For every good weekend, there is an equally bad one. Last weekend rocked. This one, um, did not.
Preface – My laptop is at the Apple Store being repaired. This means my computer with all my best toys is not available for use.
For those who have been following my twitter whining, here is the full story.
1) Yesterday I noticed starstryder was no longer googlable (is that a word), and asked for ideas
2) The wonderful Stuart Lowe noted that if I did a view source, many naughty and pharmaceutically related words appeared.
3) I realized I’d been hacked. As had my university computer (growl). Astronomy Cast was safe.
4) I restored my theme, removing all google ads and stuff, on this site and upgraded wordpress (this site is privately hosted.
5) I upgraded Astronomy Cast for good measure. This totally broke the site. Dead Dead Dead. I can’t repair it and cried via email to Fraser. I tried every trick I know – and I know many. Ugh.
6) I went into campus (where I have now been for 8 hours on a Sunday) and upgraded my work server to 10.5. This broke *everything.* Blue screen of pointer only. I reduced myself to the command line and fixed it. I then updated everything, fixed permissions, and reconfigured the server.
7) Part way though this I began to understand why Wil Wheaton’s original blog is still toast.
8 ) After getting my office and starstryder.com servers fixed, I looked into why I wasn’t in google search and learned I’d been officially banned from their index (joy). According to Google “We’ll review the site. If we find that it’s no longer in violation of our Webmaster Guidelines, we’ll reconsider our indexing of the site. Please allow several weeks for the reconsideration request.”
At this point, I probably need to crawl under the bed and cry, however, instead I’m going to work on a programming project that I should have completed hours ago.
Worst. Tech. Week. Ever.
Ouch! What a string of bad luck!!
After that mess, you deserve a string of good fortune!!!
Hang in there!
John (An Astronomy Cast fan)
Get some rest. And maybe fix the problems tomorrow.
I’d say lot’s of people got hacked and removed from Google’s index. It happens. I hope they re-add your site as soon as possible. (Of course, you may want to be more up-to-date with WordPress, since WordPress is a *prime* target for hacking, just like Windows.)
Astronomy Cast sure looks broken… 🙁
Pamela:
What a bummer! Grrr!
The HTML source here and at Astronomy Cast looks OK now, though. I hope all your files on the laptop are retrievable and your email access is unbroken. Dunno how we managed before email, really!
Macs are usually fairly untouched by viruses, but I guess hackers are a different thing…
Rich
Yuch! Our Macs are usually not bothered by hackers and viruses, but I’m not hosting blogs on them.
I hope the technical side of your life gets back to normal quickly.
Ugh Pamela <> I’m so sorry that sounds terrible.
I currently have a fleet of bloodlagos (that’s the rabbit equivalent of bloodhounds) hot on the trail of this hacker.
Hope all is well with you now ‚ô•
-Skunkwaffle
After that you deserve a Big Black Cup Of Coffee. And praise to the Geek Girl!
Hope you have a much better time with computers next week …
I feel your pain. Computer problems are the worst problems because you CAN’T ESCAPE THEM Oo
Hope the silicone god smiles on you next weekend 🙂
Hang in there. We’ve all had weeks like this.
I hate computers.
Is there a way your faithful minions can influence Google and help get your blog re-googlized?
If you google “Star Stryder” *now”, the first link you get is http://stryder.sl.siue.edu – yet this one doesn’t work! While https://www.starstryder.com works fine and is, e.g., forwarded as usual by the Bloglines feedcatcher.
E-Hug!!!
Sorry to hear of your tech woes. Hang in there!
*offers a big cyber-hug*
hang in there, and i second Paul – computer problems are really a BIG headache, they just drive one crazy trying to fix them. and like Robin said cant we all do something to influence Google or make them reconsider their -“allow several weeks for the reconsideration request.” – stance ?
12.06 a.m
Calcutta, India.
Hey, your blog’s back in Google!
Pam,
I just upgraded my wp to avoid the sql injection attacks…
Been following your twitters off and on (when I remember to turn twitter on)… i added you to my follow list…
cc
Dude-
I have former classmates from the big C who work at Google. Are you still having problems?
E
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