May 31, 2005

More Hosting Advice

I am totally flustered by the multiplicity of hosting services, and since I am more concerted with avoiding a bad decision than making the best possible decision, I threw up my hands and went over to take a look at Server Matrix. Is there any reason why I can't just take their low end offer? Now, I go to the options, and am thrown back into confusion:

1. Is there a reason to prefer an 80GB Hard drive or 2 40GB hard drives?

2. I need Windows (for now, unfortunately) - is there any reason why I shouldn't choose 2003?

3. Do I need control panel software?

4. I use mySQL - I thought that I would just install it myself, but they offer it - for a charge. What does that mean, that I can't just install it myself?

5. Do I need a hardware firewall?

6. What does "Managed Service Plan" mean?

More generally, I don't understand how I work on a remote server. I am presuming that I work on it just like I work on my desktop, except that the connection between the screen and the computer goes through the Internet. Is that right? Does the server package include some kind of software that will let me see "the screen" - or do I have to install that myself? Or do I want to work some other way? I need to debug my software, and I was imagining that I could just install my debugger on the server, and work just the way I do now. But do I have to do something else?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

Posted by David Boxenhorn at 10:12 AM | Comments (18)

May 30, 2005

Greetings

I know there's been talk of the cialis/socialist problem with Blacklist, but I've just found another.

The word "hi" is banned, meaning "China" has become a questionable word. Oh powers that rule the Blacklist, a little help on hi?

Posted by Simon at 02:14 AM | Comments (6)

May 29, 2005

Do you read me?

Pixy, did you get my email of the 25th? Sorry to bring this up here, but I just want to make sure you got it, and didn't think it was spam or anything. (Now that I think of it, it did have a kind of spamish title: Hosting Advice.)

Posted by David Boxenhorn at 08:30 PM | Comments (2)

May 26, 2005

Spam blocker mods

Since I'm running a political blog, the fact that "socialist" is being spammed out because it contains "cialis" is annoying. How can we dump on socialists if we can't name them?

Also, any opinion on WordPress MU yet?

Posted by Steve Janke at 07:46 PM | Comments (11)

Kyer's MuNubyish Laundry List of Shtuff

Hi.

::waves::

I'm only a few weeks old y tengo unas pocas preguntas para mis Munuvianos. (Sorry, I sometimes break into random Spanglish). I have a few questions for anyone who might feel apt to answer.

  • 1. Can we import old Blogger (Blogspot) entries/archives etc. yet?
  • 2. Why is it that sometimes after I click "save" or "rebuild" after I finish composing a post, that it kicks me back to the log-in screen? (this only happens every so often).
  • 3. Kyer wants a 3-columned template, but everywhere Kyer goes and finds one (yes, even Elise's site), it fails to function properly when Kyer tries to implement the CSS. Any help on implementing a groovy 3-column template?
  • 4. I frequently have an issue with pinging trackbacks....whenever I go back to edit/update a post where I had previously sent a trackback ping, it often re-sends ANOTHER trackback ping, thus creating multiple trackbacks on someone else's site. One time I accidentally created 7 trackbacks on a friend's site! (A very annoying occurrence!!!) What am I doing wrong?
  • 5. Are we going to upgrade to a newer version of MT someday?
  • 6. Is Kyer exceeding a MuNuby's question quota?

Posted by Kyer at 06:55 PM | Comments (7)

May 25, 2005

Javascript Coding Question

I have a question for the extreme technically skilled people around here. I am using an external javascript that someone else has created -- I cannot change this script in any way. However, that script generates code for the site that I want to change -- I want to convert <BR> tags to spaces or something else. I don't think this is possible, but I figured I'd ask.

I can make the <BR> tags disappear completely without a problem -- but then all the items appear mashed together and I would like spaces between them.

Anyone have any clues?

Posted by Ogre at 02:47 PM | Comments (8)

It Wasn't Easy Being Green

I really appreciate the work Ciao! My Bella! did, but I am a purple person at heart. My site is undergoing revisions. BUT I can't seem to alter the banner. How do I put a new banner in? Do I need to ask Ciao to unlink me?

