Light & Dark

Problem with Movable Type comments posting slowly

A significant commenting problem has surfaced this weekend with Movable Type blogs running version 3.2 or newer. Fortunately this time it has nothing to do with an architecture problem though. Versions of Movable Type from 3.2 up come with a plugin called Spam Lookup preinstalled and activated. One of its defenses is to check a couple of blacklist organisations for known spammers and that check is failing.

Unfortunately, one of the blacklist organisations Spam Lookup uses by default has decided to shut down due to overloading, but instead of just shutting, off, they're blackholing all requests to the address. This means that on any blog using the plugin, Spam Lookup will try to connect for up to 30 seconds before giving up and allowing the comment script to complete its task - the net result being comments that seem to take forever to post.

The address in question is opm.blitzed.org and a note on their wiki states:

Please stop querying the opm.blitzed.org zone. As of May 2007 in order to reduce query load on our servers, opm.blitzed.org is pointing at a blackholed nameserver -- queries will take a long time and result in a SERVFAIL.

If you're running a Moveable Type blog using version 3.2 or higher, you just need to remove this particular address from the list of sources to check within the Spam Lookup plugin's configuration settings. There are step-by-step instruction below for anyone who needs a walk-through.

Folks whose blogs I host, or for which I provide tech support have already had this update applied. No need to do it yourselves, but do mention it to others you know who use Movable Type and may not be aware of the fix. Note this doesn't apply in any way to Typepad.

Click the extended entry for step by step instructions and a screenshot of how to make the change.

How your cursor works

I know plenty of the folks who read here are interested in exactly how their computer functions, so I thought I'd show you how your monitor displays the cursor. A Japanese group has devised a way to show what's actually  happening on your monitor in order to display the cursor as it moves around your screen. It'll take a minute or 2 for the site to load, then as you move your cursor through the grey circle, it will magnify it and show how its movement is actually created.

Don't ever let it be said I'm not a great source of tech info!

Captcha update

I'm still finding Typepad's documentation sloppy.

This has been an ongoing issue for me - ever since I first started using the service. I can't count the number of times I've had tech-competent clients (hi Jim, hi George!) contact me for help because they couldn't get Typepad to do what it said itself it should do.

Tell me, dear readers, what would be your assumption if you saw the following in your blog's configuration settings?

Unauthenticated Commenters:

• Require email address

If selected, unauthenticated commenters will be required to submit an email address along with their comment.

• Require CAPTCHA

If selected, unauthenticated commenters will be required to pass a test that helps validate that they are a person and not a machine.

Would it not appear to you that, simply leaving the last box unticked, you would avoid the use of captchas on your site?

Wrongo, yakbreath.

In fact, Typepad has decided that, in some instances, a captcha will be issued regardless of how that specification is set. This info appears nowhere in the configuration settings - only in the knowledgebase:

Comments that meet the following criteria will trigger the CAPTCHA:

• If the comment is posted to a weblog post that is more than 30 days old
• If the comment was submitted too quickly after a previous comment from the same IP address and triggers a throttle
• If the comment contains more than three URLs in the comment body
• If information submitted with the comment matches TypePad's comment spam blacklist
• If the comment is posted in a definitely different language from that set for the weblog
• If the comment was submitted from an open proxy

Now, I understand that Typepad is using the captcha as a measure to protect their servers in case of a spam attack. I do find it hard to believe they couldn't implement a less annoying solution, but I'm especially frustrated that the configuration setting is so misleading. Come on Typepad, any user who beta-tested that config page could have told you that description was inadequate and misleading. Are you still not allowing actual users to test your changes before you roll them out? I mean, this has been a pretty common problem in the past.

Just for my own info, if any of you commenting are confronted with a captcha and you don't fit any of the above reasons, would you let me know please?

A little light reading listening

I'm very fortunate to be able to carpool to work with a couple of good friends mosts days, so I get to bookend the workday with a good visit. But for the days I do the half-hour commute alone, or have to drive into Calgary, I was excited to find a selection of free audiobooks available for download.

