Posts Tagged ‘internet’

• I love random videos

  Date: 2009.06.04 | Category: videos | Response: 0

• 40 days

  Date: 2009.01.10 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 2

  I’ve got 40 days to become the ultimate know it all. The test has been looming over my head for a year and I’ve got to buckle down, stop goofing around on the internet, stop goofing around watching TV, and stop goofing around writing useless blog posts (for the most part) so I can dedicate all of my time and energy to studying for that next rank. The test is hard – extremely hard – but the good news is that I can get a lower score this year and still get the rank. The bad news is that I need to score 68% on each test. Yes, 68% in most cases is failing but on our promotion tests that pretty damn good.

  Think of it this way – could you answer 70% of the technical questions about your career field (that happens to be spread across nine functional areas) off the top of your head? If you could – you’ve probably already been promoted.

  The bad news is that even though I test in 40 days I won’t find out the results until July. I’m sure that if I did make it this year I wouldn’t even get to wear the rank until the following May or June because of my short time in service. Last time I made rank I earned the stripe in August and was allowed to sew it on the following August (the maximum wait time).

  Well – see you in 40 days – hopefully – I’ve got to stay on task.

• Bluecoat – the harlotrous jezebel of pain

  Date: 2008.08.22 | Category: Series of tubes, ahh the news, rants | Response: 1

  My opinion hasn’t changed in the past few months. I think Bluecoat is a horribly coded web filter that does a poor job of characterizing content. Much to my surprise, they have tweaked the algorithm and I’ve seen some noticable changes. First off, they no longer categorically block websites that have the word blog in the URL. Yes, somebody out there heard the clamouring from the masses (or the screaming minorities as it may be in this case) and made some changes to the what they define as a personal page. Surprisingly, my website is no longer considered a personal page. To think about it, I think they might be right. If I write about something thats going on with me its often centered around something else going on in the world. I rarely write directly about me aside from whatever asprirations I may have in life. My website is chock full of right off the top of my head uncensored goodness – if you’re in to that kind of stuff. If you’re not, why the heck haven’t you navigated away…. at this moment 9/10 readers will have left this page to find something else. Good for them – thats the joy of the internet.

  I still loathe bluecoat – and I may never stop. I’m just glad they decided to tweak the code.

• More goofy crap

  Date: 2008.05.06 | Category: Life as we know it, Series of tubes | Response: 0

  Due to my ever present boredom and need to share anything I find interesting to anyone who will listen I added my Google Reader RSS feed to my page. Check it out on the bottom right – you’ll find a listing of the latest and greatest stories that I felt were worth sharing but didn’t feel were worth blogging about. I have no idea why someone would come to me for information but if you’re here you might as well see what I’ve found interesting the past day or two.

• YAWASP is amazing

  Date: 2008.05.01 | Category: Series of tubes | Response: 0

  One little plug-in was all that it took – one plug-in to rule them all, one plug-in to find them, one plug-in to bring them all and in the darkness bind them!

  YAWASP, a plug-in for fully hosted versions of WordPress like mine has effectively stopped the torrents of comment spam that I was receiving daily. Now, instead of removing 50-100 bogus comments a day I find myself removing as little as one bogus comment a week. If you have your own blog I STRONGLY recommend you grab this little beast. Its going to save you tons of time.

• Fighting the spam

  Date: 2008.04.20 | Category: Series of tubes | Response: 1

  We all fight spam in one form or another be it snail mail, email, or comment spam. I’ve done a fairly good job at blocking out the email spam but and I can readily ignore the snail mail by throwing it in the trash. I haven’t had good luck blocking out the comment spam.

  Spammers will leave me random comments full of links to websites full of porn and prescription medication advertisements in an effort to increase their Google page rank. The spam filter catches 99% of them and leaves them for me to moderate. I have to dig through the comments in hope that there is something that isn’t spam – there seldom is.

  I noticed a new plug-in for my blog YAWASP (Yet Another WordPress Anti Spam Plug-in) that alters the comment field so that bots cannot easily access it and leave comments. Hopefully it works – only time will tell. It should be absolutely invisible to you but its going to help me out immensely. I’ll be able to see that I have no new comments from one day to the next. Oh well

• XKCD

  Date: 2008.04.07 | Category: links! | Response: 1

  

  XKCD started as random scribbles by the author that were scanned and saved for posterity. Somebody found them and they became a phenom. This comic, in particular, should serve as a guide on how to comment on the schlock that you will find posted on this website. Click the image for a link to the site and hours worth of comedy. Enjoy!

• Death to Bluecoat pt 2

  Date: 2008.04.06 | Category: Series of tubes, desert | Response: 0

  BlueCoat, the web filter ran by the USAF, has caused me much aggravation since my arrival at Balad. I am not the only one that is feeling pain – everyone else is affected by this poorly written web filter. Recently, I discovered a way to circumvent the filter – RSS feeds. Techically, I’m accessing the site information without breaking the terms of service because I am not accessing the site or any restricted content – including all images hosted on that server that could potentially corrupt me (I think the only reason the filter exists is to 1. save bandwidth, 2. block porn, 3. prevent idiots from downloading viruses). RSS stands for really simple syndication – really, I’m not kidding at all. Its the summarized content of a website that is delivered without all of the extra advertising, images, and themes of the full website. You get the good part of the website without all of the crap that slows down your browsing experience. RSS feeds are read and displayed by readers that can be web or desktop based.

  Google – the company that does almost everything – well, they haven’t figured out how to build an electric car that runs for a 1000 miles on a single charge… yet – has a free reader that is quite simple to use. Simply register, subscribe to the websites of your choosing, and read away. The reader allows you to view all feeds or just those that have been recently updated. I’ve added a RSS link that you can see to your right – right below the Askimet spam count. Click on the link and you can easily add my feed to the reader of your choice. You’ll never miss another gripping update – ever – you can rest easily now.

  So – Screw you BlueCoat – I’m going to get my news one way or another.