Archives for March 2007

March 29, 2007

Signing Up To Comment

If there is one thing that really discourages me from making a comment on someone else’s blog, it is when I’m asked to register. I really hate that. For some reason, that really bugs me. I realized joining a website serves two purposes: First, it’s one way of fighting comment spam. Second, it’s a great way to get people to join a website, a method employed by myspace and others.

Shouldn’t comments be spontaneous? Shouldn’t it be easy? I must admit there were times I was pregnant with thought only to be discouraged when asked to register. It just plain kills the mood. Take note ESPN. I just read a nice article by Jen Chang about USA Soccer and was just about to comment only to be stopped dead on the track by an online form.

Am I the only one who feel this way?

March 24, 2007

Spam Blocked By Akismet

I’m just wondering why my Akismet spam blocked count was reset several weeks ago. I had over 33,000 spam blocked back in January 30th, 2007. Prior to that I had over 22,000 spam blocked back in December 27th, 2006.

Now, my count is at a lowly 12,533. Does anyone have an explanation as to why these numbers shrunk? Where is the count being kept? The wp_options table? I have to take a closer look at this. I’m curious more than anything.

March 21, 2007

iPods Are A Hot Item

iPods are a hot item. I meant hot as in stolen. There’s a string of robberies happening in and around the Bay Area for the world’s most popular digital music player. Some people were robbed at knifepoint like the two women who were mugged by a 12 year old boy less than ten minutes apart. Robberies tend to be concentrated in public areas like schools and public transportation like buses and BART.

How do you protect yourself? There are some excellent tips from John Cote article in the San Francisco Chronicle. I particularly like the one tip about replacing the widely recognizable white Apple earpiece with a commercially available black earpiece. I did this when I traveled to Central America a couple of years ago. No one even knew I had an iPod. I also like the tip about keeping the volume down and always being aware of your surroundings. Engraving also helps if your iPod is recovered by police.

Be careful out there.