Folks,
I’ll be launching the new and improved Buttons plugin later this morning and making a few small tweaks. Please note – improved by Major Major Major Major, in his first help-behind-the-scenes. Please give him a well-earned pat on the back.
But the real focus of this post is to encourage you who have WordPress sites to update them ASAP. There is a critical security bug in 4.7.1 that’s been fixed, and tens of thousands of WordPress sites are being hacked because folks haven’t updated them to 4.7.2. So, if you have a WordPress site, no matter how tiny and under-read, please take 5 minutes to update it to this more secure version.
I have a big tech post half written for next week covering a bunch of privacy and security ideas, and a more personal one that I hope to publish soon.
And as a reader-turned-client has encouraged me, know that I am available for hire to help on your site, to sort out tech issues in general, and to help secure your privacy and digital stuff. Just use the Contact a Frontpager form and I’ll get back to you asap. No issue is too small, and I am happy to refuse things that are too big or out of my skillset.
Besides all that, have a great weekend, and keep all Americans, our residents, and guests in your thoughts and prayers. There are a lot of scared people among us, something not felt since the Red Scare. That drove my mom to live overseas as she couldn’t stand the cultural environment back then. She has confided in me the temptations to move overseas again, but I’ve convinced her that this is home, and we resist.
Open thread
Mustang Bobby
Just checked; my tech guru brother updated my site to 4.7.2. Whew.
Doug R
Shared on my FaceBook page for any publishers I follow.
Major Major Major Major
Thanks for all you do, Alain.
I just fired off a note to Ukraine to make sure our WP devs are on top of this.
Alain the site fixer
@Major Major Major Major: Thank you for your hard work! I just finished testing and altering the plugin so it’s ours and not the standard one. So no updates wipe out our work. I’m going to test my changes, then launch here. I plan to edit the graphic resource to make it grayer and less dark, but otherwise I think we’re golden. Another day I’ll tweak placement. Thanks again, I meant to credit you above but I’ll make sure everyone know that you helped a lot! :)
OzarkHillbilly
Yes. We can’t allow them to forget that.
Baud
yay on the jump to bottom button!
amk
Thanks Alain for go to bottom button.
Alain the site fixer
Thank Master Programmer Major Major Major Major. He made it happen. I still want to lighten them and maybe move them a hair, but they’re good enough for now.
karen marie
@Alain the site fixer:
The directions for updating WordPress are making my head spin. And I don’t see the “contact a front pager” thing anywhere here! Help!
drdavechemist
Alain (or any other experts), it looks like this would only apply if I am hosting a WordPress site on my own server and not if I am using WordPress.com as the host–is that correct?
Larkspur
@Major Major Major Major: MajorMajorMajorMajor: hugs hugs hugs hugs. You too, Alain.
A friend just sent me a link to an article in Wired which all of y’all might have seen already. Here’s the link: Congress’ Phone System is Broken, But It’s Still Your Best Shot.
Included is this little tidbit I didn’t know about:
Major Major Major Major
Thanks for adding the button, Alain ?
Monkeyfister
Now hiring. Come work with me: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/463965300/
Managing trailer-based events assets, and large athletic events. Easy work.
Downside– living in Armpit, TN.
But, they might pay to move you here.
I’ll stick around to answer some Qs.
Alain the site fixer
@karen marie: you can email me at [email protected]
Alain the site fixer
@drdavechemist: yeah I think the WordPress hosted sites on WordPress.com are auto updated
Alain the site fixer
For those using tablets in landscape mode, the mobile site is missing the menu button. I know and have to rework the mobile site to fix that. Next week. If you rotate tablet to portrait view the menu item should show up at top right.
Major Major Major Major
Alain did you not get my code for a button that I can push to make an open thread when I want one?
Alain the site fixer
@Major Major Major Major: lol must have missed that one!
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
My hat (if I wore one) off to you for your efforts! Very cool.
sharl
An OP that contains multitudes, in only a few paragraphs!
Thanks for all you do Alain, and thanks as well to Major Major Major Major.
karen marie
@Alain the site fixer: Thank you! I just now emailed you.
Miss Bianca
thanks, M4 and Alain, for all your work!
Lizzee
;-)
laura
Four Hazzahs for Major Major Major Major and each of the buttons, along with kudos to the Site Fixer!
No One You Know
What Laura said ,x2!
HeartlandLiberal
Just a late note to say thanks for the reminder I have three active WordPress blogs, all on my own server I run her at home, into which I have a business class cable account with hack spit Comcast. Although, I admit, my contract had expired end of lat year, and when I called to offer to just cancel completely VOIP and Internet, they offered me their highest speed bundle, including 20 Mbps upload, and a purported 150 down (which in real life means about 85-90), at less than my previous contract, I said OK and signed a new contract.
Anyway, late Friday afternoon I sat down and upgraded all three of our blogs to latest WordPress version. A manual upgrade, the run on a Windows 2012 R2 server. On one of them I had to reindex all the posts in the database, but then things started working again. All told, since they are pretty simple sites for the most part, quick and smooth.
Again, thanks for the reminder.
I have decided, since I am adding a few more IP blocks from China and Russia detected trying to hack into my email server, that I will just translate the firewall rules from my LINUX email server into the rules on the Windows server, just dropping all traffic from the worst offenders. It is the least I can do. It is fascinating to read the log summaries on the email serve and see just how constant the attempts to do SASL authentication via my webmail is, or often the spammers try to inject email using badly formed HELO requests, that are preemptively rejected. I use three of the major spam blocklists, and on average they reject dozens of email every day. On a little personal servers which used to have a hundred accounts, but I have collapsed them all into just a dozen new ones. The old addresses using old names from the prior server, that were exposed for decades, get all the spam attempts, because they are out there.
And while I am ranting, has anyone else noticed how, since Trump took office, the criminal scum who call your home phones all day, and even in the middle of the night, have ramped up the unsolicited and still illegal calls? And the junk faxes? It is reeling out of control. We are on the verge of just turning off the phone ringer, i.e. muting it, and letting everything go to voice mail, and check and call back the legitimate calls.