CA Says PA OK

August 25, 2005 by Eric Richardson

A couple weeks ago I went to get a California driver's license and was told I had an outstanding ticket in Pennsylvania. That was news to me, and to PA. Turns out it really wasn't even true. I finally got around to calling CA's Problem Driver Pointer System office and a nice lady there reran the query. To paraphrase, "I looked at it, and that's not you." So now my license will be printed within 24 hours and I'll get it whenever the mail chooses to deliver it.

Still Perfecting the Spam Blocker

August 25, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I wrote recently about my first and second steps in fighting comment spam. In the two weeks since I put those measures into place I've blocked 3400 requests to this blog and 4755 requests to blogdowntown.

I also put in a third level of blocking sometime between then and now, adding a RewriteMap that lists specific problem IP addresses. That's great if the spammers are reusing proxies, and if nothing else it just makes me feel like I'm doing something. That list is now up to 62 IP addresses.

And now today I've added a second DNS check, this time to query opm.blitzed.org/. This list is designed to target open proxies. It's not perfect -- it only lists 17 out of the 62 IPs on my deny list -- but it has better coverage than list.dsbl.org. And defense in depth is never a bad thing.

So basically I have no problem with referrer spam these days, but comment spam still trickles in.

Of All the Days...

August 24, 2005 by Eric Richardson

It just dawned on me that Larry Flynt is about to speak to my class and I'm wearing a Liberty University baseball hat. I would say that was poor planning on my part, but I didn't know he was going to be here.

More Power, More of the Time

August 24, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I just found out that we now have power outlets in the seats of the Annenberg Auditorium. That's amazing. I should stop writing now and watch the movie, though... We're watching a truncated People vs. Larry Flynt and then he's the speaker for this first class.

Woo Hoo!

August 22, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Considering the way USC likes to overcharge for everything, I was kind of surprised just now to realize that the vending machine I just went to only charges $1.25 for a 20oz Coke. Then, to make matters even better, my bottle cap says I win a free 1 liter. Double score!