Special Blog Post:
Changes in the Works
Beginning tomorrow afternoon, and most likely lasting well into the evening, the blog will be subjected to some re-coding. Comments made recently on other blogs have mentioned the long load time for this Website. One comment included a warning that Firefox crashed during load. All of this has been taken to heart, so some changes will be made, most of them barely noticeable. The signature layout will be untouched, understated in the artful, if perhaps somewhat grim, beauty that it has. Most of the changes will have to do with javascripts that tend to take quite a bit of time and processor muscle for the average computer to pull.
Again, though, none of the alterations will in any way affect the joy experienced in coming to this respite from the mundane, tangible world.
Now, suffer your host a recommendation. Some of you may already know about this, and others of you may already have tried it and decided you didn't like it, but it's worth mentioning, anyway. If you're using Windows, particularly Windows XP, you might want to try something called ClearType. It's more or less a pre-installed plug-in (at least in XP) that you turn on by going to Microsoft's ClearType Tuner site, which will take you through three screens: first you'll turn on ClearType on your computer, then you'll select the appropriate monitor color set-up (which is almost always RGB and not the other), then you'll select from six possible font rendering strengths. Generally speaking, you'll probably want to select either the strongest or the second strongest because ClearType can have a slight blurring effect, especially on monitors that aren't very high-end jobs. The stronger the rendering of ClearType, the less noticeable this blurring (or "ghosting") will be; however, you might want to try the second-highest, rather than the highest, setting just because of the stress on the eyes created by the cleartyping at full power.
The payoff for using ClearType is pretty evident: text characters will no longer have jagged and indistinct boundaries. The effect is most striking for typefaces at small and very large sizes. At first, the change is somewhat disconcerting, and that blurring effect might be bothersome. Although ClearType was promoted primarily for laptops with LCD screens, its use and popularity has expanded to traditional monitors. Give it a try; if you don't like it, you can always go back to the site and re-select the rendering strength or just turn it off.
On to another note, some of you might have noticed that trying to access The Dark Wraith Forums yesterday took you to a screen that said the Website's bandwidth had been exceeded. My immediate suspicion was that the blog was under a flood attack to blow the bandwidth, but the Web hosting service techs assured me that it was no attack: it seems The Dark Wraith Forums has honestly earned its way to needing more bandwidth than is provided to run-of-the-mill Websites. So, with some glee and a small measure of additional funds, this blog now has enough bandwidth through which to move a herd of cattle.
Have your say, here. I shall be in and out tomorrow afternoon and evening as I check to make sure my re-coding hasn't caused a catastrophe. And please, for Heaven's sake, if anything noticeably good or bad is happening to your browser's rendering or loading of the blog, let me know. I have no desire to make the kind of coding error that would actually prompt a bovine stampede.
The Dark Wraith opens the range.
Update
Changes to The Dark Wraith Forums are now complete; and at least at first blush, the blog is no worse for the wear.
As noted above, the main goal of this exercise was to decrease the load time for the Website. To this end, the javascripts were simplified, and certain features were moved from on-load to on-demand status. Specifically, you'll notice that now, over in the sidebar, you can click on a button and the ShortNews tickers, which used to be clear at the very bottom of the blog, appear as a nice pop-up window. The same is true of the stock and market tickers. This puts these features in a convenient place, and it makes both the blog, itself, and those features load more quickly since javascripts aren't fighting with each other to dig foundation and initialize all at the time you come to the site.
A few other changes won't be noticeable at all. One of them is that a javascript distributed by blogrolling.com has been eliminated. Although the record of links will still be maintained at blogrolling.com, and although bloggers can still blogroll The Dark Wraith Forums via the hyperlink in the sidebar, the blogrolling javascript that created a list of blogrolled sites was problematic: at best, it increased load time for the whole blog; and at worst, when blogrolling.com was having server problems, that javascript's failure to initialize could crash a whole blog that was trying to run it.
