Kill Comment Spam Dead Use Akismet and WP-Hashcash

Do you use WordPress? If you do I find the best Comment spam defense is a good offense. Combine Akismet with a few other good Spam defenders and you could be free from that detestable comment spam!

I use WP-Hashcash

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-hashcash/

Try it! Best thing about it is it doesn’t bother real users and kills bots dead.

After all Akismet is good but some of those spammers just get by Akismet since it is still based on user feedback.

Of course that doesn’t last long usually.

Like I said best defense is a one two punch offense. . . .

Akismet + WP-Hash Cash = Dead Comment Spam

Winnie the Pooh to Shape US Security in the Obama Presidency!

Obama aide selects Winnie the Pooh as crucial text in National Security

. . . (From the article)
Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if it is causing you too much pain, try something else.
Mr Danzig told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”
He spelt out how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football fans.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2139573/Barack-Obama-aide-Why-Winnie-the-Pooh-should-shape-US-foreign-policy.html

I Love Snow!

What was left of the snow when I got home
Well this is our first snow of the year! I’ve asked my wife to take pictures, but hopefully it will still be around when I get off. I’ll get photos up then, but until then you can watch something close to what I’m seeing live yeah removed cause it’s not snowing now! 🙂 ha ha . . .

🙂

  • This is the live web-cam of our Student Center Construction on campus
  • . We are just beginning dirt and preparation but they plan to open the facility in the Fall of 2009. . . 🙂
    Until then let it snow let it snow let it snow!

    Updated Snow Picture from earlier in the day! (for my Northern sugar doubters! 🙂 )
    Snow in Marshall March 2008

    Glenn

    A Guest Post by April (An April Fairy Tale)

    Princess

    An April Fairy Tale:

    Once upon a time in a land not so far away whose sky sparkled with glittering diamonds at night and whose mornings were filled with techno colored sunrises and sunsets, there lived a princess. This princess’ focus was divided between the pursuit of truth and maintaining her kingdom and caring for its inhabitants. Life was calm and peaceful when she ruled wisely and chaos immeasurable when she grew lax.
    One day while doing her routine maintenance check on the castle itself, she came across an imprisoned frog. It was the color of new blades of fresh spring grass. It eyes were like amber cat’s eye marbles. It’s gaunt belly as white as new fallen snow.
    Frog Singing

    The frog was kept by the king and the house’s wizard, she assumed for the study of it’s’ song. When the princess looked in, the living conditions of the amphibian were far less than adequate. It was in need of so many things- food, water, light. It couldn’t sing because it was in great need. The princess being unsure of what to fill the needs of the singing frog sent a courier of light to the king who was out on the field of battle. “What, sire, do I do to meet the needs of the imprisoned singing frog?” Apparently, the king was in the midst of a harsh battle and could not promptly respond.

    A Busy Knight

    The princess felt the need of the frog weighing on her heart wearily. He was part of her kingdom. He was living. He needed. So she went to the wizard’s study and began research. It would appear that a distant relative of the frog lived imprisoned near him in the study. It was a slim anole who changed color like the grey sky before a prairie storm to a shiny green of English ivy. It licked its small black blinking eyes. Its egg shell colored belly was plump and it was absorbing the warmth of an artificial sun. The princess could hear the mimicry of violin songs from its food source Cricket Chirpingstill waiting to be found. The princess reasoned that if one amphibian at that food, surely its cousin could as well.
    Carefully, for king and country, the princess lifted the lid of the prison. The frog weak as it was barely flinched. Taking a deep breath, having never handled a frog like this before, she slowly, speaking soft pleasant musical words explained who she was and her intent. She told the frog of the wondrous place he was to be relocated to and the milk and honey lifestyle he would soon enjoy as opposed to the puny ivy, cold potting soil, and lack of resources he now found himself in. She asked him if he wouldn’t love to relocate to another portion of the kingdom prepared for him and his kind where there would be abundance and a chance to sing again. She looked kindly into his small yellow black eyes. Reaching toward him, she gingerly took him in her hand. He was icy and slightly sticky. He did not move or fight. She took him out of his chamber and lifted the lid to the lizard’s apartment and carefully began to lower the frog inside.
    Then he peed all over her hand A frog is just a frog afterall picture of Princess and a frogand she dropped him into the tank and dropped the lid running to the bathroom to wash her hand! It was beyond disgusting.

