I had planned on resuming normal blogging today, after the holidays, but I’m fighting off some kind of stomach bug at the moment, so blogging will have to wait until later.
January 4, 2011
December 22, 2010
Hey, spammers? DIAF!
I don’t usually have to deal with too much in the way of spam comments, as the Akismet plug-in seems to catch the majority of them for me. The last 24 hours has seen a lot of almost-believable comments that might have been approved, except they are copies of half-a-dozen originals, from similar IP addresses:
“Just wanted to let you know the sidebar looks off in my browser with 1600×1200 resolution.”
“Hey, I haven’t checked in here for a while, but I will put you on my bloglist so I don’t forget to check back.”
“I don’t always agree with your posts, but this was dead on, way to go!”
“Oooh, you’re such an inspiration. I love this blog!”
“Hmm. I am not so sure about that…”
Also amusing is that the posts are recorded as coming from places like “cat.com”, “dog.com”, “strawberry.com”, and “chocolate.com”. I’m assuming they’re all from the same botnet (most are from the 173.234.x.x block and report emails at ymail.com).
December 2, 2010
Test post
Just updated the WordPress software. Testing to ensure it’s still working as expected.
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November 20, 2010
Apologies for the temporary interruption in service
The blog was down for a couple of hours this morning, but the friendly folks at HostGator got the problem fixed as soon as I called it to their attention. <plug>HostGator has been a great ISP for me. I happily recommend them to you if you need web hosting.</plug>
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October 19, 2010
Administrivia: email contact
Rogers/Yahoo is apparently having email issues today, so should anyone need to contact me, use the “quotulatiousness AT gmail DOT com” address.
Update: Yahoo’s mail servers appear to be up and running again.
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October 11, 2010
August 17, 2010
Blogging will be light for a few days
I’m off on a short vacation, with uncertain internet access, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to update the blog regularly.
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August 1, 2010
Woodbutchery
Sorry for the lack of postings, but I’ve been busy trying to get back on track for delivering a set of bookshelves I promised for earlier this year. I’m covered in sawdust, and not all that interested in browsing the web at the moment. Perhaps tomorrow . . .
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July 30, 2010
Blogging will be light
I’m working to a client deadline, so normal blogging activity may resume later today or tomorrow.
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July 5, 2010
Spam comments try to be more persuasive
A bunch of spam comments accumulated over the long weekend and it’s noteworthy that there has been a general improvement in the quality of “writing” that goes into them. There are still plenty that are clearly not words or phrases in any human language, but others show not only words but actual comprehensible sentences. The most common pattern is one of general agreement with the topic of the post (always unstated, as these are generated comments, not written ones), along with something like “I’ve added you to my Google Reader/bookmarks/blogroll”.
They’d probably be more effective — in the sense of getting past the spam filter — if there weren’t so many of them following the same pattern.
That’s not a request, I hurry to clarify, just a comment.
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June 17, 2010
New release of WordPress
I’ve been happily using WordPress since I moved over from the original site (under MovableType), and the latest version of WordPress has just been released. However, any software update can have unforeseen results, so it’s possible the site will be affected by some minor (or even major) glitch. Please excuse the mess as I try the upgrade and see what other changes I may need to make . . .
June 5, 2010
Light blogging today
I’m away from the computer, competing in an SCA rapier tournament near Peterborough, Ontario. Lots of interesting sites to visit over in the right-hand column.
Update: You know, it would have helped if I’d actually published this entry before heading off this morning. I’m now back, bruised yet unbowed, happy in my second-place finish in the tournament. Last time I competed there (before injuring my shoulder and having to take a few years off), I won the tournament. This time, with more fencers taking part, I still managed to claim second. That’s pretty good after such a long lay-off from competition. I’m more than satisfied.
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May 10, 2010
Six years of blogging
Six years ago today, Jon installed a copy of MovableType on his server and invited me to start my own blog. He got tired of his own blog fairly quickly, but in an odd sort of way it still lives on — I named my blog Quotulatiousness as a joking reference to his Blogulatiousness.
