Another Year, Another Host

11/10/08 09:40:31 pm

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Just as I did last year around this time, I've switched web hosts.  Last time, the switch was about resources - I was pushing the limits of both bandwidth and disc space on my previous host.  This time, it was about quality - too many times did I find my site slow or inaccessible.  Hopefully I have found a good new home in DowntownHost.

As for myself, it rained for just one day, and the roof leaked over my apartment, my ceiling and carpet were ruined, and the subsequent repairs have left my home filthy and smelling of mildew.  This was not the "change" I wanted, Obama!  J/K.

As far as that goes - the presidential election - I can't say I'm surprised.  I'm a bit concerned that many seem to be wooed more by Obama's charisma than his policies, but he has been given a clear mandate by the electorate, so we'll see what he does with it.  In any case, it is pretty historic having a non-white male as president for the first time.  I do have faith in this country as a land of opportunity, but it's nice to have moments like this to point to and say, "see?"

Comment Spam

10/26/08 08:47:20 am

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When I first put comment forms on my site, I thought comment spam would be a big deal; something I'd have to write complex filters to deter, while still keeping watch for crafty bots that would surely get past the defenses.  So I started off with a homemade CAPTCHA and some content filtering rules that look for specific "bad words" - if you have too many of these words in your post, it'll be either held for moderation or rejected outright.

Nowadays, I have gotten rid of the CAPTCHA because it was pointless; a few spam comments had made it past, but once I added their key words to the filter, it seems like forever since I've gotten any spam.  Really?  Blocking spam is as simple as a word filter?  Seems that way.  I've read about all these complicated methods... hidden input fields, "confirmation" input fields, asking random questions... but why go to that trouble, and make your user jump through some silly hoops, when you can unobtrusively and effectively nail spam by checking the submission's content?

But... there is one type of spam that has managed to get past my filter lately... and I don't get it.  It's just a bunch of random letters.  There are some URLs, but they are composed of completely random letters as well.  What is the point of this spam?  Have blog-spamming advertisers given up on actual advertisements and decided to vengefully annoy us instead?  I'm rather curious here...  In any case, a little Googling and I've found the suggestion to add a filter for "five consonants in a row" to catch this kind of spam.  That ought to do it.

Back to Content

10/13/08 08:25:47 pm

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I kind of skipped the month of September for content updates, in favor of working on my new site design.  So today I bring you two Soul Eater skins, and an original wallpaper based on the new layout art, which is in the Gallery, rather than the Wallpaper page, because I'm planning on moving the wallpapers elsewhere... eventually.  I set up the new Gallery to hold wallpaper sized versions of my work, but it doesn't seem to be quite what I wanted after all...  Anyway, I'm never quite sure what sizes to make wallpapers these days, so if you'd like a size that isn't available, email me and I'll see if I can accommodate you. :]

Started watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which I had heard good things about, but avoided because I'm not a big fan of the mech genre of anime.  It has been surprisingly good however, with quick pacing and laudable character development.  Yay!

SpaceCatSamba v.7

09/27/08 12:39:00 pm

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New site version! It's been long overdue for a revamp, but a lot of work has gone into improving functionality.

Some new features include:

• reorganized gallery
• commenting now available for gallery images
• lightbox images (no more pop ups, so long as you have Javascript enabled)
• AJAX comment forms
• easier social bookmarking with AddThis.com widget
• easier-to-read color scheme :)

There has also been a lot of optimazation of the code and database (which is more or less negligable to the viewer, but helps the developer - me - keep things running smoothly). The site has been tested on Firefox 3 and MSIE 7. Due to inadvertent circumstance, there has been minimal testing on MSIE 6 as well, but please remember that I do not intend to support it anymore.  If you find anything that looks odd or isn't working, please don't hesitate to email me about it.

More on Spore

09/26/08 02:00:45 am

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Let me introduce Cadee, the pinnacle of evolution in my Spore-iverse.

After a relatively easy progression from the cell stage through the tribal stage, I found myself in some trouble at the civilization stage. The green nation petitioned me, "help us go to war with the blue nation," and because the blue nation was safely far away, I agreed. Unfortunately, declaring war on the blue nation was tantamount to declaring war on its ally, the orange nation, who was right next door to me at the time. Whoops. While struggling to defend my little city against the orange guys, and take a city or two for ourselves in the process, the mighty red nation gobbled up all the other nations in the blink of an eye. Generous bribes and compliments to the reds then became the order of the day.

So there I am with two cities under my control, while the red nation controls the rest of the whole darn planet. Huh. Well, we were on quite cordial terms, so it was easy to allow my cities to sit around and generate a lot of money while nobody came attacking. But war was inevitable when the goal of the civ stage is "conquer the planet," so when enough funding had accumulated, it was off to attack the neighboring cities. For such a fleeting moment, I had control of 4 cities, and this unlocks ... aircraft! But my funds had dwindled and the reds were quickly decimating my territories. It seemed like the end, when suddenly, their thirst for vengeance was quelled (or something), and the reds retreated, leaving me one small, land-locked city to keep. Little did they know, this single act of non-aggression would be their eventual undoing.

For now we had aircraft! Far more efficient in city-capturing, if only we could afford them... No matter; with the reds appeased, it was again a simple matter of waiting for the cash to roll in. Once a surplus was built up, it was all downhill for the reds from there - we went from one city to six in no time. And then this little icon lit up at the bottom of the screen... "I..C... B... M?" As Rirath called it, I had found the "'win the game' button" - one press (and $36k) later, the globe was mine.

And now... to space!