    A No is Still a No Ich says Tigger Welcome to my world!You can not have tons of compassion for musical frogs apparently.
    ..:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />

    Kermit at the Doctor

    Yeah and you thought you were Desperate

    (I thought this was absolutely hilarious and thought it would be a nice change of pace. . . If you like it stick around, leave a comment. . . I’m attempting to convince her to blog full time on her own site too! )

    BTW: This is an excepted written work all rights are reserved by the original author or authors:

    Adsense and Earnings with a Niche 5 Steps to $100

    Hi There! Well I haven’t written much or actually nothing about this but I’m an Google Adsense Publisher. I accept Google ads on this site mainly in the 404 but some refer els are around, and run Contextual Ads on my Niche site www.findwirelessinternet.info I began to accept Adsense as an experiment to see if I could re-coup the domain cost and a part of my hosting. And so I began tentatively and slowly in March 2007. I found it to be really rough going at first, a kinda black hole of expectation. Every day, sometimes multiple times a day browsing over to adsense.google.com and looking to see if I had any earnings. But for a time almost nothing. . . Ahh but patience, research and a good niche make up for a lack of well . . . anything. But I kept plugging away. Here are some of the steps I took to break the $100 barrier, it took a quite a while for me but there it is:

    1. Signup for Adsense, if you don’t have an account Click At the Top of this Post!
    2. Read the Adsense Blog http://adsense.blogspot.com/
    3. Read the Program Policies https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=8423 (this is the don’t get banned warning FAQ)
    4. Create great content that appeals to readers and provides something they want. Quick Primer http://www.improvetheweb.com/quality-content
    5. Keep it up and wait . . . and Nine months later you too may have a $100 dollar check in the mail from Google! 🙂

    findwirebanner.jpg

    Gift Card Ban! Top 10 Reasons I will Join Clark Howard in Giving Cash if I was going to Give a Giftcard

    🙂 I had to post this link. http://clarkhoward.com/ads/clark/nogiftcards.html
    First, It cracks me up just looking at Clark Howard’s Smile! (In a Good Way! :))

    Second, this is really something I agree with. There is nothing more irritating then finding some limitation or other gotcha on these gift cards! Not to mention the exorbitant fees some of them charge! Just last Christmas, I got to pay $5 bucks for the privilege of giving a AMX gift card to my brother! Oh brother I say, but the other cards weren’t any better and he couldn’t use them at any other stores! Yikes. . . Third, this is a great way to say hey I forgot about you till the last minute, but at least I cared enough to go to the bank and get out cash for your Christmas present, instead of swiping my debit card in the store. . .
    Fourth, life is full of surprises, having cash on hand may come in handy in those sticky situations.  oh . . .oops I only came up with 4 well they are 4 really good reasons.  If you can think of more please post in the comments!  🙂 link love is appreciated!

    C

    gift_certificate.jpg

    sticky.jpg

    Top Seven Pieces of Free Software I Use in Everyday Life

    We all have our favorites, well this is a quick list of seven free software applications that I use nearly every day. . . (not ZAR) 🙂 thankfully.
    In no particular order:

    Google Desktop Logo

    We all need a great local search and honestly microsoft’s default search except in Vista stinks. . . 🙁 Give Google Desktop a try and disable remote searching if you are worried about security. I honestly find this indispensable!

    Google Picasa

    Okay I finally found a photo organizer that works and actually prints good with my Canon Printer. . . .! ! Except for the slightly different select for Red Eye I haven’t found anything yet I don’t like about this gold free application! Including the free Web Album Sharing. . . very nice.

    Adobe Photoshop Starter

    Next, I know this and Picasa compete! But hey what’s another photo down loader! 🙂 The thing that I liked about this is it also has a nice photo importer that will grab my pictures automatically on connect so it competes with the default one in Win XP, but I kinda like it and I think it’s easier than XP’s default importer, although my Canon camera came with an application that works slightly smoother but is kinda ugly to look at. . .. 🙂

    Whoops I did it again! So you hit delete too soon on that flash memory card on your camera? No problem, try this software, it literally saved my hide when I deleted my son’s birth day pictures. . . ! ! ! whew, you don’t know how much I was sweating it till I came across this gem.

    Paint.NET Photo Editor

    Did you ever wish Paint had just one more little feature? Rotate, save as another format, (I know they added this in XP, but you get the idea. This free application really fits the bill, it easily replaces those annoying nag ware software apps that come pre-loaded on so many computers and can rotate, modify, and add layers! That is a nice feature. . . .
    Windows Movie Maker

    Have you ever needed an easy way to put together a slide show, home movies, or even your own DVD? Well now you can and the auto highlight feature in this is the BomB! Absolutely the best for taking a slideshow, home movie and outside music and seamlessly easily blending it to make a great home made DVD! wow. . .

