General

Comment spam

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I’ve been seeing a lot more comment spam than usual the last few days. Somehow they manage to post it even when I require logging in to post comments. I just added yet another anti-spam plugin, so I’ll see how that works. I’ve also been blocking every IP address any spam comes from and adding more words to the blacklist, but that probably won’t help because all of the spams are unique. I’m really getting pretty disgusted here.

Registration required to post contents

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Since I’ve been getting more comment spam than usual, I’m now requiring anyone who wants to post a comment to register and log in. I’m also automatically deleting comments containing some common spam words before they even reach the moderation queue.

My Netgear wireless router is a piece of crap

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I finally got disgusted with my Netgear WGR614v3 and ordered a Linksys WRT54G, which I should have bought in the first place. I was reluctant to get the Linksys at first because of their reputation, even though every Linksys product I bought was rock solid.

First I got a D-Link DI-624, which had overheating problems. It would randomly freeze up and would need to be turned off for several minutes before it would work again. I replaced it with the Netgear & tolerated its annoyances. The major problem is transferring large files would sometimes cause it to freeze up. It also has several bugs, most notably assigning fixed IP addresses for a machine won’t work. It also lacks some basic features, such as the ability to map an external port to a different internal port number. It’s also seriously lacking in firewall capabilities.

Emergency response 99 years ago

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Minipundit points out the contrast between how the situation in New Orleans is being dealt with and the response to the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. The quake struck at 5:31 AM and by 7 AM federal troops had been mobilized and were searching for survivors by 8AM. Before the day was over, two ships were on the way.

If they could react so quickly in 1906, why did it take 5 days for help to arrive now? (originally from Daily Kos)

Lessig: Public Domain Dead in 35 Years

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Via Slashdot:: Lawrence Lessig, in an article on the Foreign Policy site, predicts that the public domian will die a slow death at the hands of anti-piracy efforts. From the article: ‘The danger remains invisible to most, hidden by the zeal of a war on piracy. And that is how the public domain may die a quiet death, extinguished by self-righteous extremism, long before many even recognize it is gone.’