Once I have done that this is what I want to do. Same banner without the green border; just the sunset and the tree and the sky. I will then change my colors again if need be to match the purple you see in the sky. I would love to make the edges a bit fuzzzy too. Advice?

Posted by Rachel Ann at 11:14 AM | Comments (4)

May 24, 2005

Hosting Advice

Hopefully, in the next few weeks I'll have reached the stage in my product development where I'll want to put it on line (for development purposes only, for now!). Can anyone recommend to me a hosting service, or give me some advice as to how I choose one? Or, put another way, where is Munuviana hosted, and why shouldn't I use it?

I won't need much bandwidth at first, since it'll be just li'l ol' me using it, but hopefully the thing will catch on like wildfire and I'll want to ramp up quick.

(BTW one of the applications I hope to demonstrate is a primitive blogging system - not for serious use, but to inspire others to use my product to write one!)

Posted by David Boxenhorn at 09:59 PM | Comments (1)

Blockquote question

I know that the Bartender has answered this before, but I cannot find the answer in the blog thingies on the side. It concerns formatting blockquotes so that they appear in a shaded box. Currently, I'm using the following code embedded directly into my post. All greater than and less than signs have been changed to square brackets:

[blockquote][p style="BORDER-RIGHT: #800000 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 15px; BORDER-TOP: #800000 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 15px; BACKGROUND: #d3d3d3; PADDING-BOTTOM: 15px; MARGIN: 15px; BORDER-LEFT: #800000 1px solid; COLOR: #000067; PADDING-TOP: 15px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #800000 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"]

enter text here

[/p] [/blockquote]

It probably has to do with updating the CSS, but the MT website wasn't helpful in that regard. Come to think of it, neither was Google. Probably a badly formed query on my part.

Posted by Physics Geek at 07:39 PM | Comments (7)

May 20, 2005

Pull-down MuNu Menu

Okay. I'm beginning to puzzle out how to do certain things with my blog, and yes I am still a neophyte at this!

I have two pull-down menus now (that actually work! -- thanks in no small part to comments and tips here on Munuviana) and I want to change the font-size on them -- especially the MuNu one because it takes up so much horizontal real estate.

What can I do to change the font characteristics (size, color, style, etc.) of those pull-down menus?

Actually, I'm assuming that changing to a smaller/different font would make the pull-down menus smaller. If that isn't true, then how would I actually make the menus smaller?

Posted by USAdave at 08:14 PM | Comments (16)

Jes' sayin', ya know (for the nth time, maybe?)*

I think the blacklist is maxed out.

*Referring to my use of that particular title, not the problem.

Posted by Tiger at 02:21 AM | Comments (7)

May 19, 2005

More Tasteless Humor

Today is two for one!

INVESTING FOR YOUR RETIREMENT:

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.

Continue in the extended entry for the rest of this humor and the second truly tasteless funny.

With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.

With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214.00.

Based on the above, current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.
It's called the 401 Keg Plan.

And to keep the humor truly tasteless...

WHAT PART OF YOUR BODY GOES TO HEAVEN FIRST?

The nun teaching Sunday school was speaking to her class one morning and she asked the question, "When you die and go to Heaven.. which part of your body goes first?"

Suzy raised her hand and said, "I think it's your hands."

"Why do you think it's your hands, Suzy?"

Suzy replied, "Because when you pray, you hold your hands together in front of you and God just takes you hands first."

"What a wonderful answer!" the nun said.

Little Johnny raised his hand and said, "Sister, I think it's your legs."

The nun looked at him with the strangest look on her face. "Now,Little Johnny, why do you think it would be your legs?"

Little Johnny said, "Well, I walked into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom the other night. Mommy had her legs straight up in the air and she was saying, "Oh God, I'm coming!" If Dad hadn't pinned her down, we'd have lost her."

The nun fainted.


Posted by vw bug at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)

Is Awstats not working?

It doesn't look like it has updated since early yesterday . . .

