3
Mar

WordPress Database Error 28

Twice today I caught this error message in two blogs:

WordPress database error: [Got error 28 from table handler]
SELECT DISTINCT * FROM wp_posts WHERE 1=1 AND post_date_gmt < = '2006-03-03 00:31:59' AND (post_status = "publish") AND post_status != "attachment" GROUP BY wp_posts.ID ORDER BY post_date DESC LIMIT 0, 5

I saw this in MLQ3’s blog and in a co-worker’s blog. What’s going on?

3
Mar

Using WordPress 2.0.1

This is the first entry that is posted using WordPress 2.0. The most obvious changes are in the user interface – sleek, still in the shades of blue, and most formatting commands are now displayed in icons, replacing those text buttons.

Another obvious new feature is the import capability: you can now import entries from Blogger, LiveJournal, and more.

3
Mar

Malicious FireFox Extensions?

In a recent BugTraq entry, a new attack vector has been discovered – by creating a malicious FireFox extension.

FireFox is getting popular as an alternative browser to the bug-and-malware prone Internet Explorer. It utilizes tabbed browsing, and is customizable through themes and extensions. Now, extensions are executable code. So an attacker can create an innocuous looking extension and entice users to download and install the said extension. Voila!

In the posted description, an HTML form sniffer extension was created. To quote:

FFsniFF is a simple Firefox extension, which transforms your browser into the html form sniffer. Everytime the user click on ‘Submit’ button, FFsniFF will try to find a non-blank password field in the form. If it’s found, entire form (also with URL) is sent to the specified e-mail address.

Scary? Not really. The solution is simple. You should only download and install extensions from the official FireFox themes and extensions site.

3
Mar

An Open Letter to Lito Atienza

To Lito Atienza:

Before babbling and dabbling on national politics, can you please concentrate and clean up Radial Road 10 (R10)? You have already spruced up Districts V (in the hopes that Kim Atienza would be voted to Congress) and III, what keeps you from cleaning up Districts I and II (because you can’t win in those districts?).

If you run for senator, all the opposition has to do is to take pictures of the Vitas/Parola/Isla Puting Bato area, and show them to the whole world. Have a TV station shoot a documentary on the place. In fact, Baseco is in that area. Your opponents only have to highlight that fact.

When it is not raining, R10 is dusty, and canals are clogged and reeking. When it is raining, R10 is muddy, canals are overflowing and reeking. You cannot get into the decaying Temporary Housing without wading into the floods. And Smoky Montain has a kid brother – a new dumpsite is just across the road from the old site.

Sir, I beg you – attend to R10 and its environs. The people who live there are susceptible to diseases. Have mercy on your constituents. Stop suckering to Gloria Arroyo, even for a while, and give your attention to where it is needed. Thank you.

From a registered voter in District II

1
Mar

Blast from the Past: Wok with Yan

Before Mario Batali and Alton Brown, there was Stephen Yan. And before Molto Mario, there was Wok with Yan.

Stephen who?

Stephen Yan

While reading up on Iron Chef America (one of the Food Network shows that is watched by almost my entire family), out of nowhere I remember Wok with Yan. If you know Wok with Yan, you are a child of the 8os. Shown in Channel 13, this show featured exclusively stir-fry Chinese dishes using the Wok (hence Wok with Yan). The show was also famous (or infamous, to some people) for puns on the word WOK in his aprons (a new pun every week). He cooked at least two dishes per show, created fancy garnishes (I cannot forget the swan made from apples and toothpicks, and the tomato flower, and melon basket), and cracked open a fortune cookie. There was always one lucky studio audience who got to eat with him at the end of an episode.

Back then, I made sure I got to see it weekly. I think it was shown on Sundays (before Sic O’Clock News, or was it Happy House?). He greeted the audience “Hallo!” with Chinese accent, and then wore the special apron. I couldn’t help but drool after each dish, and wondered how come Mom couldn’t cook like that, when she is full Chinese. Then I got envious of that lucky audience member getting to eat the food. All I could do was imagine how the food tasted. Yummy.

The show was very simple and not flashy, yet it appealed to me due to that simplicity, and of course, the way Stephen Yan talked (which I found funny at that time). Besides, I’m half-Chinese who had no inkling about Chinese cuisine, except for those very, very rare trips to a third-class Chinese restaurant in Monumento. And during All Saint’s Day, too. (That is another story.)

There is no lack of cooking shows. The Dazas had ruled the Philippine cooking shows; they had shows for decades. Is there a Daza cooking show still showing? The last time I saw one, it was shown at Channel 5 at 9AM. I also find those Chinese cooking shows funny, because I cannot understand any of them (and I always laugh when I see the frying pan or kawali used by the Chinese lady) and the set was tacky. Then, there’s Heny Sison’s show at Channel 13. The giant stations have their own cooking shows.

Then there’s Food Network (shown at the Lifestyle Network cable channel) that brings us Batali, Brown, Rachael Ray (we love her 30-minute meals), and of course, Iron Chef America.

Wok with Yan had since ended, and all I can do is remember the dishes, and the cook.