Good news from David, via John:
I got some really good news from David, not optimal news, but very good indeed.
He and his team were able to find actual hard copies of all the custom coding for Balloon Juice. He had backups of that and our data on the cloud, but was able to find a copy they had done. They will be working through the weekend to get us up and running, and hopefully by Monday we will be back.
What does this mean? What it means is that the structure and foundation of the house is there, but there is no artwork and furniture, the cupboards are bare, and I’m gonna need to go shopping for new plants. Basically, the house is still there, but the thieves kicked us in the family jewels and took them and still have them hostage.
I am remaining positive that we will eventually get our data back, but right now it is the target of a tug of war between the mba’s and lawyers at 365 data centers, the mba’s and lawyers at the as yet unnamed third party vendor/macguffin, and the hackers. I’ll let you decide which is worse, and personally I am hoping for something like the shootout at the end of Reservoir Dogs with the jewels remaining safe.
As for the data, the absolute worst case scenario is we use the tarball crawl we have, the internet wayback machine, and/or hopefully one of the people involved in the 2019 redesign have backups. I will be trawling my computer for files later. But hopefully it will not resort to that. Personally, I wish the fuckers would just pay.
So good news, mostly. Yay!
One big hurdle crossed! Step by step, inch by inch.
I am going to be very happy to see our Balloon Juice site again.
Well, that sounds promising. Thanks again to John and WaterGirl for keeping the place going and especially for keeping us as informed as possible with no bullshit.
About that worst-case scenario: should we start investigating what is involved — is it even possible — in taking archived content such as posts and comments, and somehow shoehorning them into a reverse-engineered WordPress MySQL database? And, if so, going how far back?
I mean, it should be possible in principle, at the cost of a lot of experimentation, with some knowledge of the WP table structure and the MySQL APIs, and volunteer time and effort. It’s really a to-be-dreaded last resort.
Very good news. Admittedly I’m going to miss my daily email from John and WaterGirl!
That IS good news.
Shoehorning the tarball/archive content back in would be a pretty rough deal. As in, probably something we’d need to contract someone to do unless we can get straight backups from the folks who did the redesign a few years ago (that MIGHT be lift&shift, but I really doubt it).
Still, great news in general and I’ll absolutely take it. If it comes to needing to import old data and hiring someone to do it, we can start a contribution fund. I’d be in.
YAYYYYYYYY! Thanks again for everything you guys did to keep us connected through all this.
@Carlo Graziani
Data-wise, the only thing that makes sense now is 1) testing on a teeny tiny scale what the process would be, if we had to resort to that, and 2) preserving anything the is going to disappear in 15 or 30 days or whatever, in case it takes longer than that to get back our data.
@Windpond
With MailChimp, you can have one superset of all the names and then other smaller sets for particular things. So it’s possible to have a subset of people who want to get updates about particular things.
For instance, we could have a subset of people who sometimes attend the BJ zoom, and then I could send zoom links out to all of those people in a single message instead of having to keep a spreadsheet and send email message with zoom links each time.
We’re going home! Let’s throw a big party this weekend and completely trash this place!
You never pay ransomware jerks.
One of these days, they’re going to knock over a criminal operation (think old timey mob, drug lords, or something like that). I eagerly await the blood spatter in whatever sweatshop when it happens.
I am prepared to repost every comment submitted over the last year if that is deemed necessary.
I do not understand any of these detailed technical conversations about the state of the archives but I get that by early next week, things may be halfway back to normal. That is enough cause for hope for me.
Well, it’s about time. We’ve been in this purgatory for, what, just under two weeks?
Seriously, it IS encouraging news. Especially the bit about Balloon Juice maybe coming back Monday. You’ve been fighting the good fight for all us jackals, WaterGirl. John Cole should give you a medal.
I must have made a typo in my name and/or email, I’m in moderation. Another reason to look forward to tne old site coming back.
How on earth did the infection spread from the first site? Surely any site able to execute arbitrary commands is running on a VM that has no privilege in the cloud? I agree 349 Data Centers really f***ed up
Hm. WordPress is GPL software. This actually could be done on a local-test basis, probably with python scripts to massage and move the data. Low-consequence. The table structure would be a bit of a learning curve, though.
