Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on Apr 18 2015 06:27 PM
So I feel I owe an update. I've put the https: project on hold as I realized we are behind on several 3rd party software package updates. I've been spending some time reducing some "technical debt" and writing some more tests to make sure I don't break anything in the future. After that I really want to get this https: project completed and then to a new more responsive website design.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Noel
Joined: Mar 15, 2011
Posts: 8528
Back in Piitsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I grew up.
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Posted on Apr 18 2015 06:53 PM
Brian wrote:
So I feel I owe an update. I've put the https: project on hold as I realized we are behind on several 3rd party software package updates. I've been spending some time reducing some "technical debt" and writing some more tests to make sure I don't break anything in the future. After that I really want to get this https: project completed and then to a new more responsive website design.
Whew! You da' man! Appreciation to you, Brian.
— This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 07 2015 10:00 PM
This site has so many moving parts now that when I upgrade one piece I need to upgrade another and another. And now one of the pieces (the search engine) doesn't work the same as before. Hopefully either I can work around this or the owners of that software will agree I have found a bug and fix it.
I really want to get us on https, redesign the site, and introduce notifications about radio shows soon.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 16 2015 10:34 AM
There is a good chance that sometime this weekend I'll be taking the site down to upgrade a bunch of software.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 16 2015 03:10 PM
We are back up and running. I updated several important software packages so if you see anything strange let me know.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 16 2015 06:52 PM
Oops, Arny found the first bug. There was a problem when you went to edit the first post in a forum thread. This should be fixed now.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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arny
Joined: Aug 22, 2010
Posts: 614
Netherlands, Europe
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Posted on May 16 2015 07:01 PM
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 16 2015 10:31 PM
I rebuilt the search index, so search should be working again.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 25 2015 09:44 PM
I'm back on the train to https for SG101. I was going to take a post from a user and then download all the hot-linked images, then upload them to a location under our control. But after thinking about this for a while it is very complicated and can have performance impacts on the server. I think what I'll do is add a new form for hot-linking images. It will download the unsecure image, upload and resize to our Amazon storage. You can still try to hot-link images but the server will reject the post unless you use the new form. I know this is confusing so I am asking for beta testers so we can try out some new ideas before unleashing it on the general population. If you'd like to help out please PM, email or post here.
Once that is hashed out I'll convert all the old hot-linked images to https: and then the site can finally go secure. Thanks for your patience.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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dboomer
Joined: Jan 05, 2009
Posts: 262
Port Hueneme, CA
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Posted on May 25 2015 10:30 PM
Hey Brian
Just in case no one has said thanks for all you do lately ... Thanks for all you do! There are a lot of people that think so too.
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 25 2015 10:43 PM
Thank you Don.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 29 2015 08:08 AM
I'm seeing some occasional website errors when people are using the search form. I can't reproduce the problem but I think have a hunch about what is wrong. I'll try to get a fix installed this weekend. Thanks.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on May 30 2015 10:57 AM
It seems the website was down for 5 or 6 hours late last night / early morning. Apparently my hosting provider had some kind of electrical problem in the data center.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on Jul 27 2015 07:01 PM
I had big plans to make it so you could hot-link images from non-secure sources, but I'm not making much progress on this for various reasons. We need to get onto https sooner rather than later. So I'm just going to do the minimal amount of work to ensure a user can't embed an image unless it is from a white-listed set of sources. These sources will include our S3 bucket we are already using, as well as Google, Facebook, and Dropbox.
Then I'll get all of our older hot-linked images put into our S3 bucket.
Then we can finally make the site use https everywhere.
Then we can work on a site redesign which will include support for hot-linking from unsafe places. I'm learning a bunch of new stuff at my new job so a more responsive and mobile friendly version of SG101 should be possible.
Any help would be appreciated. And your patience will be needed. Thanks.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Badger
Joined: Nov 16, 2013
Posts: 4536
Wisconsin
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Posted on Jul 27 2015 08:18 PM
Brian wrote:
Any help would be appreciated. And your patience will be needed. Thanks.
Patience I got (I'm a Cubs fan, fer cryin' out loud). What is it you need help with?
— Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel
DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on Aug 03 2015 09:29 AM
I had to turn off the search feature because all of a sudden a bunch of assholes are trying to attack the site through it. I hope to have it up and running soon.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Badger
Joined: Nov 16, 2013
Posts: 4536
Wisconsin
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Posted on Aug 03 2015 02:32 PM
Maybe they need some counter-battery fire. Shoot me some source IP info if you have it. Otherwise, nice that you had mechanisms on-board to detect that. I'm certainly grateful for your stewardship of the site.
But if you need some electronic knee-caps broken, I might know a guy who knows a guy...
— Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel
DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on Aug 03 2015 05:32 PM
As usual it's a bot farm, with IP's from all over the world (in this case Texas, Poland, and Italy on the ones I checked).
The mitigation is in place and the search function is back online.
If we continue to see abuse like this I might have to make it so you have to login to search first.
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
Last edited: Aug 03, 2015 17:34:08
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Badger
Joined: Nov 16, 2013
Posts: 4536
Wisconsin
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Posted on Aug 03 2015 09:00 PM
Does a captcha mechanism work for purposes of launching a search?
That would probably be another piece of s/w though...
Hate these friggin' people as much as I detest the cretins that stole JOBeast's Harmony Rocket. They need eviscerating (stole it from Jake).
— Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel
DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19335
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on Aug 04 2015 05:04 PM
I'm leaving for the SG101 convention tomorrow so I just wanted to let you know that it may take longer than usual for me to get back to you with questions/answers and publishing your content like downloads, news stories, band map entries, etc. Thanks everyone and I look forward to meeting friends old and new!
— Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me
"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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