Ubuntucat

Most comment spam is pretty easy to identify and avoid. I almost got tricked by a recent one, though.

Just a tip for y’all. If you want your comment to stay and be taken seriously, it’s generally a good idea not to have your comment’s website be a porn website, even if you write a legitimate Ubuntu-related question in your comment’s body.

Thanks!

I’m always appreciative of comments on my blog, even from those who disagree with me (as long as people can be civil about it). It’s one thing to know “X visits have been made to your blog,” but it’s another to know what people actually think (I agree / I disagree / I sort of agree-disagree). At least those are real people and not spambots.

Fortunately, for me and a lot of other bloggers, the Akismet plugin WordPress is pretty good filters out the comment spam. Nevertheless, I’m confused by these spammers who say things like “I’ve enjoyed reading your post [proceeds to quote the entire title of the post]. I’ll be adding you to my blogroll. Thanks!” and the website of the commenter has the word viagra in it. I mean, come on! Does anyone fall for this?

Don’t answer. I know someone must. I know there must be some people who approve the spam, just as there are some people who click on phishing links or fall for the I’ll-wire-you-money-from-Nigeria scams. If people didn’t fall for this stuff, the spammers wouldn’t continue with this stuff.

I guess this just makes me sad about humanity—both that some people lack a conscience and that others are gullible or ignorant enough to be taken advantage of by the non-consciencers.

You may enjoy “reading” my blog, but I’m not going to post a link to your viagra, pills, meds, child porn, or real estate website. Sorry!

My wife saw my new WordPress theme (the one I tweaked to be more consistent with my Ubuntu tutorials) and had a fit (she’s a graphic designer and can’t stand anything ugly). So, at her request, I’ve switched back to my old theme (Simpla).

Of course, I think it’d be great if she could design me a custom WordPress theme that is both Ubuntu- and cat-friendly…

I’ve migrated over my old essays from the Psychocats website to this blog. I’ve put the correct date on the entry when possible. For a bunch of essays (the ones I didn’t have dates for), I put the date as 15 August, 2002—which is my closest guess as to when they were written. I got a kick out of re-reading some of them. I hope you do, too. And if you notice any dead links, please post a comment in the appropriate entry. Thanks for reading!

I’ll write something of substance soon.

I’m starting up a Ubuntu blog just as an experiment. Maybe it’ll continue. Maybe it’ll die. I don’t have a schedule for when I write. Call me irresponsible. Call me unreliable. Throw in undependable, too.

If you’re reading this, I’m glad you’re here. Welcome! At the same time, this is my blog, and if you start posting crap comments, I’ll delete them. Crap comments does not mean comments I disagree with (though I won’t rule those out either). There are no definite rules, but try to be polite to other people commenting, and if you must argue, do so civilly.

Last big disclaimer: I am currently (as of this writing at least) a volunteer staff member (moderator) at the Ubuntu Forums. As such, I’m going to try my best to not write anything that will make the Forum Council ashamed of having me on staff. At the same time, anything I write will be my own thoughts and opinions. My thoughts and opinions are completely separate from the official stances of the Ubuntu Forums, Canonical, and Ubuntu at large. I do not regularly converse with Mark Shuttleworth. Even though I admire the man, I am not a spokesperson for him or for Ubuntu.

If you can accept all that, read on…