Socket 3 - My New Blog

thinkpadman

I recently decided to start my own blog using WordPress named Socket 3.

https://socket3.wordpress.com/

Yes, it totally lacks content though wish to improve on that. I'm not sure as yet what's a good site to host files to download, and to edit HTML to create a neater download link. My HTML skills are non-existent. I've currently just tested with one file linking to my public directory within my OneDrive account, and though it works isn't the most seamless in appearance. WordPress only allows documents and graphics typically for download directly.

I don't intend for the site to be a WinWorld copy-cat, though more as a reference point for between the DOS to Windows 2000 era of computing. I'm looking at having guides such as 'Installing and configuring NT 3.51 on X emulator' and 'Understanding your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files' for example that can be used for those with real hardware or using emulators.

The combination of 15 hours a week to travel to and from work, and packing to move to my first home kills the time available to work on it more actively but will persevere. The new house has a separate double car garage which I intend to covert half of it until a bit of a workshop/mans cave and will eventually have some dedicated space to place my old computers to use with the blog.

1607

Looking good but before it grows I'd properly host it (still using wordpress) instead of using wordpress.com - I wouldn't recommend free hosting but that's better than having some wordpress.com shit at the end of your URL. It's like hosting a forum on boards.net or a website on geocities.

Hosting and URLs are cheap. You could even do it for free using x10hosting and freenom, however then you would have the crap-looking .cf / .tk at the end of your URL. Even .xyz is, like, $0.88/year now. Most, if not all, providers have cPanel and some automated setup script to install wordpress.

For downloads, self-hosting is an option, as well as simply linking to your file on Google Drive. If you used x10hosting or a paid service you often get unlimited storage for downloads on the web server itself, so you could just upload via Wordpress' web UI. Hosting executable might be an issue but protecting with a zip password - even if it's in the file name (eg. pcspeakerdriver-pass-12345.zip and protecting with password 12345) would prevent the wordpress and hosting virus scanners from interfering.

Just some quick suggestions, the rest looks great.

calvinb

If you're using self-hosting, I would disrecommend WordPress, it's far too much of a security burden to maintain. I would use a static site generating CMS in that came, like Ghost.

1607

ampharos wrote:

If you're using self-hosting, I would disrecommend WordPress, it's far too much of a security burden to maintain. I would use a static site generating CMS in that came, like Ghost.

It all really depends on the size of the website. For a small personal blog WordPress is fine, especially when you have backend access. Leave it automatically updating and I don't see it being a problem if setup right unless there's a targeted attack. (However, I guess this is based on my experience of pointless shitty "blogs" and "forums" and not in a production environment).

I was going to say how easy to use WordPress was in comparison but then I googled Ghost and it actually looks like a really nice platform. Either way, I'd recommend getting off commercial WordPress - it's almost as bad as "hosting" your site on Weebly.

BlueSun

Wordpress is a huge security hole... but most of the issues come from poorly maintained / written plugins.

Stock wordpress isn't too bad if you keep it updated.

stitch

WordPress is easy and that is the reason most people use it. As previously stated as long as it is kept up to date, it's fine, as long as it's without additional plugins. Some plugins for WP are great and have developers that know what they're doing keeping it regularly up to date. Most plugins however, are written by off shore development teams and are updated once or twice, if you're lucky. They include some of the most horrendous PHP code that I have seen in my life and will almost certainly be full of exploits.

1607

From the looks of the site and it's focus I'm doubtful it would need many plugins - stock WordPress looks ideal. The file hosting might be an issue but I don't see why you can't just add the file to WordPress itself as an attachment, which, if I remember correctly, will appear at the base of the post (depending on the current theme). Unless you're willing to run a home server to host the downloads I would suggest going for "proper" hosting (ideally paid for). I'm not sure what limits wordpress.com hold on attachments but hosting a plain, vanilla WordPress blog on your choice of hosting company, should allow you to simply attach files to the post.

calvinb

stitch wrote:

WordPress is easy and that is the reason most people use it. As previously stated as long as it is kept up to date, it's fine, as long as it's without additional plugins. Some plugins for WP are great and have developers that know what they're doing keeping it regularly up to date. Most plugins however, are written by off shore development teams and are updated once or twice, if you're lucky. They include some of the most horrendous PHP code that I have seen in my life and will almost certainly be full of exploits.

