Relegated to the Attic

Well, it's happened, and probably, some will say, it was inevitable. I've put away my archives for now, due to some...shall we say, 'lack of security' issues. As always, it's really no one's fault but my own. As you all know, you've all been tracked - I have a site counter attached to this blog, and it tells me whenever you log on, what search terms you used to find this place, what your operating system and browser are, your IP address, and your time zone. For the most part, I don't care how many times you come to read, and I love that anyone does. Part of my inspiration to write these entries is from my friends who do come here, and it would certainly be harder to motivate myself to write if you wonderful souls never visited.

Mostly, I used the counter, just in case someone I didn't want to find this blog, ended up coming here. One visitor found my blog by typing into the Yahoo! search engine the name of a former advisor of mine, and his research area of interest. Well, of the top 5 links, three point to his biographical sketch on his department's official website, and two of them to my blog, in which I pretty much let fly what I think of my former "mentor." In some ways, this is quite comical, but in other ways, this could be quite scary. I traced the IP addresses using ARIN and found that the persons reading my site are actually affiliated with the institution which my former "mentor" ditched us for.

Now several people have found this blog in the past several days using the exact same search terms, so I'm hoping for the best - that being several graduate students and post-docs who know this person are getting a decent chuckle out of the post. In the worst-case scenario, several of his colleagues have found it and passed it on to him. I don't feel I've done anything wrong except to tell the truth about this person, but you never know, and, with him, I think it's best to adopt a CYA policy.

So, I contacted a lawyer, and discussed with him any possible legal problems I might be facing as a result. To sum up this half-hour conversation, I think I'll be able to avoid any fines and/or jail, but I should take a number of steps, including shutting down the archives for a while. Regrettably, you can still find these archived posts using the Yahoo! search engine, but there's nothing else to be done in that regard.

And if you're a student/tech/post-doc down in Crab Cake Country, and you work for this person, God Bless. Or perhaps I'm 100% wrong and he's done a 180° turnaround and evolved into God's Gift to Graduate Students. Leave me a note to say 'hi.' If you're faculty, then never mind because your soul is probably bound for the same place as his.

And that's about it. Lawyers are expensive. Luckily I know one that takes a couple pints of beer as payment.

Later! (Back to writing...)

Edit: Archives back online. I don't think my former "mentor" has been here, and even if he has, I've got nothing to hide.