My Friends Scoots has 135 friends. View all of Scoots's friends. Jamner Brookie01 hank Element Kamon Entei John Elfstone Cypher HavocHawk Snoop Angelx Bunny janeygodley DEVON imlikeURdrug Dara IndolentPyro BlueRain DucDeNoisiel

Newblog.com: MORE Updates Posted 3/10/2009 11:27:13 AM Friends requests are back! Custom profile fields are back! (2) Comments

Newblog.com: More updates Posted 3/9/2009 1:33:53 PM Profile editing is back. Custom profile fields will be up soon. (0) Comments

Fun Stuff: Any interest in a Mafia Wars type game on NB? Posted 3/8/2009 10:01:12 AM Once NB is done getting re-worked, would there be any interest in anonline game, like Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, etc? I actually ran one of first kinds of these games, about 10 years ago, based on anime. It was a huge hit, but it was sold off to another company, and never really recovered from that. Suggestions for themes? Spam Wars? LOL! (0) Comments

Newblog.com: 3/6/2009 Updates - Albums up, Email Activation Required Posted 3/4/2009 10:21:30 AM And here's the list of features that are done. Albums are back up. Public friend's page is up (to let people view all of your friends) Signups are working again, and now require an emailed link to be clicked before an account is activated. You can send private messages. Private messages are filtered for HTML tags, such as malicious script tags. You can view your private messages now (sending/replying are next) I've updated the links in your blogs to the new pages - some aren't there yet, but I'm getting there. Article comments are back! Block User and Mod features no longer appear when they shouldn't. Friends List is back. ...and lots of other little things. Here's the list of features I need to finish this week, in order. PM's - reply, delete, trash, and "sent" messages. Friend invites/friend removal BIO editing template selection/editing profile comments (we can live a bit without these) profile photo managing photo albums. (20) Comments

Newblog.com: NewBlog 2.0 - in progress - templates fixed Posted 3/3/2009 8:39:09 AM It's going to take a few more weeks, but NB 2.0 is coming along, you can post articles, edit articles, and log in. Signups will be done today, and comments too, I hope. Getting some of the basic framework finished up, that will help things move a lot faster. Update I've fixed the templates, existing blogs should be loading fine now. (1) Comments

Newblog.com: You can post articles now Posted 3/2/2009 3:30:30 PM Pretty basic, and they are NOT yet showing up on your blogs, but posting and editing articles are up and runnning. (0) Comments

Newblog.com: Okay. Here's where we are. Posted 3/2/2009 2:58:16 PM I'm picking back up the rebuild of NB into C# .NET. I'm using the new version right now to post this, so I should have posting and editing articles up real sooon. That will be followed by article comments, and then piece by piece after that. (0) Comments

Newblog.com: I'm looking Posted 1/13/2009 10:01:55 PM Just heard about the issue 5 minutes ago. I'm looking into it... (2) Comments

Database issues Posted 12/2/2008 8:18:44 PM The problems people have been running into when posting comments, blogs, etc, aren't related to spammers - it's a configuration problem with our database. I just took care (I hope!) of that problem you should see this again. I know spammers are creating accounts like mad - I'm working on that (it's not easy without an email confirmation, which I might move to), but ignore them - don't reply to them, don't click on their links, don't comment on their pages, just ignore them. For some reason these people think they can make a few bucks posting all this junk on my site. Eventually I'll get most of it blocked, but I'llnever be able to completely stop it. Those of you one myspace for any amount of time will see that every site out there is vulnerable. I can't log into my myspace account without a dozen friend requests from spammers. (5) Comments

Newblog.com: Posting / Editing from NB 2.0 Posted 8/10/2008 2:07:51 PM This is the first post submitted from the new site... editing is up and running as well. I'll probably add some new editing/maintenance features, so you can edit/delete posts without going through your blog pages. I'll probably push these updates up live later this afternoon, after I do some more unit testing - and after I add in the allowable HTML tags checks to prevent malicious posts with scripts. Once I have a few more features done, I'll probably tear down the old site and switch completely to the new one. (oops - line feeds were broken - fixed it ;) (4) Comments

