Skip to content

Technorati’s Lame Survey of the Blogosphere

30 July 2008, 7:29 pm

Technorati emailed me today (for the first time since April 2007):

Bloggers,

Technorati has been tracking the Blogosphere for the past several years through our State of the Blogosphere study. This year we have decided to expand our study beyond the sheer size and characteristics of the blogosphere in order to hear more from you, the bloggers. How, when and why are you blogging? Is this a side business, full time job or something you do for fun? Our goal is to analyze the growth of the field as well as understand the people who make the space tick. Help us and join the study of the ongoing global conversation!

Click here to take the survey!

We hope you will find this survey enjoyable. It should take just 15-20 minutes of your time, and your responses are entirely confidential. Be sure to check back on Technorati in late September for a summary of the results.

Thank you,

The Technorati Team

This survey is one of the lamest surveys I’ve ever seen. Some of the questions require you to divulge personal information; others require only one response, although more than one was appropriate. And Technorati doesn’t give you the option of a self-hosted Blog, so if you use WordPress.org, or Movable Type, or any other blog system you install on your own server, you’re out of luck. The same question is repeated a couple times, which may be simply a flaw in the branching based on my responses.

They also ask how many blogs you have, but don’t tell you which blog you should be answering about. Some of the blogs I write for have only myself responsible for them, others have volunteer writers and contributors. All in all, the 2008 Technorati State of the Blogosphere Survey is a waste of time, and when the results are released in September, I’d not expect high quality analysis from Technorati staff members.

Update (7/30/2008 7:48pm EDT): The mailing list they set up to notify people about the survey allows any member to send a message to the entire list. Two messages so far, and I won’t be surprised if there are more. Amazing.

Filed under Web-design.
1 Comment

Wordle of PlanetMike.com

30 July 2008, 7:03 am

I created a Wordle of PlanetMike.com. It turned out nicer than I thought it would.

Filed under Sites.
Comments Off on Wordle of PlanetMike.com

I Took It!

29 July 2008, 3:46 pm

And so should you. The 2008 A List Apart Survey for People Who Make Web Sites.

Filed under Web-design.
Comments Off on I Took It!

URLFan.com The Latest Content Thieves

21 July 2008, 3:30 pm

I just got a notice via a Google Alert that URLFan.com is stealing the articles from my web site. I’ve submitted a complaint to them. Hopefully I won’t need to file DMCA notices on them. Losers. See Search Engines: Three to Beware at Plagiarism Today for a bit more on this group.

Filed under Web-design.
Comments Off on URLFan.com The Latest Content Thieves

How to Make the WordPress Login Cookie Last Longer Than Two Weeks

30 June 2008, 9:10 am

One thing I loathe about WordPress 2.5 is login cookies only last two weeks. So every two weeks I get prompted to login again. It is extremely disruptive to have to log in again, when just a few hours earlier I was logged in. The cookie logic should be tweaked that if you haven’t logged in over the past two weeks, then (maybe) the cookie should expire. but if I was allowed to work on the blog yesterday, why should I need to log in again today. The two week window should not be based on when I first logged in, but on when I last did administrative functions while logged in.

There aren’t any plugin hooks to the cookie setting functions of WordPress 2.5. But you can edit line number 547 of pluggable.php (which is under wp-includes of your WordPress installation) to lengthen the amount of time a cookie is stored for. Simply change the number at the end of the line
$expiration = $expire = time() + 1209600;
to ever how many seconds you want the cookie to be good for.

Two Weeks: 1209600
One Month (30 days): 2592000
One Year (365 days): 31536000
Ten Years (3650 days): 315360000

Once you’ve made that change, log out (in the top right of the administrative area) and then log in again to create the new cookie with the longer login time. Or simply wait two weeks for your cookie to expire, and then the next time you login, you’ll be all set.

Yes, I can see how this might be a security issue, since an attacker may stay logged in for a long time, and get past any system upgrades. (A system upgrade though should wipe any stored logins. Which doesn’t appear to be possible currently, since the cookie doesn’t store which version of WordPress the cookie is good for.) Or if your machine is compromised, your blog can be compromised. But generally, if that happens, you’re screwed anyways. So in this instance, ease of use is trumping security for me.

Filed under Plugins, WordPress.
25 Comments

Akismet 40,000th Spam Comment

27 June 2008, 5:54 am

On May 1st, I zapped my 30,000th comment spam. Yesterday was the 40,000th. Here’s a chart of the count, recorded daily.

And here’s the daily rate, with a peak since May 8th (the end of the last storm) at 160 on June 6th, and a low of one on May 19th.