Librivox has a massive collection of some great out-of-copyright works. I'm particularly interested in the selection if Victorian novels - my subject at University. No idea what the quality of the reading is like, but it's certainly going to be worth finding out.

Simply Audiobooks also has a selection of free works, as well as a huge commercially-available library. I think I'll start with Call of the Wild. The Wasteland might be interesting too.

When I was in University, I did some book recording for blind students - both course texts and pleasure reading. I used a special tape recorder (like a deluxe Walkman) although now, I'm sure it's all dictated into a computer. I've been thinking it would be fun for both my nephews (twins!) and me if I read some books onto CD's for them, then sent them both to read along with.  Maybe I should check back in with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to see if there's something I could be doing for them?

I find it's actually really tough to read aloud well, especially if you're 'sight-reading' (no pun intended) but I've been told by knowledgeable folks I've got a pretty good delivery. My nephews certainly enjoyed the couple of chapters of Roald Dahl (warning - annoying flash intro) I read for 'em when I was home a couple of weeks ago. That's some tough stuff to read - all the wixed up mords he uses. The guys especially like "catastrophous disastrophy".

So, any of you folks using audiobooks?

Making Autocomplete do your bidding

In the comments to last night's post, Riverdog asks a question that I've had a lot of folks ask when frustrated by their browser's attempt to autocomplete something in a web form.

Don't you just hate it when your browser 'tries" to help, but there's such a raft of useless choices offered that it just gets in the way?

The two most common problems are that the number of choices for the autocomplete get too long and you're fishing through an extensive list for what you want to use, or even worse, you enter an incorrect string at some point and the mistake then gets offered to you by default each time. (A co-worker did this by entering my email address incorrectly once, and now at least twice a week, I miss emails from her because the wrong address autocompletes on her.)

Fortunately, there is an easy, though utterly unintuitive solution.

If you double-click on the text box that's offering too long a list or a mistake, the list of Autocomplete choices comes up. Simply hover (NOT click) over the offending entry to highlight it, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, then hit the Delete key. That entry will disappear. Do the same thing to all the entries you want to prune. If during multiple deletions the process stops responding, just mouse away from the text box, then go back and continue as before. (I occasionally hit this glitch in Firefox - not sure if IE does it too.)

This seems to be a convention in most implementation of Autocomplete. I know it works in IE and Firefox as well as Outlook. Try it on your own applications and let me know in the comments if you find others in which it works.

In Depth:
If you want to completely remove all the Autocomplete entries from Internet Exploder 6, got to the Tools menu, then to  Internet Options, then click on the  Content tab. you'll see the Autocomplete button, which will give you the option to turn it on and off for particular purposes, as well as to completely clear it's content for forms and/or passwords.

To clear all the entries in the dropdown for the browser's address bar, you have to clear the history from the General tab in the Internet Options window. (In IE7, both forms and history content can be deleted from this location) Microsoft's Knowledgebase article on Autocomplete.

In Firefox, go to the Options link under the Tools menu, then click on the Privacy icon. Make sure the Ask me before clearing private data box is checked, then just click the Clear Now button. You'll be present a list of what can be cleared. The Saved Forms and Search History is what you're looking for, plus anything else you'd like deleted.

Captchas must die

Captchas are the little letter codes that some sites require you to enter to prove you're a real human bean when trying to leave a comment.

And I hatesssss them. They are an abomination unto one's readers and I would never knowingly require one on any blog I set up. There are other ways of accomplishing the same thing (spam protection) that aren't so annoying to readers, and so totally destructive of accessibility. Hell, I've got reasonable vision and at least half the time I need a couple of tries at solving them.

Typepad added captcha tests a while ago as an option, but I've never turned it on here. To my horror, while testing comments to answer a question Riverdog had about Autocomplete, I found myself confronted with a captcha on my own site.

Not cool.

