The Golden Rule.
December 27, 2006
Well, ’tis the season, right? I didn’t ask for anything this year (except gifts for kids via Child’s Play Charity, my folks and my grandma each bought the kids a Nintendo Gamecube), and as a result, didn’t get much. Works for me.
I did get one gift from my dad that’s pretty cool, and it comes in two parts. Sweet. The first, wrapped part, was a DVD of Jimi Hendrix live at Woodstock. I opened it up, and after thanking my dad, he said that that wasn’t the whole gift.
Many years ago (obviously), he saw Jimi and the boys play. I don’t think it was Woodstock, but who really cares. It’s Jimi, right? Well, he got a drumstick from Mitch Mitchell (Jimi’s drummer) at that show. It’s been floating around the house, and he decided that it would be cool to mount it in a shadow box and give it to me. And I couldn’t agree more; it is really cool. I’ll take a photo of it and post it up when I do finally get it.
The other gift that I really thought was awesome was my lump of coal at the Big Easy Rollergirls’ Christmas Party. In all honesty, I thought it was fucking hilarious. The other refs got a lump too. We got some candy too, but that briquette killed me.
And outside of the stuff I bought for the roommate, I only bought one other gift: a chandelier for the folks/grandma/family house. It was a pretty hefty chunk of change, but it is absolutely beautiful. I’ve never really been able to buy the folks a nice/big gift, and I’m just glad that I could do it. They’re good people. Anyway, here’s a few cell phone photos of it:
It’s True. Women are the root of all evil.
December 15, 2006
Thanks to a friend’s post on “the elljay”, I saw the below image on the right, causing me to remark that Tori Spelling looks like a man (at least in that photo).
Some image-matching subroutine in my brain matched this with an image of another actor, namely Tim Curry as The Lord of Darkness in Legend. Behold:
You may now continue with your regularly scheduled nightmare.
Vertical stripes of #000000 and #FFFFFF
December 14, 2006
This Saturday, I again don my black and white vertical stripes. However, instead of a “custom jersey” (ie, fat sharpie lines drawn down my arms) circa the 2005 Shot Olympics, it will be a real jersey.
That’s right kids, the one and only (and registered) Col. Panic™ will be a referee for the Big Easy Rollergirls this Saturday, Dec. 16th at Mardi Gras World. You can get your tix here or at the door (if it hasn’t sold out).
So come on down and watch Santa’s Sleighers battle the Tannenbombers for global national NOLA Domination. It’s fun. And hey, the afterparty will be at the old point bar, so join us afterwards for a drink.
Also secured my Saints playoff tickets. Rock.
… and everybody’s soon to be having fun …
December 12, 2006
Wow. Just over two months till Mardi Gras. I can’t believe it. Time to start thinking about / working on a costume. St. Anthony Ramblers, what?
My Treo brings you tidings of joy (also known as carnival stands in the CBD):
I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. Who Dat?
December 11, 2006
Wow. A 42-17 victory over Dallas last night.
Ladies, and gentlemen, football was not shown on NBC last night, but instead a special airing of Brokeback Mountain. Them Cowboys got fucked.
Anyways, tomorrow I buy my playoff tickets and my season tickets for next year.
Child’s Play Charity
December 6, 2006
Tulane Hospital for Children in New Orleans has been added to the charity list! So, instead of buying me something, instead buy a game, movie, cd, etc. for a sick kid stuck in the hospital. Last year, I bought a Playstation 2 for the Texas Children’s Hospital, this year it’s the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on DVD, a Lego Star Wars Video game, and the always fun Clue and Life board games going to Tulane Hospital.
Please, pass this along.
From Child’s Play Charity ( http://www.childsplaycharity.org ):
Since 2003, gamers have banded together through registered Seattle-based charity, Child’s Play. Over a million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.
We collect no administrative fees or other charges, 100% of all gifts and donations go directly to our partner hospitals, to help make life a little brighter for a sick child.
This year, we have continued expanding across the country and the globe. With over 25 partner hospitals and more arriving every month, you can be sure to find one from the map above that needs your help! You can choose to purchase requested items from their online retailer wish lists, or make a cash donation that helps out Child’s Play hospitals everywhere. Any items purchased through Amazon or DStore will be shipped directly to your hospital of choice, please be sure to select their shipping address rather than your own.
Spam Comment Cache-busting.
