Where I’m @

20050331

Note to Self
AFAICT, once you set the netbootMachineFilePath in Active Directory (using ADSI, in our case), you cannot clear it or set it to null or an empty string. Not that we specifically have a need to, but we erroneously set some computer objects’ netbootMachineFilePath value to our RIS server (our only one at the office), and we hate messiness like having a value where there does not need to be one.

20050310

Getting Back on Our Feet
The long and short of it is that Ishbadiddle, our tenant, was getting slammed with comment spam on his MovableType-driven blog. He had implemented MT-Blacklist, but the pitfalls of that soon became apparent and corroborated elsewhere. Our former hosts, Wowrack, were moderately understanding; they pulled the plug on us temporarily a couple times before their patience or expertise or both ran out. Frankly, we would think that there was something automatic a host could do about sites that peg the CPU, but we haven’t looked into it. Nothing we run personally or professionally has that kind of tarpit. (Yeah, right.)

Nonetheless, here we are now at FluidHosting. We’re settling in, but still working the kinks out of reinstalling MovableType for Ishbadiddle. So far, FH has been tons quicker on support issues than Wowrack was, which is a real breath of fresh air. As it seems to be turning out, our initial problems with getting MT installed had mostly to do with trying to move an installed version from one host to another, and specifically that the plugins didn’t seem to want to migrate. We did not personally install or oversee the installation of the plugins, so we don’t know whether they were tied to the IP or path of our previous server, but that's our speculation.

In other news, we're getting a used iPod from a friend, at a bargain rate, and it includes an iTrip. Worth the price all by itself. So far, the only question mark is whether a PC FireWire (excuse me IEEE 1394) card carries bus power. Nothing we’ve seen makes any specific mention either way. The iPod’s coming with an adapter, so we aren’t concerned about power, but it would be nice to have the inline option as well.

UPDATE (11.Mar.05): Added link for good piece on comment spam.