Random Ramblings

Blogger Spam

My sister's blog got hit with some blog-spam (not sure if there's a new name for that or not). The problem, of course, is that since it is free to sign up for a blogger account, anyone can do it including spammers. And if you shut down one spam-username, they'll just start a new one (since it's free).

One option is to make it non-free ... then you could track people through their credit card company. Of course, that would also pretty much kill blogging as we know it.

Another option is the use of those wavy-letter images that you may have seen. You type in the word in the image and it assumes you must be a real person not a computer program -- since lots of spam is computer generated, this can cut down on a lot of spam. But it also requires people to type in more stuff every time they want to post/comment, so it may detract from people wanting to blog. Again, that's bad.

One last option that I've heard of is to offer bounties for people to "hunt" down the spammers. Not quite like a citizen's arrest, more on the order of a free private eye service. If you can prove that someone is a spammer, then you'd get $100 (or $1000 or whatever). The hope is that there are enough geeks out there who would be willing to do the leg-work, then a company/legal agency could handle the actual court case.

Stupid People and the DMV

I'm trying to find a way to explain this and make the people involved NOT seem stupid, but I really just can't.

I had to go to the DMV today to renew my driver's license. Ahh, yes! The DMV. Nothing says "FUN" like a trip to the DMV. The speedy, polite service ... a waiting room full of warm, friendly people. Why, of course, you'd want to bring your husband and two small 3-5 year old children with you to the DMV!! It's fun for the whole family!!

Why leave the little tykes (and Dad) at home with a room full of toys and Barney on the TV?? Why drop them off at the park where they could play on the jungle-gym and run around?? It'll be much more fun to bring them to a cramped room full of industrial-strength furniture, right?!?!

Yes folks, that's what I got to witness today. This family -- note that Dad came along so he could easily have stayed at home to babysit the kids -- the WHOLE family came to the DMV because Mom needed something done. I honestly like kids ... but can someone please explain to me what part of "DMV" (slow, onerous bureacracy) suggests that children with a 10-second attention span will enjoy it???

NCAA buys NIT for $56.5M

Being at a Division I university with a pretty-damn-good basketball team, I've always been interested in how the NCAA rationalizes it's way out of NOT paying the semi-pro athletes that compete under their banners. Numerous reports tell about the life of the average "student-athlete" ... let's just say it about 10% student and 90% athlete. And that's on the off-season.

But they aren't paid because, we are told, they get a free college education -- that's payment enough! Besides, where are all these poor schools going to get that extra money to pay the kids $100 per month for pizza-and-hanging-out money?!?!?

Then we hear about the NCAA signing a $6B deal for the TV rights to the next 11 years of basketball coverage. And now we hear that the NCAA paid $56.5M basically to get out ot a lawsuit -- I mean, if you already own the NCAA championship, why do you need ANOTHER tournament in March??

So, where are those poor schools going to get the extra money to pay the athletes??? Oh, I don't know ... maybe they should ask the NCAA for their share of those millions/billions?? Maybe that's a start.

The kidz are all right

I just got back from a youth group retreat and I have to say, if what I saw was any indication, Generation X is doing just fine ... in fact, they are quite an inspiration!

We took about 15 kids from our church and met up with another 50 from 6+ other churches out in the western part of NC. We did about 3 solid days of work for Habitat for Humanity and Samaritan's Purse. My group did landscaping and some flooring (laminate floor tiles) for an almost-complete house. At one point, we had to fill in a large mud-hole (low spot in the lawn) ... if we had some wheelbarrows to do the work, we could've been done in probably 1-2 hours. But we didn't have any wheelbarrows. So we did it with 5-gallon buckets. And no one complained. Not even once. They just went to work and we filled in the hole in about 3-4 hours. Everyone knew we could've been done much faster with the proper equipment, but no one whined about having to do it "the hard way." It was amazing.

So next time you're worried about "those kids" ... don't. They're doing just fine, and I have faith in where they're going to take us.

As some of you may suspect, I've got some very MINOR geek tendencies ... very very minor, I'd be surprised if many of you even noticed it.

Anyhoo, I figured I'd put my "geek" blogs in a separate area ... so check out http://4444jbp.blogspot.com to see what I'm doing with my computer.

Why don't people dress up anymore?

So I got a traffic ticket the other day and had to go to court. In North Carolina you can plead guilty and request a "prayer for judgment" ... which I did ... basically throwing yourself at the mercy of the court and saying you would never ever ever ever do it again -- or at least that you'll never ever ever ever get caught for doing it again : ) The ticket sorta goes on your record but isn't reported to your insurance company (you can only do it once every 3 years, so they do remember it).

Since my Momma done brung me up rite, I actually dressed up for my day in court: suit (a real suit no less, not off-the-rack separates from JC Penney), tie (no, it wasn't a clip-on), dress shoes (ok, I didn't actually shine them), the whole 9 yards. And as I sat there waiting to talk to the judge, I looked around at the maybe 200 or so people that were in the same court room ... and exactly 2 people were wearing ties. Myself and one other guy (who I knew, oddly enough), maybe another 2 women were in business/professional attire. But that's it, 4 people out of maybe 200.

And don't get me started on the gangsta's who came in all their finest. Pants down around their knees (that just looks stupid *and* uncomfortable), logo attire out the wazoo (why why why are you paying $50 for a cheap cotton t-shirt with some dude's name on it), or t-shirts that were about 5 X's too big for them. Yeah, that's dressing to impress.

I really can't understand that. Why on earth would you not dress up at least a little bit? Even for the purely selfish/childish reason of swaying the judge to be nice to you because you look like a nice guy. How can dressing up be a bad thing? Is it really that painful? You'd rather get a $300 traffic ticket?

I'm not trying to say how to dress on the other 364 days a year that you are hopefully *not* in court -- wear your wife-beaters and K-mart gold chains, I don't care (actual attire seen in court!). But just one day out of the year, you can't wear a suit? Even if it might help you?