91.200.12.81

Today I had a lot of traffic from

91.200.12.81 who is listed as a spammer, I suggest you block this user before he causes trouble. He may have caused issues which have caused my site to be slow due to heavy caching. 

Site problems

You may have noticed my site went down for a few hours today. I had two issues, one of which I am eager to discuss with you. The second issues was my sectary fix I did on the weekend worked but only temporally. What I was trying to do was block access so that users could not download my database. My database is SQL lite and is enchchaully a 'flat file' that acts as an advanced database. I had somehow made the sectury too high so no images could be accused by Drupal itself. This borke things. I couldn't figure out how to block just ".ht" files and I ended up blocking all files in the folder. As a quick workaround I moved the database to it's own folder.

The first issue I had is the one I want to talk about. After I updated the database and some modules, the site did  not look write and had some errors. I uploaded it several times in-case it was corrupt. (which seems to happen often with FTPing large files). I then decided to put the site into 'maintenance mode' so users would see a message saying the site is being worked on rather then the mess of a site I was seeing. I uploaded the database but I did not see the maintenance message and at that point I realized the problem! I was uploading the wrong database, now this CAN happen with 'normal' database engines too if you grab the wrong dump file. So the leason here is make sure you have the correct database. I have a lot of backups sitting around on the server and my local machine where the database belongs. I have to go out soon but tonight I will clean those up and move them somewhere else.(some in the trash depending on their age).

Site udpated:

I have updated my website. I have updated the .htaccass settings which where incorrect and allowed downloading of the database. This could be the cause of the random corruption of the DB. If it happens again, I will investigate further but the DB appears to be not corrupt this time even though in the past it took several uploads to get it 'correct'.(maybe I need to find a better way of uploading it.)

Thing happening this year(2015)

Here are some things happening this year:

• My credit card will expire for the first time. I've read the reason for this is so they can make sure you should still have a credit card. I think I have excellent credit so I should get a new one. This will take place in September.
• There will be a federal election this year. Legally the Consecrative Party must call an election sometime this year but it is up to them when it is. Those of us involved with political parties would like to know so that we can prepair our platforms and candidates.
• For years now people have doctored photos of Marty McFly's DeLorean inteirur to clambe 'this is the year Marty travailed too'. Well soon we will be able to say this for sure as the real year he traveld too was 2015. Now where can I buy one of those hover-boards?

I'm not sure what other things but I'm sure it will be a good year(and not because someone will buy new tires) 

My year in reveiw

It's time for something I have never done before I will talk about all the great things I did this year:

• Heritage Night -  some of you may know that I have been doing a series of events for the game Myst Online. In the events I talk about interesting things that tock place in the games past. It was a lot of fun this year and I think participants had a great time too. I tried to have interesting special guests or re-create what people saw in the past by hacking the game.(which is allowed within certurn guidelines)
• Saw friends - it is allways a good thing to have some freinds over and this year we did some very fun things. 
• Camera club scanvindger hunt - This summer I went to a farm for the camera club BBQ. Photographing animals is always fun but this year we had to find all the letters of the alphabet. We had to be very creative with the shoot and so much so the person organizing the photos had trouble knowing what some of them where. I had some very creative shoots. Last year(2013) we had to shoot specific items and I had the most creative photo. I tried to do that again but someone outdid me by finding objects which where shaped like the letter rather then starting with it. Oh well can't win em all :( 
• 3-way "ghost" chess - I found this four way chess set at a thrift store here in town. I have used it at my birthday parties for the last couple of years. Unfochelty only three friends could attend this year so we made a verryent of the game playable by thee-players dubbed '3-way ghost chess'. There are three players and 1 'ghost', the 'ghost pieces are controlled by the losing player(by material). It was a fascinating game and I will organizing another game of it or 4-way chess next year. However I have a lot of friends who aren't a big fan of chess and for my next birthday party we will do something that includes them as well.
• Give out candy - At halloween I dressed as Scott Prigram(from the comics) and gave out candy. It was raining(again) so I diden't see as many people as a might have but hay I did see Mario and Sonic :). 
•  Pathfinder - A couple months ago a new store opened here in town.(the hooded goblin). They have regular games of 'pathfinder' a pen and paper RPG based on the rules of D&D 3.5. It's very fun and now play it regularly. 
• Crstamss - On December 1st I thought it was going to be a great Cristmass and it was. I went to this Christmas festival on main street, there was a housr-drawn carrage, a drummer, a nutcracker on sticks and a grinch. There was also a Santa(kids cover your eyes) played by my ventures leader Steve Norman. I went to a camra club Cristmass party and had stuffed pork telderline. Finally for Cristmass I got a Steam(video game download service) gift card, McMaster meats gift card, 2 graphic novels, 'Fawlty Towers' on DVD  and a new wallet.
• 12 Days Of Cristmass scanner hunt - I invented and suggested a scavenger hunt for the club too do. Participants had to capture the 12 days of Christmas in whatever way they could. For example I put French hats on a picture of 3 hens and called it '3 French hens'. This is a lot of fun and next year(2015) I will see the results of everyone's work. 
• Tonight - my plain for tonight is to watch some Wallace and Grommet DVDs and then turn on CBC for '22 Minutes till midnight' who should have a countdown and probably some prity funny sketches. Oh yes and I've already finished watching 'Fawlty Towers' since it's 'that good'! 