This is good news!
BTW, is there any personal data that the hackers could’ve stolen?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka). your grid coordinates’
@ WaterGirl – Final scene, Reservoir Dogs – Oh yeah!!!
@Goku
Have you supplied any personal data to Balloon Juice?
Hint: no you have not, unless you count your email address.
Excellent news. It will be good to be back.
@Pete Mack
It may be the they broke in to steal the TV and then noticed some electronic equipment and jewelry and thought, hey, as long as we’re here, let’s go for this stuff, too.
Or maybe they wanted to get in for Site X, but found some wide-open security holes and figured it was easy pickings
@OhioMom
The second letter of your email address was wrong. I fixed it. That would put you into moderation on Balloon Juice, too.
edit: Did you click the box to have this site remember your nym and email address?
I wasn’t really asking for myself in particular; my email I use for commenting is a dummy email. I remember a regular commenter mentioning in last night’s 365 thread that the date could’ve been encrypted and might be scanned for things like credit card numbers and the like. I didn’t know if that information or access to other accounts could be hacked into somehow because of this ransomware attack
@Goku
To add to what I said:
I suppose email addresses could be used to send phishing emails
I used to work for a paranoid company who said “if someone offers you a bribe, arrange to take it and we’ll have the police swoop on them at the handover. You get to keep the bribe, for all the extra work involved”.
I wish we were dealing with them, as I suspect their ransomware response would be as robust. Alas, they’re not in the right industry. Or the right country (;-))
@Goku
Geez, Goku, are you looking for things to worry about?
This is great news. Thanks to everybody who kept this place open and functioning; we owe you BIG.
@WG
I….wasn’t worrying? I’m not freaking out about it, I’m just curious is all
@Goku
I don’t say this to be mean, but you are often *just curious* about something to worry about, and then the thread turns into whatever it is you are worrying about, which can get tiresome.
edit: case in point. 8 comments about your worry on a 30-comment post. Most of which are my fault for answering you. WG, over and out.
This site works perfectly fine though. Seriously, it’s fast and compact. No tweets, but I consider that an advantage. Let all the old data expire gracefully and make this the new BJ.
@WG
Alright, let’s just forget about it
Sniff! I’ll miss our little vacation cottage / home away from home. A little bit anyway.
WaterGirl May 26, 2022 at 2:31 PM
@Goku
Geez, Goku, are you looking for things to worry about?
Is it a day ending in ‘Y’?
@BillinGlendaleCA
Completely unnecessary
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg May 26, 2022 at 1:55 PM
“You never pay ransomware jerks.”
I’m not advocating that it legally be made open season on such people, but if, say, I was on the jury that was trying someone who shot such a person(s) in cold blood, I’d be extremely open to a justifiable homicide defense.
And just as we were getting used to **this** place! 😀
Excellent news! Many many thanks to WaterGirl and John for not giving up and hiring a helicopter to drop paint-filled water balloons onto the 3XX DataCenter Corporate HQ. Also for creating and maintaining this very nifty summer house.
Looking forward to inhabiting the OG digs again!
I am filled with gratitude for this temporary home, but jeez, I miss the up and down arrows!
@debbie
I miss the arrows and so much more. This place is a fine summer home, but I am *really* glad to be going home.
I would give it 5 stars for immediate availability, and maybe 3 stars for amenities?
@CaseyL Heck we barely got done complaining about it! 😛
@ WG:
Beats a Motel 6 for sure!
I’m with John, I think they should pay them. It’s fine to stand on principle when your actions don’t negatively impact thousands of entities, businesses, hospitals, livelihoods, and communities.
@Yutsano
haha
@debbie
No bedbugs and I have tried to provide good service. 🙂
@WaterGirl: I know it took some work on your part and the server gent to fire this up. I thought the user experience has been decent, and actually it’s been quite pleasant because /most/ of the crowd dealt with by the eye-pay ilter-fay haven’t quite found their way back.
Never say “over and out.”
