My Favourite Registry Enhancements

My friend Tom (See the Cycle Man post… pics, movies, and speed – you should check it out) asked about a registry setting I use this morning and I was able to do a quick look up of it and send it off his way. Well we all have settings that we carry from one PC to another… I just happen to have them in one place and commented profusely…

This file is what I vandalize any PC with that will be mine for any period of time. “Like a tom cat making his mark”, to quote The Bob’s song “Spray”, I’ll spray the registry with my scent.

Are there any I’ve missed? Which settings do you prefer?

Note that a Semicolon comments out MANY of the settings that I think some users may not prefer. The rest of them add to windows and simply make it better.

You may download the file in its entirety here:
Continue reading My Favourite Registry Enhancements

So, when is 2.1 coming?

Well, you can monitor it yourself. There’s no date yet, but there are some 600+ “tickets” to change involved. You can see that here: http://trac.wordpress.org/milestone/2.1

Now, once the process gets a bit further along, you can check the status at that site. Here, take a look at how it was done for 2.0.5: http://trac.wordpress.org/milestone/2.0.5

Notice that http://trac.wordpress.org/milestone/2.0.6 does not exist! 2.0.5 SHOULD be the last release for the 2.0 line. I suspect that whether that is true or not will depend upon if a security issue is found.

So, what does 2.1 look like? Well, I’ve got it running on a testing site. You can do the same as it’s available to those who are testers:
http://wordpress.org/download/beta/

And those hackers who want to check out the nightly builds of the product:
http://wordpress.org/download/nightly/

There’s no quiz you must take to join. As no support is offered for any of the pre-release products, the only test is how fast you can dig yourself out of a hole when a feature you rely on doesn’t work in the current build. It’s sort of a pass fail thing….

WordPress 2.0.5: Top 5 Reasons to upgade

WordPress 2.0.5 includes some 60 bugfixes and improvements that I link to here. That should be reason enough for any geek to switch to the latest version. If you are not a geek, and perhaps you haven’t upgraded even to version 2.0.3 yet. You need to. It is VERY important to the safety of your blog. If you started your blog on version 2.0 or higher, you will also get a marked speed improvement out of your site.

Top 5 Reasons to upgrade
1. Integrity: If you aren’t running version 2.0.4 or higher, there are easy methods to delete posts and comments from your blog that are not traceable back to the person that did it. All your work could be easily if someone got the whim to do so.
2. Speed: If you are running versions 2.0-2.0.4 and always were, than you are missing a key index. This missing index tells your blog where to find posts and pages. As you can guess, it is good for that to work quickly. Read more here in the ticket I logged when I found the issue.
3. Security: Improved security in wp-db-backup plugin. Sneaky people could use older versions of the get to places that they shouldn’t be
4. Privacy: User info snooping was possible. Any user could see any other users contact info, private not. Spammers must love that “feature”.
5. All of the above and much more: You choose…. I’ll leave this one up to you… You might wish to choose from one of Mark Jarquith‘s favorites. He seems to be a pretty good guy and has listed his top choices here. Or you could choose from any of the items listed on the official tracking site, here. That link will list the most important fixes first.

If you’re still not convinced, you should read this article (not yet published).

If you think that it takes too long to upgrade, consider using my Upgrade your sites to the latest WordPress in 35 seconds. method and you’ll never have to worry about a lengthy update again! That’s how I updated The CodeCave.

And “Why is it called Ronan?” you ask… Well, it’s named after the very first WordPress Baby! Ryan Boren is Ronan’s proud father. Pictures are available on Ryan’s site.

Update: Mark has posted a list of just the files that have changed. If you don’t use the script I mentioned above, you could look into his file which gives you a smaller set of files to update. You can find that here: http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2006/10/28/wordpress-205-upgrade-changed-files-zip-changes-diff-changed-files-list

Update2: IF you are one of the few with the 302/500 error please visit this site:

Some WordPress 2.0.5 users reporting Server 500 error

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you are in the VAST majority and can thank your lucky stars 🙂

“Mystery object” delays space shuttle landing…

CNN Headlines reported this morning:

NASA has delayed tomorrow’s landing of the space shuttle Atlantis after engineers spotted a mystery object outside the shuttle; weather at the Florida landing site also is a concern. 

 In the CNN article “Mystery object delays shuttle landing”

“NASA engineers spotted the object at about 2:45 a.m EDT Tuesday with a video camera in the shuttle’s cargo bay.

