Earth: Mostly Harmless

WordPress 2.0.5

I just upgraded this site to WordPress 2.0.5. Let me notice if anything works/looks screwy.

Cheers all.

WP-Cache

I’ve just installed WP-Cache to speed up this site and reduce loading times. I had to customise it to fix a blank-page bug so if you have any problems please contact me (a contact page is coming soon!)

On a related note, there will now only be 5 items on the front page (another loading time measure). Also, you’ll now be able to get 20 items through the RSS feed instead of the previous 10.

Hostmonster Are Spammers

I was going to move this site to HostMonster, as I noted in an earlier post.

However, I picked up a comment on this blog which Akismet (correctly) identified as spam:

HostMonster | admin@hostmonsterwebhostingreview.com | http://www.hostmonsterwebhostingreview.com/ | IP: 68.3.51.196

Hostmonster is a really nice choice of a host, feel free to drop by and tell our readers about your experience.

I’ve removed the links, but the email address and the website address linked to hostmonsterwebhostingreview.com, which, unsurprisingly, gives hostmonster a 100% positive rating, and opens with the stunningly unbiased remark:

We have tested the service and know the owners of HostMonster. They are one of the truely great companies that we have had the pleasure of dealing with.

Sorry, but I don’t support spammers. If this wasn’t done by someone acting on behalf of HostMonster, then I apologise - but why would anyone go to the trouble of registering a domain like that if it weren’t for some commercial benefit?

Here’s the WHOIS output for that domain:

Registrant:
   Domains by Proxy, Inc.
   DomainsByProxy.com
   15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
   Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
   United States

   Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
   Domain Name: HOSTMONSTERWEBHOSTINGREVIEW.COM
      Created on: 31-Aug-06
      Expires on: 31-Aug-07
      Last Updated on: 31-Aug-06

   Administrative Contact:
      Private, Registration  HOSTMONSTERWEBHOSTINGREVIEW.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
      Domains by Proxy, Inc.
      DomainsByProxy.com
      15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
      Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
      United States
      (480) 624-2599      Fax -- (480) 624-2599

   Technical Contact:
      Private, Registration  HOSTMONSTERWEBHOSTINGREVIEW.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
      Domains by Proxy, Inc.
      DomainsByProxy.com
      15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
      Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
      United States
      (480) 624-2599      Fax -- (480) 624-2599

   Domain servers in listed order:
      NS97.HOSTGATOR.COM
      NS98.HOSTGATOR.COM

Photon: iPhoto photoblogging software

This is a pretty interesting plug-in for iPhoto which makes the link between ‘the world’s greatest photo management software and the world’s favorite blogging platforms’, according to maker Daikini Software. I’ve made a couple of test posts here and it seems to work pretty well with WordPress. Daikini claims it also works with Movable Type™, TypePad™ and Blojsom.

The only bug I’ve discovered means that it doesn’t scale photos in a manner which respects their proportions. Still it’s only at version 1.1.1, and you can’t really complain for free.

It certainly speeds things up when photoblogging. Perhaps I’ll use this when travelling in the future.

Screenshot:

Site changes

Note: This was originally posted on an older revision of this blog hosted somewhere else, so it doesn’t make sense in its current context. Just here for completeness.

Hi all, I’m making a few changes to this site, some of which have already been done and the rest of which should be completed over the next few days. I’ve been enjoying having a place to post my thoughts, and though I caught on to the blogging thing quite late on, I think I am getting the hang of it. My site is performing pretty well in terms of hits but I’d ideally like to get a regular readership, and I’ll be publishing more regularly with this in mind. I’ll be posting a little more in terms of personal stuff rather than just comment on technology and politics, and I’m also going to change some of the layout and jiggery-pokery going on in the background to make the site more intuitive. There’s plenty which can be done with WordPress, and other users here on Blogsome are doing great things with the templates and whatnot, so I’ll be making the most of the GPL license and incorporating my own twist on these ideas into the site. Finally, the site name is now ‘Earth: Mostly Harmless’ - partly as it’s a more obvious Douglas Adams reference and secondly so that it doesn’t reflect on me! Because I’m… bad… or something… yes. Questions/comments? Click here to get my email address, or post your thoughts here.

Graeme