Newblog.com: NewBlog 2.0 coming along well. Posted 8/10/2008 10:03:32 AM I've got almost all of the framework built now (the class objects that represent blogs, accounts, private messages, friends, invites, articles, comments, etc), and have to start building all the pages out - there's a lot. I forgot how much effort went into the original site ;) Kinda struggling with a decision - when to switch to the new site 100% and take down the old. I'm thinking about taking down the old version of the site entirely, and running on a sparse version of the new one, and add features back in over the next week. I could get a couple things up today, like posting new articles, editing articles, uploading a primary photo, editing bio information. Could everyone live a few days without friend invitions, private messages and stuff, to get completely on the new site quicker? --Digression about Newblog 2.0 NB 2.0 though will pretty much put a halt to the mass, automated signups. I'm not throwing this out there as any sort of challenge, but it's worked 100% on Ripway. It's also worked for me on the new GiftCertificates.com site I've been building over the last 9 months (with help from a great designer and a handful of developers), which was launched last month. Any, .NET uses an "viewstate" string in the code, you'll see it if you do a View Source on the home page at members.newblog.com. It can get pretty big, and that can be an issue, but it protects web sites from unwanted, faked form submissions. When a form is submitted, the viewstate has to match what was generated by the server, or it won't accept the form. The cool thing is, since an exception is thrown (an error happens) when invalid viewstates are detected, I get an email with all the details - I have exception handling set up to notify me directly in these events. It's virtually (not 100%!) impossible to "fake" a form, and submit from remote scripts without explicitly permitting it. There are work-arounds, and a few hacks to get past it, but it's difficult, and also easy for me to detect and block. There's tons of other benefits with .NET - performance for one (although the database is still a factor), and stability. I can trace bugs down easier, cause it's a "compiled" language, rather than a bunch of server-side spaghetti-style scripts. It's also all object-oriented, and once I have the "framework" all built, it'll be much faster to generate new features. /end digression Did I spell spaghetti wrong? (4) Comments

Newblog.com: We can rebuild it... we can make it stronger ;) Posted 8/9/2008 2:36:07 PM You might notice the Sign Up link now takes you to a different URL (this is temporary). This URL is the initial baseline of the *new* NewBlog.com. It might not look like it, but a ton of work has gone into the framework for the new site. Most of the links on that site are broken, but the new signup is functional, and the home page is functional. I'm rebuilding NewBlog on Microsoft's .NET platform. I recently re-wrote Ripway.com to C# v.NET, and we've had amazing success with blocking automated signups, which were becoming a HUGE problem on NewBlog. All of my sites - VillagePhotos.com, ImageCave.com, Ripway.com, FileAve.com, PictureWizard.com and NewBlog.com are getting re-built in .NET. This new platform brings us built-in protection from these sorts of issues, as well as scalability and incredible performance increases. Plus, the ability to add new features much quicker. On NewBlog, I've got the sign up, and most of the home page rebuilt (you can check it out at http://members.newblog.com). I've got a lot of the framework built for other features too, but I've got a ways to go. Bear with me. I'll keep both sites up for awhile - until almost everything has been re-written on the new site. For now, blog pages themselves won't change, but that's coming too. We'll probably move user space under the "www" site - so www.newblog.com/users/(your username)/ will eventually be your space. With C# blog pages will load MUCH MUCH faster, and we'll be able to do some cool things - pingbacks for one, and auto-saving of posts while you're editing them (sort of like what Google's Gmail does). Anyway, sorry for the down-time the last few weeks, I had to shut things down to stop what was essentially a Denial of Service attack which was bringing the entire site down. Good things are coming, bear with me, and thanks for sticking around. Scoots (7) Comments

Newblog.com: Back. Posted 8/9/2008 10:58:45 AM I'm trying to get the new signup form up today on the new platform - the first page that will get released. Until then, signups are down. (4) Comments

Fun Stuff: Funny video Posted 4/2/2008 12:25:43 PM I captured this a long time ago (DVR's are great), never bothered to share it. (2) Comments

Newblog.com: Better? Posted 3/21/2008 10:21:36 PM I see the mods have been able to kill some spam off while I'm off to work... and I haven't see any mass signup attempts in the last week. Looks like things are improving. One other thing I have in mind... a massively improved default template. When I get around to re-writing this site in .NET, I'll probalby re-create the default template to be much less late 90's. I'll admit it's pretty lame as-is. (11) Comments

