taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Weblogs: there’s been a few attempts to mine ‘trend’ data from del.icio.us:

• trendalicious, a ‘near real-time view of website popularity trends as reflected by the del.icio.us social bookmarking service’
• grafolicious, which is similar
• hublog: gatherers of the month lists the ‘trendsetters’ who link to popular sites first

However, none consider how many links a user generates. A user who links to every single page on the web would quickly gain a good ‘trendsetting’ rating, and would also skew the website trends upwards, without actually providing useful data to others.

A look at the hublog top posters does seem to indicate they’re linking prolifically to any old crap that looks likely to be popular, which is a more humanly-possible way to do that. ;)

However, populicious new links is quite cool — popular sites that are new in the last 24 hours. Especially handy to find out where one could download Daily Show torrents these days. ;)

There’s also the venerable Hot Links, which unfortunately tracks a very small population, but still gets interesting stuff.

Tags: hublog, icio, mine, month, popularity, service, trend, user, view, weblogs, website

Web: Almost every project and organisation has, at some stage, bemoaned having stale data on their website, and wished there was a better way to keep it up to date; or wished their FAQ was more complete; or wished they had the time to HTML-ize all their know-how and get it up there.

Well, here’s what we did in SpamAssassin to deal with this problem. (Seeing as I’ve talked about this three times in the past month, I’ll write it up here so I can just point at the URL next time!)

First off, we experimented with having the site checked into CVS, FAQ-o-matic, and the Python FAQ software (which was pretty good). All were OK, but very specific in format, using the traditional question-answer FAQ layout — that’s good for FAQs, but not so good for a lot of other stuff — and keeping it updated was still limited to a small group, therefore the info got stale again.

So we moved to a Wiki. Here’s my tips for Wiki-izing your website so that the end results are better than what went in.

Use good wiki software: unusable software will be a pain to use, and the info will still go stale. We used Moin Moin - http://moin.sourceforge.net/ - partly because I like Python (it’s nearly perl! ;), it can produce RSS, and it was pretty easy to install.

Don’t worry: people won’t vandalise it (much). It turns out that vandalism and people throwing up crappy info isn’t a serious problem at all. You should increase the barrier, in the following ways:

Require user accounts: set the security policy so that a user account must be set up before editing is possible. This means you won’t get wiki-spammed, and also has the side effect of imposing a pretty big barrier to casual vandals.

Send changes to a list: set all changes to be mailed to a mailing list as diffs. This is the most important tip. If you already have a mailing list with the knowledgeable part of the community on it, use that list — because they’re the ones who’ll be able to recognise if erroneous info is put up, and will be annoyed about this enough to bother fixing it. There’s a bonus side-effect of this; even if some people didn’t like the wiki to start with, they’ll eventually be needled into using it by wanting to fix stuff they perceive as wrong. And then they get sucked in ;)

Use diff for the mailed changes: Moin by default will only send out change messages saying ’something changed on this page!’. That’s not good enough, unfortunately — you want to mail out what the new text looks like, and highlight exactly where the change happened. Moin can do this nicely, with this patch, which adds a mail_commits_address, where all diffs on every page are sent, using the normal diff mechanism.

Ensure the wiki software can revert quickly: If someone does make a bad change, Moin supports one-click reversion of the page to what it was beforehand. That’s great for dealing with spam, or clueless vandalism.

Keep one or two static pages: If you’re worried about some script kiddie thinking that defacing a wiki makes them look cool, then keep one or two of the primary user-facing pages as static data. For example, take a look at the link-bar at the top of http://spamassassin.apache.org/ ; five of the ten links are to static pages, the other five are now wiki-ized. In particular, our front page and our downloads page are both static, but our docs are predominantly Wiki’d.

Publicize Mozex: most techie groups will have techie users, and we hate using browser text-boxes to edit text. Mozex — http://mozex.mozdev.org/ — saves the day here — it’s a godsend.

Shepherd new changes: in the early stages, you want one or two people who tidy up changes from Wiki newbies, as they go in. They need to keep it looking pretty, and perform Refactoring of stuff that could be laid out better or should become multiple pages. Eventually, others will get the hang of that (and do a much better job than you do ;).

