taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Those of you who visit Planet Antispam may have noticed that it hadn’t been updating in a few days. Somehow or other, the Planet software had corrupted its cache, and was dying with this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "planet.py", line 167, in ?
    main()
  File "planet.py", line 160, in main
    my_planet.run(planet_name, planet_link, template_files, offline)
  File "/home/planet/antispam/planet-2.0/planet/init.py", line 240, in run
    channel = Channel(self, feed_url)
  File "/home/planet/antispam/planet-2.0/planet/init.py", line 527, in init
    self.cache_read_entries()
  File "/home/planet/antispam/planet-2.0/planet/init.py", line 569, in cache_read_entries
    item = NewsItem(self, key)
  File "/home/planet/antispam/planet-2.0/planet/init.py", line 845, in init
    self.cache_read()
  File "/home/planet/antispam/planet-2.0/planet/cache.py", line 74, in cache_read
    self._type[key] = self._cache[cache_key + " type"]
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/bsddb/init.py", line 116, in getitem
    return self.db[key]
KeyError: 'tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9336495.post-117499582419244211 feedburner_origlink type'

Ah, Berkeley DB, always good for the infrequent inscrutable, yet fatal, error. A wipe of the contents of the cache directory, and it seems to be working again.

Unfortunately, I had to drop the RSS feed for Aunty Spam; it seems the domain has lapsed, and I can’t seem to find an RSS feed that contains just the spam-related Aunty Spam posts any more.

Tags: antispam, berkeley-db, planet, planet-antispam, python

Hey, some Planet Antispam updates. I’ve upgraded to Planet 2.0, and that seems to have solved some of the wierdness with consuming Atom feeds.

Also, there are two new antispam weblogs added to the subscription list:

• Terry Zink from Microsoft

• Nik Clayton, who blogs about mail and, occasionally, spam

Welcome guys!

(btw, if you’re wondering what happened to the music post — I moved it over here, to the mp3 blog where it was supposed to be posted in the first place, duh ;)

Tags: aggregation, antispam, planet, planet-antispam, weblogs

I added the Fixing Email weblog to Planet Antispam a while back — however, I’m not entirely sure at this stage that its content (which is seems to be primarily news syndication) fits with the “planet” concept (which is primarily intended for first-person posts).

So — quick poll. Let me know what you think, pro or con, Planet readers: should I remove the Fixing Email feed from that site?

Update: that was a pretty resounding ‘yes’. Done!

Tags: antispam, planet, planet-antispam, weblogs

Quick update — I’ve added Ed Falk’s “Spam Diaries” to http://planet.spam.abuse.net/ .

Tags: anti-spam, planet, planet-antispam, weblogs

Planet Antispam has been working pretty nicely for the last couple of weeks — can’t say I’ve noticed any trouble, and its RSS feed is turning out to be a nice aggregation of anti-spam news. On top of that, John Levine was kind enough to set up a CNAME for it at a more appropriate URL — http://planet.spam.abuse.net/.

As a result, it’s now fully-fledged, and fit to lose the ‘beta’ qualifier. Please bookmark, subscribe to the feeds, and pass on the URL to others you think may be interested!

Tags: anti-spam, blogging, community, planet, planet-antispam, weblogs

Planet Antispam now has a better URL — http://planet.spam.abuse.net/ . Much better!

Tags: aggregation, antispam, community, planet, planet-antispam, rss, web

So a few weeks back, I mooted the idea of an anti-spam Planet site, similar to Planet GNOME, Planet Java, Planet Perl et al.

Here’s the results: Planet Antispam.

It’s still got a few rough edges; notably, the URL is not permanent — I’d prefer something at a more spam-themed domain — and the logo is the generic “PlanetPlanet” one. But it’s up and running in a beta-ish fashion.

Feel free to bookmark, subscribe, post the URL on, etc.; and if you’d like to give it a better home with an A record at a spam-themed domain, drop me a line.

Update, Jan 17: Thanks to John Levine, it now has a permanent home at http://planet.spam.abuse.net/ . After several weeks of operation, I think it’s turning out to be pretty solid, too!

By the way, it also needs more source feeds. If you know of people with blogs, working on/writing about anti-spam (of the email variety), with RSS feeds that work, include the post text, and permit further redistribution of that text, drop us a line and I’ll add them.

Finally, here’s a picture of a Starbucks SPAM(r) Sandwich. (shudder)

Tags: anti-spam, blogging, community, planet, planet-antispam, weblogs