Posted by USAdave at 04:48 PM | Comments (2)

May 18, 2005

You Never Know 'Til You've Tried

For those of you who are interested: Yes, our backups do work.

(I had occasion to retrieve something for someone here, and the operation was a complete success.)

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:02 PM | Comments (1)

May 17, 2005

Well Now

I've been distracted from Minx-work for the past couple of weeks by that "life" stuff, but I just stumbled across this

I'm going to have to play with that. Really. I have no choice, do I?

Posted by Pixy Misa at 03:05 PM | Comments (4)

May 16, 2005

Sitemeter vs AWStats

Like a lot of folks, especially refugees from Blogspot, I've got Sitemeter up on my blog. But here on MuNu we've got that nifty AWStats. Should I yank Sitemeter? And if I do, do I lose the ability to allow others to see my stats. With Sitemer, you get that nice button with the current count of visitors. But with AWStats, all I see is the URL do the very cool looking stats page -- but it is still just a link on blog page. Is there an API call I can make to get some data out, like the number of visitors and such, that I can then put on the blog?

Still looking through the documentation -- maybe the answer is in there somewhere.

Posted by Steve Janke at 04:17 PM | Comments (10)

May 15, 2005

Sitemeter has a post....

I know I am the new kid on the block...but I saw this and thought there may be some interest out there. Sitemeter has a post on how to set up their counter for MT for those who are interested. You can read it
here. I haven't tried it but might give it a shot.

Posted by Guy S at 01:37 AM | Comments (2)

Using Fonts

Hey guys!!

I have a quick question about using fonts in a post: how can I get my Stylesheet (if that's it) to utilize a font NOT already included??

Once in a blue moon, I like to insert something inside a blockquote that uses Courier or New Courier, specifically for bass guitar tab notation where the spacing of the characters is important.

I have tried the typical font = "Courier", but without knowing where to adjust my Stylesheet, it's just so much flotsam in the post.

Oh and since I'm whining - how can I adjust the font size and how?

(Once again, I am indebted to Pixy for allowing my smelly behind to be included in the ever-expanding Munu universe. Really.....thanks metric tons Pixy!!)

Posted by Mad Mikey at 12:40 AM | Comments (7)

May 14, 2005

Grumbling in Three Columns

Wooohoooo, I finally got three columns using just a style sheet. No tables, frames, etc. on this blog, thank you very much. Stop by and check out the new look. If enough folks ask, I'll even write up a HowTo on implementing this for any site.

Eric

"Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden." Manuel Garcia O'Kelly Davis, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

Posted by EricC at 10:58 PM | Comments (11)

Yes, I'm Lazy

I have a question for the Great and Powerful Pixy Misa: Does MT 3 have little shortcut buttons (like those for bold, etc) for font color and size? I've noticed that Typepad has them and (gasp!) so does Blogger and wondered if we could get them...

Posted by Susie at 04:32 PM | Comments (6)

May 13, 2005

Yo.

If you get the time to do it, please go over and fill out the feedback form on my site. I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you, and remember to enjoy your Free Frosty this weekend.

Posted by Daniel at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

Deferred Trickle redux

I finally got around to reading this post and cannot get it to work. Deferred category? Check. Category archiving? No idea. I've looked in the Category Archive and don't see where it gets turned on or off. I've created a post, assigned it to the category errata, with deferred as the secondary category. Saved-draft- and nothing happened. Of course I'm missing something; of course I am. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Physics Geek at 08:54 PM | Comments (3)

Is there an issue?

EVERYTHING is running super slow on the mu.nu train tonight. Is there a specific problem? Or just too many of us at once?

Posted by caltechgirl at 02:14 AM | Comments (6)

May 12, 2005

Notifications

Hello there!
I was wondering why the notifications don't work. I would like my blog readers to be able to receive notifications through e-mail when I publish a new post (and I'd like to be able to have this feature on my blog as well). I've tried adding e-mails to the notifications section but nothing worked.
Can this be helped?