Newblog.com: Mods? Yeah. Posted 3/13/2008 8:15:35 AM I've assigned 4 users minimal mod rights, all recommended by various members, and all of whom I've known to be consistent, great people. I won't say who they are - if you're not a mod, it doesn't mean 1) I don't like you, 2) other people don't like you, or 3) whatever. I grabbed the first four people I saw consistently nominated, who I recognized. It was that simple. Any squabbling over the decision and I'll go back to having no mods at all. These people will see a "suspend" option on the site - initially on the home page, then later in other areas (as I get to it). Mods - for now, is a one-way termination. Please be careful, and ONLY use the suspend feature in cases of spamming/abuse. Not because somebody is in a flamewar or posts a topic you don't like. (9) Comments

Newblog.com: Spammers (update) Posted 3/10/2008 11:22:10 AM Last night spammers created about 40,000 new accounts. The script that kills these off isn't keeping up, so I made some changes to it and they're getting mass-removed, but it's going to take awhile (there's about 90,000 spammer accounts that need removed right now). Going to add some additional verification features in the account signup to try to prevent these "attacks" (which is what they really are). (6) Comments

Newblog.com: How to report problem accounts Posted 2/26/2008 9:49:27 AM I've been trashing a few thousand auto-generated accounts over the last week (it's taking forever). Meanwhile, please, report any phishing or other malicious activity to help@ripside.com That email is monitored by people other than myself, and is the best way to report this stuff. Please do NOT submit reports of people just generally being a jerk, flamewars, etc. I'm looking for the illegal, malicious activity, that we need to address immediately to avoid causing real problems for our users or visitors. Also - I just fixed the script error people have been seeing when they try to post. (0) Comments

Newblog.com: Nominations for mods here... Posted 2/17/2008 5:03:22 PM I'm accepting nominations for moderators... who will have access to suspend malicious accounts. Please do not nominate yourself (or create new accounts to nominate yourself from). I'd like to see at least 3 nominations from long-term users before I consider somebody a possibility... (4) Comments

Newblog.com: Cneaup Posted 2/17/2008 4:59:07 PM Quick update - removing a TON of malicious accounts today. (1) Comments

Tech issues? Posted 1/10/2008 7:36:02 PM Heard there were some technical issues - read all of my messages, don't see anything in there, so pls leave a comment here if you're having problems with NB - and I'll get it taken care of. (1) Comments

Merry Christmas Posted 12/25/2007 8:23:23 PM Okay, yeah, I haven't had time to get on much the last 5 months. My new day gig is taking a lot more of my time than I expected. It's going well, but I've been handed a lot more work, and responsibility than I thought would happen, and I pretty much spent the last 2 months working 12 to 16 to 18 hours days to keep up. Now that Christmas is almost over, that will slow down. I've learned a few things at the new gig, including .NET, I've become pretty comfortable with it in just a few months of crash-course training. I plan to start re-writing all of the Ripside properties, including NewBlog, in .NET, which will bring a lot of cool new features - including pages you can design by moving elements around, better image/file uploading, better response time and security, and better overall performance. Anyway, Happy Holidays to all - and once things slow down I'll have some time to catch up on NB. (2) Comments

Web Tech: Ooops, they did it again Posted 6/27/2007 6:23:23 AM Our upstream internet provider had a switch fail (again) today. My pager went off about 5:30 this morning. This is twice in about 6 months, which isn't a very good track record for gear that should last several years without being touched. I'm looking at our options. (1) Comments

Newblog.com: Back to the corporate world Posted 6/20/2007 9:50:25 AM I ran accross an opportunity a few weeks ago to go to work for a large dot-com here in town - as Directory of Integration Engineering and Application Architect. Basically, the opportunity was too good to pass up, and I'll be accepting their offer today. I'll be working with some great people I've worked with in the past, and I'm pretty excited about it. This doesn't mean anything with NB, or other Ripside services will be changing. We'll be bringing on some more part-time staff to fill my shoes. Since 99% of my work has been strictly customer service and account management lately, I'm not really needed that much. I can pay people to do those things. I'll probably be able to check in on NB once in a while during the day, but I'll be doing most of my Ripside/NB work at night, so I've gotta ask you all to behave yourselves while I'm out. Update - I've accepted the position of Application Architect / Director of Integration Engineering. I start Monday. (8) Comments