The object, which circled the Earth in the same orbit as the shuttle and is of undetermined size […]
It’s something that we didn’t expect, but it’s something that we’re taking a real close look at,”

This has of course lead to rampant speculation around the office.   The current leading theory is:

Continue reading “Mystery object” delays space shuttle landing…

Irwin’s life: A documentary about love, not crocs

This story was sent to you by: Dan

——————–

Irwin’s life: A documentary about love, not crocs

——————–

Sheryl P. Kurland

September 8, 2006

While grief over the tragic loss of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin reverberates around the world, the loss of his life hit home. Not because I believe in his conservation causes. (I do.) Not because I agree with his humanitarianism. (I do.) Not because I adore crocodiles. (I do.) It’s the two words I have written in parenthesis — I do — that tell the story. Irwin’s death fell on the cusp of my 17th wedding anniversary. And, as news interviews with those who knew him best reveal, Irwin was, above all, a committed husband to Terri, his only wife and wife of 14 years, and devoted father to his two children.

With our 50 percent divorce rate for first marriages, 67 percent for second marriages and 74 percent for third marriages, their love was a sight seldom seen these days.

Irwin’s life was not about the crocs. His antics with animals were merely a front that allowed us to peer into his heart. And how ironic it is that death befell him by the physical piercing of that extraordinary heart.

As I spend hours watching reruns of his most memorable shows on Animal Planet, I notice that the dynamics between Irwin and his creature friends in the wild pale in comparison to those between him and Terri. The couple shared an unspoken rhythm. Their eyes locked often, they were both filled with verve and gusto, they were both so alive. (Even his 2002 cornball movie Collision Course gushed with romance, though the two never shared a love scene.)

The Irwins lived as husband and wife were meant to be. Working together. Laughing together. Dreaming together. A role-model couple whose dreaming has been cut short. It should have lasted forever.

Fans tuned in for danger, close calls and his trademark beaming grin, but he unabashedly broke stride to take us up close and personal. Footage from their wedding showed a tearful Irwin as he and Terri exchanged “I do’s.” The newlyweds took us on their camping honeymoon to northern Australia. At the birth of their first baby, he wept. At the birth of their second baby, he wept more. (Note the order, marriage first, children second. Another fledgling trend.) Irwin showed how marriage and family life are connected to one’s larger sense of purpose in life.

Their role-model marriage is one in which we should revel. Yet, it is soon to be overshadowed by the erupting global mania over Vanity Fair’s new cover story heralding Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, unmarried, and the first public photographs of their newborn daughter. Consider the facts: This is Tom’s third young damsel to be anointed “the one.” His first, a marriage to “the one” terminated in less than three years. His second, a marriage to “the one” lasted less than 10 years. Any bets in Vegas how long TomKat will last? Will they tie the knot before Katie awakens from his rule and decides to take charge of herself? Their lavish, glamorized, glorified relationship is probably just one more notch in the bedpost of celebrity shams. Time will bear witness.

Indeed, Steve Irwin’s life and legacy remind us that life is not about fame and fortune. He leaves us with lessons about true love and human passion. Crikey, Mate, we’re gonna miss you!

I do.

Sheryl P. Kurland of Longwood is a speaker and author of “Everlasting Matrimony: Pearls Of Wisdom From Couples Married 50 Years Or More” — www.EverlastingMatrimony.com. Copyright (c) 2006, Orlando Sentinel | Get home delivery – up to 50% off

Visit OrlandoSentinel.com

Error Message: TCP/IP CP Reported Error 733 when connecting to a VPN client

No, that doesn’t mean that you have to install the PPP protocol as it seems. 

What it means is that you are dialing into an existing VPN host run through Windows XP but you did not get assigned an IP address.  You’ve setup the “Incoming Connections” item under Network Connections ALMOST correctly.  However you’ve left the “Assign IP address via DHCP” box checked.  You would think this would make sense, however, if you are not running your network DHCP through that server and instead it is run through a router, this will not work.  So, what you must do is choose a range of IP addresses.  That’s the second radio button on that screen.  Give it some sufficiently high range so that it won’t realisticly interfere with your router.  Stay within the subnet defined by your netmask of course.

So, if your machine’s IP is 192.168.100.10, make your address range be 192.168.100.100-192.168.100.110.  Then you can have up to 10 VPN clients connected.  Make your range 192.168.100.10-192.168.100.10 if you are the only one to be using it. 

 Hope this helps.  I keep forgetting about this setting myself.  Maybe I’ll remember now that I’ve written it down.

Blocking an IP Range using .htaccess

I’ve decided to block all traffic from all McColo Corporation users.

Not all are guilty I’m sure, but I just got hit by one of their customers called “Digital Infinity”, reportedly a Moscow based company.  I was crawled repeatedly by IP 12 IP addresses within the 208.66.195.1-208.66.195.20 range.  Now, <100mb of transfers isn't so much to loose over a couple days, but it's enough to catch my eye.  Looking up one of those IP addresses shows McColo Corporation has leased 208.66.195.1-208.66.195.15 to “Digital Infinity”.  However, several of the IP addresses that scanned me are within McColo Corporation generic pool.  I’ve also seen posts related McColo Corporation’s 208.66.192.* range being a major source of WordPress comment spam.

So, guys, you’re outta here.

