Site Updates

New features or changes on Michael’s Piece of the Web

27
Nov
2005

Generate Secure Passwords

I just updated Michael’s Guide to Choosing Passwords with a new service from Steve Gibson’s (of the Security Now podcast) site.

The following is an excerpt from Michael’s Guide to Choosing Passwords…
A good place to go for a totally random password is GRC’s Password Generator (www.grc.com/pass). This website generates a totally secure, unique and random password everytime you refresh the page. It will generate a 63 character password. If you need a shorter one, just grab as many characters as you need.

Posted by Michael in Interesting Links, Site Updates, Technology
18
Nov
2005

Info for the tree all the way from Iraq

Last night I updated the family tree with some new data from my cousin Justin who’s currently serving in Iraq. Thanks so much, Justin, for taking the time even while serving our country.

See the family tree page for more details…

Posted by Michael in Genealogy, Site Updates
12
Oct
2005

Technorati

There’s nothing interesting for you to see in this post. Just move along and go about your normal business.

I’m just using it to claim my site on Technorati. It’s easier than going into my templates that I worked so hard to create to use their standard claim method.

Technorati Profile

Posted by Michael in Interesting Links, Site Updates, Technology
28
Sep
2005

Google Sitemaps Results

I mentioned before that I started using Google Sitemaps to give my site better representation in Google’s search results. I thought I’d give you an update on my experience so far.

First, my site is getting crawled more often. However, I don’t know how often because my webhost apparently is having a problem keeping my site logs working. But based on the reports from Google, the site is getting crawled. I’ve added some new HTML to the site that allow Google to find more of my pages.

However, the results have been kind of odd. Many of my pages have been turned into supplemental reults and now some are going URL only. I’ll keep you posted on whether this problem works itself out as Googlebot crawls my site more!

Posted by Michael in Site Updates, Technology
07
Sep
2005

2 New Michael’s Guides Available Now!

While the blog part of my site was down, Michael’s Guide was growing. I’ve created 2 new guides.

Michael’s Guide to Wireless Security will help you learn how to better secure your wireless networks. It’s amazing how many people just plug in their router and never set up any security.

Michael’s Guide to Choosing Passwords is a short guide on how to pick better passwords. Your passwords is are the keys to your life. Don’t leave doors unlocked because you chose a weak password.

Check them out today in Michael’s Guides

Posted by Michael in Interesting Links, Site Updates, Technology
07
Sep
2005

Blog Outage

You may or may not have noticed that my blog was down for the past few days. Apparently my webhost (Vizaweb) was having some sort of MySQL database issues again. I like them as a host over all, and the price is sure right. However, I hope they get over these “growing pains” that they’ve been going through.

I don’t check my site every minute of every day, so the only way I realized it was down was that several of my scheduled entries never showed up in the RSS feed.

If you ever notice any part of the site isn’t working, please feel free to e-mail me.

Posted by Michael in Site Updates
01
Sep
2005

Hurricane Katrina Relief

Red CrossUnless you’ve spent the past few days in a cave, you know that the City of New Orleans has basically been wiped out by the flooding that has followed Hurricane Katrina. I just added a llink to the American Red Cross to the homepage. Please use it to donate to the massive relief effort in New Orleans and the surrounding areas, including Mississippi and Alabama.

Posted by Michael in Life, Site Updates
03
Aug
2005

Construction

You may have noticed that the homepage is kind of torn apart at the moment. Hopefully you also noticed that the whole site has a slightly new look. The elevator buttons are gone! I liked them and a few people complimented me on them, but they were too big and weren’t easy enough to use to navigate through the site. Hopefully you’ll find the new design easier to use.

The homepage will be done soon. I was going to wait until it was done to upload the new pages, but I think most people look at the other pages more anyway. If you have any suggestions about what conent I should put on my homepage e-mail me and let me know.

Posted by Michael in Site Updates
28
Jul
2005

Server issues

My site is currently hosted a company called VizaWeb. They provide good service, but they seem to be having some growing pains. Many people, including myself, switched to them because they were recommended by technology guru, Leo Laporte. The onslaught of new customers seems to be causing problems. I’ve experienced some downtime as a result.

What I’m asking of you is that if you see my site is down or unreachable, please e-mail me and let me know. If you don’t know my address you can use my contact form once the site is back up. You can also post it in the comments of this entry.

Thanks!

Posted by Michael in Site Updates