I think we should have this listed on our front page of the new/rebuilt site with “bookmark this site to check for info if Balloon Juice is ever down”.
i also had watergirl in my contacts from something almost 2 years ago..
Confused (but also “Chicken” suggestive text)
So the code for the redesigned site is available (foundation) but the database of past posts isn’t within reach (yet)?
@Omnes
“Never say “over and out.””
Can we still say penis?
ETA – apparently so!
David Collier-Brown: ‘I used to work for a paranoid company who said “if someone offers you a bribe, arrange to take it and we’ll have the police swoop on them at the handover. You get to keep the bribe, for all the extra work involved”.’
Wow. I’m not that trusting. In the federal government, insider threat training says to be non-committal, as you send your report up the chain.
@Goku
You trying to give yourself an ulcer? Relax.
@Omnes! You’re here! Excellent. Next time there’s a Ukraine-related thread, please tell us what you’ve been thinking about the developing artillery battles in the Donbas.
I’m so glad to be able to read Balloon Juice while we wait to “go home.” We may not be in the fancy coffee shop (we’re hanging out at the park pavilion, lol) but better than nothing! Very grateful!
In other news, I woke up this morning with extreme blurry vision in one eye! Yikes! Of course I just HAD to google my symptom – uh, don’t do that. Went to the eye doctor, got some eye drops, the eye is okay. Been having small spots of blurriness for while, but it would go away – my vision was much less blurry when I went to the doctor. So much for my plans today! I do have WaterGirl’s quilt done, just need to take a photo and then off to the post office! I am working on a new Ukraine donation quilt, I’m calling it “Cats and Sunflowers,” you guessed it, there will be Cats! and there will be Sunflowers! Or, Koty ta Sonyashnyky (according to Google translate, perhaps Gin&Tonic would confirm this is correct? I put some blocks on Instagram (Quiltykitties) if anyone wants to look at them.
@Omnes
Why not? Not challenging you. There’s obviously something I don’t know about radio or walkie-talkie communications. Well, to be more correct, I know almost nothing so there’s a lot I don’t know about that!
@ mrmoshpotato
The code for the site was tucked away in a drawer somewhere, probably on the computer the site programmer uses. Not literally in a drawer, of course, but they had the code separate from the regular backup system.
@Qultingfool
ooh, I didn’t know it was that close!
So scary about your eye, I’m sure you were worried about all sorts of awful things.
Good to hear WaterGirl. Everyone appreciates all the work you’ve done.
Did the front page background just turn blue on me?
And I’m awaiting moderation as well on that last comment. I obviously shouldn’t wait so long to start my day-drinking.
@Quiltingfool – You are correct.
Коти і соняшники if you want it in Cyrillic.
Why not just point the url thingy to this site and call it a day?
I would bet that less than 1% of your actual real people traffic is people looking back through the archives from some recipe that was posted in 2014 or whatever.
I know it’s fun to be angry at data centers or whatever, but who cares, really in the big picture?
@Quiltingfool – You are correct. “Коти і соняшники” if you want it in Cyrillic.
@WG – I just posted this comment, went back to edit it, edited it and *poof*! it was gone. So I re-typed it. It’ll probably show up twice now.
@WG. Over says you have finished speaking for now but the conversation is not over. Out says the conversation has ended. IOW, out includes over. Saying both is redundant. FWIW a junior person never says out to a senior person. Okay, they may do it once, but it never happens again.
Last Train Home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXJTv_U-PM
WaterGirl May 26, 2022 at 4:02 PM
Not Omnes, but…
‘Over’ means “I expect a reply”
‘Out’ means “I’m done here, no reply expected.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXJTv_U-PM
WG driving. Last Train Home. JC shoveling coal for the boiler
@ Omnes Omnibus
“All mushrooms are edible, some only once.”
@Gin & Tonic
It went into moderation. They are both visible now.
@Quiltingfool
I went back and fixed the previous references, so if you change your nym before you post again there will be no references to your real name.
@Aleta
Your first comment went into spam. It’s all good now.
Thanks for the song!
edit: I am enjoying the song.