I’m blocking them via .htaccess.  I suggest you might want to do the same for at least 208.66.195.1-208.66.195.20 if you’re feeling more charitable than I am this morning.

Since they have four groups of addresses, I add four lines to my .htaccess file.  As a whole, that section now looks something like this:

[html]

order allow,deny
deny from 208.66.192
deny from 208.66.193
deny from 208.66.194
deny from 208.66.195
allow from all

[/html]

OK, I’m back.

I didn’t mean to go away, but it seems I went away anyway. Things were spiraling way to fast there for a little bit. When I created that yet-to-come mega post about the need to update to the latest version of WordPress (I may yet publish it in some form) it broke me out of the spiral and gave me a chance to breath.I’m now more caught up with things at work. We had a new release of our product and I needed to release new deployment tools. That’s done now. BTW I’m now using a tool a co-worker discovered called Eureka Log. It is an EXCELLENT product. It should be included in just about any Delphi program out there. I’m considering buying a personal copy so that I can use it on any thing I do out of office. Any time an error occurs in your program it allows the user to send you a full stack trace with screen shot via email or internet site. Then with the tarballed .ELF file you can see the full state of their machine at the time of the error, the active button/control and within the stack trace you can double click on each line and it will take you back to the appropriate line in the Delphi source code. Within an hour of its use, I squooshed four bugs that have been in the software for the last year. Perhaps its best feature is that it lets you know that an error has occurred. After all how can you fix something if you don’t get feedback that there is a problem?

Let’s see, what else… My home PC has been rebooting every 5-45 minutes, but I think I may have gotten a handle on that now.  But that was not done before I ordered a whole new generation of computer.  I wonder if I’ll notice a difference moving from a 333mhz FSB to a 2,000 mhz FSB based system – I haven’t figured out how to compare the CPU improvement yet.  It’s a several generatation jump.  More on that later – the boxes should arive today!

And things at home are coming more inline. We’ve replaced our old smelly couch with a not-as-old not-smelly couch. We emptied the garage and all its storage. We pressure washed away everything that was growing on the damp garage walls and threw out loads of stuff and reboxed everything else. So, the garage is now in much better condition.

I’d planned to complete everything on my to-do list this weekend but Thursday night I had a salad tasted really bad at the first bite. I’d actually set it aside, but twenty minutes later we were still watching the movie and I was starving at that point and tried it again. It didn’t taste too bad at that point. Boy, was that using my stomach and not my brain. I felt bad the next morning and was a walking zombie by noon. My holiday weekend was spent rolling around in bed having stomach cramps. Anytime I stood up I had extreme vertigo. It was nasty.

I got up and about some on Monday. I actually took a short walk with the kids in a local park – more on that later. Anyway… By 11pm Monday night I was feeling almost normal again and was ready for the weekend to start… Yeesh…

Anyway, I’ve finished two or three more books – I’ve got to get them up for review. I’ve also got three or for draft posts started and I’ve got the whole series Web Bots in Delphi articles I wanted to post. So, there should be pleanty of things coming up on the site as I get back into the swing of more frequent updates. Chow for now!

A quick hello

Just a quick hello! I can see that a bunch of you are still checking in daily and I haven’t posted much this week. So here’s a post to let you know I am still alive. I’ve got a mega-post I’ve been working on. I’ve finally broken down and used the WordPress Page feature and this post is now about 6 pages long. I’ve got about 5 other posts in draft form and I’ve finished another book, but the mega-post takes priority. I hope to have it out tonight. It’s all about WordPress security. And it contains references to various attacks on older versions of WordPress and I want to perform each attack on at least one of the three test blogs I’ve configured so that none comes back and says “THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE!”. So, I’m basically done and just need to do some fact checking.

In the mean time, I just stumbled across this picture and I have to say it creeps me out and I simply don’t get creeped out by stuff. Still I’ve found that there are some fears that go beyond logic… I stayed once at a house where a guy had a pet boa he teased regularly so that it would strike at the glass when people stood near by. It would sit there and inhale loudly inflating itself to three times its original size. He made money by betting people they could not keep their face up near the glass. That is the first time I felt what I’d have to describe as an instinctual fear of any animal. It was EXTREMELY difficult to go up to that cage.

This picture doesn’t scare me but I sure get the heebee-jeebees:

OK, it's not so bad at this size, but what is on its back? Click to enlarge.

Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57756784@N00/207151357/

Please let me know if you see any oddities on this site

Oddities other than my picture that is (BTW Should I keep this new one or go back to the old one?)

I’ve just upgraded the theme from Binary Blue 1.1.1 to 1.4.0. I did it at 2am when I should have been sound asleep. I know for a fact that I was very out of it and spending large chunks of time staring at the screen with my brain turned off. I’m lucky I remembered to breath! I’ll have to go over my conversion steps again this evening. I can see there are some things I skipped over in my customization of this theme. It seems to be generally functional though. So, if you see anything that is broken please let me know.