Registration for Northern Voice 2007 just opened up. The speaker list and schedule hasn’t been announced yet, but if it’s anything like the first two NV events, it’s going to be absofrigging great. I’m not sure how I’m getting there yet, but I’ll be there. I may have bandages on my back where my kidneys were, but it’ll be worth it. I just registered for both days.
Northern Voice website
Read MoreI was just messing around with smart albums in iPhoto, and found that I can create albums based on camera model. So, I created a set of smart albums showing all photos taken with each of the 3 digital cameras I’ve owned. I then created additional smart albums to show just photos taken with a particular camera that have been rated 1 star or more (which I add to any photo that’s worth showing anyone else). The results were a bit surprising (and completely unscientific).
Read MoreSpam is the scourge of the internets. It clogs Internet Tubes all over the globe, overloading the trucks that take internets around the world.
And it is directly caused by Google’s PageRank and Adsense systems. They (as well as others, but primarily Google - take a look at any spam farm, and you’ll see prominent Adsense ad blocks) created this mess by enabling individuals to cash in on hijacking innocent websites that have enabled anonymous commenting.
Read MoreI just checked in on weblogs.ucalgary.ca, and was greeted by a wonderful surprise. Justin Trudeau was on campus on Friday November 24, and the full audio of his talk was posted to weblogs.ucalgary.ca as a podcast. I’ve grabbed the file, and have listened to the first couple of minutes, but this should be a great talk.
For anyone who doesn’t recognize the name Justin Trudeau, he is the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and is making quite a name for himself as both a public speaker and leader of youth activism.
Read MoreAfter switching from BadBehavior+Spam.module back to Akismet, I assumed I’d be in for a bit of an onslaught of spam. I was braced for impact. I can’t believe the sheer volume of sustained attempted spam comments that are constantly being flung against this blog, 24/7 now. It’s peaked at several attempts per second, which was adding a bit of a load to the server as it struggled to thwart the forces of evil.
Read MoreOK. Even I am getting sick of the incessant “spam blocking update” posts, but I figure if it helps even one other person put the brakes on the attempts of the evil spamroaches, it’s worth it.
So, here’s the latest. I got frustrated with the number of spamments that snuck through the combo of Bad Behavior and Spam.module, so I disabled both. I’ve reverted to using only Akismet.module, with the experimental spambot detection/prevention enabled.
Read MoreI had been running an out of date version of Bad Behavior on my blog because the Drupal module requires BB 1.2.4 - but I think the evil spambots were getting around that old version.
So, I just took a stab at updating my copy of bad-behavior.module to work with the latest and greatest Bad Behaviour 2.0.7. I’m not sure if I’ve missed anything, but if seems as though it’s suddenly become successful at blocking the annoying Apkakkallli spambot that has been attempting to vandalize my blog for the last few days. The server seems much more responsive, at least. Maybe it’s successfully banning evildoers?
Read MoreI’m seriously considering moving my blog to Drupal 5 Beta 1. It seems stable enough, and the performance (especially with Aggressive Caching) blows Drupal 4.7.4 out of the water. That’s becoming a pretty serious factor for me, as the insane onslaught of comment spam just keeps bringing my server to its knees (I’m looking at YOU, Apkakkallli!)
There are only a handful of modules that I use that don’t have Drupal 5 versions. Of those, I could probably limp along without them until D5 versions are available.(computed field, img_assist, recent blocks, TinyMCE…)
Read MoreI was just checking in, and on my Sitemeter stats page, saw an interesting recent visitor:
Visit from the Bat Cave
I didn’t realize Batman had moved the Cave so far from Gotham City. But, in another score for Drupal, the Dark Knight is researching how to move from Wordpress to Drupal.
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Evan and I went for a nice winterish walk today. Picnic at a local playground, then down to the neighbourhood Starbuck’s™ for something warm. He sure does like the hot chocolate with decadent whipped cream on top. I brought the camera along, Just In Case™ and let Evan take some shots while we were warming up.
He composed, focused and shot the photo of myself completely on his own (granted, in autofocus, but it was on center-single-point-autofocus, so he could have easily focused on the Petro Canada station in the background). Personally, I think it’s one of the better photos of myself that I’ve seen. Not bad for a 4-year old. I should start saving up for a Hasselbad for The Boy™.
Read MoreI headed downtown this morning (waaaaay earlier than I’d have liked) to attend the Lexi.net Online Identity Conference. I was curious to see what an internet-related conference would look like in Calgary, having been involved in others elsewhere. I wore my NV ‘05 t-shirt, of course :-)
I got downtown too early - the buses out of Tuscany go straight downtown, but the last one passes my house at 6:45. So, I had some time to kill before and after registration. What to do… I know! A photo walk down Stephen Avenue Mall!
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