Category: Housekeeping

Stuff about the blog itself.

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Call the cops

Update: things are almost back as they were, and that’s how I’m leaving them.

You may have noticed some changes here. They’re not my fault, honest.

I decided to upgrade to the new version of our software, and quite by chance discovered that nefarious actors had hacked the site. A cunning wheeze, designed to place links inside posts but not have anything visible on the outside. It took an awfully long time to clean up, and in the process I upgraded everything, so things should be more secure now. BUT …

I cannot seem to figure out how to get the two sidebars back as they were, one on either side of the main content. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t bother. Leave a comment to say whether you prefer this version or one on either side. If necessary, I’ll get back to that.

I also cannot make those dinky little bullet points show up when we have several items in a Nibble. that has to be fairly simple, but I fear that if I keep going at it now, gone midnight, I’ll make some even greater error.

  • Maybe
  • Bullets

Work in an ordinary post?

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Competition news

First, a word of explanation. We took a vow of silence yesterday. No posts, no nibbles, nothing to detract from the global gloriousness of Miss Hathorn and Robert, competition winners extraordinaire. But of course we were both hot to trot this morning, so much so that we both nibbled independently. 1 That has now been fixed, with today’s monster bowl of nibbles.

Anyway, that has given us a chance to do the needful as far as our winner and runner-up are concerned, and adhere them to Association Kokopelli. Proof below. In addition, Miss Hathorn gets a packet of seeds of something called New Red Fire, a lettuce.

Of course, we could have faked the whole thing, and in a world of cut-throats and frauds we forgive your general skepticism. But we didn’t, and we hope that Miss Hathorn and Robert will return to share the joy they are getting from their prizes.

Thanks

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Excellence in blogging

excellentblog.jpg We got tagged, awarded, rewarded, etc. with this E for Excellent blog-meme thing, for which thanks to Ian over at Further Thoughts. Not having seen this particular disease in the wild, as it were, we tried to track it back to the index case, a singular failure. Six steps back, at Another Tangential Thinker, the trail just snaps to a close. CS, whoever he or she might be, may as well never have existed. And at some point in its history, the meme doubled its virulence, demanding 10 new victims per infection. Given that there are two of us, we decided five each would satisfy the beast (plus one from both of us), and give you lot something to think about.

Here they are; now, who done what? Tell us in the comments.

  1. Fimoculous Because he had it exactly right about Paris Hilton.
  2. The Loom Because it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
  3. This Week in Evolution Because it is never less than thought-provoking.
  4. Daughter of the Soil Because she reminds me of me at an earlier stage.
  5. Strange Maps Because he knows that it’s location, location, location…
  6. Communicatrix Because she writes like a dream and thinks even better.
  7. John Hawks Weblog Because the proper study of mankind is man.
  8. Human Flower Project Because no matter how irrelevant, it is always relevant.
  9. Ecosystems and Poverty Because everybody has to be somewhere.
  10. Gene Expression Because it forces me to remember my math.
  11. Language Log Because it’s no fun being a linguistic martyr.

We note, in passing, that a lot of people just infected their entire blogroll. That seems pretty miserable. We note further that each of us could probably have chosen a different five without it making a huge amount of difference. We note finally that some of those blogs need no help from us to gain readers, but they’re all equally excellent.