On another matter, I must thank Mr. Goat for noting that the ClearType Webpage provided above is causing grief for some users. Old White Lady confirmed this, but both indicated that they were successful in turning on ClearType by using Microsoft's ClearType Tuner PowerToy, which is a downloadable utility. Fortunately for my hide, it sounds like they both like what ClearType has done for them. (It's always a little scary when something I recommend turns out to be a fiasco for those who try it.)
So there you have it: The Dark Wraith Forums has been tweaked ever so slightly to make the entire experience of coming here to hang out even more enjoyable than it was before. Now, someone please tell me whether or not the alterations have, indeed, had the intended effect of making the blog load more quickly than it did before.
The Dark Wraith awaits.
Published 5/25/2005 01:18:00 AM
<< 26 Comments Total
You need more bandwidth? Well, I guess that means you've been picking up more readers. Congrats!
I just got through reading The Integration of Theory and Practice:
A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement by Eric Heubeck and was interested in what you think of it. If you haven't read it before Yurica Report has it.
I was also wondering if you could recommend any easy and reputable tutorials on how to fly under the radar on the Internets. I get the feeling that now is the time to learn such skills.
Auntie Roo leaves the coding to the Dark Wraith's capable hands.
Great recommendation on the ClearType utility Mr. Wraith. I wasn't able to make the ClearType Tuner page work for some reason, however the PowerToy tuner version was a snap.
The effect on a light font on a dark background, such as your blog, is most excellent.
Again, though, none of the alterations will in any way affect the joy experienced in coming to this respite from the mundane, tangible world.
Whew! Thank goodness.
I'm heading out to check the clearType link, now.
Hmmm.. It won't let me get past step 2. I guess I'll have to download the PowerToy as My Pet Goat did. Just call me "copycat".
A purrrfectly good name.
Good afternoon, Autie Roo.
I'm still a little suspicious about blowing the bandwidth, you see. I mean, how many people could be coming to an economics blog, anyway?
Besides, I did have some traffic spikes this month, and the number of page loads has gone up, but it wasn't anything I would have thought was beyond what the old bandwidth could handle. It's still a bit of a mystery to me.
Now, about anonymous surfing, this is something I covered quite awhile back, here, and it's worth addressing again, every now and then.
The most secure way to surf anonymously is by using what are called "proxy servers," and there are several services that you can use to do this, one of the better being Anonymizer. One nice thing about this service is that, every now and then, they'll send you an e-mail message discussing Internet privacy issues, including anything that's going on as far as legislation is concerned.
There is, however, a major downside to using proxy servers: they slow down everything; and I don't mean they slow things down a little bit. I'm talking real slowdown. It's a hard trade-off: complete anonymity while surfing at the cost of dragging page loads that seem to take an eternity sometimes.
There are alternatives, but getting the kind of anonymity that hides your all-important IP address from snoops requires quite a lot of work. Short of that level of anonymity, a good firewall and a mean-spirited anti-spyware cluster are really important because a whole lot of snooping goes on not because you are necessarily visiting some Website, but just because you're online.
Although Microsoft is now offering its own firewall, my favorite is a one preferred by techies called SyGate. It has lots of options (which might look rather confusing before you read the explanations of what each option does), and you'll begin to see all the different ways that nosy sorts of folks can be in your computer without you even knowing about it.
The downside is that, once you have wrapped just about all of the firewall options around yourself, you'll find out that some Websites will no longer let you in. It seems that there are a number of folks who believe that they simply must know quite a bit about you before they'll let you see their wares.
They way I deal with this is on a case-by-case basis. If I understand that there's a legitimate reason why a Website needs to be able to read, say, what operating system I'm using, I'll turn off the operating system mask in SyGate just to go to that site. The truth of the matter is that there are very few reasons why a Website's handlers would need to know this: code should be written so that it is cross-browser compatible. Period. The same is true for monitor resolution. If a Website needs to know my monitor resolution, that means the coders don't know how to create a site that can handle, say, 800x600 pixel resolution and 1024x768 pixel resolution all in one coding.
I shouldn't be quite so harsh about this, but I just see all of the "reasons" for needing to get information about me as being way too flimsy.