WordPress is not sending us their best. They're sending us their SQL injections and remote shells. And some, I assume, are nice plugins.

thinkpadman

I hadn't heard of Ghost, but then again Tumblr and Blogger is all I knew. I'll stick with WordPress for now and after recently viewing the plugins I would concur with stitch that the quality and development of them is a bit dubious.
I'm not a fan of plugins for the most part whether it be for this or even apps such as Firefox and Paint.NET. All it seems to take is a new version, and the plugin falls over with no guarantees it will be fixed.

I wouldn't mind hosting it myself, though will wait and see what sort of router I receive for the new house. Unfortunately I'm going to be losing FTTH (fibre) and be reverting to ADSL2 (copper). The current router connected to the fibre has firmware by the ISP that is really dumbed down and the options to connect from the outside world wasn't going to happen. I attempted this previously setting up FTP. On top of that, the ISP counts any upstream activity as part of my monthly download limit so would need to keep tabs on that. I'm not inclined to pay for hosting for something that's more as a hobby, but would for a business and pay a developer as well.

@1607 - Attaching PDFs and spreadsheets is easy in WordPress, though they have a rather narrowly defined list of files that are accepted for download. This is where using HTML to embed a link to point elsewhere is the workaround for this. Besides the free variant of WordPress only allows 3GB for storage.

1607

thinkpadman wrote:

Besides the free variant of WordPress only allows 3GB for storage.

That's not my point. If you used WordPress on a proper hosting plan you could upload whatever the hell you wanted and whatever file size you want. x10hosting.com is an example, whilst their free hosting is shit it does at least give you an upgrade path (I've used free x10 multiple times and it's not been that bad), and best of all the storage is unlimited. You can store as much as you want using the wordpress attachment system. Same probably with multiple other hosts.

WordPress.com is a consumer-orientated commercial branch of WordPress and really is just another (shit) hosting provider. WordPress.org is the FOSS software that powers it, and that's free to use wherever you want - on free hosting, paid hosting, or self-hosting.

The site virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com is also an interesting way of doing it, particularly in relation to the file hosting. (also a very interesting site!)

thinkpadman

1607 wrote:

The site virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com is also an interesting way of doing it, particularly in relation to the file hosting. (also a very interesting site!)

I've seen this site before - I agree it's an interesting site to have a read and has been regularly updated over several years.

For now, I've been typing up instructions on setting up a Win 3.1 VM using VirtualBox into 4 components. Setting up the VM itself, installing DOS, installing Windows, and ending with the driver installation for a more optimal experience. No doubt some of us are well adverse on how to do this, but you may like to check it out.

theotherosproject

I have a Tumblr blog that more or less resembles your goals -- I try to write virtualization guides here and there, leaning towards old-school coding but it's a loose format. I haven't written anything in a while, should work on that.

Took a look at your blog post, the amount of details you go into is impressive.

thinkpadman

theotherosproject wrote:

Took a look at your blog post, the amount of details you go into is impressive.

Thanks for the feedback albeit a little while ago. In case you're interested (or anyone else) I've completed my Windows 3.1 VM guide with VirtualBox, and there's another as a work in progress for Windows 95. There's actually things to download as well. After the Windows 95 VM guide, I think I'll look at posting some other things such as eBay finds etc. for extra variety.

neozeed

Just wanted to drop by say that I'd seen your blog a while back, just wanted to encourage you to keep at it. I know it can be a tad bit of a grind. But if I can offer any advice it's don't give up. I know I can't believe I've been doing it for over 16 years, but the time just flies, even though I can see massive gaps from time to time, just persevere.