Newblog.com: Negativity ends now - blocking added Posted 6/18/2007 2:07:40 PM You can now add blocks - look in the same section where you'd PM somebody on their blog. A blocked user (if logged in) cannot view your blog. If they aren't logged in, they'll be able to view your blog, but won't be able to comment on it. They also cannot contact you via private messages or send you Friend Invites. I'm aware of the problems going on between some people here lately - and have been digging through posts, comments, PM's, copies of PM's, etc, to try to "pick a side", but there's too much that's been deleted to make a real opinion of where it all started. That said, I probably will not be deleting anyone's accounts. But, I am ordering that the flame wars between these 2 parties cease. As of this point, I will be keeping "score" of what's going on. Negative, hassassing posts will be counted against you. I don't want to have to play babysitter - we're all adults here (mostly) - but I can't afford to have users leaving because they feel like they're being harrassed. For those involved, if you don't want to have your account removed, end this now. (69) Comments

180 gallon tank project: Aquarium project progress. Posted 6/6/2007 11:47:04 PM (copied from my very long thread over at AquariumAdvice.com - click here to view it) Salt, heater (I need 2x300W), 6 jumbo raw shrimp, a couple powerheads (I need more) has all been added. I only added enough mix for 160G - so I need to get another bucket, but the LFS was out of Reef Crystals. Still no circulation via the built-in drains/returns. The specs on the sheet said the overflows were 1" ID vinyl tubing inserts - they're not, they're apparently 1 1/4" ID, so I have to return the 28" of 1" for the 1 1/4". I'll get a foot of it first this time to make sure. I'm running all this off a temporary extension cord (a heavy-duty one), as there isn't yet power in the house, except for a single box. I'll need to get another line before adding the 2x300W heaters. Right now I just have a 50W, which I doubt will come close to being enough, unless it really warms up. The returns are definately 3/4" bulkheads/inserts. It was fun dumping a full bucket of salt in all at once The canopy doors are actually two pairs of doors, hinged in the middle, so when I swing them open, the entire front of the aquarium is accessible, with no dividers ("styles") in the way. I need to seal up the top of the tank for a couple days, because they'll be staining/sanding/varnishing soon. Rather lose air exchange than get that stuff in my water. (1) Comments

Fun Stuff: My turn Posted 6/3/2007 1:30:08 PM Mrs. Scoots will kill me for this, but... Funny, some of the women they pulled up are in my "top 10 hottest women" list. Okay, there's no official top 10 list, but just the one in the back of my mind ;) The facial recognition wasn't as kind to me: (1) Comments

Fun Stuff: Do you Oekaki? Posted 6/1/2007 11:17:27 AM I forgot that a long time ago I setup a Oekaki site, which lets users draw/paint pictures (primarily anime), to share with others on the board. It records every step you make during the drawin, and others can watch the playback of the animation later. If you have an artistic side, stop by and check it out. (1) Comments

Rants: Can I have the 80's back, please? Posted 5/18/2007 2:36:58 PM I'm sitting here doing some customer service, listening to the Jesus and Mary Chain, and thinking about how much I can't stand 90% of the music that's out today. I guess you could say I was an "emo", back before there was any such thing. I couldn't get enough of the Cure, Depeche Mode, Housemartins, Jesus and Mary Chain. Queen. The Cars. Forigner. SRV. Hell, even Van Halen. MTV played music videos all day (I remember the first time the guitar riff came on, and the giant MTV logo crashed on the moon). It was a great time. But every since record exec's discovered you could use music to make money, beyond the LP's and cassettes, it's all gone down hill. You didn't have to have a cel phone, a pager, and 3 email accounts to keep up with the world. Just a bangin' boombox with lots of D batteries on hand, a couple mix tapes, or a set of wheels with some Kenwood 6x9's in the back deck with a good ol' radio shack stereo in the dash. Half the stuff I hear on the radio are whiny young 20-something's, who've probably never gone a day without chatting up their mom on the phone, and whipped up by some overpaid overpriced studio exec. It's shoved down our throats in celebrity magazines who turn ever radio star into a fashion conglomerate, television ads, and the radio, which is of course all owned by Clear Channel now, so it's all nice and consistent. And plastic. And processed. Who care's what Fallout Boy is wearing, or where they buy their mascara? Do they have any good songs that didn't come out of the Play-Tone library of music? How about they spoon-feed us a little bit of independant thought, some creativity? Kudos to the few musicians who've stuck it out, and refused to sell out. Tori Amos keeps on her path. A few others do the same. But if I hear Avril Lavigne's "Hey Mickey" equivalent one more time today, I'm gonna spew Hi-Def, Hi-fidelity technicolor chunks. (11) Comments

