Tomorrow, the blogosphere will attempt to turn its sweaty keyboards for good. Hugh Hewitt challenged bloggers to help suvivors by raising funds through blogging. Instapundit then suggested a date and our beloved NZ Bear will be Tallying the Results.
I and others will be auctioning/selling items in the hopes of raising additional funds for the hurricane victims. Please join us in this global effort. Thanks!
Hey, anyone know why Not A Desperate Housewife isn't showing up on the Munuviana blogroll? Stacy's been with us since January, i think.
I followed the Sitemeter instructions for Movable Type and created a special template for the code. However I notice on the template page, this new sitemeter template has nothing in the Output File field. And every time I rebuild I get the following notice: "Template 'SiteMeter' does not have an Output File".
How do I fix this?
My left menu is an include file called using PHP rather than an MT module. This lets me change it on the fly without any rebuild necessary. Only problem. If I put MT tags into it, they don't work correctly. Has anyone tried doing what I'm doing, and if you have, have you run into this and solved it? If so, let me know the trick, please?
Eric
The swapout of the second hard disk failed, and they had to put the drive back in.
And then the server decided that now was a good time to do a full filesystem check, which took another hour.
Sorry about that, everyone. We'll have to schedule another outage, probably next weekend or the following one, but things should go a bit quicker next time.
The server will be down for about an hour beginning 5AM CST while the other hell demon disk drive is exorcised replaced.
Hopefully that will fix all of our present problems, so we can get on with creating new and better problems.
You may not have seen it, but at least one MSM outlet actually was aware that MuNu was down and provided coverage of the catastrophe. The National Journal's Blogometer talked about the MuNu outage, the Life, Liberty, Property community and the Carnival of Liberty, which I am the admin and owner of, respectively. I thought that was pretty cool, so I've been giving William Beutler, the author of Blogometer, some links and nice comments.
Hello! I am so excited to be a Munuvian. It is like sitting at the cool table!!!
Help! Has anyone ever imported entries from Blog City into Movable Type? From what I can tell, I can do a find and replace from a backup xml file that I get from Blog City.
Hints! Anyone have any other tips on importing? Any hints would be appreciated!!!
A post about spam gets spammed.
A new comment has been posted on your blog Munuviana, on entry #72573
(Trackback / Comment Spam).
http://blog.mu.nu/cgi/splorp.cgi?entry_id=72573
IP Address: 69.93.181.226
Name: Dog Training
Email Address: email@asddsasd.com
URL: http://www.dogtrainingxxxxxx.xrg
Comments:
Good info on Dog Training
and http://www.dogtrainingxxxxxx.xrg
Good info on guitar lesson
and http://www.secretguitarlexxxx.xom
Good info on keyword research
and http://www.keywordspyxxx.xom
I have a trackback that appeared this morning on an old post of mine. The link leads to wuzzadem, who I don't think is a lowlife scumbag spamming slimeball. But his page doesn't show a link to me, and it doesn't show up in the trackback section when I go to the individual article to edit it.
Weird.
This week's Carnival of the Recipes is up at my place. Thanks to all the MuNus (and everyone else) who contributed!
Testing twice daily MySQL backups now. Test test...
Splut. Bugger.
Update: Fix fix. Better.
Update: Another full backup done and sent offsite. I'm also sending the offsite backups off to another offsite site, because I'm feeling extra-paranoid right now.
Hello out there.
Can somebody tell me what this means?
Can't call method "id" without a package or object reference at /home/blog/public_html/cgi/lib/MT.pm line 381.
It happens when I try to publish my entry.
Did I break it?
In an unprecedented move in the wake of serious attacks on Tuesday, the tiny nation of Munuvia has sealed its borders and begun plans for “The Wall,” a barricade similar to one already being constructed in Israel.
Prime Minister Pixy Misa made the announcement today from an undisclosed location in Outer Mongolia where he had been vacationing with cabinet members and their families.
“The persons responsible for these attacks are cowards of the worst order,” stated the PM. The use of illegal Spam-bomb technology, the timing of the most recent attack, the pattern of attack, each of these leads us to believe that these attacks are not the work of disgruntled individuals or insurgents organized by Blogsnotistanian, but are well funded and well orchestrated attacks by organized mercenary Spammers.”
Casualties were heavy on Tuesday when the latest attack occurred. Hospitals in the capitol city of Ambia filled quickly, as the wounded were moved in from the outlying regions of Munuviana and Ellis Island.
