Main blog is down, temporarily

My ISP is having some issues, hope to have the situation resolved quickly.

Main blog down at the moment

When I tried to log in this morning, I discovered that the ISP is having database problems, and I couldn't get access to the WordPress Dashboard. The blog itself is also down, of course. HostGator tech support says they're working on it and hope to have everything restored soon.

Main blog has moved to new site

On the off chance that anyone's checking here for updates, the main blog has moved to http://quotulatiousness.ca/blog/. I won't be updating the old site, although the archives are still available there.

URLs in motion

As posted over on the main blog, some URLs are being changed "right under your noses . . . right under your feet". (sorry)

If you have the static quotes site bookmarked, it's changed from "www.quotulatiousness.ca" to quotes.quotulatiousness.ca.

The main blog URL remains the same for now, but may be changing to something a bit shorter (eliminating the "bolditalic.com" portion), provided that I can successfully install a new version of MovableType at the new ISP. I'll post progress reports if/when that appears imminent.

Testing, yet again

Apparently a whole bunch of blogs were accidentally flagged as spam-blogs by Google's automatic scanning tools recently. This post is really just a sanity check to see whether the backup blog is still working correctly (Google sent a message to indicate what the problem had been and to apologize to those impacted by it . . . but as I don't normally post here unless there's a problem at the main blog, I don't know if I was one of the "lucky" bloggers or not).

Back in business at the new site

It's taken a bit longer than I'd hoped, but I think the DNS servers are now mostly updated with the new IP address for the site. You should be able to access the site at the old address now:

http://www.bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness/

Still a few CSS and directory path issues, but I think we're mostly back.

Definite progress

All the existing posts have been ported to the new ISP. Here's a temporary link to the site (it will go back to the usual URL soon): http://www.bolditalic.netfirms.com/quotulatiousness/.

Progress . . . I think

Jon may have solved the first of the blocking issues . . . the blog now appears to be loading and building the archive entries correctly. This is the first hurdle. Still a few more to go, but this is definitely progress.

He'll port over all the newer posts from the old site and then upgrade the MovableType blogging software to the next major release. If that works as expected, then he'll port it to the current version. Once that's done, we can update the DNS entry for the site and it should (within 24 hours) appear at the usual URL.

Status update: still hosed

As you may have seen, the main site is still broken: the index page appears, but none of the posts are visible, and the links to categories and archives no longer work. Jon is trying to fix it, but it may be easier just to move to the new ISP than to fix the current site . . . except that my archives are not playing nicely with the installed version of MovableType at the new ISP.

If worst comes to worst, I could just start over again at the new ISP and hope that the archives would eventually become available.

QotD: Banning "evil-looking" guns

When a rash of gun murders takes place, it makes sense for the police to do one of two things: renew tactics that have been effective in the past at curbing homicides, or embrace ideas that have not been tried before.

But those options don't appeal to Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis. What he proposes is a crackdown on assault weapons.

I'm tempted to say this is the moral equivalent of a placebo—a sugar pill that is irrelevant to the malady at hand. But that would be unfair. Placebos, after all, sometimes have a positive effect. Assault weapons bans, not so much.

If there are too many guns in Chicago, it's not because of any statutory oversight. The city has long outlawed the sale and possession of handguns. It also forbids assault weapons. If prohibition were the answer, no one would be asking the question.

Steve Chapman, "The Cops That Couldn't Shoot Straight: Chicago police and their proposed, unworkable gun ban", Reason Online, 2008-04-24