Maria :-)

Posted by Maria at 09:22 PM | Comments (5)

And Munu's getting LARGER!*

We continue to grow by leaps and bounds in our constant pursuit to take over the blogosphere. Or at least to rescue quality bloggers from the BlogMonster. Welcome aboard to our newest Munus!

Fiesty Repartee
Snugg Harbor**
One Happy Dog Speaks
Stuff I Think You Should Know
Quality Weenie
Bobo Blogger
Drunken Wisdom
Two Roads Diverged

* Anybody know where that title comes from?

** Yes, I know Guy already introduced himself. I'm pretending to ignore that post so it seems as if I wasn't really late in announcing some new Munus for the second time in a row.

Posted by Jim at 09:15 PM | Comments (9)

OK, The Frame's Up...

Well, I think I have mangled my code as much as humanly possible, so if there are any MT gurus out there who would be willing to take a peek at my bit of Naval lint, and perhaps offer a suggestion or two as to how to correct any major errors in said coding I would be beholding to ya. I am getting blurry-eyed at looking at all the text/manuals/code...and am running out of Rum.

Posted by Guy S at 06:23 PM | Comments (9)

Mr. Peabody, the Wayback Machine isn't working...

Ok, I was playing in CP panel and found a sleeze hotlinking to a pic of my beloved aunt when she was a young novice (using her as his icon on a music board with the name "runny canker"--yuck!). Since I had to turn off hotlink protection a couple of months ago when it forgot my "exception" list (and there are a couple of hundred of Alliance members using my logo image so I don't have time to reconstruct it) I did the only thing I could think of, which was change the picture he linked to by uploading a different picture and overwriting it.

Now, here's the problem: When I went to edit the post to explain the fact that the photo referenced was now something completely different, the edits would NOT show up on my blog. The picture is changed, but my explanation doesn't appear (despite the fact that I saved and rebuilt my site and etc.). So, apparently there is a time limit for editing posts? Can anyone tell me what the time limit is? And is there anything that will allow me to edit an old post?

Posted by Susie at 04:36 PM | Comments (6)

Handy URLs are available

Old timers know about these but I'm sure our recent importees don't. You can have a "handy" URL for your blog. Especially for the folks with long URLs this can be very...um...handy. Here's an example of how it works:

My regular mu.nu URL is http://snoozebuttondreams.mu.nu/.
I also have a URL of http://sbd.mu.nu/.

You may notice here that "sbd" is way more convenient to type than "snoozebuttondreams". These two locators are completely interchangeable. http://snoozebuttondreams.mu.nu/archives/061784.html is exactly the same as http://sbd.mu.nu/archives/061784.html in every respect. They open the same page and handle everything identically. I use "snoozebuttondreams" for my official published URL but I've got "sbd" for when I'm tooling around my own site.

If you would like a handy URL just sound off in the comments here. If I set up your mu.nu blog myself I can get you set up lickety split. If I didn't set you up I'll forward your request to the Great and Mighty Pixy.

Posted by Jim at 01:13 PM | Comments (10)

May 11, 2005

RSS feeds

I have noticed that the RSS feed for my blog doesn't use html and also doesn't include linefeed etc. Is it the RSS templates that have to be changed, and if so can someone give me an idea on what to change it to?

Thanks ever so muchly in advance!

Posted by Oorgo at 09:04 PM | Comments (3)

Urchin?

Does Urchin work?

Posted by Steve Janke at 07:15 PM | Comments (7)

Site URL in Blogroll

Would it be possible to generate the blogrolls using the site URL from the weblog config? That way we could each have control over the how our own URLs appear in the blogrolls. This is important to me, personally, since it is different from the URL that I try to publicize, and Technorati can't figure out that my two URLs point to the same site (despite my efforts).

Posted by David Boxenhorn at 05:32 PM | Comments (2)

Technical question about Sitemeter

Someone left the following comment over at my blog:


Hey, just noticed that your site meter isn't on your individual pages so you are probably really undercounting referred visits!

Not sure how you would do that on your site, but you can probably figure it out. According to Right Wing News it will really make a difference in your count.

