Journal of PlanetMike

Over at Spamroll Test your ability to avoid spam, Michael Gracie asks how people did when they take the SiteAdvisor Spam Quiz. Basically, look at different sites, read their privacy policies, and decide which of the two sites is trustworthy. I got 100%, 8 out of 8 correct. Then again, I’m the webmaster for the […]

While clearing out the spam that has accumulated on one of my blogs (and been successfully caught by WordPress’ Akismet spam filter) I saw this gem: Bush’s ties to Israel go back to debt consolidation and reduction WASHINGTON If there’s a starting point for George W. Bush’s attachment to Israel, it’s the day in late […]

Earlier this week I had to buy a product from eBay. Setting aside the joy of bidding against someone for an old clicky IBM keyboard (luckily I later found one that I could Buy Now), I started receiving “helpful” newslettery things from eBay. I didn’t want them, so I went to the web site, and […]

A helpful spammer found a hole in one of my old web forms. So he started blasting out email through it. I removed the script, and then captured the IP addresses of the compromised systems/bots that were trying to use it. I’d suggest you block these IP addresses. Who should this be reported to? Each […]

Never mind. “Never wrestle a pig in mud, because you get dirty and the pig enjoys it.”

Wow. I received my first Cease and Desist “order” today. Via email. From Michael S. Cox. Supposedly. I wonder what the legal system in Poland is like? I don’t think they would have jurisdiction over me.

I use a unique email address anyplace I need to give out my email address. This allows me to track spam and other unethical organizations that believe their “message” is more important than my privacy. A simple MD5 hash of (the domain I’m submitting to) plus (a private password) gives me a unique 32 character […]

Back in January I set one of my ancient domains to forward all of it’s spam to a Gmail account. (original post: Comparing Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail) I just today looked at the Gmail account to see how it’s doing. Argh! My ancient domain has filled up its hard drive with spam, so it’s been […]

Wow, I upgraded one of my blogs (ShowBizRadio.net) to the enwest WordPress earlier this week. The spam fighting system is very different from earlier versions of WordPress. I received 50+ comment spam attempts starting just a few hours ago. As I was typing this entry, I received 9 more! The attempts are all registering as […]

Amazing. On a day a when the FTC fines a millionaire spammer a pittance of the fine due, the Washington Post ignores its privacy policy and spams me with an offer to buy their stupid dead tree paper. But yeah, the spam tells me I can opt-out! Like I should trust that, after all, my […]