Khrys weblog

Finally back online ! I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but my website has been suspended for a week, and there was nothing I could do about it,

The website got offline Friday last week. Since it had happened earlier for 1 or 2 days (without any word from my host), I didn’t really think about a suspension but more about technical issues from their part. Still, I tried to have a closer look, and looked for informations like “we are experiencing …”. Nothing like that. No documentation whatsoever about what might have caused such disruption. It is possible to log in and get details about one’s own account, so I did, and tried a funny link called “Reactivate your personal web pages (in case of a suspension only)”. I got a page telling that my account wasn’t suspended. Good for me, let’s just be patient, then.

Not very patient still, I finally found a way, on Monday, to contact my host about the matter. I got confirmation of my request being handled immediately (automatic answer), but a real answer came only on Thursday evening. Here is a translation of it:

“Your website has been blocked. Reason : MySQL database being polluted with spam. We renamed one of your tables.
Thanks for going to your account management page and click on ‘Reactivate your personal web pages’.
You just need to set up protection measures against spam.”

I have to admit that the person I was in relation with was very polite and professional (I mean in customer relation handling), but I’m still very angry.
Why ? because it was totally unfair and disproportionate ! I checked carefully. I found that renamed table. It was the WordPress comment table. It did contains some spam comments, but only very small amount, and they were all marked by Akismet plugin as being spam, which means that they would have been eliminated on my next login in my website (usually, the same day).
“You just need to set up protection measures against spam.” Like I haven’t already !
I’ll try to contact the admin about it, I’ll keep you updated. Right now, I’m thinking of changing host. It’s sad, because I’ve been here for some years now, but if it can’t be helped …

Sorry again for this disruption, I hope it won’t happen too often. See you !

UPDATE:
After consulting the support forum (usenet style) of my host, I discovered that a few (unsaid and unwritten) rules apply. Among them, I’m not supposed to make stats about my site myself o_O . Funny then, that they complained about a handful of spam comments but not about the tens of thousands of entries in my webcounter. Obviously, I took off the webcounting service, and dropped the concerned tables. I’ll make a package for those who want such solution in a few days, since the tool needs some improvements anyway.
I’m quite down, the webcounter wasn’t the best, but it was mine.

Discovered through Yarrow :

If you liked it, there are another 40 on YouTube where the author comes more in details with the subject. Go check it !

The Sun, among other newspapers in the UK, has published a very hard article about Prime Minister Brown signing the Lisbon treaty. Not that I read that paper often (actually, I went there because it was mentioned somewhere else), it usually is a stack of crap, but it seemed to sum up the thoughts of many a Brit on this subject.
I have to say I don’t quite understand that kind of reaction.

“By raising his glass, the PM transformed the lavish banquet into a sordid Last Supper for Britain as an independent sovereign state.”
Well, first of all, it is time that countries in Europe stop thinking about their own small interest, and look up to bigger things. United we’ll stand, divided we’ll fall. Britain isn’t anymore the empire it used to be, nor is it powerful enough to survive alone the challenges that are to come in the next decades.

“Mr Brown will do all in his power to drive this legislation roughshod through Parliament. That will not be enough to give it legitimacy.”
To be honest, we’ve seen the result of having people vote about it, in France or the Netherlands: they don’t vote for the treaty, they vote against some politic personalities. And, as a matter of fact, I believe that for some subjects, people shouldn’t vote for what they don’t understand.. Plus, if the Parliament doesn’t give legitimacy, I wonder what you use it for … Aren’t those guys supposed to represent you all ? I know they don’t always take the best decisions. But imagine: if those few people whose job is to know about these kinds of important subjects don’t know what they vote for, do you think the rest of the people will ?

“It goes on to reject his dodgy claim that British sovereignty over fundamental rights, courts, police and welfare are protected by “red lines”.”
Well, you’re right, this is no good. Not that it is not enough. Au contraire. I believe UK should stop getting privileges on each treaty or agreements in the EU. Why would you be treated differently ? Do you think you’re worth more than the others ? more than Germans, Spanish, Greeks, Estonians ? It is time again, to step down from your imaginary pedestal ! Plus now, Polish want to get special treatments too. UK is setting bad example.

“They will be washed away by Brussels and the European court.”
I wish.

“Just as he came a cropper over his abortive election campaign, so he will live to regret breaking his promise.”
Let me remind you that “The princes who have done great things, are the ones that take little account of their promises” – Niccolo Machiavelli.

… this autumn. But if you ask people here, this wasn’t snow (lumi -> “Ei sataa lunta“). It was räntä (“sleet”, in the UK and Commonwealth countries, but not in the US). Finns are quite precise about the snow, since they have experienced it more than many other countries (yes, it’s an understatement). This one is a good example. “Räntä” is very common, while “sleet” isn’t employed but by few people only. Additionally, Finns talk about another 20 different kind of snow, some having more than one name. You can get a list here.
Of course not all of them are used on a daily basis, but a good half of them are. Then Finns probably heard about another quarter of them in songs and literature. The rest probably depends which area you live in.
Damn, I’m gonna have to learn 2 or 3 at least !

There are things better forgotten. And others that aren’t explainable. A Finnish friend of mine had me listen to “some French song” because he obviously didn’t get the lyrics. I had no clue what kind of music it would be, and when he told me that the title was “Dominique”, I was a bit scared … that name is among those that one can easily make dirty rhymes with. Of course it is then quite embarrassing to make a translation …
Here is the music.

Lyrics are just plain religious, and as I asked him where he found it, he said something funny : him and his friends used to listen to some perhaps techno remix of it, and that it sounded so bad, they ended up liking it. No comment :)
I didn’t find a techno version of it, but a disco version … which was bad enough to make anybody cry.

I thought I’d tried to get some info about who made that, and as Google and Wikipedia are our friends (!), I found an article about the artist life here. Wow, that changes few things. I then found this website, that allows you to listen her songs. Some of them have quite politically engaged lyrics, like the one about contraception (“La pilule d’or” – “The golden pill” especially since she was singing it in 1960’s USA).

I must admit I still don’t understand how “Dominique” could have been a hit in the 60’s in the US, but I now have much more respect for the singer …

EDIT: I found the techno version that my friend was talking about …