Once you initialize SyGate, you'll find out that a whole lot of basic snooping has been going on all along. Specifically, port scans are a favorite: a remote site is jumping from one point to another just to get to computers that are online to see if there's a vulnerable port through which an unwanted entry can be made. In fact, some viruses begin their attack run by probing for a vulnerable port. A variant on the Blaster virus does this. If it finds a vulnerable port, it attempts a DCE bind.
What firewalls like SyGate do is this: once they've detected a snoop, they simply cut off the snoop's IP address for a specific period of time (which you can set). That means any traffic at all from that IP address finds a "CLOSED" sign at your computer's parking lot.
Port scans are just one of many ways nosy sorts can try to get into your machine to find out what you're up to. Good firewalls know all the tricks and have a cocktail prepared for each kind.
I myself have gotten to the point where, once an attack of some kind has been thwarted, I'll go into my firewall and trace back the IP of the attacker. Then I'll see how good his firewall is.
As far as anti-spyware software goes, there are many good ones out there. I do like Microsoft's because it enjoins a network to keep a constantly updating database of spyware. What I don't like about Microsoft's anti-spyware package is that it's leaving a whole lot of non-spyware cookies on computers that I would bet people would prefer weren't left there just because they tell the story of where a person has been. "Tracker" cookies are harmless, in and of themselves: all they do is inform a site of whether or not you've been there before. The problem is that, if you're one of those sorts like, for example, Mr. Goat, who goes to Websites of questionable repute before he shows up here, any hacker who can get a look at the cookies on his computer will have a darned good idea of what he's been up to. Cookies with names like "bigbeef" and "lolifart" and "heredoggie" and "buttflogg" make for a pretty obvious case that the user has less than Puritan tendencies in his or her heart. (I would love to see the Internet history and cookie directories of some of these Right-wing moralists!)
Although Symantec has firewalls and anti-spyware and other personal privacy software that's just superb, many people don't care for the way all of those (formerly Norton) services just chew up RAM on your computer. They load on start-up, and they just swill computer memory. That's unfortunate, because the Symantec anti-spyware stuff, from what I've heard, is really good. So is their firewall.
Anyway, Auntie Roo, I hope I haven't confused you too much with all this stuff. I'll do some more blabbing about it at a later time.
Right now, the Dark Wraith must get back to doing some Website clean-up.
Bigbeef?
That damn cat. She can't handle concocted meat like yours does most of the time. It's organic or nothing. I'll bet she was perusing one of those meat trafficking sites looking for a nice tenderlion to order up.
Mr. Goat fires up the grill and goes to see what the cat drug in.
Good evening Dark Wraith,
Thank you for taking the time to provide that info. I do have a smidgeon of knowledge about computers as I have an associates in computer science & did work in the field for awhile. However, that was quite some time ago & I'm afraid I haven't kept up to date as well as I should.
I do use Sygate's free firewall, Spybot, and Adaware. I'm proud to say that my little beauty (bought used for $75 about 3 years ago) has never had any major problems.
I was hopeful that you knew of somewhere that has full blown tutorials on getting anonymous. While it has not proved to be necessary at this point, I believe in being prepared. And I would like to be able to pass such tutorials on to others who may not be as, ahem, tech savvy. Not that I am laying any claim to that venerable title.
One last question; will ClearType work with Firefox?
Auntie Roo finishes her job of distracting the Wraith from his appointed tasks & makes her exit.
Dark Wraith - Wow! That comment explaining the ins and outs of the spywares, cookies, etc., was very, very, interesting. I set up the PowerToy tuner and the difference is terrific. Thanks for that bit of helpful information!
Hey My Pet Goat - My cats also surf the net. Yes, yes, they do. Crazy little creatures. I wonder what type of cookies they got downloaded on the hard-drive.
I wonder what type of cookies they got downloaded on the hard-drive.
Change that "got" to have, please.
Good evening, Old White Lady.
If only some of these Websites would put some nice shortbread cookies into my computer every now and then, I'd be quite happy.
I had a funny experience a couple of semesters back. One of the students in a Microsoft Office Suite class I was teaching asked me if I could help her father. This girl was one of the sweetest young women you'd ever want to meet: a modest, Christian girl of prim and proper bearing; and a girl who was not shy about her love of all things George Bush.