Is this person correct? And if so, how do I go about fixing the problem?

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Physics Geek at 05:26 PM | Comments (7)

May 10, 2005

Files and images

I think Helen asked this a while back but I cannot find the post...

I would like to download some image files I've already got sitting somewhere on my site. I tried using File Manager in Cpanel and it has the subdirectory but I cannot see the actual files. Can someone please tell me how I can see the files in each directory and then download them?

Thanks.

Posted by Simon at 11:44 AM | Comments (6)

Recent comment functionality

Typepad have a feature that displays the last 10 comments in the following format:

Username on post title

It's great for keeping track of whether you have any new comments or if anyone has commented on a long forgotten post.

Does Mu.Nu have this functionality? Please don't tell me it comes under $MTRecentComments$!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!

Posted by Tris at 10:48 AM | Comments (4)

Comments filters

So what's with comment filters? I've had a few people complain they couldn't post comments with words like le*bian.

Posted by Steve Janke at 06:20 AM | Comments (6)

Reformatting Archive Entry Links

So, I'd like to reformat the way my archive entry links display. Specifically, I run weekly archives and use this code to display the links to the archives.

<MTArchiveList archive_type="Weekly">
<a href="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$></a><br />
</MTArchiveList>
This ends up looking like this:

October 31, 2004 - November 06, 2004

I'd rather have it look like this:

10/31/2004 - 11/06/2004

I've looked for a way to do this, but couldn't find it. Any suggestions?

Eric

Posted by EricC at 05:12 AM | Comments (3)

May 09, 2005

Pull Down Menu

Ok, can someone post the code to do the pull-down blogrolls? And can you do that with any blogroll, or just the munuvia blogroll? And can I have fries with that, instead of slaw?

Posted by Warren Kelly at 01:06 AM | Comments (1)

May 08, 2005

This is a strange situation....

Over at LOSLI, somehow, I now have archives from October - December. There appears to be another Jess, this one a female who has written some posts that ended up on my blog. My number of authors went from 2 to 3. Does anyone know what could have happened?

Posted by Jess at 02:14 AM | Comments (3)

May 05, 2005

Comments remembering info

Rusty posted earlier about the comments section remembering your information. I started playing with the templates and using his code and the code posted at Eric's Grumbles, I was able to get the Individual Archive Posts working. But I wasn't able to get the pop-up comments window to remember the information.

Being 99% OCD and 100% Geek it bothered me that I couldn't figure it out. Then it hit me, after I finished rubbing my head I tested out my thought.

The problem is the:

var HOST = <$MTBlogHost$>;
line in the code.

If you change this in line in both the Comment Listing template and the Individual Archive Template to:

var HOST = 'mu.nu';

It saves the information and it’s readily accessible. Now for the nifty part: It remembers the information for any of the mu.nu blogs you visit.

Hopefully this helps.
Later,
phin

Posted by phin at 08:07 PM | Comments (15)

Time to Vote

A month ago the Rocket Jones Banner Contest was announced. Entries are now up, and they're pretty darned cool. Now it's time to choose your favorite by leaving a comment.

Thanks.

Posted by Ted at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2005

THE MAN got another one

Why do businesses fear bloggers? I really wish I knew.

8 Z E R O 8 just lost his job for having a blog. An anonymous coworker who knew about his blog notified the aristocracy and they came down on him like a ton of bricks.

If you know of any journalism positions open, maybe you can hook him up. He's in Houston but is willing to relocate. Hell, he's probably dying to relocate. We're talking Houston here. (Hah!)

If not, just stop by and say "Hey" or perhaps hit his tip jar. I know both of those things meant the world to me when I got shafted laid off.

Posted by Jim at 08:03 PM | Comments (1)

Dyndns.org

If I try to go to the root domain of any of the trackback spam I've been getting in the last couple of months (and I've been getting a lot), I get redirected to dyndns.org:

"Dynamic Network Services, Inc. is a leading provider of Domain Name Services (DNS). We provide full managed DNS hosting, Dynamic DNS, Static DNS, web redirection, e-mail, and domain registration services. Maintaining 100.000% DNS uptime with over a million users, we offer the flexibility, support, and service to ensure a strong and reliable presence on the Internet for you or your business."

