Left In Lowell

I just got word as to what is happening with Blue Mass Group, if you have been trying to get that website all day. Apparently, SoapBlox, which BMG uses for hosting and running their site, has been seriously hacked. It looks very, very bad.

This follows the hacking and death of Journalspace, another popular blog site, which very recently went under due to the severity of its data loss. I suspect the two are not unrelated.

I’ve already offered what help I can to David, but it’s hard to know how quickly BMG might be back up, if it can get back up at all with its archives intact. Best wishes, guys.

Today’s is Veterans’ Day, and I’d like to take a moment to honor all vets who have served this country. Thanks.

In this democratic country of ours, the military doesn’t make the policies, but are the ones to carry out what the civilian, sometimes inept Commander in Chief commits them to. A person who joins the Armed Forces signs him or herself to giving up some of their democratic rights in order to serve and defend this country. I think that’s awfully brave, and a part of the military service story that doesn’t get told. We all talk about the bravery of combat, of saving lives or losing theirs, but to commit, to trust your country to do the right thing with the lives they hold in their collective hands, that’s brave too.

To those people who served and serve, thanks for giving us that. We may not always agree on the best use of your sacrifice, but it is still a sacrifice. On this day, remember that we still have many soldiers serving in harm’s way, and let’s make sure we take care of them, now and when they come home.

Friday night’s National Anthem Obama fundraising concert was an uplifting experience. It was nearly sold out, and I have been told (straight from the horse’s mouth) that it reached its $50,000 goal. (I’m sure David will post about that soon - sorry to scoop ya, David!)

Though I was out front selling tickets, I didn’t get to see a lot of the people I knew came, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to say hi. But for those of you who were there you know the front entrance was a bit chaotic - evidence of the amazing attendance. Looking around the hall (after rushing my way in just before curtain), I could see there was only a small percentage of seats not holding bodies.

The evening was full of little moments, like the song sung in the first half which dated from 1920’s Germany deriding oil as something that will ruin the world - all too relevant today - and a lot of personality and poise…and talent. Not the least of whom were Charley and David themselves, who sang in several selections. (Nice to finally hear you sing, Charley!) And the Egmont was lovely (it’s one of my faves).

At the end, the crowd all joined the singers and orchestra in a heartfelt rendition of the national anthem. Charley already wrote about how powerful and moving the experience was, so I don’t need to. But it truly put a perspective on the politics of hope. After all, that the flag still flew over Fort McHenry at Baltimore gave Francis Scott Key, detained in his boat by the British because he knew too much about their navel positions, much hope in a dark hour.

It isn’t, in the end, what we fail to do as Americans that defines us. And our failures are plenty, dating back to our country’s birth. It is our never ending quest to live up to the ideals of our country that the world admires, that we as Americans believe that the world can be better, more fair, less divisive, if only we work hard enough for it. That’s the country Obama is fighting for, and that’s the country that we can be proud of.

If you are checking this blog today in your normal web crawl for news, stop what you are doing right now.

It’s a day off (for most of us) and it’s the nicest most comfortable, beautiful day of the year.

Stop thinking politics and get outside and enjoy it. I assure you, politics will be here tomorrow morning.

As for me, I’ll be taking my own advice in a little bit…just a couple of hours doing some personal computer work for a family project, then relaxing and enjoying the day. Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!

Yeah, it’s a week of geek. Sorry!

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Go watch it while it’s available! You can also own it from iTunes, but it’s now being played on the site for free - all three episodes in one pass. It’s a Joss Whedon production, featuring Neil Patrick Harris, and if you’re a Firefly fan, Nathon freakin’ Fillion (*swoon*). And another familiar face from the last season of Buffy, too.

My husband sent me a link to this image recently, and honestly, only the real and true geeks will know how absolutely hilarious it is. (Does that include you?)

The reason this image strikes a cord these days is this upcoming movie (careful, major Flash animation and sound).

By the way, if you’re a fan of the graphic novel and interested in the movie, there’s a cool production blog, with a once-a-month video with behind the scenes footage. Awesome. March 06 can’t come fast enough (and this is one movie I plan on seeing the very first showing of).

The Sun reports that a boy was hit while on his bike in Gorham St, after dodging into traffic. He had no helmet and was seriously injured.

I grew up in a rural neighborhood, but I remember my mom was really strict with us in teaching us how to ride on the public roadways. I even recall having to read a booklet on the rules of the road, that a bicycle is considered, for purposes of these rules, as having the same rights and responsibilities as any automobile. Including riding with traffic and not against, and stopping at red lights and stop signs like any car does. (Funny, I don’t remember her making me wear a helmet.)