“I don’t believe any were killed in the most recent attack, but there is not a single citizen untouched by the events of the last several weeks,” observed Misa. “They have found their families under attack, their businesses cut off from traffic, and their constitutionally protected rights violated by these terrorists.”
These attacks have caused residents to demand work be sped up on the wall, known in adminstrative circles as Project Firewall. In spite of the obvious benefits provided by such a barrier, however, there have been some problems getting it built.
"The project to construct a wall between the more vulnerable regions of Munuvia and known Spammer hangouts has been in the works for years," stated an undentified bar owner and IT guru involved in Operation Firewall. "But in spite of the safety it would afford our small nation, UN officials and Amnesty International have already denounced it and are calling for a tribunal of nations spearheaded by Nigeria to study it. Can you believe that? Nigeria, of all places. Spamming is the greatest part of their GNP."
"Next thing you know," added a patron seated at the bar, "we'll be forced to give these terrorists land for a homeland within our own borders. And we know how well that works. Look at Gaza."
The Cotillion, a think tank of conservative women with offices located in the green zone in central Munuvia City, suffered extensive damage during the attack on Tuesday, but was able to rebound quickly. Workers from several private US and Pan Pacific defense contractors were onsite within hours, securing the perimeter and providing a much needed visual respite for the women in the facility.
“We were not terribly concerned about being overrun during this wave of attacks,” stated Cotillian spokesman e-clair, blogger with a penchant for witty remarks at the end of each group post. “We’re well armed, both literally and metaphorically. And unlike other think tanks, we actually are able to defend our statements. That one fact seems to attract the sort of situation we saw here in Munuvia on Tuesday. We hate to think that it was our recent move to this lovely country that precipitated these attacks, but it certainly would appear to have been a factor.”
Affected Munuvians spent the night in temporary shelters, anxiously awaiting the end of the attack and the return of service to their stricken nation. Members of the USAir Force Security Force, under the watchful eye of Slaglerock, provided security for both the shelters and the affected sites.
Working with local law enforcement, Slaglerock’s contingent also kept the local morale up by providing a temporary beach volleyball court and several teams for pairs play with residents, who were appreciative of the vast improvement in scenery.
“There’s just something to be said for the men providing security here,” commented Anika, a longtime resident of Munuvia. “They work hard, they apparently play hard, and they look great doing it. And just because the women of Munuvia are intelligent and discerning doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the human form.”
I don't swear very often. In fact, the only two things that can make me say rude words these days are flaky disk drives and database corruption. Oh, and anything that takes my munu off the air can generate some ripe expletives too.
At least we weren't losing $2000 a minute while the system was down - I've been there, don't want to repeat it.
On the other hand, to lose $2000 a minute you'd have to have actual revenues in the first place...
One other thing: Trackbacks and searches (the Movable Type search function) are turned off for now. I'll turn them back on in the morning (my morning - about six hours from now) when I'll be around to keep an eye on things. They were using excessive amounts of memory - hundreds of megs - which would be a problem even if the server wasn't all flaky.
I've just taken a full database backup and shipped it off to the backup server just in case.
We have had two more instances of database corruption, both fortunately minor. We lost one template from one blog, and some posts from one of the forums. That seems to be it so far, but if you are missing anything, or get strange errors that keep coming up, post here and I'll look into it ASAP.
We do have backups off-site, so if anything critical is lost (and it's more than 24 hours old) we'll be able to get it back.
After repairing two databases, I was able to do a full SQL dump of everything, so I don't think there's anything else lurking at the bottom of the swamp, but do let me know if you run across anything.
Pardon me.
We're getting the same error as yesterday, but on the other drive.
This sucks.
Note: Trackbacks are turned off, because every little bit helps, and they're 98% spam anyway.
I'm just re-updating the backups, and then I'm going to reboot. We'll be down for about five minutes, and we'll see if that helps at all.
Update: Rebooting didn't do anything useful. I've logged a support ticket. We should be getting the drive replaced on Sunday morning, unless the problem gets worse, in which case we'll just shut down and do it right away.
It's a really strange problem. The server is using the same brand of RAID controller - 3Ware - that I use in all the servers at work, and in four years I've never seen anything like this. On the other hand, the disk performance of this system has always been a bit sluggish, so maybe there was something wrong all along.
I think Pixy deserves a round of applause for his efforts at restoring our sites.
Thanks for all the hard work!!!!!!!!!!
One database did get corrupted during the outage, and it has now been fixed.
I'm looking at setting up twice-daily backups, so that if we ever go down again I can just say "hell with it" and switch to the other server.