@Omnes Omnibus
Oh, then not only was it redundant, but I used it completely wrong. I was attempting to say “out”. As in “I’m done.”
Thanks for the education.
@glc
Love your quote about mushrooms.
@Modern Solution wrote:
“Why not just point the url thingy to this site and call it a day?
I would bet that less than 1% of your actual real people traffic is people looking back through the archives from some recipe that was posted in 2014 or whatever.
I know it’s fun to be angry at data centers or whatever, but who cares, really in the big picture?”
It’s 20 years of history. This blog that John Cole made is in part of his legacy. It’s 20 years of John Cole’s life. 20 years of an amazing community.
Comments by efgoldman and all the BJ friends of the years, just gone.
None of that may matter to you, but it does matter to a lot of us, including and especially John Cole. And to me and many others, I think!
@Layer8Problem
Yes, it did! Or at least a blue border. I like it! You?
Thanks Gin & Tonic for checking the translation! I did write the Cyrillic translation from Google. It was almost the same, except for one word, I think it would be “and” (Google translate had “Ta.” I’m using your translation. My sewing machine has a Cyrillic alphabet (for embroidering words), but it doesn’t have some Ukrainian letters, so won’t be using that!
Watergirl, I agree about not ditching 20 years of Balloon Juice – that work must be preserved. It’s the history of this blog. That is important.
@WG. Ending your comment to Goku with “WaterGirl, out,” would have been perfect.
@Omnes
Now I know for next time. 🙂
Well, I don’t have an ulcer but am wondering if the Diamond Member Area will be restored first or if the mosh-pit comes first. Over and out.
@Quiltingfool – Either one works in this context, і or та. I don’t have a preference.
I wonder if part of the delay in getting the 3xxDC stuff resolved is – if the hackers are Russian then it may be all kinds of illegal to pay them given all the banking sanctions since February, even if they wanted to pay them. The 3xxDC folks probably don’t want to go to Leavenworth…
But, who knows.
Cheers,
Scott.
@Another Scott
“But, who knows.”
The Shadow.
🙂
FWIW, was looking at a couple of crawls, and there are a few small gaps in the tgz i posted to google drive. (There may be other gaps because a similar wget-based script was used for each.) Still, the diffs are like a few hundred out of ~69k posts+comment threads. Will find the diffs and provide an update, just because.
About 75 percent of ransomware is paid to Russian criminals and their affiliates. (Destroying them may involve collateral damage. Like, say, Russia.)
@ Modern Solution May 26, 2022 at 4:21 PM
Approximately 80 percent of the words I’ve ever written have been on this site, and mostly indexed by google. Same for many here; this attack is a form of erasure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_familial_exterminations
That is how I may end up feeling about the perpetrators. Not that angry, yet.
@Poe Larity
“Well, I don’t have an ulcer but am wondering if the Diamond Member Area will be restored first or if the mosh-pit comes first. Over and out.”
I vote for the mosh-pit (to no one’s surprise)!
I really like the blue background, WaterGirl!
@Jackie
Thank you! I really like the blue background, too. I think it really spruces up the place. 🙂
The first couple of days it was so drab that it was dragging me down.
I get phishing emails all the time.
I always send them my CC data and bank routing numbers in case they really, really need the money!!
HAHAH. no, I don’t.
Another Scott: “…wonder if part of the delay in getting the 3xxDC stuff resolved is – if the hackers are Russian…”
That’s been Ohio Dad’s take. He’s mused that ransoms for hacked sites may be Russia’s second biggest income stream after energy exports.
Look, why don’t we just re-create all the comments we’ve made over the years? I mean, I can remember every one of mine.
(ETA: WOW, editing is back!)
If the old content is toast, I’d be willing to take a stab at rebuilding it from eg the cached HTML on archive.org. I’d just need to know the format you need it in to re-import; that sort of programming is well within my wheelhouse. Some Googling around indicates there are some services that already do that, although they charge (for non-tiny blogs) and I wouldn’t.
I hate to say it but I like this site better. It doesn’t freeze on my phone. It’s clean and easy to read and interact with…and I can edit