Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Problem Exists Between Chair and Computer

So, I noticed that there have been zero visits to the site since implementing ssl the other day, and thus I noticed a major PEBCAC error... I forgot to forward port 443 to the web server :/ Problem resolved, so my one or two daily visitors can get through again ;)

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

https

You may or may not have noticed, but the site redirects to https://www.nitemarecafe.com now. I'm using a free certificate from Let's Encrypt and an automated client to update the certificate every 60 days. The certificate is good for 90 days, but renewing it automatically every 60 gives me plenty of time to take corrective action if the automatic process fails.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Fail!

Obviously, I suck at keeping up on daily December posts ;) Maybe it's my procrastination, or maybe it's that December is a bit busier than other months, but I don't think I'm going to keep going with daily posts. I will attempt to keep going fairly regularly, though :)

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Damnit!

Missed yesterday. At least I made it half way through December before missing a day, and I have a good excuse ;)

The wife and I went to the 1:15AM showing of Rogue One (which is the best Star Wars since the first one, IMHO) and came out to freezing rain. I love our in BFE, and by the time we reached the North outerbelt in Columbus, the highways were already a bit tricky. So we headed to the in-laws' to crash for a bit before h3ading home. And by then, my phone was too drained to power up at all, and I was too lazy to pull out a notebook to post that Rogue One was excellent. Highly recommend.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Down time

I apologize for the down time. The server froze completely. :/ Go figure.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Moving

Apache keeps crashing out on the current server, so I'll be moving the site very soon. In the meantime, I apologize for the intermittent downtime.

edit: I've installed WP Super Cache to help with speed issues. Hopefully it'll help with Apache stability as well, since I think it was excessive load causing that issue.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Two weeks in

Today marks two weeks of the "post something every day of December" challenge I gave myself, and I thought I'd share some thoughts.

It's been so long since I've blogged on any type of regular basis that I initially found it quite difficult to even choose a random link to post. But as time goes by, I've found it easier and easier to do, and have found creating original content quite enjoyable.

Also, I've found the performance of the web server to be a bit lacking. I'm considering either moving it over to a Linux machine with the same specs, or possibly moving it over to a free web hosting company that I've used before.

I'm not 100% sold on the DarkEQ theme that I took so long to convert. I like the color scheme, but the font may be a bit small. For anyone reading this on the full website (the mobile theme is quite different) I'd like to hear some feedback.

I'm quite impressed with BuddyPress, which converts the site into a full-blown social media platform. I'd like some thoughts on additional fields to add that anyone who signs up might like added to profiles. Things like DOB, gender, favorite movie, etc.

Finally, should I add IRC-like chat to the site like I had done quite some time ago? Seems like it might be a good addition with the social aspects that have been added.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

RIP, Big Sis

One year + one month ago, my older sister passed away from lung cancer at 49 years old.

It feels like just yesterday that I was running a part-time BBS on her 286 computer with 2400 baud modem. A few years later, and I was babysitting her children and decided to chat with some of the users of her own BBS while the children were sleeping. This is how I met my wife.

I miss you, Angie. I can't believe you're gone. Thank you for everything you did for me while you were here.

Monday, December 12, 2016

WWiV

I have been quietly running a telnetable BBS for some time over at bbs.nitemarecafe.com for awhile now, without really advertising it anywhere. I'm barely active in any of the networks I've joined so far, and it's just not as fun as it used to be. Part of this is because I miss the local flavor of running a dial-up BBS back in the day, and part is that I really miss modding the hell out of my BBS to make it completely unique. And while there's something to be said for how far WWiV has come in the 5.xx series, I'm really considering going back to 4.24a. First thing will probably be to mod in fossil support from 4.30, and then add it most of the FMD mods. If I'm running the BBS based on nostalgia, I might as well take that nostalgia up a notch and do it right ;) Also, I have TWC's digital home phone service, which is a VoIP service, and some have had at least marginal success in running dial-up over VoIP, so I may attempt to offer a dial-up node on top of the telnet nodes.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Another one of my gifts this year was the first nine seasons of The Big Bang Theory on DVD. In one of the episodes we were watching, Penny bought Leonard a first (US) edition of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and it reminded me that my parents had bought me that exact edition, except in paperback, when I was nine or ten years old after it had just come out. It would be a few years before I finally sat down and read it (I was 12 at the time). It was one of those books, along with Lord of the Rings, that really made me love reading. And even though the bought me many other gifts growing up, it's one of the few I actually remember. The funny thing is, they didn't give it to me directly. I remember my brother handing it to me when they got home from the book store. I don't recall it being a special occasion of any kind, and I didn't really get it yet, which is why it took me a couple years to read it. I just remember my brother giving it to me and telling me my parents thought I would enjoy it. They weren't wrong ;)

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Saturday, December 10, 2016

Swag

My wife and I have problems waiting until the actual holiday before exchanging gifts. We get so excited about how much we know the other is going to love the item, that we rarely even get it wrapped. That's certainly the case with my latest Christmas give from sci-fiblock.com. It is a bunch of swag and collectibles, similar to what you'd find at ThinkGeek (but much higher quality, imho), related to science fiction. The one she got my includes swag for Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek, Star Wars, Aliens, and more. Patches, books, pins, soundtracks (on vinyl, no less), etc. Very awesome gift.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

5 Raspberry Pi Projects

MAKE responded with five Raspberry Pi projects for Wil Wheaton.

RIP John Glenn

Today is a say day, as one of my heros (not to mention national hero), John Glenn has died.

"The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel."
– John Glenn

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

One by one, the penguins are stealing my sanity...

Random title, just because ;) (I know, I know. I've used it on posts on previous iterations of the blog.)

A week in to December, and linking to Wil Weaton again. This time it's because he's asking for Arduino and Raspberry Pi project ideas, and I really want to see what people post in his comments. Thought my few readers might be interested as well ;)

Friday, December 2, 2016

December challenge

Yesterday, Wil Wheaton posted that he was challenging himself to post something, anything, to his blog every single day this month. I thought I'd share in the challenge, and this is today's entry ;)

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Wiki

I can't seem to locate the Wiki plugin I was using before, so I've installed one of the most popular ones I could find. It appears to allow editing from the front-end, but I'm not use what roles need assigned on the site in order to allow the editing. I may wind up changing plugins, but we'll see ;)