Michael A. Burns

Anonymous comments are necessary if one desires to have a live site. However, the amount of spam that a site is bombarded with requires extensive time to monitor the comments and delete those that are spam. As such, many configure their sites to require comments be approved before they are made visible. But, again, this configuration requires extensive time if the site is to be somewhat interactive.

I came across a tool that integrates well into a Drupal based site such as mine. The Mollom module, used in conjunction with an account at Mollom.com, allows a site manager to disable comment moderation because of the spam protection provided by the Mollom module.

I have implemented the Mollom module for this site. So, if you see any spam in the comments, please let me know ASAP! I can then forward the information to Mollom in an effort to improve the service.

So, on the way home from Church, I saw a truck with a bumper sticker and a sign on the back. The bumper sticker says:

Pro-Life AND Pro-War???

Clearly, this individual was opposed to the war in Iraq. And, they are trying to suggest there is a conflict in one's belief if they say they are Pro-Life yet support the war in Iraq. Now, on to the sign ...

Warning: There is nothing in this vehicle worth your life.

So, does anyone else see the contradiction?

Today, I finally received an e-mail from Facebook support. It contained a link that took me to a page to change my password. Once I completed that process, everything was back to normal.

I still have questions though ...

1) Facebook says my account was compromised. How can I tell if it truly was?

- I looked at my messages, both sent and received. Nothing new.
- I looked at my wall. Nothing new.

2) Why did it take 5 days before I was able to get back into my account?

I received the following e-mail from Facebook (xxxxxxxxxx@support.facebook.com) on August 27.

Your account has been temporarily suspended for security purposes. Our systems indicate that your Facebook account has been compromised by cybercriminals attempting to impersonate you. These criminals often will try to trick your friends into sending them money by claiming that you are stuck in a far away location and need assistance. It is likely that your email account was compromised as well. As such, we have sent this email to all email accounts recently associated with your account. Obtaining access to a victim's email is one of the primary ways these cybercriminals have been operating. Please take the following steps to regain control of your account:

1. Password Reset: Select new and unique passwords for all of your email addresses. Do not use the same password for different online accounts as this allows hackers to easily gain access to your other accounts, such as Facebook, once one account has been compromised.

2. Email Preferences: Check the Preferences/Settings of your email account to make sure the scammer did not add any unauthorized forwarding rules to your email. This is becoming a common practice for scammers to use, so it is important that you complete this extra step. If you need further assistance with this, please contact your email provider.

3. Once you have secured your email account, respond to this email with the answer to your security question: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?

Please closely follow the instructions provided in this email to ensure the future safety and security of your Facebook account..

Visit the Help Center for more information: "Where can I find more information about money transfer scams?" http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=16148

I verified that my account is truly disabled. If I try to login, I am told my account is disabled. If I try to visit my public page at http://www.facebook.com/michael.burns, "Page Not Found" is displayed.

The help link provided results in the error:

There was a problem reaching the FAQ you requested.

There is a link provided to an FAQ entry (here) when I try to login it. That FAQ entry states that if I "would like to regain access" to my account, I am to contact them at this link: https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=security_disabled_419.

I have completed that form twice now, once on August 27 and once on August 29. The form results in an e-mail similar to the first one. I have responded to both of those e-mails as instructed.

I am still unable to access my account!

And, I have not heard anything from Facebook!

This is a very poor way to handle security issues. Yes, it is the most secure. But, it is also the most user-unfriendly.

A security issue should result in me having to verify my identity and then changing my password on the account. And, it should be done quickly!

I will keep you updated!

Yes, it is politically incorrect to say that. But, it is the truth! Watch the following video and listen carefully to see just how exceptional America is ...

2009 Favorite: Bill Maher, Barack Obama and the Truth About American Exceptionalism

Happy New Year to everyone!

For those of us still stuck in California, here are some of the creative laws our government feels necessary. Socialism is strong!

California's new laws for 2010

New California Laws For 2010

I wanted to move this site from the free hosting company I was using to my GoDaddy hosting account. So, I went searching for instructions on how to do that and found them here.

So, I followed those instructions and did the following:

From the free hosting site:

• Exported the database, downloaded to a local file
• Transferred the site files via FTP to a local folder

At GoDaddy:

• Added the domain to my hosting account
• Imported the database, uploaded from the local file
• Transferred the site files via FTP from the local folder

When completed, I tried the site. The front page worked great!

However, when I clicked on any of the links to go to another page or tried to login as a user or admin, I would get the following error:

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, support@supportwebsite.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Bummer!!!

Well, after searching and searching, trying this and trying that, I finally found this page. In the third comment, I found the answer!

I added the following to my .htaccess file and everything worked!

RewriteBase /

We're back in business!!!

There are many ways to back up the important files one has on their system, from bloated software programs to simple scripts. In most cases, a simple script is sufficient. With that in mind, I searched for a simple script and found the following:

Automating backups with tar

I have modified the original script to accomplish the following:

• Allow the user to "force" the creation of a full backup by specifying full on the command line.
• Create a full year-end backup on 31 December.
• Force an incremental backup when a full backup is performed. This is to prevent two full backups from occurring if Sunday is the 1st of the month or is 31 December.

You can download the modified script here. Once downloaded, rename the file to backup.sh.

To install and use the script, you can follow the instructions provided at the Automating backups with tar page. However, where referenced, replace backup.cron with backup.sh.