The very first post was pretty indicative of what I’d be doing on the blog for the next six years: a brief introduction, a long-ish quote from the linked item of interest, and a brief closing comment (in that case, no actual commentary).
2004 was a pretty busy year, so if you’re terminally bored, you can sample a bit of blog history here (most of these entries don’t follow the pattern of the first blog post):
- First wine post — 2004-05-11
- Attributing links correctly — 2004-06-14
- First attempt at political wonkery (Leaders debate) — 2004-06-16
- Exorcising the AVRO Arrow — 2004-06-26
- Analyzing the party platforms — BQ — 2004-06-26
- Analyzing the party platforms — Tory — 2004-06-27
- Analyzing the party platforms — Greens — 2004-06-27
- Analyzing the party platforms — Libs — 2004-06-27
- Election results reaction — 2004-06-29
- First “busted hockey stick” post — 2004-07-13
- Air security — 2004-07-16
- Remembering Apollo 11 — 2004-07-22
- First “sell off the LCBO” post — 2004-07-28
- First visit to PE County wineries — 2004-08-03
- Psychopathic Narcissists (politicians) — 2004-08-03
- The importance of property rights — 2004-08-09
- First rant on China’s economy — 2004-08-10
- Dieppe raid anniversary — 2004-08-19
- Paul Martin’s Peacekeeping Brigade — 2004-08-21
- First post on BMI — 2004-08-22
- First global warming post — 2004-08-23
- Blogging the cat (first photos) — 2004-08-29
- How big is blogging — 2004-09-02
- Redaction and domestic security — 2004-09-03
- What is a hate crime? — 2004-09-07
- Writing vs Technical Writing — 2004-09-09
- After Beslan — 2004-09-14
- Canuck ingratitude — 2004-09-20
- The over-protected generation — 2004-09-23
- Healthcare: pets vs. humans — 2004-09-23
- I’m in favour of — 2004-09-28
- Garnet Rogers — 2004-10-03
- French complicity in holocaust — 2004-10-04
- Calculating the NFL passer rating — 2004-10-08
- SAS versus Militia — 2004-10-09
- Macdonnell on the heights — 2004-10-14
- How Europe went left — 2004-10-18
- Healthcare — 2004-10-19
- Soldering woes — 2004-10-22
- Economic Feng Shui — 2004-10-25
- Scrooge to Bob Cratchit — 2004-10-28
- Scrutineering — 2004-11-02
- Greater Soviet Canuckistan — 2004-11-05
- Extended childhood — 2004-11-15
- Power — 2004-11-23
- Laws of war — 2004-11-24
- Ego-surfing — 2004-11-26
- Woodworking — 2004-11-26
- Criminals have more rights than victims — 2004-12-01
- Home-schooling — 2004-12-06
- Christmas music — 2004-12-06
- Retirement planning — 2004-12-07
- I’m a racist — 2004-12-07
- Lennon’s death — 2004-12-08
- French winemakers are revolting! — 2004-12-09
- Wine tour part 1 — 2004-12-12
- Wine tour part 2 — 2004-12-12
- Wine tour part 3 — 2004-12-12
- Wine tour part 4 — 2004-12-12
- Wine tour part 5 — 2004-12-12
- Corkage — 2004-12-16
- My first takedown notice — 2004-12-17
In short, I’m still one of the laziest bloggers on the planet, but I’m still blogging after half a century in blog-years (most blogs start up with a few quick posts, then fade out never to be updated again).
Thanks again to Jon, both for getting me started in blogging, and for continuing to host my archives from the first five years.
April 28, 2010
Sorry for the lack of bloggishness
Today was a triple-whammy of first-thing-in-the-morning dentist appointment, followed by a meeting with my accountant, then a trip to the bank to open a vein pay my 2009 personal and business taxes. That left no time for more pleasant activities like blogging.
Regular blogging may resume later today.
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April 17, 2010
Busy
In my traditional manner, I’m just starting to do the books for 2009. I doubt there’ll be much blogging for today, as a result.