She said that her father, with whom she lives, was having a terrible problem with a whole bunch of horrible pop-ups that were constantly coming up on his computer screen, even when he wasn't online. She said they were too embarrassing to describe, but I got the impression that his computer had been infected by a kind of smutware that causes dozens of graphical links to constantly appear all over the Windows desktop.
She literally swore an oath on her father's behalf to me that the only place he would have been on the Internet where it could have happened was a Christian singles site.
I went over to their place one afternoon to take care of the problem. The computer was an absolute mess, and I ended up having to delete and re-install a number of Windows features. As I was going through the cookies and history files, it was quite evident that the computer had been used to go to every manner of porn site imaginable.
The fellow had been watching me as I worked, and it became evident even to him that his ways had been discovered. He didn't seem to have the courage to ask me not to tell his daughter, so when I was finished, I volunteered some advice to both set his mind at ease and scare the Hell out of him: I told him that I wouldn't tell his daughter about his surfing habits; then I told him that it was very likely that she was just about the only one who didn't know where he'd been going on the Internet.
The Dark Wraith wonders to this very day if that fellow went back to his old surfing habits or not.
Loads very quickly for me. Nice work.
I bet you scared the crap out of that guy.
Good evening, Auntie Roo.
Thank you for letting me know about the loading time. I thought I was finished with the blog backroom work a couple of hours ago, but then I noticed something that hadn't caught my eye before. It was a tiny problem at the very bottom of the blog, and it was only evident in an older version of Firefox. I clawed around and aroung until, lo and behold, I found that I had one too many </div> tags in the sidebar.
That stupid little coding error was actually the source of many weird coding patches I'd been having to do to get some sidebar sections to behave properly. Once I got rid of the errant closing tag, I had to go back and re-code (properly) a bunch of things on which I'd written work-around patches.
Geez, I fix one error, and I have to go back and fix the errors that I'd made to get around the original error that I hadn't caught. In some deeply personal ways, life was surely easier for cavemen: saber-tooth tigers are nothing compared to cyber-tooth Web architecture.
I think I'll go lie down for a while, now.
The Dark Wraith will return to regular posting tomorrow morning.
Maybe your bandwidth problems result from you being the target of a preemptive strike. CIA Overseeing 3-Day War Game on Internet
The neocons are now marching on your computer with the terrorist warnings; this is probably to learn more about how to take down the system than it is to learn how to defend it.
Notice how the cyber attack threats are couched in the terms of an unprecedented, Sept. 11-like electronic assault and on the scale of the 2001 suicide hijackings? What a bunch of bullshit.
Move along sheeple, there is nothing to see here.
Good morning, Mr. Goat.
Either the folks doing these little cyber-war games are profoundly malevolent or stunningly stupid. The Internet is not a building standing in one place that can be knocked down by the combination of maniacal criminals and incompetent government officials. The Internet existed for years before people knew about it, and it was there precisely as the primary means by which military and academic communications would continue even in the worst of twilight scenarios.
Yes, Mr. Goat, they want to figure out how to blow the Internet should they need to do so at some point down the road.
And considering the success of our leaders in conquering and controlling Iraq, I am quite confident of three things: our government might be able to, in some weird way, seize the Internet; but once it has done so, it will have on its hands something far larger than it could have ever managed to control; and it will have to deal with an insurgency that won't go away.
The difference is that, unlike the insurgency in Iraq, an Internet insurgency will already be filled by the ranks of seasoned, highly sophisticated, and unbelievably creative provisionals.
The Dark Wraith invites the government to mis-assess its prospects of winning an Internet war against geeks.
Dark Wraith - great story about the gent visiting the porn sites. Very amusing. If he had been in the habit of cruising them, I doubt he would stop. His daughter wasn't aware of the visits and she must not have known what to look for.
Fortunately, my kitties don't care for human porn. They might have cookies from "Kitties unleashed", though. They are sly little creatures.
Good evening, Old White Lady.