I'm also looking at moving to a cluster, instead of a single server. More on this soon.
Update: All better! It will be a bit slow for the first few hours, because it is still rebuilding the RAID array, but we haven't lost any data and everything is working just as it was.
Update: It's a hardware problem. One of the disks in the server has gone mad, causing all sorts of nasty problems. We are getting lots of spam and other crap, but the reason the system can't cope any more is due to the failing disk drive.
Sorry about that everyone.
A combination of blog-spam and denial of service attacks overloaded the server to the point where I couldn't log in to fix it. This happened while I was asleep, unfortunately, so it was a few hours before I found out.
We are still getting bombed with trackback and comment spam. I've turned comments back on, but trackbacks are still off and will be for the next few hours.
All happy now! The problem was the log files once again. I don't know why it suddenly became such a terrible issue, but once I cleared them out, everything became extremely zippy.
You may end up with a small gap in your Awstats graphs. Sorry about that. We do still have the raw logs, so I may be able to patch it up.
I still need to investigate why the log files aren't getting cleared as the are supposed to. 20GB of logs is apparently a no-no. Before, the server fell over when we reached 7GB, so I made some more space, which led to other problems.
Moofle... At least it's happy now. :)
Hi gang.
I've just created some new munu forums. The old forums consisted of Renata's World, which was private, and Munuvian Underground, which was never very successful because it basically duplicated the blogs.
This time around I've created two new sections, Yartz Counsel for discussion of books, movies, TV, computer games and stuff like that, and the University of Woolloomooloo for deeper and more insightful topics like philosophy, mathematics, and beer.
Pop on over if it sounds interesting, but do note that there is a not-a-bug in Internet Explorer that may lead to you getting logged out at inconvenient moments. As far as I know, every other browser in the world works properly.
Is it possible in MT2.64 to pull up a listing of all comments, similar to the "Edit Entries" function? If so, I haven't been able to figure it out yet and am worried I am missing something obvious. Thanks.
Any idea why I am suddenly getting the following error message on trackback pings?
Ping 'http://www.searchlightcrusade.com/posts/1123603252.trackbacks.shtml' failed: HTTP error: 405 Method Not Allowed
I know many did not want to play a team through the season, but still might want to do something a little less involved. I bring you a chance to play Pro Football Pick'Em!
In order to join the group, just go to
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/pickem
click the "Sign Up" button (or "Create or Join Group" if you are a returning user). From there, follow the path to join an existing private group and when prompted, enter the following information...
That's right folks, it's time to start getting ready for the third annual
The rules are simple:
1. If you have a favorite hockey team, place their logo somewhere on your front page.
2. Every time your team plays someone else's team in the Jamboree, the loser must place the winner's logo on their front page for 24 hours.
3. You don't have to actually be a Munuvian to play.
4. Trash talkin' is encouraged.
That's it!
So start deciding on your favorite team. We're gonna be gearing up real soon now.
(cross posted at Rocket Jones)
I'm trying to use use the "rotating banners" fix to make certain images throughout my entire site rotate.
I already implemented Madfish Willie's technique (http://munuviana.mu.nu/archives/033561.php) to make the Tick/Calvin avatars on the top left column of my site randomize.
Now, I want to make certain logos (of the same size setting) on my right side bar randomize.
I thought it would be as simple as inserting the image source urls into another module titled "RotateLogoHead2" and then insert it under RotateLogoHead1 in the HEAD section, and then simply replicate RotateLogoBody and create a RotateLogoBody2, place it, and BAM! I'd have images rotating in two separate places whenever you visit.
But it didn't work.
Any ideas? It seemed so simple...
I know there's a way to do this -- I read it in the manual, but now I can't find it.
Simply -- I want to have my monthly archives in ascending order -- starting witht he first of the month and going to the end, rather than the reverse. What part of the template do I need to change to do that?
The league is almost full (and surely quite overflowing with hot air and empty threats), but the only thing missing is you. First come, first served. To enter just do the following:
In order to join the league, go here and click the "Sign Up Now" or "Get Another Team" button and follow the links to "Join a Custom League". When prompted, enter the League ID# and password below.
League ID#: 347424
Password: blog2005
One spot left. I'll update when full.
Okay, so here is my issue - I'm getting this message when I try to rebuild any index template from my blog "Writing to '/home/daniel/www/index.php.new' failed: Opening local file '/home/daniel/www/index.php.new' failed: Permission denied"
The archives rebuild fine. Just the index templates (and all the index templates - xml, rdf, atom, my index, etc.) give me that message. Oh, and if I'm trying to rebuild index.xml, it says the permission is denied to index.xml.new instead...