    Did you ever wish you didn’t have to ask that question? Do you have x piece of software? Where x= MS Word, Powerpoint, whatever. . . . Now you can make your own Adobe PDF files from anything you can print. . . This tool is literally the easiest free tool to use. Don’t let someone charge you for this jewel it’s GPL free. . .





    Meme ? ~ Top 5 Reasons I Blog

    My very first meme comes from Pearl the shy and talented elf? who authors Interesting Observations at http://www.fresh-perspectives.net. Thanks for tagging me Pearl!

    Why do I blog? Primarily because I can. . .

    • Basically I mean, I live in a time and place where people worldwide, can if they would like read my thoughts and share their thoughts on life, family, faith and friends, or whatever we want to talk about.
    • Hosting and designing websites on the side has to have some benefits, one of mine a free blog! Well no more than I already pay monthly for my Reseller agreement. . . 😉
    • Building connections and helping people has to have some outlet, a blog contains a simple but effective way to do just that.
    • Blogging has essentially dissolved borders allowing me to instantaneously access the viewpoint of people all over the world, which would never have been possible with any other activity (Hey I really like this one, . . . but I won’t steal Pearl’s!)
    • Blogging has become an essential tool in the tool belt of small business, this blog is one small part of marketing my services and skills.
    • I enjoy it, I basically write what I like, and when I like, it is exciting to find new ways to Post and improve my site. For example, I think I’ll add my top 5 things I’ve learned by blogging and reading other’s blogs that have been useful to this site.
      • Shared Feeds by Google! Google Reader, lets me share interesting reading and other blogs easily. My Shared Feeds
      • Customized Favicon!
      • Helpful 404 pages. See my example of one I did at my Wife’s site. Notice the Site Map, Search and Helpful information.
      • Postie! The best email posting tool via wordpress around. I use this a lot, and I especially recommend it if you host and design for clients, mine that use it love it!
      • Adsense ~Google’s Adsense has helped me monetize my Find Wireless Internet Site and has pocketed enough to make me pretty happy about 3 months of use on a low volume site! < 200 page views a month If you like it then please Sign Up through the link below . . . 😉


    Okay, it’s not a meme if I don’t tag 5 more people with this meme. . . I tag :

    > Misty my beautiful and talented wife. @ mistyscott.com
    > Shoemoney of Shoemoney.com If you want to learn some things about online SEO, marketing and monetization. Yep he’s your guy.

    > Sanbro of Computer Mobile Corner A friend from bumpzee!

    > Sephy Roth, another Bumpzee friend who has created a nice little Blogroll US blogs Sephy’s Platzish!

    > Prudent Musings another friend, who I’m not sure I know his name. . . from Bumpzee. . .

    Okay I have a few more people in mind, I’ll tag you all next time . . .

    Thanks for letting me participate Pearl! 🙂

    C

    Wi-Fi in your area?

    Lately, I noticed the little park near my house was undergoing a renovation. It looked like a big one! The old metal playground equipment was going out, buldozers and earth moving equipment were really getting to work. This past weekend they had the big unveiling. Wow! it definitely is much better than it used to be. They added multiple play scapes, padded mulch and a large play area with specialized sections for 2 to 5 year olds and then larger play scapes for kids from 6 to 12 or so, along with swings, monkey bars and a dome climbing scape!

    To top it all off they landscaped and put in brand new walking trails and a nice fountain. As if this wasn’t enough, they are about to fence in the basketball courts they added so the balls don’t go out into the street.

    I have to say they did a great job. And you know what else they added. Wi-Fi! That’s right all that beauty and fun and Internet Access too!

    Welcome to Marshall, TX 25k people and Wi-Fi in the main City Park near Marshall Regional! What a place.

    If you want to learn where you might find more Wi-Fi around your town you can read this helpful article at This Blog.

    Quite a President

    From The Christian Post. .. .”The president’s belief in God and the power of prayer also emerge.
    After he was shot March 30, 1981, Reagan said he looked up from a hospital gurney and prayed.
    “But I realized I couldn’t ask for God’s help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who had shot me. Isn’t that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all God’s children & therefore equally beloved by him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold,” the president wrote.”  End Excerpt from the Christian Post

    Amazing words from a man, a father, a President who had just been shot.
    **Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.(NIV) *Colossians 3:13 *
    C