Oldbie.org

As previously noted, I spent a good deal of time on Friday and Saturday, updating the blog to MT4. I'm a fan of the interface updates, and it's nice that comment spam is actually getting rated down again, but I'm still amazed at the number of spam messages that funnel through my site.

Between when I emptied it last night at around 9pm and when I checked this morning at 9am, I got over one thousand spam comments. This is after I added the CAPTCHA, mind you.

Which means that the built-in MT4 reverse Turing test has:

• A. Been cracked by recognition software
• B. Or my own site's CAPTCHA is being solved by horny Internet denizens eager to see more skin.

I'll probably just remove it because it didn't have any effect whatsoever on stemming the tide. I think my site was open to spammers' shitty links for a few months, and now they've labeled it as a go-to blog for Google juice. Which is retarded, because I'm using nofollows. But far be it from me to know the mind of a comment spammer.

More as the saga continues.

Posted by Michael Harrison at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've upgraded to Movable Type 4.1. I contemplated migrating to WordPress, but decided that the transition was a little too much for a Friday night.

The upgrade wasn't too tough, but I had some issues with 4.1's Registration feature. The UI is a little confusing and I kept getting this error whenever I published:

Publish error in template 'Site JavaScript': Error in tag: Error in tag: Error in tag: TypeKey authentication is not enabled in this blog. MTRemoteSignInLink can't be used.

TypeKey authentication was set up, so I'm not sure what the hell MT was talkin' 'bout. I just disabled the whole Registration authentication dealie and it looks good.

Still having comment spam issues, though, so I'm disabling comments for a few days.

Now I'm going to go watch Battlestar Galactica.

Posted by Michael Harrison at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite the fact that my photograph leaves much to be desired, it looks like Google has posted news of our Google Analytics training seminar, which will be held on March 25th and 26th in Raleigh.

I must admit, it's a little crazy seeing my mug anywhere on the Google.com domain.

Posted by Michael Harrison at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I stumbled across Flickaday way back in June, and, off and on, I've been taking daily webcam photographs of myself.

I'm not really sure why I've been doing this. I guess I saw Noah K Everyday and thought it might be interesting to see how my face changes, how my hair changes, etc. Is that vain, or is it just curiosity?

But it got me thinking... I'm an adult, my face will change very gradually. But Liam, he changes every day. We went to California for a week, and when we got back, I swear he was taller, bigger, older. This little web app has the potential to replace the door jamb measurement system that my parents put in place for me (apply child to door frame, measure their height, rinse and repeat over the years, then get sentimental and sad when you have to move and paint over the whole thing).

I'm gonna give this a go, probably post it on Geekdad.

Anyway, I've set up my own Flickaday gadget over to the right in the sidebar. See me in all my bed-headed glory.

Update: I did post this to Geekdad.

Second Update: Ross Lucivero at Flickaday saw my post on Geekdad and mentions it on the Flickaday blog. The Internets are awesome.

Posted by Michael Harrison at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How do I know? Because my mom is on Facebook. I got an email last night, which she sent out to everyone who was at our annual family vacation. Instead of attaching photos to her email, she just posted them to Facebook and sent out the link.

My mom is on Facebook. Very cool. I may re-evaluate how useful that Flickr Pro account is for the family...

Posted by Michael Harrison at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, I guess that sounds a little obscene. I've been thinking about my lack of an active exercise regime and I think it boils down to one thing: exercise is boring.

I was in much better shape during college, when I played organized sports with local leagues. Roller hockey and pick-up football and basketball were great ways to stay in shape and have a bit of fun as well. Now, I'm so damned busy, waking up at dawn for the commute and getting home from work well after dark, that I barely have time for a jog, much less the motivation to go punish my body with mindless running.

So then this article from the WSJ surfaces, talking about how "Nintendo's new [Wii] system forces players to move their bodies," and details a few Wii enthusiasts who are getting their workouts from the new gaming console, and waking up sore the next day.

I guess it's probably too good to be true. Nintendo PR's response to the whole thing: "If people are finding themselves sore, they may need to exercise more."

Part of me wonders how much of this is truth and how much is Nintendo walking the PR line. I mean, let's face it: gamers aren't typically the most fit bunch, right? So maybe the last thing that Nintendo wants its target audience to think is that this new Wii thing? It's a hell of a lot of work and if you're looking for a game you can cuddle up with before bed and wind down to, you should maybe look elsewhere.

If I had the money, I'd get one. I'm sure it's not much of a workout, but at this point, anything is an improvement. Either way, it sounds like a whole lot of fun.

Posted by Michael Harrison at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I opened Gmail this morning and before purging my spam folder, I somehow noticed, amongst the fluff, a name that I recognized.

Seems that Australian YA author Garth Nix is now in the spamming business... or spammers are using unique author names to get people to click on their crud.

Click here for the full-size.

Posted by Michael Harrison at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)