That’s the lot. Most of these are to, essentially, migrate aspects of your already-existing and already-working community into this new outlet. In our experience, it’s worked really well — our Wiki is now the most reliable source of info about SpamAssassin, and is extensive and up-to-date.

Tags: faq, info, list, problem, python, software, time, use, web, website, wiki

History: Megalithomania is an incredible website ‘originally dedicated to Irish megaliths, but now expanded to include all sorts of antiquities that are of importance/interest.’

The author visits sites each week, writes up brief reports, takes photos, and logs the log on this excellent website; every site is added to a map, and there’s a whole load of ways to find sites by location, by clicking on a flash map, by date of visit etc.

It’s a triumph of usability, very pretty, and who knew there was a kist in Dublin Zoo’s tapir enclosure?

Hope everyone had a good Paddy’s Day! (PS: note: most definitely not ‘Patty’s Day’.)

Tags: author, day, history, importance, interest, log, map, megalithomania, site, website, week

Ireland: So, Sarah Carey got called up to testify at the Moriarty Tribunal, since she was involved with ESAT. In the process she notes that she ‘was slightly freaked out when the Chairman, in the process of reprimanding me for leaking information, made reference to my media activities AND my website! So are they reading my blog?’

Sounds like it…

She definitely deserves bonus points for the tagline.

Tags: blog, bonus, chairman, esat, information, ireland, moriarty, process, reference, tribunal, website

Patents: This page is a mock-up of a page from a simple e-commerce website, which would infringe (or infringed in the past) no less than 20 European and US software patents. (Original in Danish here).

Tags: original, page, patents, software, website

This page is a mock-up of a page from a simple e-commerce website, which would infringe (or infringed in the past) no less than 20 European and US software patents. (Original in Danish here).

Tags: original, page, software, website

Funny: Mick @ P45 has a good entry today on plagiarism. He notes that an academic pal once wrote a program to test for plagiarism by his students:

It uses a fairly rough and ready ‘brute force’ approach. Nonetheless, it can identify significant strings that have been regurgitated from Text A in Text B.

Anyway, he decided just for fun to fire the program at the website’s astrology predictions for the previous 18 months or so. The program churned away, and duly spat out the results. And - well heavens above - hadn’t the astrologer been copying and pasting very large chunks of his own predictions, apparently at random and nothing to do with ‘Uranus being in the ascendent’ or other such drivel that horoscopes concern themselves with.

Tags: approach, entry, force, fun, funny, pal, plagiarism, program, text, today, website

Good Wired article on the subject:

A security flaw at a website operated by the purveyors of penis-enlargement pills has provided the world with a depressing answer to the question: Who in their right mind would buy something from a spammer? An order log left exposed at one of Amazing Internet Products’ websites revealed that, over a four-week period, some 6,000 people responded to e-mail ads and placed orders for the company’s Pinacle herbal supplement. Most customers ordered two bottles of the pills at a price of $50 per bottle.

And check this out for bizarre:

An investigation … last month revealed that Bournival’s mentor and business partner is Davis Wolfgang Hawke, a chess expert and former neo-Nazi leader who turned to the spam business in 1999 after it became public that his father was Jewish.

Tags: answer, article, business, flaw, good, question, security, website, wired, world

Ho hum… SCO staggers on. Snore. Quick links:

• • Analysts to SCO
  : ‘don’t drag us into this’. Also, a good quote from Linus: ‘Quite frankly, I found it mostly interesting in a Jerry Springer kind of way. White trash battling it out in public, throwing chairs at each other.’

Tags: kind, linuxtag, quick, quote, sco, snore, suit, trash, way, website

JA forwards a link to Veronica Guerin, the new movie by Joel Schumacher, based on the life of the eponymous Irish journo. It boasts this beaut on their official ad website:

In the mid-1990s, Dublin was nothing short of a war zone, with a few powerful drug lords battling for control. … Based on a true story, this powerful, emotional film from producer Jerry Bruckheimer (jm: oh no) … and producer Joel Schumacher … gives unique insight into a fascinating and complex aspect of the Irish conflict …

My emphasis. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Somehow or other I must have missed all the warzone stuff… I wonder if they’re confusing it with Bogota?

