For the longest time, I’ve published blog posts on a Monday – Friday schedule.  I’ve found some drawbacks, however.  There are days when I struggle on what to write about.  Other days, I’ll be up until well past midnight working on blog posts.  It’s gotten to the point that I don’t have much time for anything else.

I definitely don’t want to stop blogging, but I just can’t keep up this every weekday post schedule.  Plenty of bloggers post on weekly schedules or even less.  After giving it a lot of thought, I’ve decided to cut my schedule back for awhile.  I’m going to only post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

This should give me some extra time to work on other projects and avoid bloggy burnout.

How often do you think someone should post to their blog?

Two days ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article which portrayed moms heading off to conferences as deserting their families to party with other moms.  To listen to Katherine Rosman, moms run off to these "so-called-conferences" to party with other moms, get drunk, eat lots of bad-for-you food, and tweet what companies ask them to tweet.  The article even included an oh-so-helpful graphic showing how moms attend these events to sleep in, party, and raid the mini-bar while laying on the floor.

Now I’m not sure what blogging conferences this author is talking about, but the ones I’ve gone to haven’t been like this.  Granted, I haven’t been to a lot.  Mainly just BlogHer 2010 and the Disney Social Media Moms events.  Still, I’ve heard from plenty of other people who have gone to a lot of other events and they all tell similar tales.

Is there partying?  Sure, but that comes at the end of a long day of learning and networking.  Are there company reps there and sponsorships?  At many events, yes, but nobody is obligated to meet with them or to tweet/blog about their products.  In many ways, this is no different than just about any other conference involving travel.

Years back, the company I was working for sent me to a computer expo.  I was there to learn about new technologies that were coming out.  There was plenty of company information to collect, but there was also a lot of swag.  (People crowded the Iomega booth to get their great buttons… buttons which I still have.)  In addition, there were parties at night designed to wine and dine various attendees.  I didn’t attend it, but I was invited to one party where I was assured that there’d be a hot tub and that I’d "have a good time."

Just like the expo I attended way back when, you could go to a blogging event like BlogHer and just party and collect free swag, but you’d be missing the entire point of the event.  Or you could attend just the seminars, avoid the company reps and parties, and come away having learned a lot.  Most people take a middle of the road approach and do a little of each.

Of course, many bloggers have already written many responses.  The main woman who was interviewed, Katherine Stone, aka Something Fierce, even posted an apology for how her words were twisted and misused.  (For the record, she doesn’t have anything to apologize for.)

The Wall Street Journal didn’t just insult moms with their article though.  As a dad, I found it highly insulting as well.  First of all, they insinuate that moms go to these conferences to lie around in a hotel room and let someone else clean up for once.  As if dad never cleans up at home and mom is the only one who ever tidies the house up.  The helpful graphic also insinuates that dad hogs the remote and doesn’t help get the kids ready for school either.  The old stereotype of "dad the idiot who does nothing in the house while mom wears herself out doing everything" was quite clear.

Congratulations, Wall Street Journal and Katherine Rosman for insulting both moms and dads in one article.

Oh, and that graphic showing the mom eating from the mini-bar while laying on the floor?  Have you SEEN some of those hotel room floors?  I don’t walk on them barefoot much less lay down and eat off of them!

NOTE: The photo at the top of this post was taken at BlogHer 2010.  Pictured are Christina (aka WELLInThisHouse), Jenn (aka KissMyKitty), B, and myself.

WordPress is the biggest content management system around,  The good thing about this is that there is a wide array of themes and plugins that various people have developed.  The downside is that it makes WordPress a giant target for hackers.  Security is paramount if you are going power a website with WordPress.

Currently, WordPress websites are under attack.  A network of 90,000 compromised sites are performing brute force attacks to try to gain access to WordPress websites.  (To those who don’t know, brute force attacks attempt to learn your password by trying many common passwords in a rapid manner.  The more power behind the brute force attack and the shorted the span of time that it would take to guess your password and get in.)  If your site is compromised, it will be added to the network and used to hack other sites.  In other words, as the brute force succeeds, it becomes stronger and more capable to add other sites.

How can you prevent this?  Over at TypeAParent, I shared some WordPress plugins to help prevent spam and strengthen security.  One plugin in particular would be helpful with this attack: Apocalypse Meow.

The first thing that Apocalypse Meow can do to protect you is remove the "generator" tag that WordPress adds to the website.  This tag doesn’t display, but notes that WordPress created the website and even the version number that you are running.  This might not be something you see, but to a hacker it is a flashing neon sign telling them just how to attempt to hack your website.

The second thing that Apocalypse Meow can do is rename your administrative account.  By default, WordPress suggests the name "admin" for your admin username.  Most people don’t change this and so millions of sites are administered by "admin."  Hackers need just guess the password (not a hard proposition in many cases) and they have full control of the site.

Last week, there were over 7,000 login attempts made on TechyDad.com and TheAngelForever.com.  That is about 2 attempts every 3 minutes.  Of those attacks, 98.8% were trying to log in as "admin."

As a side note: These stats were recorded by Apocalypse Meow,  It records all successful and failed login attempts.  If one user tries and fails too many times (user defined, but starts at 5), then you are locked out of logging in for awhile.  Usually, this thwarts brute force attacks, but in this case the attackers wisely assault sites from many different compromised WordPress installations.

