Rubénerd!

Damn it, now RubyURL is gone too?

It was like giving Ruben URLs!

Back in 2007 when the URL shortening scene was first exploding alongside the growth of Twitter, I chose urlTea and RubyURL because the former was adorable, and the latter was written in Ruby and sounded like my name. Giving people a RubyURL was just too cool an opportunity to pass up.

Unfortunately, for the last several weeks RubyURL has returned the following 404 each time I attempt to access their page:

We're sorry, but something went wrong.

We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly

I suppose they didn't reference what time scale they were referring to when they said "shortly", although to their credit it is a terribly delicious pun.

Their Twitter account (@rubyurl) has also remained silent for over a year now.

Worrying out loud

Its another stark reminder that URL shortening services are a terrible, terrible idea: RubyURL has been having enough issues of late that I now count it alongside urlTea and parrots as no longer existing. For those who don't rememeber, urlTea disappeared in 2009 (Is it a final goodbye for urlTea?) and to this day displays a DreamHost page.

Archive.org's offer to backup URL shorting service databases is a nice idea (301 Works), but nobody has really been doing much with it and it doesn't escape the fact we're increasingly relying on these single points of failure. If anything, they should simply serve to highlight the fact URLs in their current form are no longer serving our needs. I wrote about this in 2009 (urlTea now tr.im, this stuff is scary).

The other issue I didn't discuss is the real threat obfuscation presents. Damn it, Disqus has completely ruined the term "discuss" for me. Unlike Disqus though, regular "discussions" can take place without loading any nasty client side Javascript which is gosh darn convenient. But I digress.

What was I saying? Oh yeah, obfuscation is being increasingly used to mask the locations of dodgy sites, to such an extent that a slew of sites are no longer allowing the poster child service TinyURL on pages hosted with them (Wikipedia: Sites blocking URL shorteners).

I think rejecting certain sites based on what they could be used for sounds an awful lot like the MPAA claiming VCRs and BitTorrent are evil, but url shortening services could certainly do more to help make their shortened links more transparent. Ironically, out of all the services out there, TinyURL is one of the few that lets you preview URLs before proceeding!

Anyway goodbye RubyURL. Glad I only ever used for some inane tweets, and nothing important. It's a shame, they were such a killer startup!

Wow, this post has so many links, none of which were shortened :).

For those of you who use WordPress, you're probably used to using Akismet for your spam blocking needs. While I've found it to be a useful way to block the torrents of comment spam I get on a daily basis, it certainly isn't perfect. The problem is, aside from simply tagging comments as spam, there really isn't any way you can customise or fine tune Akismet to block the specific types of spam you receive.

ASIDE: For some reason, my blog elicits spam that advertises suspect banking services and pharmaceuticals. Spammers apparently think I'm a terribly depressed person who needs contraception and a bulletproof offshore bank account to store my millions of dollars of embezzled funds. Hey, one out of three isn't bad I guess!

Enter the TanTanNoodles Simple Spam Filter. This tiny plugin does two critical things that Akismet doesn't: blocking comments with multiple links which spammers universally use to pedal their advertisements, and defining keyword filters. In this way the Simple Spam Filter doesn't replace Akismet, it complements it by taking care of obvious spam messages before Akismet even has to deal with it.

While blocking comments with multiple links is useful, it's the flexible keyword filter that's the killer feature. On the simple, easy to understand configuration screen you're presented with a text box to add keywords to, along with a list of suggested keywords from messages currently in your spam queue. You can add them to your custom filter by simply clicking them, too easy!

Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam...

One final whipped cream feature which tops off the simple chocolate fudgy goodness of a plugin is the ability to present a user with a reCAPTCHA if someone is suspected of submitting a spam comment. I haven't enabled it myself because the keywords I've assigned it to filter wouldn't be ones that a person who's comments I approve of would use, but the fact it's there is very compelling.

Since installing this plugin on Saturday (two days ago now) it has automatically rejected 1913 comments, more than Akismet ever did. I've also had no spam comments make their way to my legitimate comment moderation queue which when working by itself Akismet let slip quite regularly.

I'm completely sold. If you're using WordPress and only intend on using one other plugin other than Akismet, make it this one.

An uncharacteristically short how-to post from me. It's probably because I'm not Bill Kurtis.