Tags: beaut, journo, life, link, mid, movie, nothing, producer, war, website

While trying to figure out why my loaner laptop is SO SLOW, I found this on the Linux Dell laptop temperature-control i8k driver website:

No credits to DELL Computer who has always refused to give support on Linux or provide any useful information on the I8K buttons and their buggy BIOS.

Makes you wonder if there are any laptop manufacturers with a concept of open hardware support.

(BTW, current theories on the woeful speed are (a) 128megs of RAM just isn’t enough to use GNOME or KDE on linux these days, and (b) a 4200rpm disk with feck-all cache can’t handle any hard work.)

Other bad news: my heavy-lifting desktop PC’s arrived and won’t power on. yikes.

But — on a brighter note: the sun’s come out; I saw an eagle yesterday; and it rained last night, and all the birds are twittering in the trees, catching worms etc. In the meantime, the lazy cat sits on the balcony and watches idly, even when one lands on the railing less than 3 feet away. I suppose catfood is a lot easier to get hold of. ;)

Tags: computer, dell, driver, information, laptop, linux, loaner, slow, support, website

Yahoo: al-Jazeera website redirected:

The hacker was able to gain control of the domain name by asking domain
seller Network Solutions for the account password on official al-Jazeera
stationery, said an industry source speaking on condition of anonymity.
A spokesman for Network Solutions’ parent company declined to comment on
how the hacker was able to hijack the domain name, but said the company
had fixed the problem and was trying to track the impostor down.
‘We followed our procedures, in this particular instance someone was able
to get around those procedures,’ said Brian O’Shaughnessy, a spokesman
for Internet security firm VeriSign.

They fixed the problem? Surely this is exactly what happened with the sex.com domain several years ago?

Tags: al, company, domain, hacker, name, network, problem, spokesman, website, yahoo

My parents, sister, and her husband Luke, just rang to wish lá féile Padraig shona againn. Thanks guys!

But, as part of the deal, I had to promise to impart some google-juice to my Dad’s website; he’s an architectural photographer in Dublin, Ireland, who also does a nice sideline in stock photography, especially where his holiday snaps are involved. So he’s now on the sidebar ;)

Tags: againn, dad, deal, file, husband, part, photographer, sideline, sister, website

ESAT-BT’s website. See the ‘Go On-Line for 1 cent a minute’ ad? It’s not actually a link ;)

Tags: cent, esat-bt, line, link, minute, on, the, website

This promo calendar for an Italian coffin manufacturer has been doing the blog-rounds recently — and the more eagled-eyed viewer might have wondered at the words MIKE LEAVE ME ALONE written on the back of the last model.

Well, wonder no more — an italian Forteana subscriber, Giuseppe de Nicolellis, has got to the bottom of it. Case closed!

Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 23:31:25 +0200
From: “Giuseppe de Nicolellis” (spam-protected)
To: (spam-protected)
Subject: Sex and death: mystery solved

> http://www.cofanifunebri.it/sexy-calendario.htm - somewhat unlikely
> promo calendar from an Italian coffin manufacturer.
>
> So do you fancy giving them a call and finding out why the last model has “MIKE
> LEAVE ME ALONE” written on her back?

The webmaster of www.cofanifunbri.it has just answered my enquiry. He published the image more than an year ago without the writing. A few months ago he received this e-mail from a website offering adult contents for webmasters:

Do you have a license to use this image? I do not have a license on file for:

Registrant: Matteucci Maurizio (COFANIFUNEBRI-DOM) Villa Bastilica, 30 Roma, 00148 IT

Please let me know if you have purchased the license under a different name, or please remove the image from your site.

Thanks, Mikey PhoenixContent.com

(spam-protected)

Our webmaster decided to suggest him politely to f..ck off adding the writing on the back of the lady.

(Our webmaster didn’t explain whether he really stole the image from the website or not, and I didn’t dare to ask).

Another Fortean Mystery solved!

denic

Tags: alone, calendar, coffin, image, license, manufacturer, model, promo, webmaster, website