Warning: Do Not Visit UGS/Novelr (Resolved)

If you visit either UGS or Novelr, you'll see a splash page telling you that both sites have exceeded bandwidth usage, and that you'll be granted access if you download a small 'web accelerator app'. Do NOT download - it's probably malicious software. My bandwidth has NOT expired, and right now I'm suspecting that my server has been compromised. Will update this space live over the next few hours.

Update 1: Here's a screenie:



Update 2: Seems the whole of ASO is affected, not just Novelr and UGS. Hacked, probably.

Update 3: Tweeted Tim Dorr, founder of ASO. Tim confirms something is up.

Update 4: Tim tweets back, saying the issue's resolved. ASO forums now has a thread about the DNS attack.

Hacker attack's averted, though I'm not sure how he got into ASO in the first place. I'm just glad it wasn't an account-specific hack (like, I dunno ... mine); anyway UGS and Novelr are safe places to go again.

On a side note: this is exactly why I recommend ASO to all my friends who're looking for a webhost. They're (relatively) cheap, they're fast, and when disaster strikes at 2 A.M. they make sure everything turns out ok in as little time as possible. This crisis was resolved in 3 hours. Most of their customers - and by extension most of Novelr's readers - probably won't even notice. These people are fantastic.

Departure

I am leaving in 18 days. It doesn't seem real yet, to tell you the truth - the fact that I am trading this town for another. I will no longer be with the people I love, to share in our communion of laksa and teh tarik; nor will I have the safe guarantee of their voices one phone-call away. And more importantly: I will not be able to check up on them - or be checked up upon - with the miracle that is the Digi satu-sen-sms. The thought of all that emptiness, where before I had known only the overflowing safety of communication - that thought: singular, new - is scary. As it is for many other college students, I'm sure.

You might have noticed that I've not updated for some time now. There's a reason for that. I've been working, and when you're at work you're exposed to all the benefits attributed to that horrible life-sucker only adults complain about - that thing called a job. Yes, a job. With the italics and all. I work from 8 to 5 (or sometimes 6, 7 - these days are the last ones, at the tail-end of the research project, and the tests in the lab are tiring beyond belief) and when I come home I collapse on bed and wake up at 8 and eat and then proceed to pig out at the most ghastly of times in front of the computer.

Unhealthy. I know. Tell me about it.

But it's also starting to be really annoying. I've only 18 days left in the land of kolo mee, and my time is better spent with the people I love then it is with the test tubes and the plant samples and the sexy hum of the UV machine. (In fact, the only loved one I'm spending huge amounts of time with is my aunt, because she's my boss - and so after this project you betcha we're going to need a break from each other). My job is tiring. To be fair, most jobs are.

Some of you may also have noticed that I deleted my last (very long) blog post, and there's a reason for that too. I didn't like it. I thought my writing sucked. I think I'm starting to become less like a blogger and more like an essayist, and the truth about such a change is that I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad one. To me, a blogger deals with experiences, and an essayist deals with ideas. I dabble in both - and my friends accuse me of being too impersonal because lately I've been writing only essays, not posts. In response: nothing much has been happening to me that's worth writing here, in so public a platform as Mochaspot has become. And also: let's just say that I'm going through a tough patch in my writing-life - it's called a block, if you're wondering - and leave it at that.

But I've got plenty to say now, 18 days from departure. I need to talk about UGS (the redux post that was my last), about the 3 photo-shoots that I did with a group of awesome people last month; and also about this incredibly curvy, unbelievably sexy thing to have walked into my life called (waitforit) Bob. Yes, you heard right - Bob. Don't ask, be nice, and I'll be back soon ... hopefully. See you in a bit.