Any thoughts?
Huh. Just kidding. Actually, it isn't all the index templates. It's just my main blog template and all my RSS templates... what's up with that?
Recommendations on RSS aggregators and readers and whatnot? What works, what's powerful, what's useless, what's buggy, etc.
I see several exist, but I figured I'd go to the experts rather than just trust strange information I read on the internet.
Want a PDA template that will enable comments for PDA users? There's at least one Munuvian who wanted that, so I got it working. Come by my HowTo entry on Eric's Grumbles to find the template and instructions on how to use it.
You can check out the PDA template in action too.
Okay, I have a little SQL query that will close all trackbacks on all entries (on one blog or all of them) older than a given date.
What should that date be? I've just done my blog for anything older than last month, which seems reasonable.
Update: Done the same for Munuviana.
I update information on my sidebars weekly. Is there anyway to only change the information in one place versus going through 4 templates to change the information?
For example: If I want to add someone to my blogroll (even though I use blogrolling most of the time....it's just an example), I have to go to my Main Archive, Date Category, Individual Archive and Category Archive Templates to change it.
If anyone has any suggestions that work, I'll give ya a big fat virtual kiss...or buy ya a drink. I'd prefer the drink! :-)
I noticed today that several trackbacks I tried to send wouldn't go through. When I went to click on the activity log to see what was up, I got an error message "500" or something to that effect stating that there was an internal server error of some sort.
Were there any server problems recently?
UPDATE: It just happened again when I went to publish this post. Here was the error message:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@blog.mu.nu and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
UPDATE 2 (8/8 at 1500 EST): It seems trackbacks on all the Minuvian blogs are down. You get the following:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /cgi/mt-tb.cgi on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
On Friday night I had a 2 column site with a left sidebar. Feeling heady over getting an 85 on a computer geek quiz I went in to do some tweaking by:
- creating a pda version of my site + adding a PDA link on my sidebar
creating a category archive for my posts
adding categories & syndication section on my sidebar
I was careful to back up the index template but as things started to go wrong I overwrote my back up accidentally. Boy did I feel stupid! I've managed to put things somewhat back together, but I'm still having one persistent issue: my 2 columns are no more. My sidebar now appears immediately below my entries.
So far I've done the following: gone back to the MT manual, looked at websites and sample MT templates so I can view the source code for some inkling of what may be wrong (even though I'm not familiar w/CSS or Java). So far nothing that I see comes close to what I have because I originally used an old style template.
I would appreciate any suggestions and/or guidance you send my way. Thanks!
Does anyone have an RSS template that is text only? If so, would you mind sharing? I want to provide an RSS template that displays the site and one that just displays the text of the entry. Thanks, Eric
Coming soon: Blogger Football League 2005! Last year's competitors are invited to return, and this year we will have a chance for 2 expansion teams! Leave a comment for details or get in line for a spot!
For those of you who looked at my CSS based three column template in the past and had difficulty with it, I've released Eric's Templates, version 1.1. This version looks fairly similar, but has some improvements:
You could, if you implemented ver 1.0, implement this version by simply dropping in the style sheet and rebuilding it. The only thing is you may have to change your banner if it is more than 500 pixels wide, since the banner space is not as large as it used to be.
New features are planned for version 1.2, including completely script based left and right columns. Once I implement that feature you will be able to add links and such without having to do any template rebuilds. I've already got that partially working on my own blog, but it needs a bit more work to be ready for prime time, along with some implementation doco. If you want to use that feature now, drop me an email and you can beta test it.
All right -- I admit it. I've been posting at Rhymes With Right since April, but still haven't imported my old posts from my old blogger site.
"Why?", you may ask (then again, you may not care -- but I'm guessing you do since you've read this far).
Well, it is a little matter of not understanding the instructions in the MT manual.
So, I need one of two things:
1) Someone to explain the process to me in words of (preferably) one syllable or less; or
2) Someone to volunteer to do the dirty deed for me (no, not THAT dirty deed!).
Any help is appreciated -- and please forgive my utter lameness.
Carnival of Liberty V over at Owlish Mutterings!
There's all sorts of great stuff in the Carnival, including several submissions from fellow MuNuvians.
I am having difficulty with making categories work. (I since removed the code out of frustration, so you won't find the categories at my site.) When I had them on the site, I'd click on them, and instead of seeing the posts within the category, I get one of those "Page cannot be found." Can anyone please clearly explain how to make them function correctly? Thank u.
