tech

Conscious uncoupling

Moriah Jovan

All 3 readers of this blog might notice that the URL is different and things have been restructured. Or not. I mean, I do this for myself. It took me a year, but I think what I did was pretty fantastic.

My goal was to keep as much control over WordPress as possible, reduce the number of plugins I need, clean up the content, make things consistent, and, most importantly, make it look like I want it to. This involved cutting a lot of WP bullshit out and decluttering my plugins. Anything to be as independent as possible within the convenience of the WordPress1 platform. I had a lot of assistance from AI. Sue me. I still have some things to go, but I’m now comfortable saying “good enough” (for now). I’ll scrub the baseboards as I go. Read more →

I have assimilated. Sorta.

Moriah Jovan

I have/had a Dell laptop I’ve had for 5 years. That thing has been a workhorse, but it had been having a couple of problems I either found a workaround for or put up with. It was on and cooking 12-18 hours a day every day. It had been reformatted twice, hauled around on vacation and to the library to work on it.

I go through keyboards like crazy because eventually the letters wear off and the fingernail grooves get too deep. That’s not why I get rid of them. I wear them out until they stop working. But I have an external monitor and wireless keyboard and mice. The most vulnerable parts of the machine were protected. Read more →

FUBAR

Moriah Jovan

I was backing up WordPress, using the backupwordpress plugin. It got hung up on a file name it felt was too long, so I canceled the backup.

Or I thought I did.

This morning, in trying to fix it, I have somehow wiped the contents of this blog, or at least, it’s now in a place I can’t find it. Read more →

The handy-dandy all-purpose digital reader

Moriah Jovan

Some time back ago, I said I wanted an Asus EeePC to read digital books because it was kind of an all-purpose device. As time went on, I decided maybe I’d rather have an iPhone or a BlackBerry, but then I found out about their mandatory data plans and I’m a cheap bitch, so no thanks. I wanted something reasonably portable that I could 1) read digital books on in any format I wanted; 2) listen to music; 3) keep my personal data on (now that I have this awesome personal information management standalone app); and 4) to basically be able to haul my brain around with me. I don’t like talking on the phone, so I would rather not have one at all, but must. I want to keep the phone separate from my other tasks. Read more →

Jukeboxes and libraries

Moriah Jovan

I have a bunch of beautiful books. They’re mostly in hardback because I don’t see paperbacks as objets d’art the way I do my hardback books. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I read hardbacks, certainly. If I have it, I read it. But there’s just something substantial about a hardback book. Specifically, I’m thinking of my faux leatherbound books, but no matter.

As I go around the ebook blogs like Teleread and The Book is Dead, a bunch of dissociated rememberies from my childhood plague me. They’re always the same ones, played in different order, but in a loop: Read more →

I wouldn’t be a member of any club…

Moriah Jovan

… that would have me as a member.

I spent all weekend with my Netgear wireless router trying to figure out why I couldn’t get into my own website. I could connect direct from the cable modem, but not through the router. I will spare you the details of the acrobatics Dude and I did to get back up and running. (It included editing the registry, so I am now completely traumatized.)

This morning I contacted my host to say, “Hey, I know it’s not you guys, but do you have any advice?”

It was them guys. My IP addy got blacklisted somehow.