Anyone who runs a blog knows how much of a pain it is to combat comment spam. I get a good chunk here as well if I leave it for any longer than a week (which I suppose in comparison to the more popular blogs is nothing but a pain none the less).

At the same time, anyone who uses WordPress will know how much less spam they get with Akismet on their side.

I had only just come across Akismet not long ago while I was on the search for a solution to fight spam on a forum that I help run. There just happened to be a plugin made for vBulletin which has worked like a charm ever since I installed it.

So, digging around some more, I came across this! A plugin for Movable Type! Sounds like there are a few kinks that still need to be worked out in the “official” version, along with ports for a bunch of other applications like Expression Engine, and Coppermine to name a few.

Ones not named on the dev page that I know of are PixelPost and vBulletin.

We’ll see how the new plugin works here and I’ll let you all know in about a week when it’s had a good chance to do it’s thing. If it’s anything like the vBulletin one, I shouldn’t have to worry about comment spam anymore

A while back.. Actually, almost a year ago now, I mentioned a great program called DenyHosts. Well, I’ve been a little behind the times and have totally missed out on the latest and greatest which came out in June. I’ve been using v1.1.2 ever since it came out! Guys, if you’re reading this, I think you need a mailing list to notify everyone (read, ME) that a new version’s out

Ever since v2.0 which came out in February, they have added a feature that I had always wanted, synchronization! DenyHosts now has the ability to synchronize your denied hosts information with all other users which increases it’s ability to keep the bad guys out even MORE effectively than it has already been.

The current version is v2.5 with v2.6 currently in the works. If you haven’t already, go check them out now and get it installed on all your *nix servers! This includes all you Apple users too since Mac OS X *is* essentially Linux!

Time for me to upgrade DenyHosts on my servers now!

In some ways, this was expected. YouTube has always been a leader when it came to streaming video and even though Google’s offering wasn’t bad either, it was far from what YouTube had going in terms of users and visitors.

So, getting to the point, after a week of negotiations, Google and YouTube came to an agreement today with an all-stock deal of US$1.65 billion (if you can call that a deal), shooting up Google’s stock prices by just over 2% when word leaked out about the pending buy-out. (Oddly enough, Google’s stock prices (GOOG) have been falling all day today). This latest purchase by Google will make it the most expensive purchase made by Google during its eight-year history.

The feeling all over the Internet is that this latest purchase will be one to help Google move forward in its video advertising campaign and puts it another step up and away from competitors such as Yahoo.

While YouTube and Google will continue to work under their own names and no jobs will be lost from the acquisition, one of the main things that YouTube gets out of the deal is access to Google’s advertiser base which makes both sides very happy.

Google’s got a new toy up for us to play with… A source code search engine. By providing a regex (or search string) and specifying the language of choice, Google’s Code Search will go forth and bring back any source code it can find. It’s still early in it’s development so hopefully more supported languages will be added (like COLDFUSION!! geeeez!) in the near future.

Now on the other hand, we have a search engine called Krugle which DOES support searching for ColdFusion Krugle too is pretty new and looks like they only got started in February this year so the race is on. Who do you like?

UPDATE: ooh, one more. koder.com also has a source code search engine.

Here is a great post by Guy Kawasaki, Apple evangelist and current managing director at Garage Technology Ventures, about what we learn at school vs what we should actually know and do in the “real world” at work. As Guy puts it, the Ten Things to Learn This School Year.

1. How to talk to your boss
2. How to survive a meeting that’s poorly run
3. How to run a meeting
4. How to figure out anything on your own
5. How to negotiate
6. How to have a conversation
7. How to explain something in thirty seconds
8. How to write a one-page report
9. How to write a five-sentence email
10. How to get along with co-workers
11. How to use PowerPoint
12. How to leave a voicemail

Okay, so there are actually 12. But all are very good points. Obviously these rules don’t fit at all workplaces, so your mileage may vary, but if you get a job at a large company, then these are things to take note.