Zepfanman.com (Stylesheets Off Version)

Yahoo deactivates accounts without warning

UPDATE: My Yahoo! account has been restored, but some issues still linger. See details below.

As I attempted to log in to my Yahoo! account on Thursday morning, I was shocked to find out that my account had been deactivated overnight. The reason that I'm posting this is to let people know that it can happen to you! Also, Yahoo!'s customer service is horrible. I could not find a 1-800 number anywhere on their site, so I called their long-distance number three different times to talk to different people and finally gave up. Their solution was to e-mail reportabuse@yahoo-inc.com; I don't think I will ever hear back from them. I've used Yahoo! services heavily over the years and am very disappointed that they would let a customer's data be lost so easily.

Too much for Words

I started to write my April Words: To whom God speaks, but I haven't had a chance to put enough time into it. I keep running across related ideas and I'm trying to figure out how I can fit them all together. So instead of throwing up a draft version of April Words, I'll just skip this month and hopefully have it ready for May! So what is it that's been keeping me so busy these past couple of weeks?

Day at the cross

When Jesus said, It is finished, as he died upon the cross, he was was at the bottom of the barrel. I just arrived at my brother and sister-in-law's house after seven hours of driving and I've been thinking about Good Friday. Jesus had done all that he could to bring God to humanity. Thank you, Redeemer, for bringing us all together and showing us how to live! A short word, but one that needs to be said on such a significant day in Christian history. (By the way, I'd really like to see The Passion Recut during this holy weekend.)

MT 3.15 upgrade this week

As soon as I get a chance this week, I'm upgrading to MovableType 3.15. I've read the basic upgrade instructions, but does anyone have any red flags they'd like to point out for me? I've made a lot of modifications to to the 2.661 files that I'm currently running on, so hopefully I won't get snagged anywhere. The main thing that has spurred this on is hope for better spam blocking. I got fed up earlier this week and decided to disable commenting on my site temporarily!

Rewrite / redirect errors?

Update: I went back to my old settings
You'll notice that many of my redirect links (like /links and /ledzep) are not working right now. I can't tell if this is because of the new rules that I've added (see previous post) or if I'm just getting too much traffic in my redirects now.

I sent a big long email to 1and1 and of course all they come back with is, This is caused by the rewrite rule you are using. Try using the absolute path instead of a relative path.

The only change I've made is to include www. in my redirects now, as I was just using http://zepfanman... before. Anyone know what's going on??? Could it be the new RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} line I added?

Update: I decided to get rid of the new htaccess settings since it was messing up my site. Now I know what it may be affecting (including adding comments!) so I can test it better. For now, the only thing I've changed is to make all my redirects use www.

Spam blocking not working

The recommendations at Caveat Lector's Killing referrer spam seemed the easiest, but it's not working for me. Can anyone tell from the .htaccess code below what the problem is?

Sick email catch up day

Out sick today. Hopefully that means I can catch up to your email that you sent me a month ago! I actually drove in to work with Megan and decided at the last minute that I probably shouldn't pass the cold on to anyone else. Back at the house and ready for some rest. I'll be back on in a few hours!

Requesting help for XP Linux rebuild

My Windows XP Pro system that I run at home is getting slower and slower. I will likely get a new PC in a year or two, but in the meantime, I'd like to start experimenting with a Linux & XP dual boot system (the idea is to get rid of my bloated, slow computer and streamline it as much as possible). After trying several free, open source pieces of software on Windows, I'd like to see how reliable and practical an open source OS will be. I've done some minimal research (BBR's All Things UNIX, for example) on what is involved in setting up Linux, but I thought it might save me some time to ask experts' opinions that are tailored to what I have to work with (instead of a general tutorial online, like the ones below). The more I research, the more I realize that there are too many factors for a newbie to decide on! Can you help me?

Anniversary Gallery

I pretty much took a photo journal of our trip. The weather was great and I can't remember any major bummers.

Zepfanman's Best of the Web 2004

Updates: VH1, Jennings, earthquake tsunamis, Phelps, and Atkins, & freeware
As this year comes to a close, entry 68 reviews my internet and blog discoveries in 2004 (Zepfanman's Best of the Web 2004 = ZBoW). Use the Wayback Machine [Z] if any of these links are dead. There will likely be several edits (which I'll clearly make special note of) to this page, as well. Here's a table of contents for quick access ([Z] denotes a hover-over internal link):

1. Zepfanman.com Development
2. Blogging (others' favorites, awards, useful)
3. 2004 News Headlines
4. Religion
5. Entertainment (books, movies, music, TV)
6. Technology

Zepfanman's Best of the Web 2004 - Prologue

Dec22 update: See the full ZBoW.

I've been spending the month scouring the web for Best of lists for 2004. While I'm not ready for my full entry (it will highlight my own website's development as well as international headlines; ZBoW, for short), here is a preview of what's to come later in the month. I am basically adding to the Fimoculous.com Lists: 2004, a great compilation that will grow in the next thirty to sixty days.

Less Often Updates

I thought this blog would make my website editing more efficient. Unfortunately, I've been so obsessed with other blogs that I end up being overwhelmed by all the cool stuff I could be posting. Plus, I take way too much time looking at these other blogs. I suggest subscribing to some of them, or keeping track of my blogroll (fun feeds from friends, web experts, and other believers) through your own Bloglines account. See especially RealLivePreacher.com, also a new book by the same name. By the way, I created another new album today, too.