Filed under Spam.
1 Comment

HELO {bot_hostname}

26 June 2008, 11:09 am

This morning I received a string of bot spam attempts from some idiot spammer using the following as his HELO command (yes, including the braces):

HELO {bot_hostname}

Luckily Postfix rejected the conversation immediately.

Filed under Spam.
Comments Off on HELO {bot_hostname}

Showing the Post’s Time on the WordPress Edit Posts Page

5 June 2008, 10:00 am

I prefer having the time listed on the “edit posts” page under the WordPress admin area, instead of just the date of the post. Usually the URL you see this is something like (WP-base)/wp-admin/edit.php. I don’t see a hook to manage this format, so I couldn’t write a plugin. (If there is a hook, please let me know what it is!)

To edit the date and time that are displayed, simply edit line #74 in wp-admin/edit-post-rows.php (line 74 in WordPress 2.51, the line number may be different in other versions of WordPress). Change the portion that says “Y/m/d” to “Y/m/d H:i” and you’ll then see the time listed on the edit.php page. You can use any of the date/time formats defined by php.

Filed under WordPress.
2 Comments

Verizon Updating Their TOS Again

3 June 2008, 10:52 pm

I just received an email letting me know that Verizon is again changing their terms of service. It’s interesting that the first item listed below means they are changing their privacy policy and are going to share your account and identifying info if they even think you’re doing Bad Stuff. I wonder what was wrong with simply waiting for a legal order of some sort?

Also, i wonder if item #4 below means they could block bit torrent traffic?

And if you do go to the URL they provide for seeing more information (www2.verizon.net/policies) you have to give your area code and exchange to see the info. Hmmm, trying to keep researchers and other interested people out perhaps? Is anyone interested in a research project to see how the policies are different in different areas?

Effective June 9, 2008 – Important Information Regarding Changes to Your Verizon Online Terms Of Service

The following is an outline of important changes to the Verizon Online Terms of Service which are effective as of June 9, 2008. We have described these changes in general terms below and recommend that you review the complete Terms of Service to determine how these changes, and other routine changes being made simultaneously, apply to you or your use of the Service. The Terms of Service can be accessed by clicking on the “Policies and Terms of Service” link (www2.verizon.net/policies) at the bottom of any page of our Website. The Terms of Service, as revised, will govern your rights and obligations, and ours, with respect to your use of the Services we offer. As set forth in Paragraph 3 of the Terms of Service, your continued use of the Service after the effective date of these changes will constitute your agreement to the changes.

1. Reporting of Actual or Potential Violations of Child Pornography Laws. We have added language to our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) making clear that the Service cannot be used in any fashion for the transmission or dissemination of images containing child pornography. In addition, in Section 5, Privacy Policy; Legal Compliance, we have added language making clear that (a) we are required by law to report any facts or circumstances reported to us or which we discover from which it appears there may be a violation of the child pornography laws; and (b) that we reserve the right to report any such information, including the identity of users, account information, images and other facts to law enforcement personnel.

2. Billing Start Date for Additional Services. In Section 8.1, Prices and Fees; Billing, we have added language stating that, unless otherwise noted at the time of purchase, billing for the Additional Services set forth on Exhibit B will begin either on your Service Ready Date if you are also ordering new Broadband Service or upon submission of your order if you are ordering only an Additional Service.

3. Refundable Deposits. We have added a new Section 8.8, Refundable Deposits, which permits us, in certain instances, to require a refundable deposit either prior or subsequent to activation of Service.

4. Modifications to AUP. We have added language to our AUP making clear (a) that we may monitor our subscribers‚ compliance with our Terms of Service and AUP; and (b) that we have the right, but not the obligation, to pre-screen, refuse, move or remove any content available on the Service including, but not limited to, content that violates the law, our Terms of Service or our AUP.

5. Verizon Premium Technical Support (PTS). We have added a new Section 6 to Exhibit B, Additional Terms, which sets forth the terms and conditions governing our provision, and your use, of the PTS service.

Please take time to review the complete Verizon Online Terms of Service. Thank you for being a Verizon Online customer.

Filed under Technology.
2 Comments

eHealthInsurance.com Spam

2 June 2008, 4:21 pm

Be careful if using eHealthInsurance.com. They do not honor unsubscribe requests from their mailings. I’d suggest using a unique email address so you can disable it after you’ve used their services. I’ve emailed their privacy office asking about this. If a week goes by, I’ll escalate to TRUSTe.

I originally signed up with them on October 9th, 2007, unsubscribed on March 24, 2008 (after they emailed me five months after my last contact with them), and then again today (June 2, 2008) two months after opting out.

Filed under Spam.
4 Comments
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »