Posted on April 8, 2000

• I decided, after working like a madman to bring this server back up, that I should take it easy for a few days. That means, of course, that I immediately starting playing around with Lightwave 6. Originally I was going to see if I could make any improvements to “Escort”, but I couldn’t get away from the fact that I didn’t like the little submarines that I had made. I took them out, leaving just the dolphins.

  There are two versions of this image available (both in the Picklejar). Jessie liked the darker image but I preferred the brighter one. Both images make use of Lightwave 6’s Radiosity and Caustic effects (don’t worry if this is meaningless to you). Anyway, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Posted on April 5, 2000

• My secure server is back online for those of you who wish to extend your membership.

  Speaking of extended memberships. I have added 7 days to everyone’s account as a “thank you” for being patient with me.

  I especially want to thank those of you who wrote me with words of encouragement during the downtime. I was feeling very stressed and you helped a lot.

Posted on April 4, 2000

• If you are reading this, then you know that the members server is back online. Some things are not yet functional though, specifically my secure server. I know a lot of you have written asking if your memberships will expire during this downtime. The answer is no. I will have a message here when the secure server is ready. I hope you’ll understand if I take extreme care in setting that up.

  I ask that you not write me with things that look broken at least for the next couple of days. On the other hand, words of encouragement are always helpful and appreciated.

  Now back to work…

Posted on March 29, 2000

• Escort is new today, along with a few related pickles. This is still very rough (only a day or so old) and I still have more in store for this scene. Your comments are more than welcome.

  Unfortunately I’ve been rather tied up recently with ancillary duties and I haven’t had as much “creative time” as I would have liked. My security upgrades (see below) had the intended effect of stopping the dictionary attacks, but I still have a few security releated issues to tackle. I hope you bear will bear with me. Don’t worry though, if I do my job right you won’t even notice the difference when I’m done.

Posted on March 24, 2000

• Security. I’ve finally grown tired of the script kiddies with their little “hacking” programs. These programs basically bombard this server with login requests using a premade list of usernames and passwords. I’ve done some research into this and I’ve noticed that most of the hack programs do not support SSL.

  I’ve gone ahead and removed the “public” link to the member’s gallery from the homepage on this server, replacing it with a link to a page in a password protected area of my secure server. If you click the link on the homepage, you will be asked for your username and password as usual and once you have entered it you will be redirected to this page whereupon you will need to enter the username and password once more to continue. This should stop most of the crack attempts cold (though not all) because the crackers will not have a non-SSL URL against which to fling their login attempts. Their programs will not be able to use the URL I give them.

  Not a 100% solution, but it’s a start.

  You can get around all of that by bookmarking this page and not using the homepage link to access the members gallery. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments please write me. I’d remove the public link altogether, but I need to think of those members who only visit once in a great while and may not rembember (or have bookmarked) the proper URL. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and I assure you that my actions are in the interest of better download speeds for all (and a better night’s sleep for me).