Burning a typical ISO image to CD, using the standard /dev/acd0 CD drive device and where johncleese.iso is (surprisingly) the name of the image to burn:

# burncd -f /dev/acd0 data [johncleese.iso] fixate
% echo "Ruben is not Bill Kurtis."

The FreeBSD Handbook has more details.

While I admire Larry Wall and Yatsuhiro Matzumoto and use their respective Perl and Ruby programming languages, I can really relate on an entirely different level to Python inventor Guido van Rossum.

I only just discovered his new blog today, but I've read a lot of what he's written so far and have have agreed with a ridiculously high 99.995% of it. It's as if he's my older, wiser, wittier Dutch cousin living in California!

For example, it pains me to admit this, but I didn't know that Python was named as such because Guido was obsessed with Monty Python's Flying Circus and other absurd, hilarious British comedy:

By the way, the language is named after the BBC show "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" and has nothing to do with reptiles. Making references to Monty Python skits in documentation is not only allowed, it is encouraged!

Frankly, if people have never watched any Monty Python, I have to question their sanity. I've also questioned the sanity of those chaps behind Monty Python too, but that's for another post! And now for something, completely different!

What I've always thought was curious was how both Larry Wall and Yatsuhiro Matzumoto could be designers of programming languages which require such logical thought, and yet be advocates of their associated churches. I didn't intend for that comparison to imply you can't be a logical person of faith, but it does strike me as a non-believer (to use the HIGHLY controversial term Barack Obama used!) to be a surprising and perplexing combination.

I'm not sure if Guido van Rossum is a non-believer too, but we both do seem to share similar philosophical viewpoints. For example, when he discussed the One Laptop Per Child Programme in his post Bibles or computers: Its the same thing:

I'm not surprised that the pope is pleased by the OLPC program. The mentality from which it springs is the same mentality which in past centuries created the missionary programs. The idea is that we, the west, know what's good for the rest of the world, and that we therefore must push our ideas onto the "third world" by means of the most advanced technology available. In past centuries, that was arguably the printing press, so we sent missionaries armed with stacks of bibles.

These days, we have computers, so we send modern missionaries (of our western lifestyle, including consumerism, global warming, and credit default swaps) armed with computers

I certainly hadn't thought of it that way before, and my secular mind did appreciate the comparison!

But back to computer science: I've never really looked into Python as a programming language, though I've heard good things about it from other "scripting language" users... C/C++ users don't count in this case because any language that's interpreted instead of compiled/tested/compiled sends them into fits of agony!

I was going to look into experimenting with Haskell before I head back to Adelaide in March, but perhaps I'll check out Python instead. As a Perl and Ruby guy I suspect the jump would be much easier than Haskell anyway, which is both good and bad of course. Python definitely looks like it has a very clean and minimalistic syntax which appeals to me visually as well as mentally, if that makes sense.

#!/usr/bin/env python
print 'You rock Guido van Rossum! \n'

Guido van Rossum also has quite a good Wikipedia page. I'm not Bill Kurtis.

Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam...

For a long time in this weblog's formative years I used to post some of the more funny, interesting or ridiculous spam messages I got either here, in email or from carrier pigeons shoved through my window. I figured I was getting all this material all the time, why not use it for something?

Anyway after an extended period of time where I received nothing but the usual penis enlarging advice, fake watches and bogus lotteries, I received a real gem (pun intended) in my comment moderation queue. It's... 1703 words long!

If I posted the entire message it would easily triple the length of this page (and it's already long enough as it is) so just to give you an idea here's a brief snippet:

Jewelry critical adornments frayed for adorn or utility, to manifest disgusting or profusion, or to go agreat with superstitious form toll or model Its use antecurrents clothing, and it has been made of a discrepancy of materials including berries, nuts, seeds, perforated stones, feathers, tresses, teeth, bone, upons, ivory, and metals. Although bronze and y be suffering with been toughened by rude peoples and in current handwrought jewelry, gold has commonly been the preferred metal. Jewelry has been decorated by cameo, embossing, etching, and filigree, and by employment of enamel, mosaic, gems , semiloved stones, and wo bestow make an exhibit a rare planesmanship. Archaic existance the jewelry is in general al, most colorful, and displays lotus cream and scarab motifs. Beads were in use accustomed to extensively, as in coarse collars, and were again second-hand for bartegive someone a buzz. Armlets and anklets were also tattered. There was a renewal of fervor for handwrought pieces dugang the trickery resuscitation of the 1960s in the opinion States. Other information about jewerly: (URLs removed)

Obviously by padding their spam URLs with natural language, they're attempting to bypass spam filters. Still, I didn't know that metals were toughened by rude peoples. Is that anything like Rude... box?

