04.23.07
Any Monkey Can Blog
I probably shouldn’t post this but it is true …
And this goes double for Todd!
PS: All comments will be deleted that don’t convince me that I should continue to blog and that I am not a monkey.
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04.08.07
Blog Aggregation Client
For about a year I have been using Blogbucket to view all of the various blogs that I read on a regular basis (through RSS and Atom feeds). Blogbucket was built and is maintained (and hosted) by Jesse Greenwald. He is a great developer that I used to work with (at Innovision originally and then at K-State in the SAnToS Lab).
A couple of weeks ago I found out about Google Reader. It provides essentially the same service as Blogbucket but with a couple of features that I like. First, it make it easy to mark and unmark entries as read. This makes it easy when I am interrupted while reading and want to come back to an article. I can simply mark it as unread and come back anytime.
Second, Google Reader provides me a way to share interesting blog entries. I simply need to mark them as shared and they show up on my share page. I can even nest the sharing in my blog (although I haven’t figured out how to get the formatting correct for the theme I am currently using in WordPress).
Last, I can “Star” items of interest and come back to them. I am using it kind of like bookmarks in Firefox.
So hopefully Jesse will forgive me for using and promoting an alternative to Blogbucket. And I encourage my readers to check out both BlogBucket and Google Reader to see if these applications can help them be more productive and effective.
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04.05.07
Spam on GForge
Over the last couple of weeks I have been inundated with spam on the project management server we use in the SAnToS lab. So I have been fighting them off with as much energy as I can muster. And let me just say, they really, really, really piss me off!
So for all those GForge admins out there dealing with spam, here is what they were doing (hopefully you can find a good solution to this problem). The spammer creates an item in a tracker, preferably one where the project admin isn’t paying close attention to the contents of their trackers. The spammer then attaches files to the tracker that are HTML files that are quite small but they basically re-directed the viewer of that attachment to a {porn | viagra | gambling} site of their choosing. The spammer would then send out emails using the URL of our project management server instead of their {porn | viagra | gambling} site. I assume this helped them get past normal spam filters.
So what I did was manually clean all of those files out of all of the trackers on our server. I then suspended the users associated with those uploads. Finally, I wrote a quick script that would email me when a new HTML file was uploaded to a tracker item. So this makes it easy to get rid of the file and suspend the user as soon as it happens.
Note: For any admin out there fighting with this and wants some help, email me and I can help as much as possible.
Special thanks to Michael Fitzmaurice at the University of Birmingham for pointing out this situation. It sounds like he was getting spam emails and wanted to let us know about it.
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Farewell to Huggieville
Well, it looks like Bob Huggins will be leaving K-State to be the new men’s basketball head coach at West Virginia University. While I hate it that he is leaving, I completely understand and respect his decision. From the sound of things, this was an opportunity to take his dream job. And it doesn’t sound like this was motivated by money or any ill-will towards K-State, our community, or our fan base.
So congratulations to Bob Huggins. But I will miss what he brought to K-State basketball. Hopefully we will replace him with someone that can continue the rebirth that he started.
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04.03.07
Vote for Adam
Today is the day to vote in Manhattan, KS and the surrounding areas. I hope everyone takes this chance to exercise that right. And since my blog is now the official website for Adam-For-School-Board (see this article on The Manhattan Mercury’s website), I wanted to provide some links to more information.
First, Adam participated in a forum that was broadcast on KMAN. That is now hosted on the Manhattan Mercury website here, here, here, and here. Second, the Mercury also has several articles that include information about Adam and the other candidates (voting record, growth, quick overview). Last, the K-State Collegian published an article yesterday that talks about Adam.
So get out and vote! And don’t forget to vote for Adam (assuming you think he is the best candidate, which I think he is).
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04.02.07
Don’t Forget to Vote
Tomorrow, my community will vote for representatives to the USD 383 School Board. So if you are eligible to vote, I encourage you to do so. And I would also like to renew my bid for everyone to vote for Adam Dolezal. If given the chance, he will help do great things on the school board.
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