sprites & bites » blogging

To Twit or Not?

beck — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:45:38 +0000

My blog has been a bit slow lately and I do apologise but I always seem to find other stuff to do – not necessarily more important stuff, just other stuff. Sometimes I would like to blog that I am playing a certain game, like for example today I have been playing Red Faction Guerilla, but I may not want to write a long post about it just mention it and a blog post with a few lines seems wasteful.

So now I thought I would give Twitter a go. It might suit me down to a tee because I have a 140 character limit on posts and it is designed purely for small posts. It will also give me a little space on my blog to talk about other things in my life apart from games that I do not want to involve the blog in.

I will do my best to get involved in this new fangled way of mini communication and if you wish to follow my boring life directly then you may see me over at my Twitter Page or just read it here. I promise I will not update it with the silliest things like having coffee

Oh and this does not spell the end of Sprites & Bites blog, its in addition and hopefully will complement it.

New WordPress 2.7

beck — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:09:30 +0000

My Dashboard has been telling me for a few weeks to upgrade but I kept putting it off out of laziness and that I was expecting it to be a few bug fixes here and there and I really had not the time to do it.

So today I decided to finally upgrade it and got the pleasant surprise that it is a whole new dashboard with some very useful new features.

Of note is the new Quickpress on the dashboard which is where you can type a quick post, add media and add tags. I am writing this post now using quickpress and while it is handy it does not have the option to place it in a category, I expect that will come in a future upgrade.

I like the new layout of the dashboard, everything is a lot cleaner and most things can be seen at a quick glance what you need. It is very well designed.

Congratulations to the development team on their hard work

Recommend a Web Host

beck — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:16:34 +0000

I am looking for a new web hosting provider. Currently I am using www.compila.com I must stress I have no problems with Compila at all, but my two year lease is up for renewal and I think I can get a better deal elsewhere.

First and foremost, security and reliability is of utmost importance. Because I need to install WordPress on it I also need a MYSQL database aswell. Unlimited bandwidth would be a bonus but not a requirement. Also, SMTP support would be a big bonus so I can have my own domain smtp server if I need to send emails away from my isp.

Finally they need to be UK based. I know there are some cheaper deals abroad but I want a UK company to deal with if there are any problems.

So does anybody have any recommendations of a supplier that would suit me please?

Google, Firefox and Security Measures

beck — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:23:16 +0000

Last week I was horrified to find that both Google and Firefox had blocked this website to its users. The security measure did not affect users of Firefox 2, but new users of Firefox 3. If someone was using Firefox 3 they were presented with a worrying red and black screen saying “Reported Attack Site” – see screenshot below. Clicking through to the details to try and find what was happening it listed a rogue website “sum4count” as being on the domain. I was totally perplexed by this as I do not knowingly host malicious software or links. I decided to backup my posts and delete my wordpress installation and reinstall it, just in case there was anything on the server. I also took a quick look at the source of my index page and lo and behold there was a link in one of my posts to a sum4count website. I have no idea how it got there, but I deleted it and sent the site in for a second review.

This is the screen that Firefox 3 users would have seen.

If searching for Sprites and Bites on Google you would have been met with a link to my site and another link to say “this website may harm your computer”. Clicking on my link would have taken you to another google site blocking you out.
So the review I submitted had cleared my website and declared it safe, yet the tag of unsafe website was still attached to my domain. Yesterday I decided to delete every single post on Sprites and start afresh. All of the old has gone so now they can have no reason to think that any of my posts are dodgy. Today the block has finally been lifted and my domain is no longer tagged as being unsafe – not that it was unsafe in the first place. As reported by Google themselves, there was never any malicious software on this blog, there was never even a risk just by visiting the blog, it was purely a link to another website which may have harmed your PC. And I still do not know how it got there.

I hate Google and Firefox for doing this to my blog. But I cannot help but think they actually did me a favour – after all, had this not happened, the blog would have been the same old posts clogging up the worldwide web with no great purpose. I feel a resurgence coming on – Sprites and Bites MK II