Still, why not make things more difficult for the hackers?  They are mainly looking for "admin", so rename the Admin account to something else.  Make sure it is something you can remember, but nothing obvious like "admin1" or "administrator".  Apocalypse Meow can help here too.  It provides an easy method for renaming the admin account.

In a matter of seconds, you can thwart 98,8% of attacks, keep your site safe, and help make sure that your website doesn’t unwittingly get conscripted in the hacker’s brute force army.

NOTE: The computer image above is by DTRave and is available from OpenClipArt.org.

Every year for the past 7 years, 5 Minutes For Mom has run The Ultimate Blog Party.  A group of bloggers get together and introduce themselves to each other.  It’s a great way to meet your fellow bloggers.  For one reason or another, however, I never joined in the party.  This year’s different, though.

Since this will be the first time some people are reading my blog, some introductions are in order.  My name is TechyDad.  Well, on this blog and in social media at least.  I don’t use my real name online mainly as a form of protection.  Not for me, mind you, but I do tend to post a lot of photos of my kids.

I’m married to B, aka TheAngelForever, and have two boys: NHL, who is 9, and JSL, who is 5 (at least for another month).  I’m a self-confessed geek who loves Doctor Who, Disney, The IT Crowd, Disney, various cartoons, superheroes, Disney, photography, spending time with my family, and Disney.  Oh and did I mention Disney?

Disney holds a special place in my heart.  Almost 12 years ago, when B and I were married, we went to Walt Disney World for our honeymoon.  While my new bride had grown up going to Disney World, it was my first time and it was magical.  Then, four years ago, we took our kids to Disney World for the first time.  It was amazing watching them experience the wonders of the Disney Park for the first time and each time after that.

I’ve also recently become an autism advocate.  After years of trying to figure out what was going on with NHL, we got a diagnosis of Anxiety Disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome.  As we read up on Asperger’s to better help our son, I began to realize that these books and online articles weren’t just talking about NHL.  They were talking about me as well.  Yes, I have Asperger’s too.  I’m remaining undiagnosed, however, mainly because getting diagnoses is expensive, I’ve learned my own coping skills, and a diagnosis for me wouldn’t help NHL.

I went through a bout of genetic guilt over "giving" my son Asperger’s.  After all, it was likely my genes that "caused" it.  Eventually, I came to realize that there was no blame to be assigned.  It wasn’t as if I personally selected which genes would go to him and which wouldn’t.  Instead of feeling guilty, I embraced my position as the person often most likely to have a clear insight into NHL’s motives and actions.  As an Aspie myself, his actions can make sense to me even when they are a mystery to most neuro-typical folks.

Of course, while I can use my insights into the Aspie mind to advance NHL’s cause, it can also have its own challenges.  For example, when I get fixated on things going one way, NHL gets fixated on them going the other way, and some Aspie-Aspie head butting erupts with B in the middle.

During the day, I work as a web developer which is very lucky as I love coding and debugging.  (Self-confessed geek, remember.)  I’m at my happiest when I’m behind a keyboard, typing away, making a website take shape.  I’ve coded FollowerHQ, which is a site designed to help you manage your Twitter followers.  Most recently, I put together a responsive redesign of TechyDad.com.  If you resize your browser smaller, the site should automatically adjust until it compresses into a "tablet" and then "smartphone" version.  A redesign of B’s site is next on my list.

My other love is cooking.  I love finding new recipes to cook even if JSL’s picky eating habits more often than not result in him rejecting the creations.  Every so often, though, I’ll make something that the boys will not only love, but will beg for more of.  Like my Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream (or the milkshake version of the same recipe).

Actually, since my wife offered cake on her Ultimate Blog Party post, I think it’s only fitting that I offer ice cream and milkshakes.

If you are a new reader, I hope you stick around.  If you’ve been here before, welcome back.  Finally, if you’re participating in the Ultimate Blog Party, please let me know below.  I’ll stop by and say hi.

When I first started TechyDad.com, I thought of it as a means of expressing my views on various subjects that interested me.  While I’ve done that on many topics (Bullying, Autism/Asperger’s, copyright law), there are other topics that I haven’t written about.  Topics that inspire much more controversy.

It isn’t that I don’t have opinions on these topics.  I definitely do.  Neither is it that I don’t think I can write a post about it without denigrating people who disagree with me.  I take pride in an even handed approach that doesn’t insult people based on their opinions even if they are directly opposed to the views I hold.

Still, I hold back on writing about these topics.  Part of me wonders if I would lose readers should I try tackling them.  After all, while I see nothing wrong in following someone who holds a different opinion than me (in fact, I welcome it), plenty of other people do.  Too many people seem to think that you must express exactly the opinion they hold dear or they can’t associate with you at all.  Other people troll specifically for articles on those subjects.

On the other hand, I’ve long prided myself on not choosing my actions based on whether those actions would make people like me.  I might choose my words carefully so as to not intentionally insult someone, but I won’t alter my opinions and actions just because it will keep a friend.

I haven’t completely decided to blog about the more controversial subject matter, but I am seriously considering it.

Do you avoid controversial subjects or do you tackle them head on?

NOTE: The "shouting" image above is by carygrant and is available via morgueFile.