The attack seemed to be targeting Joomla-based websites. In response, I’ve changed some of the file permissions, ran some security updates, and removed unused extensions. I flushed out some Perl scripts that automatically rehacked the website. However, part of the attack seems to be an SQL injection targeting the admin user. Everything looks good right now, but I still have some more work to do in this regard.

It’s true for any website – without useful, dynamic content, even the most attractive website will disappear into oblivion.

This happened to me today, on a mini-crisis level – for a website.

Harvard09.com went down after the press release for our Class Day Speaker (Matt Lauer). At 11 AM, the fateful e-mail was sent out. Purportedly, most students were in class, but in reality this meant everyone was online. Hundreds of simultaneous clicks, and the Harvard Computing Society server goes down.

Server Error! Network taking too long to respond!

What was I to do? Sit there and wait for half an hour as the drama unfolded. As the class webmaster, I had to take responsibility. Chats and IMs poured in.

Is the website down? Who’s the class day speaker? Tell me pleaseeeee!

Who’s to blame? I suppose everyone, in a way. HCS for having not enough server resources. Harvard Alumni Association for not providing us with money to pay for a third-party paid hosting service. And of course myself for not predicting that this would happen.

A bigger problem still remains: half of the people who I’ve talked to asked, “Who the heck is Matt Lauer?”

I’m going to see if I like a white background instead of a black one.
I need a better front page.
Change is good.

It looks pretty bad right now, I’ll fix it up in the coming days.

New site: http://darrenhe.com/
Old site: http://darrenhe.com/version1/

Suggestions are welcomed, of course.

I just made my first Windows Vista sidebar gadget! Granted, it’s very simple: all it does is list some of my favorite links. But it’s quite convenient (more so than bookmarks), and it even matches my website color scheme!

Developing Vista Sidebar gadgets is really easy. I think it’s suppoed to be based on Windows SDK, but it’s really just HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Anyone can make one!

For more information, check out: http://gallery.live.com/devcenter.aspx.

Microsoft made something easy and straightforward. Cheers!

What you type in: ~@~

What you get:

Google Chat Poop

Name has been edited out in my cheesy animation for privacy. =)

New! Robot head: [:|] – shows up in different styles too! (depending on if you do round, square, etc.)

My complete list (so far):

:(:)
;-)
;^)
:-/
=/
+/'\
\m/
:(
:)
:(|)
[:|]
B-)
}:-)
:)
=)
:-)
:P
:p
:-P
:-p
=P
=p
:(
=(
:-(
:'(
>.<
V.v.V
:-|
~@~
<3
:{
}:-)
:-x
:*

Just got my Kindle 2 from Amazon.com today: my first, after not having been at all curious about the first Kindle.

To summarize some of the points of this Kindle:

• About the size of a larger paperback book, but very thin. Comfortable fit in my hand, but maybe not for people with smaller hands.
• Screen is very nice, easy on the eyes, refreshes at an acceptable rate for reading books (but not for anything else). All of my friends try to touch the screen. No, it is not an iPhone – it does not have touchscreen. 8 colors of grey.
• Has a number of buttons, but they feel a little cheap and are hard to press. I’m pretty sure I’ll break one of them.
• The Kindle Whispernet is solid – it’s almost too easy to buy books (the device came preconfigured and directly connected to my Amazon.com credit card).
• Long battery life, but battery is not removable (unlike Kindle 1).
• No expandable memory storage (unlike Kindle 1).
• Thin, but also large. Too much wasted white space, but looks okay overall.
• Can’t flip through the pages like a real book. Actually forces you to read.
• Has a web browser! But pretty bad – web browsers need much faster refresh.
• Text-to-speech is terrible. They should have just left this out. Low volume, robotic quality, very slow.
• Can upload documents to it through e-mail (10 cents each) or for free via included USB cable.
• Can upload PDFs to it after conversion with software such as PocketMobi.
• $359 for the Kindle only. Books are a few dollars cheaper than their normal prices, except for the $3 Stephen King exclusive, UR. Should probably also get a case for it, which is around $30. Definitely not cheap for a book reader.

Altogether, the Kindle is nice for reading, but it’s not one of the multifunction devices that we’ve gotten accustomed to. Get it if you normally carry your paperback novels but want an eletronic alternative that can download books anytime, (just about) anywhere. (People in the Midwest don’t fare so well with coverage – See Coverage Map).

The Kindle 2 is not “cool” and “hip” technology. It draws curiosity, but usually because people are thinking, “what the heck is that giant white thing?” I can upload my class readings onto it, but I’ll more likely return it or gift it.

XKCD:Kindle

Ever see this annoying button before?

I believe that a good website should not be run on Flash. Sure, it can have trivial flash components, but not Flash for the menu, navigation, and content!

Nonetheless, Flash allows designers to make very visually appealing websites with effects that are not possible with simple HTML/CSS and either cumbersome or unfeasible with Javascript. Furthermore, there’s no need to tinker with stylesheets or test browser compatibility for hours on end.

So against my principles, I am experimenting with a Flash version of my website. It’s started off simple and redundant, but I will develop it more in my free time. The hardest part is of course the graphics. You can see my project at: http://darrenhe.com/flash.