A help ticket has been dispatched poste-haste and the offender shall be banished. Sorry for the annoyance.

Here's an update explaining why Typepad won't let me get rid of the comment captchas altogether.

Changes

There've been a lot of changes in my life over the last couple of months. Some not so great, and more to come - hopefully of the happier variety. More challenging, at least.

I've been doing a whole lot of behind-the-scenes work on other blogs again lately, but it's time to get back in the saddle here and do some writing. I really need the outlet, not to mention the discipline and the practise.

Plus Mike over at Notoriously Nice gave me my marching orders a couple days ago after I left a comment over there, and since he and I are a couple of the last of the original Typepad Beta Test bloggers in our little gang, I figured I owe it to him to get back into the game. Sorry this isn't the nice long post you expected, Mike, but I'll get there. And props to you for still going strong almost 4 years later!!

I've got plenty of post ideas in my draft folder, plus you can expect a some really useful how-to's and recommendations for the general computer user and blogger on how to leverage their technology to make life easier, more effective, and more fun. (As opposed to the discussions about tech for its own sake that seems to fill so many technology discussions these days.)

Thanks for stopping in. If you've been a reader here before, stop by again soon or throw my RSS feed back in your feed reader. New visitors are certainly welcome to do the same - it's time to rebuild the connections.

You know your life's in the shitter when...

... a burglar breaks into your house, steals your video camera, and in the process uses it to film evidence of child porn on your computer, then rats you out to the police.

"The burglar has not been caught".

Classic.

Frigid

That's the description that comes up when I hover over the weather icon in ForecastFox (the little weather extension that gives me conditions and forecast on my status bar.)

As much as I usually find they go overboard in their descriptions, in this case, they're pretty much bang on. It was -25C all day, and has dropped to -30 now. With the wind chill, it's about -40.

Aieee.... that's the kind of cold that cuts right through even a down jacket. We often get short stretches of this kind of weather here in the mountains, but this cold for this long as early as November? Hooo boy. I sure hope this isn't indicative of what's coming for the rest of the winter!

Rivrdog was complaining in a recent post's comments about us Canucks sending our Arctic air down to him a couple months too early. I totally hear ya bro', but it's not like we're gettin' off scot free up here either!

Fortunately, we've had some light snow each of the last couple of days, so it's absolutely beautiful. Walking back to the truck after the concert tonight the fresh snow was squeaking underfoot as our breaths wreathed our scarf-snuggled faces. While part of me thinks it may be starting a bit too early, I do love winter. It sure makes the Christmas decorations seem less ridiculous  when it actually looks and feels like winter.

The concert was absolutely extraordinary - Xavier Rudd, a surf/roots artist who literally has to be seen to be believed. The couple of Edmontonians who occasionally drop by here might want to seriously consider catching him at the Winspear Centre on the 28th. He's already sold out his Calgary performance, and we sold out tonight's here, plus most of the house for his second show here tomorrow night.

I'll write up a review, but it'll have to wait until Tuesday as tomorrow night my trombone and I have been invited to sit in with my girlfriend's jazz band for a gig in Calgary.

I haven't played big band jazz in several years, but I just love the stuff, and these guys are playing charts that are doable if I work at them We have 2 really talented band leaders, which helps a lot. We'll be playing a short set (6 tunes) and there'll be 2 or 3 other bands there as well, at a club. Apparently the venue is expecting a full house, so it should be a real blast. Very much looking forward to it.

We've got a really beautiful arrangement of Danny Boy (trombone solo... yeah! Well six bars worth anyway), plus Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay, S'Wonderful (Gershwin), and even a really heavy-duty version of Frankenstein (Edgar Winter) How's that for variety?!

I better get my little hiney to bed... gonna need to do 45 minutes or so of practising in the morning before I head to work.

Think warm!

Turkey??

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my 'Murrican friends.

Hope you've had a terrific day.

 

(By the way, I think Teresa has the best thanksgiving picture I've seen in a loooong time.)