April 2014 - Helpful Colin

Repairing A Toilet Silent Fill Valve

Introduction

I recently heard my cistern overflowing. On investigation I decided to adjust the float level to stop it by reducing the height to which the water in the cistern rose when it filled. A few days later I heard the distinct sound of the cistern overflowing again. I then realised I needed to repair my Toilet Silent Fill Valve.

Targeted Attacks via Internet Explorer Confirmed by Microsoft

There is a vulnerability (flaw) which allows targeted attacks via Internet Explorer versions 6 through 11 to be made on MS Windows PC’s.

The attack seems complex to me and probably not easily made against the masses. The ultimate goal of an attacker would be to encourage a PC user to visit dangerous websites.

Microsoft plan to fix the problem with updates distributed in their normal way, i.e. monthly updates.

If you want to find out more you can visit ITPRO here. Some PC’s will be more vulnerable than others depending on what version of Windows is used and whether Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows Mail are viewing an HTML document.

Or you could visit Microsoft here and read Microsoft Security Advisory 2963983, Published: April 26, 2014.

WordPress Vulnerability Affecting Mobiles

I just want to pass on knowledge of this WordPress vulnerability affecting mobiles, detected by AVAST, whereby mobile device users are susceptible to redirection. They can be redirected to a malicious web site from WorbPress blogs where the blogger is using a plugin called OptimizePress. NOTE: I am not using that plugin in this blog.

Read all about it in this AVAST Blog Post published on 17th April 2014.

This is the malicious web site so I have not embedded a link to it — http://149.154.152.129.

Reference:

Unblocking My Wash Basin Drain

Introduction

I recently noticed the waste water leaving my bathroom wash basin drain was taking more time than usual to drain away. Realising this meant a total blockage may be imminent, I set to work dismantling the waste pipe and bottle trap so that I could begin unblocking my wash basin drain. Boy was there some gunge to clear out.

A Meteor Narrowly Missed A Skydiver

When A Meteor Narrowly Missed A Skydiver

A meteor narrowly missed a skydiver, Anders Helstrup in 2012, when it passed him, on its way to earth, after he opened his parachute whilst skydiving above Hedmark, Norway. It was all captured on his helmet cam.

The “dark flight” meteor (called that because it was not glowing hot) is thought to have broken off a larger meteor higher in the atmosphere. It was considered to be the first time such a meteor has been captured on video.

My featured image has been enhanced using PhotoZoom Pro 6 by BenVista.

Below you can see the video of the event:

You can read all about it here at PetaPixel.

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My Latest News

3rd June 2019: I’ve had a go at making testimonials look better. The previous method was a mess so I’ve used the Kadence Testimonials block to produce a testimonials page with two neat columns which are now accessed from the Posts menu since they all originate via Post Comments.

1st June 2019: Continuing to edit using blocks I have changed to a Kadence FAQ block to display Frequently Asked Questions and their answers. I spotted a problem with the accordion block and Ben Ritner has very kindly edited the block to resolve it. There has been some editing of the Qs & As and you might find I mess with it some more.

I have also begun using the Contents Table block by Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg to show the contents of my posts. I am inserting this block after the Introduction. If I put it first as it would be in a book it causes some issues:

In my list of posts that is shown in reverse date order I only want the Introduction or part thereof to be seen. If I put the contents block first that will be seen. It will take up a lot of screen space and won’t be very interesting.
The contents block links to all the headings used in the post but that doesn’t work when it’s viewed in the list of post snippets described in 1 above.

1st February 2019: I have just deleted a file named wordfenceScanner.php.bin from my PHP .opcache folder on my server. Wordfence had detected it contained the TimThumb script which is considered to be unsafe. I must look into methods of cleaning my PHP cache. It looks as if it contains some outdated files.

2nd January 2019: Again I couldn’t get my WP v5.0.1 to update to v5.0.2 so I followed Wordfence’s instructions and upgraded it manually. I made a good job of it and searched for the cause of the problem. It turned out to be caused by the plugin DGXPCO which is designed to improve Core update security.

Hopefully if the Core updating server got hacked and a false Core program was sent this plugin wouldn’t allow it to be applied due to manual intervention. Well that manual intervention failed to allow valid Core updates through so I have deactivated that plugin for the time being.

Continue to My Latest News Archive.

Site Construction

The site helpfulcolin.com was originally built in September 2011 by Digitalog© using the Side Blog theme and handed over to Helpful Colin by his mentors (see their links below) in December 2011. It was changed to a ‘Twenty Fourteen’ child theme in February 2014 by Helpful Colin.

The latest major change took place in December 2015 when WordPress version 4.4 became active and Helpful Colin changed the theme to the ‘Twenty Sixteen’ theme which is designed to look good on all screen sizes. Although this may have improved the blog for mobile users it has removed some functionality available in ‘Twenty Fourteen’.