may find a sweetness in this.

Photographing school lunches is now forbidden

There's a grade school girl in Scotland who created a blog in which she featured pictures and write-ups of her daily school lunch. It took no time at all before she had a million hits on her site and school children from all over the world were sending her photos of their daily school lunches. 

All of a sudden it was over, her school told her she could no longer take pictures at lunch because her website was getting too much publicity from around the globe. I hope the school reconsiders because the it is has been a terrific look into what kids are eating at school these days and frankly, the food looks much fresher and has more variety than it historicaly has been.

Food is a touchy subject for many of us these days. We want fresher and tastier food but don't want authorities to be telling us what we have to eat or can't eat. Yesterday on KMOX Charlie Brennan was interviewing a doctor who wrote a book on blood sugar or something and after listening I couldn't tell you what this guy believes we can safely eat. So many things were bad, even whole wheat bread which he claims is loaded with sugar.

But let 9 year old Martha Payne keep on with her school lunch blog, it got kids from the whole world and even Illinois involved. That's a good thing.

Typepad comments

Last week Typepad changed the way comments were authenticated, putting up one of those computer generated two words of mixed letters thing. The first time I saw it I tried putting in the letters but many were impossible to make out. Why Typepad thinks its a good idea to follow the bad ideas of other blog companies I do not know. 

But, it also looks like there is a sign in drop down box in which a commenter can sign in to their facebook id if they have one or a few other options. This has become the way of doing things in the comment business on most newspaper etc websites. I guess we're stuck with it for now.

But, signing in with Facebook or Twitter or some other ID does not send anything to your facebook page or anyone else's, its merely the blog site's way of knowing commenters are real person not spammers from overseas.

St Louis the butt of a joke

The famous satirical humor website, The Onion, made St. Louis the object of laughs yesterday.

"The Labor Department reported Monday that the U.S. economy created a staggering 4 million jobs in October, though government officials hastened to add that the new positions are all located in the St. Louis metropolitan area."

Finish the satire written as news bulletin here.