Month: March 2005

Comment and Trackback spam

I had 60 comment and trackback spams overnight. All but one of them were for the same URL. By the time I got through MT-Blacklist removing them, it had already blocked 5 more attempts to spam the same URL.

The problem isn’t keeping up with the URLs that they’re spamming – that’s never going to be completely under control, but MT-Blacklist does an ok job. The problem is the compromised PCs that the spammers are using. Last night’s spam run involved about a dozen different IPs – you can bet your life that ever single one of them is some idiot’s home PC that’s been taken over by a virus, trojan or spyware.

I can’t keep up with that list of IPs, but I bet there is a clearing house out there, and a plug-in for *some* blog software, that will. Any suggestions?

He made it!

Steve Fossett made it – first solo unrefueled flight around the world. I’m thrilled. No particular reason why. It’s not like in the grand scheme of things it’s as important as Americans dying in Iraq and the genocide in Sudan, but I’m thrilled. It’s just fun. And once again Burt Rutan proves that if there is an aviation challenge, he can design and build the airplane (or spacecraft) to meet it. I’m even more thrilled to hear that Space Ship One is going to be at Oshkosh this year. That’s just doubled my conviction that I need to go.

In other news, I got my laptop back from the shop. The hinge is definitely stiffer than it was (I think they replaced the whole screen, not just the hinge), but it fails the “propped up on your knees while sitting on the couch” test – it still flops down, just slower.

And in other news, I’m at Piedmont Hawthorne waiting for the flying club officer’s meeting to start, and the god-damned wireless internet connection blocks outgoing ssh and telnet connections. Thank God I installed Squirrel Mail so at least I can read my email, even if I can’t read news.

I seem to have become the local media’s “aviation guy”

It started when RNews called me after some guy crashed near the airport. Evidently they got my name from the Rochester Flying Club web site. I tried very hard to say positive things about aviation and not to speculate on what the guy might have done wrong, and I figured they’d probably hate me.

Then they called me after Bill Law crashed and died. I did the same thing – except for the fact that I heard about his death from the RNews reporter, which is pretty shocking, and because I knew and liked Bill I could say more about what a great guy he was and how important he was to aviation in Rochester.

Well, it’s continuing on. Today I got a call from a local reporter who wanted to know if I’m following Steve Fossett in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer. I told him that I’ve been watching the
Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer : Flight Tracker for every waking hour since before he took off until now. He asked me some background stuff, and asked me if I’d like to be doing what Fossett is doing. I said I wouldn’t mind being able to spend all my time doing aviation adventures, but I don’t think I’d want to spend 80 hours in a noisy cockpit. He then said that if Steve makes it they’ll probably want some reactions from local pilots.

Ok, I guess I’m up to 10 minutes of fame.