Reflowering

The hack attack by Turkish hacker "iSKORPiTX" extended to all the web sites hosted by Shawnee Net. In 2006, he hacked more than 21,000 sites in a single day, sez Security Pro News. I should feel honored, sez PtG.

What happened is the home pages of the attacked site is replaced by Skorpy's page with a Turkish virtual flag fluttering above, and messages in four languages.

On the heels of server problems, and the subsequent hack attack, Shawnee Net site has been down for a 3 - 4 weeks, and it's still not back to where it was. A local geek tried to help, but he got a case of the drupals, and phoned-in sick-of-trying, due to an over-the-head-ache. Getting the site fully functional again is now job one for me.

Persistence in a righteous course brings reward, the I Ching saying goes. Another way of saying "Organization brings success," and Drupal offers a taxonomy platform for "Community Plumbing" that is unmatched in open source. Many cool websites use Drupal: The Onion, the New York Observer, and Yucatan Today, to name a few.

But all the high-tech information software in the world won't get the job done, if the folks in charge of things don't get the(ir) message(s) out. That includes city government, community organizations and businesses that fail to use electronic media to "get the word out."

I won't name names to blame for this failure (yet, because I'm hopeful a renewed persuasive push from me may water seeds I planted months ago), but kudos to Monica Tichenor and Beth Spezia at SIU-Public Broadcasting, and the news services at SIUC and JALC.

The new Shawnee Net theme is called "Forest Floor" and it has three columns (one of which I'm having trouble with at the moment). Still haven't mastered the color scheme, either, but the site will fully blossom soon.