My next post will be in the new year where I will talk about events that will take place in 2015. Hint: I 'ranted' about one of them allready this year.

Oh and freel free to check out this years post, they may be few of them but I think they are interesting none the less. 

Lara Croft Vs Indinia Jones

I've been playing some Tomb Raider games lately. I thought I could compare Lara Croft to Indiana Jones since I believe that is the character She is based on. 

Lara:
- Is more attractive but less realistic body size. I'm not a fan of this. For one thing it looks silly to see her push around hevy boxes with skinny little arms. (eh + 2 points)

-Gets a grapple which she can use to pull metal objects towards her and pull herself towards metal objects.(depending on how whether She or the object is hever. In other words it's a more realistic hook-shot[from Zelda](+ 10 points)

-Is now owned by Square Enix(+ 5 points)

Indiana:

-Seems much too old for what he's doing. In the game "India Jones and the emperor's tomb" he pants every time he lands are jump or comes out of watter and I feel like he will have a heart attack at any moment.(- 2 points, since he is not that bad in the movies)

-Has a cool hat and jacket(+ 5 points)

-Has a wipe which doubles as a rope. It hardly needs an explanation(+ 10 points)

-It a more likeable character(+ 10 points)

-Is now owned by Disney(-/+ 10 points depending on what they do with him)

India wins!

Wird Nendto Stats

Cristmass is coming and I still want a Wii U but while a wait here are some 'statistics' about Nintendo games that for the most part lickly have no meaning:

• So far every Nintendo console(not hand-held) except for the SNES has had two Zedla tittles on it. The Windacker HD remake counts in my mind.
• There has been at least one new Mario installment on each console(and probably hand-held). This acctually makes sense since Mario is kind of like Nintendo's maskcot. 
• After the Gamecube there have been four Sonic tittles on Nintendo consoles.(some of these are not nessiserly exculsive) 
• Each console after the N64 has had a 'Smash Bros' game on it. There was also a smash like game exclusive to the Japanese SNES. This makes sense as these games are like a 'fan service'. 
• Since the N64 there has been one and only one 'Paper Mario' game on each Nintendo console.
• I believe 'Twilight Princess' was the only Nintendo game to be relsed on two generations of Nintendo console. 
• Since the Gamcube, Nintendo consoles have been able to communicate with there hand-held of the same 'generation'. You probably know about the Gamboy hook-up and the Wii U's 3Ds hockup. And yes the Wii can hook up to the DS. You could download DS domes from your Wii when the 'Nindendo' channel was active. You can still download Pokemon into Pokemon stadium from you DS. I think the WiFi is used for this, so I don't think it can be done on the Wii Mini.(which has none)
• The SNES, N64 and Gamcube all have accesseris that allow you to play handheld games on your TV. The N64's is limited to cetrun games and the SNES can only play GameBoy(not GBColour) games. 
• The Wii is the first Nintendo console to have USB ports 
• I'm not 100% sure but I think the Wii U was the first console to come with an HDMI cable. Crummy composite was shipped with consoles before this. 

Thank you for reading this.