Lisplog | End the War on Freedom

Long time no see

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 15 Nov 2022 13:51:42 GMT <== Lisplog ==>

I spend my web time on social media these days, mostly my Pleroma instance, impeccable.social, and, since Elon Musk took over, Twitter. But Lisplog is still running on this web server, even though I haven't frobbed it in a long time. Cool.

I have finally resumed writing code, after a two-year hiatus. My brain finally got hungry again. Now working on Mammudeck, in Elm.

Add comment Edit post Add post

Lisplog Blog

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:40:48 GMT <== Lisplog ==>

I started using Lisplog for End the War on Freedom at the beginning of June. I have finally finished creating the templates and style sheet to begin blogging about it at Lisplog.org. Not much there yet, but it'll grow.

Add comment Edit post Add post

AES for Password Hashing

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:54:27 GMT <== Lisplog ==>

Following a G+ discussion with Nikodemus Siivola, in which he recommended using bcrypt instead of a hash function for encoding passwords, I updated Lisplog to use AES, since I didn't have bcrypt handy. AES doesn't have the tuning parameters to make encryption take longer, as bcrypt does, but I figure it's at least slower than a simple hash, so it should help.

I initially used a simple MD5 hash, copying the Drupal mechanism so that I could just copy my Drupal data. I have not yet updated this blog with the new code. Soon.

2 comments Edit post Add post

Lisplog Registration

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:23:44 GMT <== Lisplog ==>

I have added new user registration to Lisplog. There's a link to it from the comment submission page, and on the login dialog, which comes up if you go to the settings page, or try to add or edit a post. If you're registered and logged in, you can post comments without captcha or moderation, and you can edit and delete your own comments (doesn't apply to comments you've made between the Lisplog switch and now, since, due to a bug, those aren't tagged with your ownership).

If you forget your password, the login page now has a link for that.

I also added an RSS header link to the home page, so Firefox will show an orange Feed icon () in the address bar, as will Chrome, if you have the RSS Subscription Extension installed.

I now get email notification when a new account is registered or a new comment is posted. Should make me a little quicker on the ball at moderating comments.

There has still only been a single comment spam posted since I switched to Lisplog two weeks ago. I used to get 10 a day. Weird. The captcha is much simpler than it was before.

1 comment Edit post Add post

Comment Posting Fixed

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:02:24 GMT <== Lisplog ==>

I just discovered that pushing the "Submit" button on the comment editing page without entering your name, a comment, or the correct answer to the arithmetic question caused you to get a blank page, instead of a page showing you what you need to fix before you can successfully submit your comment. This may be part of the reason that I've received no comment spam since going live with Lisplog. Hopefully it will now be easier to submit comments. Unfortunately, it will now probably be easier for the comment spammers to submit comments.

2 comments Edit post Add post

It's Alive!

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:49:02 GMT <== Lisplog ==>

This is my first post created with my new blogging software Lisplog. Everything should be pretty much as it used to be, except for the new appearance, two columns instead of three, and it should respond faster, to regular access, Apache serving static files, and to comments, which have a new, hopefully easier, captcha mechanism.

If you had an account before, you should still have it, and that will still allow you to post comments without captcha or moderation. If you don't yet have an account, you can't get one right now, until I write that code, but you CAN post comments, which will appear after I moderate them.

Lisplog, FTW!

5 comments Edit post Add post

Lisplog Going Live

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:43:28 GMT <== Lisplog ==>

I have finished enough of the dynamic server for Lisplog, that I'm going to go live with it, starting tomorrow. I still have to test the Lisp code on my web server and convert content that's been added since I sampled 6 weeks ago. If all goes well, though, I expect to switch over this coming weekend. You can see the latest layout at billstclair.com/blog-new.

I have not yet done any RSS parsing code, so my "news aggregator" will initially not be here. I'm considering replacing it with a public Google Reader aggregation. If you're especially fond of the "news aggregator", accessible from the top of the left column of this and every page, and don't think Google Reader will be an acceptable replacement, let me know. I'll also be doing my own judging of Reader's suitability for that task.

Add comment Edit post Add post

New Blogging Technology Coming

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:50:26 GMT <== Lisplog ==>

Goodbye Drupal. Hello Lisplog. I've gotten tired of waiting for Drupal. I suppose I could upgrade, and maybe get better performance, but I've decided to roll my own again, as I did with BlogMax before I switched to Drupal. I'm writing, in Lisp, of course, a template system and editor that will allow me to use my existing Drupal data to generate a blindingly fast static site, and change, and accept comments right on the site. I'll lose some of the flexibility of Drupal's active content generation, and pay in additional disk space, but I'll get speed, and ease of moving the content around. And I'm having a blast writing the code!

I'm going to preserve all the main content URLs, so Google will remain accurate. You'll see the appearance change a little, moving to a two-column layout and ditching the left-column banners, and the performance go way up.

You can see my bare beginnings at billstclair.com/blog-new. Many links don't work yet, and there's no way to navigate, but that will come soon. I invite your comments about the new style. I'm no graphic designer, so I can benefit from those who are.

3 comments Edit post Add post

Navigation

History

Recent Comments

Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair