Petoholics Anonymous

Hear ye, hear ye! Looking for bloggers!

// February 25th, 2010 // 9 Comments » // Random Stuff

There I was, staring at my Google Reader. I was struck with a sudden, blinding flash of inspiration…

“You really need to clean this %*@# up.”

As I was purging old blogs, some of which had not been updated since last summer, I recalled that my blogroll here also needed a similar culling. I’m a lazy person, I’ll admit it. But lazy also means that you get inventive!

Thanks to Mania’s post that I somehow managed to remember, I was able to tie my blogroll to my Reader so I would only have to do one update. Again…lazy, but brilliant IMHO.

After that and the purging had been completed, my Reader looked woefully small and I came to the realization that I have not added a new blog in a while. I scoured some other blogs’ links and added a few here and there. However, I still want more.

So here’s your opportunity for shameless self-promotion (or selflessly promoting your favorite blog, I don’t care). In the comments, I want to see some cool blogs for me to read and link to. My favorite kind of blogs have at least a little bit of a personal touch, not just spewing out fact and theory-crafting. Heck, they don’t even have to be hunter blogs! I’d totally broaden my horizons. So link away, my fine petoholic friends!

No, I’m not being lazy and making everyone else search for me. I swear it’s because I value my reader’s opinions.

/shifty eyes

Random thought: I’ve been toying with the idea of having another person start posting here as well. Yes, a guest poster or a co-author, something like that. Would that sort of thing be of interest to anyone? What would you post about?

At least I’m not the only one

// July 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Gripe, Random Stuff

The Guild blog got hijacked by those spammers too. The issue seems to be old Wordpress files that have been hanging around from previous versions and never got updated because…well, they’re not used any more. So if you have a self-hosted Wordpress blog that has been updated from an older version, check your files. Wiping all the Wordpress files and starting with a fresh install might be a good idea.

In closing, I only have this to say…bastard spammers.

Scum of the internet

// June 18th, 2009 // 9 Comments » // Gripe, Random Stuff

So, I’m sure you’re all wondering what has happened to the Petoholics theme and where all the posts and pages disappeared to. The answer is pretty simple and yet surprisingly infuriating…spammers hacked my blog.

Thankfully they didn’t upload any viruses or anything. Instead they seemed content with filling every page with spam links for “that little blue pill” and god knows what else. They even hid it so the only way you could see it is looking at the source code. At first I thought they had only gotten to this blog. Then I realized that they had put their crap on every single PHP file in the wolfdragon.net domain. Anyone who has visited my old site knows that it had over 200 PHP pages.

How did they do it? Your guess is as good as mine. It could have been anything from backdoors in Wordpress or its plugins, some old unsecure script located on one of those 200+ pages that I haven’t touched for years, or even my webhost being comprimised. After a bit of searching, I discovered that other people have had similar problems particularly with hacked Wordpress themes. So far I have yet to see one that knows how it was done in the first place. Instead they talk about how to deal with the impact.

Why did they do it? Google “wow name generator”. My PANDA generator is second from the top. I was getting 700-800 hits a day from that position. The spammers decided they wanted to piggyback off my hard work and they somehow found a way to do it. They just wanted to get their stupid spam out there, regardless of who they hurt in the process.

What happens now? I tried at first to just delete their code from my blog, not realizing at the time that they had gotten to all those other pages. I got rid of some out of date plugins, changed my password, basically tried every security trick I could find. I hoped I had succeeded. The next day it was back again and that’s when I discovered it wasn’t just Petoholics Anonymous that had been affected. I figured the best thing to do would be to start anew, wiping the slate clean of their s**t. So I downloaded every file to my computer, backed up every database, and then deleted everything from my server. As for Petoholics, I will work on getting every blog post and page up here again, hopefully all the comments too. I don’t know how long it will take because I want to go over every inch with a fine toothed comb. The last thing I want is a repeat of this nightmare.

The side of me you’re all seeing right now is the practical side, the part that’s dealing with the problem at hand. What you aren’t seeing is the very angry, “I’m going to hunt down and hurt these spammer” side. My guildmates talk about how they know I’m mad when I start swearing. Imagine me using the vilest curses I know in every second breath. The part that hurts the most surprisingly? They defiled the part of my old site that showcases Blacky, my dear black lab that passed away two year ago. And I know they don’t give a rat’s a** about it. That…that demands retribution that I can’t give because the spammers are spineless cowards. All I can do clean up the mess and make things right again.

So if you’re a blogger (which I know a lot of you are), take my situation and learn from it. Be diligent about your blog, check your security on a regular basis and keep things up to date. Please don’t let this happen to you.

~Faeldray

New WoW Name Generator

// April 7th, 2008 // 10 Comments » // Random Stuff

I’ve been working on updating to Wordpress 2.5 (went very smoothly, thanks for asking) and tweaking the new design (like adding Gravatars to the comments). More importantly though is the second part of my project. See, this new design is a school project that where I got to choose what I would do. My instructor wanted me to focus/improve on my Flash skills. So I put those to good use and created my own online PANDA WoW name generator! I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy but I am happy that I figured it out. The best part is that the names and their categories are completely editable so I can add new names or even species at any time with just a text editor.

So not only can you generate names for your characters but you can also suggest names to be added to the list using the form located beneath the name generator. I’d appreciate any name suggestions and shortly, I will be posting a list of the ones I require the most. If this proves to be popular enough, I may create one for naming pets. Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

// March 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // Hunters and Pets, Random Stuff

Okay, so it’s after Easter but I was too busy spending time with my family and chowing down on their wonderful home cooking to blog anything. Mmmm…so much good food.

I’ve been working on a portfolio project at school (did I ever mention that I’m taking web design) and for this project, we pretty much get to do whatever we want. So…I’m not only going to create a new theme for this blog from scratch, but I’m also attempting to create an online WoW name generator in Flash, since the majority of my visitors are looking for that. I’ll tell ya, the Flash part is so easy…the ActionScript part is not. I sure hope that I’m able to finish it by the end of the week. The blog theme won’t be as bad, as I just have to slice my Photoshop layout and code using this wonderful step-by-step guide.

WoW-wise…let’s see…Khaja reached level 29 and her ravager is around level 23. I still need a name for him, as well as a screenshot so everyone can see the two of them. Nicora dinged level 55 the other night and in a couple hours, managed to get her Cooking from level 141 to 234. Being my real first character, I didn’t realize how useful cooking could be and so I hadn’t leveled up her cooking at all. It wasn’t too long ago before Nicora’s Cooking was level 1 (she would have burnt water) and in a previous session, I got it up to 141 before I got sick of that and put it off for a little while.

I know that Nicora’s gear is sad to say in the least. I’m not the kind of person who obsesses over PHAT PURPLEZ but I do know that wearing gear that’s 15+ levels lower than you is a bad thing. I’ll have to get her some better gear before she and Blacky venture off into the battlegrounds to get her Black War Wolf. One item that drastically needs replacing is her Master Hunter’s Rifle. And she does have a Highland Bow in her bags…only her Bows skill is 1. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet but I need to soon because the battlegrounds are looming over me menacingly.