I need to go up to the latest comment thread to do some responses in a little while, but I had to note to you that I agree that the fellow will probably eventually return to his old surfing habits. It's every bit as much of an addiction as chemical substance abuse, except that the chemicals are being produced by the brain, induced as they are by psycho-visual stimuli. That, of course, does not mean he cannot exercise some restraint and discretion.
I wonder if it would really affect people's Internet surfing habits if they knew just how much of what they're doing is monitored by private companies and other organizations that then provide the collected information to the government either for fees or in exchange for favor in the awarding of "security" contracts. Sadly, I suspect that most folks wouldn't care enough to fundamentally change their ways. Perhaps it requires something bordering on neurosis or even psychosis for the modern world's dangers to really affect someone on a behavioral level.
The Dark Wraith finds that clinical paranoia is quite useful in that regard.
Well, this time it took some time to get to the page. I wonder if it was because I was (in another session) looking at some Friday cat blogging pictures that were already taking a long time to open(download?).
Never mind... I closed out the photoalbum, came back over here, and it was much quicker. It must have been the other session putting the drag on the time.
"none of the alterations will in any way affect the joy experienced in coming to this respite from the mundane, tangible world."
There is one change I'd like to see that would give me joy, or at least the ability to read more than a few lines of your excellent blog at a time. White text on a black background is notoriously difficult to read. While it may heighten the wraith-like atmospherics of the site, wouldn't usability be preferable? Please consider sacrificing the coolth. (I am, btw, using a high-res monitor at 1600x1200. Jaggedness is not a problem; the optical challenges of the site are.)
Good evening all...
I have been netless, due to someone not paying the phone bill and having to wait for payday...gods above I've felt cut off from the universe, knowing that what I hear on NPR or read in the paper is a day or two behind what I get on the net... but I am back in time to benefit from the small tweaks made. Yay. I never used the load time to fetch coffee or use the restroom, but did use it to load 2 or 3 other sites for my simultaneous viewing pleasure. This time I didn't get off site until I clicked a BlogScream link.
Once again, our host has shown that he is at least competent in coding in addition to his erudite essays on economics.
BTW-I'm not sure I've ever expressed my appreciation for BlogScream to you DW. I very much enjoy flitting from here to view the featured srticles, much to the detriment of my sleeping habits.
Wild Clover, bless you.
I know from my traffic statistics that blogScream is being used quite a bit, but stats are nothing like hearing a human being say that he or she likes and uses some technical feature I've created.
I should thank people more often for saying good things.
The Dark Wraith walks around feeling rather good.
[Darn it.]
I'm late to the party, for which I apologize, but FYI, load time was near-instantaneous, and no Firefox crash (which happened almost every time before, even on completely updated Firefoxen).
I will be coming by more often as a result
Good evening, Paperwight.
Actually, it was your post over at Paperwight's Fair Shot that informed me of a Firefox conflict. Although I run tests in recent versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Netscape, I hadn't seen the Firefox crash, but I did some alterations to running services that might be on a visitor's computer, and I hit a structure that did, indeed, create a crash. (As an aside, that little exercise also gave me the incentive to run tests to see why some blogs, including this one, are crashing when I try to do text-string find searches, and I have a bad feeling I've found the cause; but I don't think I want to say anything about that issue, although I fixed the problem here.)
You might have noticed from a previous comment of mine that, although I am by no means a fan of Firefox, it was an early version of that browser that pointed to a tiny flaw in my coding that had been giving me fits because of its consequences on other coding that just wouldn't work the way it was supposed to.
Anyway, over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to do a little more modification. Although I'm not all that excited about PHP, I want to see if I can replace at least one of the remaining javascripts with a PHP script that might be more efficient.
Now that I've increased the blog load speed and survived two bandwidth blowouts that occurred in rather rapid succession, I'm feeling pretty frisky right about now. That probably means I should quit while I'm ahead. But will I?
The Dark Wraith says, "Noooo."
Dear Dark Wraith,
I want to thank you for all of your explanations, and truly, I don't mean to nag you. (I need to keep in mind that I get overly obsessed by new interests, until I thoroughly understand them.)
I find the dark background very relaxing on the eyes, especially late at night, and when I have a headache. I wouldn't change a thing!