Update: The site is slowly getting back to normal, but unfortunately, comments are not working at all. They pretend to be, but they're not. I suck. Stay tuned for details.

It's been a while since I've had a server hacked by script kiddies,

but as you can tell by the "plain ol' vanilla" look and feel of the site today, Turdhead.com is in the process of rebuilding. Stay tuned as I try to get the real Turdhead.com back up and running. Meanwhile, enjoy this, um… much prettier version of it. Hmmph.

I'm often curious about what people are looking for when search engines send them to Turdhead.com, so I tend to look at the site's log reports pretty regularly. I was recently surprised — and a little alarmed — to find that more than a few people are ending up here after typing "Sites we hate" into their Google search boxes!

Even more troubling: Turdhead.com is the first thing that shows up when one enters the phrase on both Google and MSN.

It took me a while to

realize that "Sites we hate" is actually the heading of one of our less-used article categories, so it does in fact show up on every page of Turdhead, and we do actually have a lot of content filed under the header.

Maybe we should change our focus from "whatever the hell it is now" to "Sites we hate?"

Not that it matters: Whatever we decide to focus our sights on, we won't end up talking much about it anyway.

Imagine calling 911 and being told your call cannot be accepted, because you're not using the government's accepted brand of cell phone or approved wireless carrier. Or consider having your tax return tossed out because you used the wrong brand of envelope to send it in.

Sound far fetched? Unfortunately, it's not: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is currently accepting online file claims from victims of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent floods… but only if they're using the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer on a recent version of Microsoft Windows! Otherwise, they have to use the ever-efficient phone system– and let's hope they've got touchtone!

All I can say is… what the hell? Has the U.S. government — the perpetrator of a multitude of rules, laws and standards — not heard of Web standards? It's not hard to create a Web application that runs on all current browsers — most companies today make this a minimum requirement for any public Web site. Why limit the online FEMA system's use to only those careless enough to still be using Microsoft's three-year-old piece-o-crap Internet Explorer? Why rule out Firefox users, Safari users Opera users, and Macintosh users of all ilk?

It doesn't cost any more to make a site that works for everybody; you just have to give a damn in the first place.