If it is, I'd rather not have anything to do with it!

It's amazing how much work, studies and other assorted whatnot accumulates when you disconnect yourself from the internets [sic].

Case in point: silly, unauthorised, supposed erection assisting or lottery winning, mismatched, bulk emails! When I returned from my family's trip to Sydney for mummy's funeral, this was the screen I was welcomed with:

The problem is, I used to be able to just hit the Clear button with Akismet, but lately it's been generating so many false positives I have to comb through the pages to make sure legitimate comments haven't been filtered out by accident. Of course I usually check comments every day so combing through a few dozen is no problem, but letting it accumulate like this is a real nightmare!

So just to let people know, if you've posted a comment and it hasn't been approved yet, you can understand why it might take a while.

So much spam... so little time...
I can't stand dry posts with just text you see!

I used to be under the impression that spambots just posted to everything they could get their hands on, but it seems they're drawn to certain articles. Some of them clearly don't make sense, especially the ones which attempt to hijack articles where I've talked about spam!

So just for interest's sake (hope Mr. Interest is okay with me using him in this example) here are a microscopic selection of posts which seem to attract the most spam messages, with the titles copied verbatim.

20 Years Old Tomorrow

kidney disease symptons, manta equador, in karaoke odessa show tx, the villege, hollins univeristy, on line poker 7stud lo… uncertain Edmonton magic Bendix.regime aeronautic …

Credit Spam!

patin couffin, glamis dunes, lenguaje iconico, amalia carrara, joyland amusment park, making mirror telescope, dance robot, atv honda lowest motorcycle price, train calling all angels lyric, auto design nation shield usa, ach florida payment processing, xm satellite radio rating, bank cd mutual rate washington, bank cd mutual rate washington, conferencing phone service, dj hawaii wedding, addiction recovery trauma, adipex diet effects pill side, caroline beil, people doing stupid stuff, people doing stupid stuff, 3d home architect home design deluxe, book exodus moses, battery computer laptop notebook portable, cheap cheapest computer laptop notebook, goodnites pull ups, aol jason whitlock

Review of Cranky Geeks 081

Having a good credit history is crucial for anyone desiring a credit. Your credit history is based on credit reports that are meant to provide information on the borrower’s reliability. I have good credit history and I was approved for a great credit card offer at...

Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam...

That's one thing I guess spam will always be: entertainment delivered right to my comments pages!

I've had email accounts since 1996 and have been using web-based weblog tools that allow commenting since 2004 (I got into this whole blogging game pretty late) but it's only been fairly recently that I feel like I'm drowning in all this spam!

Firstly to my Gmail account: despite the fact I [don't think] I've ever put my address on public sites unless I've encoded it or replaced the "@" symbol with the word "at" it seems the spam spiders that crawl across the net harvesting addresses managed to get a hold of it somehow. The result has been a steady stream of spam since about mid last year:

And get this: I emptied my Spam folder last weekend. (;_;)

Fortunately for a while the Gmail spam filters were excellent and were able to gobble up the messages without any problems; but just in the last few weeks more and more spam messages have been slipping through to the point where roughly 10-15 per day make their way to the Inbox. Does this mean the Gmail spam filters are failing? Does it mean the spamming spammers are becoming more organised or intelligent and are making their messages appear legitimate to automatic spam filters?

The problem isn't just isolated to email though. I could take it as compliment or a sign that my blog is more popular now, but probably more likely is that automatic blog spamming bots have detected my WordPress software and have added this (and the Show) to their spam rolls. Whatever it is the result is the same. Here's my spam folder on this site after a week without emptying it:

Fortunately my other two email accounts that are based at my web host and I download with Thunderbird on my MacBook Pro are safe... for now.

How much spam do you get? Once the boxes arrive from Malaysia and I can record my podcast again, I think I'll dedicate at least half an episode to this spam stuff. Where's Monty Python when you need them?