Site Updates

New features or changes on Michael’s Piece of the Web

10
Oct
2007

100,000 Spammers

My little website reached another milestone today. I received my one-hundred thousandth piece of comment spam.

Spam is a problem on the Internet. I’ll give you a minute while you recover from that shocking revelation. If you think spam in your inbox is annoying, you should try dealing with comment spam on a blog. I get thousands of them per day. It is debilitating because you can’t possibly find any real message in the pile of crap. Thanks to Akismet spam filtering software, it’s more of an amusement than an annoyance.

What I wonder is why they bother. This blog isn’t exactly the most popular on the web and no comments get posted without moderation. So of the 100,256 comments that have been caught so far, ZERO have been seen by any human being. Oh well, if it gives them something to do instead of e-mailing me viagra ads and bank scams, then maybe it’s a good thing.

And in case you’re wondering, 44 more pieces of spam were caught in the time it took me to write this. 🙂

Posted by Michael in Randomness, Site Updates, Technology
18
Sep
2007

Batsto Photos

Batsto Grist MillIf you’ve never heard of Batsto, it’s an historic village in New Jersey. It’s an old 18th/19th century bog iron and glass industrial center. I’ve been there many times through the years and took some photos on a recent trip.

Check them out here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
17
Sep
2007

Lots of Fluffy photos

FluffyI’ve updated the album featuring our cat Fluffy. It includes photos from his entire life including photos that were taken before digital cameras were around. We lost him recently and I figured this was a fitting tribute to his memory.

View them here.

Posted by Michael in Life, Photography, Site Updates
27
Aug
2007

and then there were 6

Just when I thought the Gatti family tree was up to date Debbie’s branch of the tree has sprouted yet another new leaf. OK, maybe I’m taking the tree metaphor a bit far! Please welcome Micah John Bowling to the family. He was born August 24th to Wendy and Michael Bowling.For those keeping score, that makes 6 members of Generation H of the Gatti tree, all of whom are grandchildren of Debbie and great-grandchildren of Sonny and Dot.

Posted by Michael in Genealogy, Site Updates
08
May
2007

Mystic Seaport and Spring Flower Photos

Mystic SeaportI added several new albums to the photos section of the site. Some of the highlights include the photos from my trip to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, spring flowers from our yard and a few animals that were spotted in and over our yard. I also threw in a set of fireplace photos that I took during the winter but never got a chance to post until now.

You may also notice that the total number of albums has increased by a few. There’s nothing else new, but decomissioned the Flora and Fauna album and distributed its photos into various albums since it was becoming a dumping ground.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
25
Mar
2007

A decade already?

10 Years on the WebIt’s hard to believe, but I’ve been maintaining this website for 10 years! It started as one simple web page and has slowly morphed into a site with over 1,000 pages. Sometimes it involves a lot of work, but it’s fun work. Whether anyone reads the site or not, it keeps my free time occupied!

So, in celebration of 10 years of Michael’s Piece of the Web, I’ve created a special section looking back at how the site that you see today came to be. Check it out right here.

Posted by Michael in Life, Site Updates
17
Mar
2007

Triple wedding page added

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and I updated the Italian part of my family tree. Maybe not logical, but it’s an overdue update. I just added a new section to the Gatti portion of the tree. It’s an article about the Gatti-Panazzolo triple wedding. Check it out here.

Posted by Michael in Site Updates
15
Feb
2007

Slowing the flow

Spam is a never-ending blight on the internet. I understand what motivates spammers to plant spam in blog comments and guestbooks. It’s simple, they want to earn some Google-juice for their site.  (Of course, they go about this in the most unethical and slimy way possible instead of just creating sites that someone might actually want to read, but I digress…)

What truly baffles me is that they waste a lot of time posting spam comments and guestbook entries on a site like mine. NOTHING that anyone adds to my site in any way goes directly to the site. It all comes to me for moderation first. This means that they are simply wasting their time. This doesn’t stop them however, so I’ve been working on ways to slow the flow of crap. Some of the changes are behind the scenes, but you’ll be seeing CAPTCHA syle verification fields appearing on my forms and an AKISMET counter on my blog showng how many comments the software has caught.

Any all all suggestions are welcome. Before you say it, I’ve already thought of rounding up these weasels and setting them on fire, but apparently that’s not legal. Go figure. Maybe someday our politicians will help out out with this problem. I’m not holding ym breath, though.

Posted by Michael in Site Updates
15
Feb
2007

Slowing the flow

Spam is a never-ending blight on the internet. I understand what motivates spammers to plant spam in blog comments and guestbooks. It’s simple, they want to earn some Google-juice for their site.  (Of course, they go about this in the most unethical and slimy way possible instead of just creating sites that someone might actually want to read, but I digress…)

What truly baffles me is that they waste a lot of time posting spam comments and guestbook entries on a site like mine. NOTHING that anyone adds to my site in any way goes directly to the site. It all comes to me for moderation first. This means that they are simply wasting their time. This doesn’t stop them however, so I’ve been working on ways to slow the flow of crap. Some of the changes are behind the scenes, but you’ll be seeing CAPTCHA syle verification fields appearing on my forms and an AKISMET counter on my blog showng how many comments the software has caught.

Any all all suggestions are welcome. Before you say it, I’ve already thought of rounding up these weasels and setting them on fire, but apparently that’s not legal. Go figure. Maybe someday our politicians will help out out with this problem. I’m not holding ym breath, though.

Posted by Michael in Site Updates