December 6, 2006
So, one of the issues I’ve seen with comment spam is the bots’ use of cached versions of blog/etc pages. While my new spam reduction method was pretty effective, it did nothing whatsoever to stop spamming via cached-pages.
Since the older cached pages didn’t have the baited field, it didn’t submit a value for said field, and therefore the comment was posted.
This could be an issue. So I created a new, “hidden” field on the comments page. Looks something like this:
<input name=”cache” value=”442588497e34d3313cdc493a9ae0963c” type=”hidden” />
Initially, I had the cache value set to “1″, but I realized that would itself get cached, and that was pointless against future cached versions. So I needed to create a value daily, automagically.
So, in the wp-config.php file, I added the following lines:
// ‘Cache Buster’ extra data to make sure the md5 checksum it generates in the
// comment form is not reverse engineer-able. In the installation process, it would auto-fill
// with a rand() echo;
define(‘COMMENTCACHE’, ‘This is where the extra data goes.’);
So, the value that you see above, 442588497e34d3313cdc493a9ae0963c, is a md5 hash of the current date plus the COMMENTCACHE variable: 20061206This is where the extra data goes.
And on the backend, I modified the wp-comments-post.php file from:
if(!$_POST['subject']) { // execute comment
$comment_id = wp_new_comment( $commentdata );
}
to:
if( !$_POST['subject'] && $_POST['cache'] == md5(date(Ymd).COMMENTCACHE) ) { // execute comment
$comment_id = wp_new_comment( $commentdata );
}
So now we have a unique value, automatically generated daily that can’t be generated by bots (because they don’t know the extra data), that completely stops spam from cached content sources.
So here’s the numbers of the spam tests, from no method, to hidden method, to hidden + cache method:
Sonny: 1423 -> 953 -> 190
Me: 201 -> 10 -> 4
Looks to be pretty effective overall to be submitted to WordPress for inclusion in their next revision. And yes, I have changed my ‘extra data’. ;)
Sometimes metal makes me angry.
December 5, 2006
I know, I know. Things have been sparse all up ins here. Things have been busy. Way Mega Busy™: 50% work, 50% alcohol, %20 football, -%25 sleep. My body is run down, I need rest.
Anyways, I picked up albums by two of my favorite old-time heavies, Iron Maiden and Tom Waits.
In 2000, we saw the return of Bruce Dickinson to Iron Maiden in Brave New World. I was wary and skeptical at first. Then I hit play. Bruce Dickinson was back, in All His Glory™. It was wondrous. I’m going to skip over 2003′s Dance of Death and proceed directly to this year’s A Matter Of Life And Death.
Maiden, you have let me down. Almost every track is a lyrical and slight musical re-arrangement of BNW. Seriously, guys. ITS THE SAME DAMN STUFF! Write something different! Am I the only one that hears this?
I’d just like to say this: Repent you fucking savages, for the end is nigh. Metallica had it wrong; the third horseman of the apocalypse is not Pestilence, but instead Bruce Dickinson. You want proof? Check the lyrics for For the Greater Good of God:
He gave his life for us he fell upon the cross
To die for all of those who never mourn his loss
It wasn’t meant for us to fell the pain again
Tell me why, tell me why
Please, please tell me that the ‘Maiden didn’t find Jesus. Nothing against the JC, but come on. We’re talking about Iron fucking Maiden. The Number of the Beast? Remember that little track? Yeah. Go dust it off and crank it to 11. It makes you want to slap your mama, and now it makes me want to slap the stupid out of this band.
Okay okay, enough of that. Now onto that gravelly-voiced bastard of men, Tom Waits.
I swear Tom is the first cyborg. I think he swapped his larynx out for a Dispose-all.
He’s got a new album(s) out named Orphans, which is broken up into three sub-albums: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards.
Is there an force in the ‘verse that can stop him? I doubt even River Tam could.
There is so much to this new offering, that it really will take a while to pour through it. But so far, the favorite track is the opener to bastards: What Keeps Mankind Alive. The song’s message? Hunger dictates morality.
But seriously, at the end of the day, it’s a new Waits album. And you know as well as I that there are two types of people in this world: those that like his music, and those that don’t. The ones that do are also usually whiskey fans.
Oh, and he does a dynamite cover of Frank Sinatra’s Young at Heart to close Bawlers.