I took the time to reconfigure my DSL router from scratch today, as we’ve been slowly losing our minds due to connection instability since the router was set up. So far, it appears to be performing much more successfully than it had been. It’s set to bridge mode, which means that its’ extended features are disabled. That’s kind of a drag, as it has inbuilt DHCP and wireless; but we already have both of those via four-year-old Airports. The primary thing I wish I could do is use the wireless to get better coverage – this summer, for example, a third access point could be located by the back window to get solid coverage on the deck.

Ah well, neighbors’ wireless has worked fine for the past couple years – I bet this will still be the case this summer.

I was also able to fine-tune some aspects of MT3 and Blacklist 2.x, and see some slight performance benefits.

Not yet tackled are

• use-testing the ported blogs for functionality and comments (I dropped a bunch of test blogs and inactive sites)
• adding the MT3x templates for the new UI bits
• merging the MT3x style sheets with the active stylesheets
• troubleshooting the apparent inability of MT + Blacklist to recognize and remember a moderator-authorized commenter
• troubleshooting SmartyPants and Markdown

(UPDATE: Oh, look, an aborted attempt to implement the dynamic features of MT3x has replaced all my files with new files named “foo.html.static,” breaking searches and old links! HOORAY!)

(UPDATE 2: As it turns out, the rebuild that produced the “*.static” pages also helped identify a troublesome post in which non-ASCII dragons lurked, and have been blowing up Perl good for over 2 years now. So all’s well that ends well.)

It’s interesting that three friends – Jerry, Dan, and Adam – all mentioned either their implementation of hand-rolled commenting systems or their use and customization of a bolt-on element to improve comment spam resistance.

Like my desired “Simple Email” provider, I think there’s a product opportunity here.

Returning to consider the saga of bellerophon, my internet services box, there’s a problem in the Perl install that makes me think I should probably rebuild that – I first noticed it last year when Markdown started blowing up on certain blank replacement strings. That and the generally sloooooow performance of certain long-list-item activities (adding an album to Gallery 2.x, waiting for Blacklist to parse all n-thousand entries) on the server are arguments for a server rebuild and migration. I do have a spare box to move everything over to, which would make the rebuild invisible. What I do not have is endless time and patience.

I have a backup system implementation to develop first, though. I’m being herded in the direction of hard-drive-based backups, which just makes me grit my teeth and shake a little bit. I have come to the point where I actively loathe the idea of yet another piece of computer gear.