Could we somehow ban trackbacks to any sites hosted by dyndns.org?

Posted by David Boxenhorn at 09:08 AM | Comments (2)

May 02, 2005

Mailman problem

We're having problems with the Mailman mailing list utility. Earlier this weekend it was bouncing back anything sent to it. It's not bouncing emails anymore but it isn't sending them to the mailinglist or putting them into the message archive.

I'm guessing this is more breadcrumbs from that cPanel update?

Posted by Jim at 07:32 PM | Comments (2)

MuNubies!

Well, there seems to be no official announcement up yet. Which makes me wonder how Ted got the scoop on the new class of Munuvians. (I'm guessing that it was the automated blogroll...?)

Anywho, I've been perusing the Munubies. Give a warm MuNu welcome to S. Faolan Wolf of Nomen Est Omen. This gal likes to, shall we say, vent, and she's got the gift of kvetch.

Then there's Maria of Hatshepsut. Munuvia expands into Iceland! Woo Hoo! Maria might not get it, but there's something very alluring about a gal who dresses in red and black, likes Star Trek, studies religeons (is partial to Judaism), has lived in several differant countries and studied several differant languages and who hates cold weather and opts to live in frickin' Reykjavik. So, please give Maria a very VERY warm welcome!

Next up is my own nominee: Angry In T.O. of Angry In The Great White North. I first read him through a link from Debbye, and saw that he'd been linked by Michelle Malkin and Captain Ed, as well. AiTO is a must read for all the new news on Canadian politics and the big picture.

Then there's USAdave of American Geek. He's got links to, and commentary on, news of the day that you might not have noticed elsewhere. And he's a Peggy Noonan reader! (Peggy's style of writing is what inspired me to begin blogging, myself.) Go give USAdave a "hielow"!

Kyer of Whatsakyer has also been assimilated. Some pointed international news blogging with an interesting focus on Equador. That's new! I've read all of the posts that are up thus far and can't figure out if Kyer is male or female. Aah, mystery. So, like, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Toosie Roll Pop and what's a Kyer? The world may never know...

Phin's Blog, Oorgo Blog, Smiling Dynamite (love that name!), Ogre's Politics And Views and Camp HappyFunBad have yet to complete the move. But, Phin and Oorgo have a post up, so ye may give them a hardy handshake and a welcome.

Which brings us, lastly, to Jess of Life, or Something Like It. I love this guy's posts. He's kinda like a Collins with some manners. Jess might just become a daily read for me.

So, if you're not already doing it automagically, update your blogrolls! And go say hi to the nu neighbors!

Posted by Tuning Spork at 01:35 AM | Comments (13)

May 01, 2005

Awstats

My Awstats are suddenly on the blink. Is anyone else having this problem? Could it have something to do with the PHP-ificatiton that I induced into my templates yesterday? Dunno...

Posted by Sadie at 11:07 PM | Comments (10)

Swats Aeroplanes Like Flies

mu.nu

is a Collosal Squid that breathes Fire, has four Extra Limbs and X-Ray Vision, swats Aeroplanes like Flies, and lives Underwater.

Strength: 9 Agility: 4 Intelligence: 8



To see if your Giant Battle Monster can
defeat mu.nu, enter your name and choose an attack:

fights mu.nu using

Posted by Pixy Misa at 02:54 PM | Comments (2)

Import my old entries

Hey, so I have a backup from mt from... December, and also I found a good little script to export my current Wordpress entries. Now the odd thing is, the backup from MT has carriage returns by the handful, but the new one doesn't.

Does it really matter, will MT still import the entries without CRs?

Oh, also, I will need a hand gettin' them in there once the file has been corrected, I tried once already but it imported someone elses 30 or so entries :)

Oh, and Hey! I'm new here! Wheee....

Posted by Oorgo at 04:48 AM | Comments (11)