As most bloggers know, there are dedicated groups of spammers that go around and put spam into your comments. They pick random older messages, leave comments for them, with lots of links. I figure its two things: one, to get people to click, and two, to boost their own google rankings with many more links.
A disgusting practice, as is all spam, and, for that matter, 99% of marketing in general. It amazes me that they had Darren from Bewitched be a marketing guy. And they made it look like a respectable position to have. Well, it was a fantasy, but I guess the witchcraft was supposed to be the more believable part of the show.
So, I just cleaned up a couple spam comments. They were written in German, but were about an Indian tech outsourcing company. Weird thing was they didn’t use disguised URL’s, they just blatantly linked to the main page. It was a pretty page, full of pictures of nice white American workers doing their thing. But a few grammar mistakes, and an address from India gave it away. I wonder what Scott will have to say about this one!

Michele asks, are you a Homer or a Hank?
Of course, this is about charcoal vs. gas grills. Homer means you get charcoal, while a Hank is a propane guy.
I’ve done both over the years, and while I prefer charcoal, right now I have a propane. Pretty big one, with cast iron grates. The apartment I lived in before the house only allowed propane on the decks, so I had one then. Its damn convenient, especially when you figure that we cook out on the grill 4-5 days a week. Get home from work, start the grill, 10 minutes later throw burgers, chicken, or dogs on, and 10 minutes later we’re eating. Quick, easy, no mess. Can’t do that with charcoal.
But charcoal is better. On weekends I’d love to take the extra time and fire up a chimney starter, and do it *right*. The taste rules. The ceremony of the whole thing is so much better. When you’ve got the time it is so worth it. You can’t smoke food on a gas grill.
So whats the answer? They have dual fuel grills that have both, but that seems like a bad compromise. I figure when this grill goes, I’ll get a nice charcoal grill like the big green egg, and a very small gas grill for just whipping out something to eat. Overkill? Maybe, but worth it I think.

If you are reading this page, then you have a web browser. If you’re on Linux or Mac, skip to the next post.
If you are running Windows, then you are 99% likely to be running Internet Explorer.
If you are running Internet Exploder Explorer, then you are probably either already infected or are going to be infected with spyware, popups, dialers, etc.
Go to this website and download Spyware Blaster. It will help protect you from all the little nasties out there. Make sure to get the $9.99 auto-update service and don’t worry about ‘em at all.
I saw a very horribly infected system yesterday at work. There were about 20 open IE windows at all times, all the favorites links were filled with porn sites, the box was completely unusable. It had taken me 6 hours to disinfect the box completely a few months ago, and it wasn’t nearly this bad. This time we just reimaged the system. It took 15 minutes. Thus comes the second rule of spyware. The first being writing or distributing it is a drawing and quartering offence. The second is if you get infected, back up your data and reinstall your system. It will take much less time because you’ll probably never get it all off any other way.

Ok along with the folk who are just plainly ignorant, perhaps due to no choice of their own.. but there are those who actually choose ignorance.. Can you imagine CHOOSING to be IGNORANT? (more…)