I’ve (finally) installed a WordPress plugin that allows you to subscribe to the comments on my posts. No longer will you have to come back to the entry to find if there has been any comments after yours.
This has only taken me about three years to do. Total time involved was about five minutes. Go me!
It’s easy, just click the check box at the bottom of the comments window.
Yay! We’re more of a community now!
Spam Comments: Blatant marketing ploy? We see that all the time.
Anyone who has a blog is occasionally (or not so occasionally) plagued by spam comments. Most are easy to detect and they usually deal with products designed to make certain parts of you bigger, or the whole of you smaller.
Sometimes things come through that make you wonder if the commenter is just link-mining, or really has no clue.
For example. I received two comments last week (I alluded to this on twitter) from the same IP and email, but different Author names. The first comment said:
A fantastic read….very literate and informative. Many thanks….where is your RSS button ?
That is usually code for “I’m commenting on your blog just so there’s a link with my website’s name on it”. Especially because they’re looking for my RSS button. Ummm…it’s right there, dude.
But, ten minutes later, another comment came in which made me question the spam rating of the first. Sort of.
I strongly recommend that you turn the No Follow off in your comment section.
I’ll watch Google Webmaster Tools, and if the links don’t show up after a couple of weeks — I won’t go back to that blog again.
Another suggestion: you should have a Top Commentator widget installed.
Do Follow and Top Commentator will ensure that you have a successful blog with lots of readers!
The first comment seems like a standard Spam Robo-Comment, but the second seems like someone was alerted that their first robo-comment would be dumping into a blog that uses the “nofollow” on comment links (this is specifically to reduce this sort of search engine spam) and decided to up the pressure and throw a bit of passive-aggressive on top for kicks.
Of course, the request for me to stop using nofollow is a dead giveaway. The sop to my ego about a successful blog would fit the formula “tell them something good, then bad, then good” except that they started off by threatening to never come back to my blog. To top off the fun part, their comments are on a post from November, 2005 and one from January, 2008. These posts do have Astrophotography in common, but the first comment, the one that said “A fantastic read….very literate and informative.” was on a post that was really just me linking to Badastronomy.
So, we’ve got a big thumbs down all around. However, I will say that they responded to my email about whether these were Spam comments. They gave me permission (thanks!) to edit the comments in any way I chose. They’ve obviously not read my comments policy.
I approved their comments this time, just to give me something to talk about, but if they come through again in a similar fashion, I think we’ll be spamming them with prejudice.
Yesterday I attended the Roswell Criterium bicycle race. “Crit” Races are short-lap races done under a time limit. The field goes out and circles the course for a set time—30, 40, 50, 80 minutes—depending on the category of the race. They are technical races due to the the number of turns and accelerations that occur.
I was a volunteer for the first half of the races then a wandering spectator. During the Category 3/4 race I was moving toward the finish line to catch the final sprint when the officials stood out in front of the racers and waved everyone to a stop at the line.
During a criterium, the way that the racers know how many laps are left is by a board at the finish line with a number on it. When it is time for the last lap, the officials at the finish will also ring a bell to let the riders know that this one is for all the potatoes.
Apparently, at the end of this race, there was some confusion amongst the officials and what was announced as the last lap (through the bell or whatever, I wasn’t present) was actually the second to last lap. The riders came to the finish, going hell-for-leather, only to discover that they still had one more lap to go. They continued to sprint the race one more lap and then were pulled up in the pile seen above so that the officials could tell them what was going on.
What happened was that the officials on motorcycles who were pacing the pack had tried to alert the racers that they still had two laps to go, rather than one. They succeeded at this, but only for the rear of the pack. The rear half sat up and didn’t push the pace unlike the front half who gave it their all.
There were some upset bikers in the field. I was standing on a ledge right next to the finish and they were lambasting the officials left and right. The officials announced the three-lap finish and a few of the bikers tried to organize a mass sit-in (i.e. when they blow the whistle, don’t go). That didn’t work out but it illustrates how strongly they felt.
Eventually they did their remaining three laps and a winner was declared (not necessarily the pictured rider). It was fun to watch, despite the whoopsie!
More images at my Flickr set on the 2009 Historic Roswell Criterium
Today (being T minus 2 days until I go back to work) I took my brand new aerobars out for a spin on the Silver Comet trail. I’d used them before, here and there, but I hadn’t gotten on them and cruised for a couple hours. I figured that this would be their shakedown ride, and I was right. This included a saddle move.
For those of you who don’t know what these contraptions are, aerobars are a device designed to get you more bent over, more narrow and more aerodynamic for triathlon racing or time-trialing. In triathlon you are not allowed1 to draft and in time trialing there is no one to draft off of. Therefore, the more skinny and smooth an aerodynamic cross section you can present to the wind of your passage, the better. An excellent illustration of this is by Olmi, here on Flickr.
Two hour ride, 35 miles. Some lessons I learned:
It was a good ride today. I’m looking forward to the next one.
1: Some triathlons allow drafting but the majority do not.
Last night was an interesting storm night around her. For whatever reason, I entirely missed all warnings of severe thunderstorms until I was kicked out of the YMCA pool due to lightning. Then the “tornado” sirens went off. Then all hell broke loose and I was confined to the coffee shop I was in because of the hail.
Later on, after leaving the coffee shop (because they closed) I had the privilege of observing our local emergency services pull a woman out of a car using a backboard. The EMS personnel were working in a pounding rain—slanting in at approximately 60 degrees due to wind—with hail. I was impressed. Couldn’t get any images because all I had with me was the crappy canon kit lens for the Digital Rebel, but I did get a nice shot of the lights.
I stopped to get some gas when the “tornado” sirens went off again! The storm was exhibiting some righteous fury at this point and I ran inside to find out if there was actually a tornado coming. Nobody knew. I hid inside until the majority had passed, then went home.
The county will sound these sirens for three to five minutes when:
* The National Weather Service issues a severe thunderstorm warning with a tornado watch.
* The National Weather Service issues a tornado warning.
* A tornado has been spotted or reported by public safety officials.
* Additional weather warnings are issued.
* National Security events.
* Hazardous material incidents where evacuation or other action may be warranted.
Ignoring the last two bullet points, I will apparently hear the sirens whenever a severe weather warning is in effect. I’m not sure I approve. A severe thunderstorm is dangerous, yes, but you’d be relatively safe just sitting in your car listening to the radio for while. A tornado is deadly, and requires shelter. Last night’s sirens taught me that I don’t necessarily need to set up the Emergency Cat Transfer Device™ if I hear the sirens; I may just be listening for our brand new roof to be stripped off and pounded by hail. The one requires us to go to the basement, the other just requires us to fill out insurance forms.
Click through the image for a ton of notes on the picture
I do a lot of really good thinking on long runs. Today I went out for a run of approximately 10 miles. During that time I had a lot of good ideas (that I now need to write down).
It’s more difficult for me to have this sort of internal conversation while swimming because I have an interruption at each end of the pool. It’s even more difficult on the bike because I’m concentrating on the road, etc. The only other place where I can really zen my way into the recesses of my head is on a long distance drive. That’s something I don’t do as much of anymore and I miss it.
But there’s always the long runs.
Does this sign not seem to say, “No Bicycle Riding Dogs”?
I hope that this article I just clicked to was a translation error.
An article from philanthropist shows that a manipulate after vigorous upbringing crapper support turn hooligan soreness. Several another studies exhibit that unfathomable manipulate helps to attain hooligan injuries ameliorate faster, improves upbringing in athletes and relieves agonized push points in muscles and tendons.
It goes on in that vein ’til the end. Fascinating, as Spock would say.