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January 29, 2006
Off-air
I managed to lose my phone down the back of a taxi last Friday. Apologies if you were trying to get hold of me; I’m back up with an old phone now.
Posted by Oliver at 06:03 PM | Comments (2)
January 17, 2006
Beating spam with Movable Type 3.2
This is a somewhat detailed explanation of what worked for me in blocking spam in AWVC. The short version is that I tried installing a CAPTCHA, MT-SCode, which I couldn’t get working properly. Then I found MT-Keystrokes, which works brilliantly. So: Install the latter and you’ll be fine. The catch is that your site visitors will need to have Javascript enabled to leave comments.
The long version is contained in AWVC’s first ever extended entry!
Blogs, Comments, CAPTCHAs, and the utility thereof
Each brand of weblog software has software routines used to record comments. The routines are generally operated in exactly the same way across multiple installations of that weblog software. Scripted programs can be pointed at these specific routines to automatically log “comments” (i.e. crappy ads for crap). The routines are easy to locate as they’re generally described using plain text, easily parsed by a web script.
A CAPTCHA is designed to confirm the person entering a comment is an honest-to-God human. It uses an automatically generated image only a human could decipher (spam bots not being sufficiently advanced to decipher the generated image - yet, at any rate.
MT-SCode not being the most co-oerative of beasts
Lots of people seem capable of installing MT-SCode, and not having any problems with it. I ran into the problem described here. Currently there’s no explanation for the problem, but if it helps with future diagnosis, I’m running AWVC on the creaky BerkeleyDB back-end.
But SCode has other problems. The generated image (showing the code you need to type into the verification box) isn’t very attractive, and having to type anything at all into the box is an extra roadblock users leaving a casual comment might not be arsed working around. There are accessibility problems with CAPTCHAs too, which I’m not entirely comfortable with.
Finally, SCode requires Javascript. As far as I can tell the few regulars that I have all have Javascript enabled, so that’s okay, but it might not be for you.
I tried my damndest to get SCode working, but wasn’t really getting it going reliably. Then I stumbled across MT-Keystrokes.
Alternative Means of Detecting your Humanity
MT-Keystrokes also tries to confirm the person entering the text is a human, but does so without requiring the user to decipher an image. It does this by tying into a Javascript event handler - a piece of code that runs every time a user types something in a text box. Spam bots don’t come with built-in Javascript engines - yet - so they ignore the Javascript code and are consequently ignored by the blog software. The plugin still requires Javascript to be enabled, but doesn’t require the user to do anything more than they’d normally do when leaving a comment. MT-Keystrokes requires a bit more effort to install, but because it’s simpler than MT-SCode it should also be a bit more reliable.
The best part? AWVC = spam-free.
Addendum
Incidentally, while editing my MT configuration file, I screwed up the line-endings by saving the file in a Mac text editor. I thought I’d killed AWVC as whenever I tried to log in or leave a comment I got an error message saying Got an error: Bad ObjectDriver config. After some panic and then some calmer thinking, I resaved the file in a PC text editor and all was well. Google didn’t help at all though, leading me to believe I’d corrupted the database somehow.
Posted by Oliver at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2006
Isn't there a rule about not blogging drunk?
Has anybody else noticed how in Magnolia the music is a near-constant distraction from what’s on the screen? It’s on RTE at the moment, and I’m a little drunk, but I didn’t notice it the first time I saw it, in the fancy cinema with it’s fancy intermission for peoples of the weak bladders - okay, wait, I’ve sidelined myself.
Right. The manly way of asking somebody to marry you, right, is to have the ring in advance. Right? Right. The risk is, when your sweetie doesn’t wear rings, that you have no handy template for the ring size, and so the only solution is to measure her finger. But the only way to measure her finger surreptitiously is to get her comatose via the magic of alcohol, at least when you’re a man of limited imagination like myself. The trouble with that, see, is that alcohol works both ways. I measured her finger size, but not very well.
Back to the diamond merchant we went, to have her finger measured by a pro, and then to have the ring whisked back to Antwerp for some resizing action. It’s back now, as sparkly as ever, and much more snugly fitting. And now my sweetie has to wear it all her life! Score!
Darn. The music’s started up again. Poor Stanley…
Posted by Oliver at 11:15 PM | Comments (3)
January 12, 2006
Beating spam with MT-Keystrokes
MT-SCode proved a no-go, so I’ve tried something else which seems to be working. You’ll need to have Javascript enabled to leave a comment (but the old captcha would have required that anyway). More details for the internet to follow when I get the chance (as I may as well explain what I’ve done to others in the same pickle).
Posted by Oliver at 06:37 PM | Comments (0)
Speaking too soon
Ahahaha. No, the captcha image isn’t showing. No, I don’t know why. It was working last night guv’nor, I swear!
Still, at least the spam machines can’t get through either! I’ll keep at it.
Posted by Oliver at 02:17 PM | Comments (2)
January 11, 2006
ARSING BLOG
Clearly I don’t know as much about stuff as I like to think I do.
Late last year I updated AWVC’s blog software, thinking that it’d help, even though it was working just fine already. This was fine and super, until I realised that the new, improved blog software was about fifteen times as crap as the old, reliable software at blocking spam.
This really rankles because of my recent engagement announcement. I’d thought people hadn’t said ‘Huzzah!’ on the blog because they were all congratulating me in person; instead, it was because any genuine person leaving a comment was told that their comment was in moderation and that I’d be reviewing it shortly. Except, of course, I wouldn’t be, because I had no idea that was how it was set up. Or that, if I didn’t look at it before ten days passed, it’d be deleted. TEN DAYS. I was away from the internet for far longer than that over Christmas, it turned out.
So, internet, I’m sorry. If you left a comment recently and got a promise that I’d look at the comment soon, that was my blog lying to you on my behalf. It has been chastised. Please, please don’t think your comment didn’t appear because I thought it wasn’t worthy. I love all my (human) commenters dearly. I did manage to save two of the comments by pure luck, and not because they passed some imaginary stringent criteria I’d newly laid down.
I’ve installed one of those captcha doohickeys that ask you to type a number from a picture before your comment will be accepted - hopefully that’ll stop the spam robots and let the real people in. Please excuse the extra aggravation.
Posted by Oliver at 10:25 PM | Comments (5)
January 05, 2006
The best thing the internet ever wrote
Mind the pop-ups: http://www.newyorker.com/shouts/content/articles/060109sh_shouts
Posted by Oliver at 07:51 PM | Comments (0)