Every day, I see bicyclists ignoring these rules…riding on the sidewalk, not stopping at lights or stop signs, or riding against traffic…and not wearing any helmets. Maybe 5% of Lowell’s bikers follow the rules so far as I can tell. In a city like Lowell, it’s even more imperative that we cyclists follow the rules and wear our helmets. (I wear mine despite its habit of flattening my nice new haircut, which looks goofy once I get to work - but I don’t care, because I won’t petal one turn out of my driveway without it.)

I almost decided these last couple of days to ride to work, and via Gorham too - and I wish I had, and wish I would have the courage to tell teenagers I meet on the road, like this young man, that they need to ride defensively and carefully. My best wishes that this boy pulls through and recovers and my thoughts are with his family.

If you have kids, whether they ride in the city or the country or the suburbs, make sure they understand the rules they need to follow and that they wear a helmet. You can read up on some important tips here. And drivers, remember that bikes are out there and have a right to be on the road:

Stay Out of the Door Zone. Bicyclists may use an entire travel lane even where there are bike lanes, so stay away from parked cars.

Bicycles Are Vehicles. Respect bicyclists’ right to full use of the road; the law allows bicyclists to use an entire travel lane even where there are bike lanes.

Next time a bicycle takes up your lane in front of you to get around a parked car, or to make a left turn in a multi-lane intersection, don’t get pissy. They have every right. And parents need to understand that their kids have to ride smart. Let’s keep it safe for everyone out there.

Recently, I got a new toy on my new toy, unlimited data access on my PDA phone. Really nifty, I now can surf the web on the phone. But it took my PDA phone browser to catch several hidden sections of spam links on this website, links you can’t see because they are hidden by formatting, but which are there, none the less. Someone managed to hack these links into the WordPress code on this site. I don’t know when it happened, but it did.

So, I am going forward with the LiL upgrade. WP is not secure, there are too many holes. I know the software I want to switch to is, at a minimum, much more secure, and I have a lot more control. It’s easier to upgrade EE, whereas when you want to upgrade WP to the latest, you often run into compatibility issues with plugins and templates.

I will be reaching out to those who pledged and let them know how they can get me the money. I know I will have enough to at least buy the software. Phase one is to at least get a site set up with most of its current functionality. I can’t afford to make the LiL development a priority past that, but more advanced features can be added as time allows - one great thing about ExpressionEngine is that it’s flexible and modular.

And EE developers take the security of their software very, very seriously, so hopefully this never happens again.

As in, stolen car troubles, over the weekend. Luckily, it was our “throwaway” car, but after it was recovered with damage, we decided to get rid of it rather than get it fixed. So instead of being out several hundred dollars, I’m out a more than half a day’s work.

Therefore, today is not a good day to blog. I would probably say something I shouldn’t. (Like how Darwin should really take care of the idiot male teenagers that think it’s a good idea to jump out in front of your moving vehicle suddenly.) Ergo, utilize this as your friendly open thread for today.

With weddings and summer and clients, I haven’t had enough time to shill for pledges for that Left in Lowell upgrade. But I still do want to get that underway if I can hack it (the time and money, I mean, not hacking the code. )

Given that recently, I’ve watched two installs of WP (one of my own - not LiL, and one of someone else’s) fall to actual hacking (as in, the virus kind) that’s even more reason to switch to a more secure ExpressionEngine as soon as it’s plausible.

So far, generous readers have pledged $295 total towards an upgrade. That’s enough to at least buy the software, but I would really need to increase that at least twofold (to $900) to have a safe cushion. I believe I will need some outside professional assistance to import WP data safely (after all, we have three plus years of posts, comments, and podcasts we don’t want to lose), and there may be other plugins I will want to buy. Plus, it will literally be a few weeks of my time, with all the features I want to build. I’m willing to work on the cheap for this project, but I still do need to get some income for all those hours that I’m not working on client sites.

So, if you have the extra cash on hand (don’t pledge if you’re broke, please!) and still want to send in a pledge, any amount, I’ll give this project another few weeks before deciding yay or nay. You can email me the amount at lynne [at] leftinlowell.com (replace [at] with an @, no spaces), and if the project goes forward, I’ll send you an email with where to send the check. My thanks to everyone who have been supportive of this blog over the years, and I hope we can make this place even cooler with one of the best blog upgrades ever. (And I mean that! It’ll be really cool!)