Hello 
I'm Siobhan Curran/Kisa Naumova, and this is my weblog. I tend to write about stuff like crossdressing, Macs, code, cats, wine and Second Life, but in general it's just an ongoing conversation about all sorts of stuff. If you'd like to know a little bit more about what this all is, I recommend starting on this page which has a little bit of info on who I am, and what I'm trying to do — or you could dive into my five years worth of archives if you like.
Otherwise, feel free to close this box and explore...
Spam
Arse. This weblog is nearly four years old, and in all that time (well, in recent times at least) I've been watching other people talking about spam with a sort of bewildered curiosity. Talk of (to quote Kris this morning) "I find that I'm cleaning up porn & pharmacy ads every day just to stay on top of it" and things like that.
I've not been completely immune — I've had the odd "come check out some shemale cock!" comments left, but they've been very few and far between. Maybe three over the last three years.
Ack, but I came back from Scotland to find one page littered with links to poker and pills and pr0n. And then this morning, there were two more batches of crud from two different hosts.
Naturally, I've banned them, but I'm going to have to think of something to try and nip this in the bud I think...
The reason I've stayed spam-free for so long, I think, is just because of that well-known false-sense-of-security: obscurity. I'm not (as my constant journeys into geek-world might suggest) running any kind of mass-market blogging software, and so I'm not at risk from the millions of zombie-machines that are out there targeting standard comment-scripts. Nor am I hugely linked-to, so it's not like I'm a massive target or anything.
But I think that my completely-lax-about-security attitude is going to get the better of me at some point, and if I don't do something pretty soon, I'm going to get a lot more of these 
Two ideas are currently feeling like potential Things To Do™ right now:
I've been looking through the logs to see just what was going on when the spam got left, and a couple of things strike me as odd.
- The User Agent of the spammers is sometimes obviously a script, rather than a browser. So I can easily cull those out.
- The behaviour doesn't match the normal behaviour of people who read this — none of the pictures get looked at for a start.
I missed a bunch of spam because the emails that Erin sends me when someone leaves a comment got caught by Mail.app and wound up in my spam folder.
So I'm thinking that maybe I can do something cunning like hiding some code in a picture that will only allow a comment if the page has been viewed normally*
And I'm also thinking that rather than just let the main script handle the comments, I can pipe then through my existing email-spam-filters and let them take the brunt of it.
(*she says, realising that that will completely screw things up for text-only browsers and screen-readers and the like )
Anyway, I'll come back to this sometime soon. Lots to do this morning. For a start, apparently I need to update my details for my bank, Ebay and PayPal accounts, and I need to talk to a rather nice man called Mr. Duola Keita from the Bank of Africa who wants to transfer a lot of money to me.
adding a little spoof PIN thing blocked 99% of them
I always had a suspicion that that wasn't an automagically created-on-the-fly thing 
I must dig out a hilarious email conversation that a friend had with one of those African money laundering conners. You'll weep with amusement.
Something like this?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3887493.stm
Love it 
Especially Prince Joe's red tit 
Holy Crap!
Mmm... that is a cool looking mouse!
I like Apple's thinking: We can't be seen to be admitting that more than one mouse button is a good idea... so we'll make a mouse that has two buttons but looks like it only has one!
What next, Macs running on Intel chips?
I tell you, the world's gone mad. Mad I say...
I remember the first time (and actually one of the only times) I used a Mac. I'd been using it for an hour or so convinced that right clicking and left clicking did different things. Until someone pointed out that what I thought was a fused rocker button was actually just a single button...
harumph.
Cute looking mouse that though!
I first used an iMac a few years ago...I spent over 20 minutes trying to work out how to open the CD draw!!! I was too embarrassed to ask, so went back the next day and wasted another 15 minutes...Still no joy.
A week later...
"Hey how're you getting on with the iMac?"
"Erm....Yeah just fine (I wasn't...Still no joy with the CD)"
"They're a bit different aren't they"
"Erm....Yeah they are"
"The amount of people who come and ask me where the CD button is"
"Ha ha...Some people ay?" (Please tell me where it is before I cry)
"Yeah they never think it's round the back here"
"Really...Seemed pretty obvious to me" 
Um, Steph? Round the back? As opposed to the key on the keyboard marked "Eject"?
Eeeek...Steph's lack of computer know-how is now becoming glaringly obvious!!!
It was an iMac thingy...A sort of half rugby ball shape with a screen stuck on it (I'm sure Apple could've marketed it better with those words???)...And it did have a button round the back...Apart from that my knowledge is a little hazy.
Steph now clings to her float and paddles back to the shallow end, after going hopelessly out of her depth
I have NetNewsWire chock full of dedicated Mac feeds but no... It's not there that I first hear of one of the most shocking developments in the Mac world in recent years... It's Tranniefesto!
Now I know it is time to worry! Definitely shows my priorities!
(Though it's probably more worrying that I think the addition of a second mouse button to an Apple mouse is that amazing...)
Emily Söderberg
Ah I should have credited The Lovely Ian Betteridge for that link. You just need the right Mac Feeds Emily
I think the addition of a second mouse button to an Apple mouse is that amazing
Actually, I think it's hugely amazing. And a lot more significant than the decision to switch to Intel.
One-button mouses (?!) have always been at the heart of Apple's simplicity mantra. I just hope that this 2-button affair doesn't become the standard.
being a life long PC user I can't really see what all the fuss is about
...(I hide now)
It looks like a recipe for RSI to me. Nice looking though. I'll stick to my Wacom Cintiq and (gasp) Microsoft Optical Trackball
They've got that mouse in the Apple shop in Bluewater. Went in there today to look for stuff for my iPod and saw it in their. Not for sale yet, they just had it attached to a few of the iMacs.
I'm amazed you haven't been spammed before! Welcome to the ranks of the spammed!
I find blocking referrer IPs using the .htaccess and adding a little spoof PIN thing blocked 99% of them.
But I know you'll do something far cleverer.
I must dig out a hilarious email conversation that a friend had with one of those African money laundering conners. You'll weep with amusement.