Photography: I won ;) Posted 5/17/2007 3:25:45 PM Somehow, without knowing it, I won the April Saltwater photography contest on one of the biggest aquarium forums on the 'net ;) I think I posted the pic here a long time ago - check my "Fish" category. It's the red fish on the front page: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/ Sadly, that fish is no longer with us, as he decided to find out what life on dry land was like. I found him behind the tank one day when I noticed my cats going nuts over something. Still not sure how he escaped, since my tank is completely covered, but he did. (0) Comments

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General Comments Adonis Posted 2/16/2009 12:26:02 AM hi MistyLake Posted 1/18/2009 8:31:58 AM Hi Scoots! Left you a PM..please read it. Have a nice day! PersianGulf Posted 12/10/2008 4:01:49 PM Dear Scoots,I've recorded my blog with the name "PersianGulf".and I've left there 2 articles. but in Google search ,after connecting to my blog, Ican find only one of me ArticleswhyThanks again bassfars@yahoo.com magicalmysterytour Posted 10/2/2008 9:42:45 AM a rousing happy birthday is wished to our fearless leader Snoop Posted 8/24/2008 6:26:48 PM Yay for .NET... Meaghan Posted 8/19/2008 1:13:10 AM Hi! :) Brian says that you own Imagecave or something like that. It says that I get unlimited bandwidth to upload pics but I only got 10MB total. wierderthanthou Posted 8/10/2008 3:32:13 AM actually big guy...it was one of those small black dome numbers they belted each other with...ya know, the cheap ones? flappertball Posted 2/18/2008 10:51:56 PM Thank you for making this site usable; we appreciate it. wierderthanthou Posted 1/28/2008 4:00:09 AM scoots...you know i dont come to you often but denise_11 is showing flat out vulgarity porn on the site! please do somethin! kittiew Posted 12/9/2007 2:27:37 PM K, just wondering what happened... all my blogs disappeared, which is ok, but at the same time my archive box and my comment box disappeared off my main page. flappertball Posted 11/26/2007 8:51:09 PM Come on carpetbagger, clean up the bugs on your site. flappertball Posted 11/23/2007 6:56:48 PM How about fixing the code bug on Figgyslyme's page. No one can leave her any comments because of a code error. smartazndreamer Posted 11/19/2007 1:06:19 AM Hi, for some reason I cannot upload a new profile picture. The website says it saves the new picture, but the new picture doesn't show up on my blog. Thanks a lot! angelordevil_hannah Posted 10/19/2007 4:34:06 PM NVM. It's fixed. angelordevil_hannah Posted 10/19/2007 4:31:46 PM WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BLOG?! PLEASE HELP! imthelady Posted 10/3/2007 12:13:01 PM HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOOTS!! Ogmug Posted 9/16/2007 4:13:03 PM Hey Scoots, is there anyway to control the number of active posts in your blog? I would like to limit the number of posts that are displayed to 10 or so, and put the rest into the "archives". Noel Posted 8/16/2007 9:27:47 AM ninjasnpajamas Posted 7/11/2007 8:33:38 AM Hey umm, is there any way i can get this on my ripway website? thanks. wierderthanthou Posted 6/30/2007 9:02:20 AM Hey there "mr. universe"....just thought you'd want to pop by the site and leave a comment for the newest blog i posted...it'll definately strike a chord with the net Please login to post a comment.