3694 Comment verification

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

If you owe me money, every unnecessary thing you buy

from the time I lent you money to the time you pay me back, is mine.

If you don't have money to pay me, you don't have money for that.

--  Hellhathnofury  --

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The "verification words" provided by Blogger are getting more and more difficult.  Too often the numbers portion is a blur, and/or the letters run together and overlap, so you can't figure them out - "rn" often looks like "m", for example,or "ob" looks like "do".

There are several ways to avoid robot spam comments.

1. Don't allow comments at all.
2. Let all comments be immediately posted, and then delete the spam. 
3. Monitor comments.  The blog owner gets the comment by email and has to approve it before it is appended to the post.
4. Require that the commenter pass a word verification test, and then the comment is immediately posted.
5. Require both word verification and moderation.

#1, block all comments, is ok if you don't care what anyone else thinks.

I tried #2, allow everyone, for a while, back when Blogger started the current generation of ugly word verification.  It was ok for a few days, then the spammers found me, and I was getting a dozen spam comments a day.  (You know when you get spam because Blogger sends the comment in an email, but having to go to the blog a dozen times a day to delete them is a pain.)  I had to go back to word verification.

#3, moderate all comments, is no fun because people reading the blog don't get to see their comment until the blog owner gets around to accepting the comment.  Worse, they don't get to see the comments of others until later.  Robot spammers can get comments through to the moderation approval stage, so the need to refuse those comments, sometimes dozens a day, can be annoying to the blog owner.

#4, word verification, is the method I've been using because the comment gets posted immediately once the commenter passes the verification test, and commenters also see the comments of others.  Since the comments are "real time", they can even have conversations.   However, a lot of people have great difficulty with that.  HINT:  Anyone having a problem with the word verification, don't attempt to guess if you aren't sure.  That way lies frustration and wasted time doing it over and over.  Instead, next to the rectangle where you type in the numbers and letters, to the right of that rectangle, you'll see a circular arrow.  Click on that circular arrow, and the verification will change.  You can keep clicking and asking for another until you find one that's easy to read.

I flat out hate #5, requiring both word verification and moderation.  It has the same problems as both #3 and #4, especially if the blog owner takes a while to get around to moderation.  Requiring both is needless and painful overkill.  I mostly avoid commenting on those blogs.

Sooooo, that's why I use word verification.  It's the best of bad choices.
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3515 Furthering goals

Sunday, April 15, 2012

"You may throw away what is in the hand, but you cannot throw away what is in the heart."
-- Ovimbuntu proverb --

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How come anyone can be ruthless, but only some people are Ruth?

Actually, the biblical Ruth is considered the model of loving kindness, who acts in a way to promote the well-being of others, so to be ruthless is to have nothing of Ruth. I think it's interesting that there is no Ruth-rooted word for being "ruthful". Seems like it would be a useful word.

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I spend a lot of time thrashing. I read a lot of stuff on the internet, I follow links, then more links. I figure that reading only one version of a story isn't the whole story, so I'll search out other versions of a news item. And then the story takes over my mind. I'm not getting other more important stuff done.

When I read an interesting article somewhere, I then read the comments. I've learned that there are some sites where one should not read the comments. The degree of misinformation, stupidity, meanness, poor writing, poor grammar, sheer nastiness etc. is discouraging, will overwhelm me and will destroy the rest of the day. Don't read the comments on Yahoo news items. Don't read comments on YouTube videos, even quite serious and newsworthy videos. Don't read comments on popular news blogs. Don't read comments on the Huffington site. And if you value your intellect, never read comments on any of the Cheezburger sites.

It is safe to read comments on blogs and articles that attract only a smaller and more aware and educated subset of the public, like Lifehacker, the Wall Street Journal, the WSJ law blog, political news sites outside the US, and some others.

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I commented on one of the smaller opinion blogs recently, that I couldn't understand why Zimmerman was charged with 2nd degree murder, since that requires a much higher standard of proof than manslaughter, and that I suspected that it was a political move.

I got a response from an anonymous commenter from Texas, who 'sounded' like an attorney, who said I was very perceptive. He/she also suspected that it was a political move. Charging him with murder 2 got the press and mobs off the backs of the state, prosecutor's office, and the police. No matter what happens now, the pressure is on the courts and, if it gets that far, on the jury, and there's virtually nothing the courts or jury can do that will satisfy everyone.

The "very perceptive" felt nice.

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I came across something the other day that is one of those things we know deep inside, instinctively, but need to see in words before it comes to the forefront of our minds. It was in an article on how to succeed in whatever you are doing, and really, the whole secret nets out to one very simple directive (found at the very end of the article, of course):

Don't do anything that doesn't further your goals.

Wow. I hadn't noticed I'd been trapped in a pattern of reading and following trails of ideas, which, although interesting, had nothing to do with my current goals of getting out of the upriver house and settled in this house. I had forgotten my goals. (Note that this is related to but not the same as setting priorities.)

In general, it means that if you have a goal, and you find yourself spending time trapped in activities that do not further that goal, fix it. Examples range from busywork in the office or work that does not move you along your career path, to practicing scales and unchallenging pieces on the piano for hours when your goal is to succeed at challenging pieces.

So, new pattern of activity.
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3219 Flying AH Guide to commenting

Monday, January 3, 2011

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
-- Sir Winston Churchill --

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Oh, you've GOT to read this! She absolutely nailed it!
http://overflowingbrain.com/2010/12/28/the-assholes-guide-to-commenting-on-news-stories/
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2738 Movies

Friday, January 8, 2010

One of the saddest things to happen was the optioning of morality by religion.

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From http://www.shoeboxblog.com/?p=14066:
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Another blogger mentioned today having recently rewatched Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange), and I realized I had never watched it all the way through. At the time it was first released, 1971, I had serious emotional reactions to even the fictional depiction of mindless or unpredictable violence (much like Alex's reactions during his conditioning), and I didn't make it past the first 20 minutes before I had to leave the theater.

I found it online at http://www.megavideo.com/?v=9OJ93JTE and watched it this morning. (That site, although Firefox says it's safe, allows you to watch only 60 minutes before it wants registration and who knows what else, but I discovered that if you reload, it restarts the timer, and it's easy to move the marker up to where you left off.)

I was mildly amused that the story was supposed to take place in the future (2001, I believe), but the bad-taste decor, clothing, hairstyles, and the females' air of deference were all rather clearly 1970. (Loved the father's houndschecked polyester wide-lapeled suit.) Of course, back then, that was real hot stuff, best ever, and obviously the direction of the future.

In other movie news, my Meetup group saw "The Road" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_%28film%29) Wednesday evening. One of the attendees (R.) was a fan of Cormac McCarthy, the author of the novel, had read the novel, and was able to explain some of the symbolism and meaning that otherwise might have escaped us. Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry on the movie skims over the meaning, too.

I did notice that even though the father keeps saying that they are "the good guys", he is descending into immorality himself, and that the son was of an age when he would not only learn from the actions of his father, but would strive to take those teachings to a greater level to impress the father - and yet the kid remains good and pulls the father back from depravity. I noticed that, but I didn't know why, and R. explained it.

I intend to read the book.

Last night I had dinner with the Southern Orange Mensa subgroup at a German restaurant. We had ten at the table. I don't usually care for German food, so I had the pork chops with applesauce, but the vegetables were served family style, and I was surprised at how good the potato salad, pickles, red cabbage, and creamed spinach were.

I don't know what's different about that particular bunch of people, but the conversation is always much better than the usual Mensa natter. Like, nobody is competing.
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