Month: January 2005

spam-proof weblogs?

Spam Stopgap Extreme: New Version – Elliott Back:

I’ve just finished testing Spam Stopgap Extreme version 1.4. Special thanks to Matt Mullenweg, who cleaned up some things in a fork called WP Hashcash, C.S., who complained about code predictability, John F., who suggested that I not send google to spammers and include documentation, and Matt Warden who thought that logging should check for fopen and other file functions, which can often be disabled on the server.

With no further ado, I present Spam Stopgap Extreme v1.4. You can download the .zip and install it into your plugins directory, for improved spam protection today!

Is this possible? One recent comment suggests not, but one CS student at Cornell claims otherwise.

I found and removed close to 400 spams today (only three were posted) so I took a look at this problem again.

The holy grail/silver bullet seems to be the use of some kind of a Turing test to make this crummy activity harder or more expensive to automate: spam’s big appeal is that its costs approach zero, so any return is gravy. If some kind of non-trivial requirement for interaction (CAPTCHA graphics) can be introduced, it raises their costs and makes only unprotected sites vulnerable. As the number of vulnerable sites declines, and as the usual arms race rages — spammers find a loophole, the white hats find a new solution — perhaps it becomes unprofitable.

Now playing: Swing ’48 by Django Reinhardt from the album “Verve Jazz Masters 38: Django Reinhardt”

crossing paths

Will Eisner, 1917-2005:

I was woken up this morning, with the news that Will had died last night, aged 87, and I’ve let a few friends know, and already had to speak to one journalist about who Will was and what he did (“It’s as if Orson Welles had made Citizen Kane and redefined what you could do in film, and then carried on making movies until now,” I said, wishing I could come up with a better analogy, and knowing that that didn’t explain it. And I didn’t mention how proud he was of any of us who did good comics — how much he cared about the medium — or how glad I am that I got to tell him that I wouldn’t have written comics if it wasn’t for him. There’s a reason that the Oscars of comics are the Eisner Awards.)

I have been reading more and more comics and books about comics (Scott McCloud’s two books are great resources[“Understanding Comics”, “Reinventing Comics : How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form”]), and I was just notified this morning that Eisner’s Comics & Sequential Art was waiting for me at my local library branch. I also just learned — from Neil Gaiman’s postings — that Eisner’s studio was just a few miles from where I spent my formative years: I’m sure he wasn’t working there when I grew up, but I recognized the address as one I must have passed hundreds of times.

If I were the type of person who makes public resolutions, I could say safely say that this year I hope to create more, be it in writing, pictures, whatever — even crummy programming code.

Now playing: Overture to La Forza del Destino by Giuseppe Verdi from the album “Verdi: Overtures and Preludes”

the joys of eBay

The Nikon scanner I scored a week or two back needs some repairs or at least some serious adjusting: the scans are really blurry and useless. It would have been nice to get one of the more gently used kits, but finances being what they are, it couldn’t be helped. It remains to be seen how cost-effective it is to get this one in good working order. I hope to learn more tomorrow.

<update: 1/7/05> The flat rate to fix it is $275: good condition used ones are selling at that price, so this one’s isn’t worth fixing. Guess I’ll start saving again.

Now playing: Mary Queen Of Arkansas by Bruce Springsteen from the album “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.” | Get it

time to dust off the sled?

Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Washington Issued by the National Weather Service:

THERE IS ALSO THE POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL TO OCCUR OVER PARTS OF THE LOWLANDS THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY MORNING AS A STORM SYSTEM MOVES ACROSS THE AREA. AT THIS TIME…THE TRACK AND TIMING OF THIS FEATURE WERE STILL UNCERTAIN. HOWEVER IF THE LATEST NUMERICAL WEATHER MODELS DO VERIFY…SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF AN INCH OR MORE WILL END UP FALLING ACROSS PARTS OF THE LOWLANDS.

time to buy AAPL stock?

Apple may offer iMac computer for $500:

Apple shares have more than tripled this year, making them the second-best performer in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index behind Autodesk Inc.

Munster last month said the shares would climb to $100 within a year after a Piper Jaffray survey found that 13 percent of iPod users who formerly bought other PC brands had bought a Macintosh or planned to within a year.

A $500 iMac would accelerate that movement, he said.

Apple shares rose 36 cents yesterday to close at $64.80 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

A $500 pizza box monitor-less iMac? Yes, please.