Random burblings since 1999
So it seems that Blogger have a solution for their recently introduced layout problems.
This will stop Blogger adding those nasty <div clear:both> tags. Everything is explained in this post although I think they might have been better advised broadcasting it a bit further.
That other site I run has just hit a landmark, 300 members. Wow. It’s been a fun couple of years and I’m hoping the next couple will be even better (irons in fire, etc etc).
Now, I have to admit I feel slightly guilty* when I go on holiday as I would hate to deprive my dear reader of my nonsense carefully considered posts, so I’ve scheduled a few posts to be published whilst I’m away.
(Awww c’mon, you didn’t think I’d give you the post titles, did ya?)
Not got time to fix the miniblog (after Blogger started adding in extra code without being asked!) so Keep an eye on my del.icio.us account for the meantime. anyway…
And yes, the HaloScan is playing silly buggers, hassles installing a new database server I believe. Sorry.
Thankfully this is not an area I’ve had much experience in, so I’ve done a little Googling and come up with some interesting ideas and ways to handle referrer spam.
Firstly it helps to know if you are being hit hard by it, and for that you’ll need access to server logs or a basic statistics package for your website. If you start seeing odd names in your referrer logs and your bandwidth usage starts to skyrocket then read on.
Rather than waffle on at length I’ll quickly point you to a couple of articles, one short one “why are they doing it and what should we do about them?” and a more indepth article that also includes some proposals for handling referrer spam.
There is one simple way to handle referrer spam, that’s to block access to your site for the domain name that is being used. A lot of referrer spam will use sub-domains so blocking the top-level domain name handles all the sub-domains as well. For example:
If you are receiving refferer spam from naughty.example.com, bad.example.com, spammers.example.com and so on, then blocking “example.com” from accessing your site should block those other referrers.
Obviously the people behind referrer spam are aware of this and so use .com, .us, .tv and anything else they can get their hands on. For this reason, manually adding and blocking referrer spam sites is laborious, time-consuming and ultimately a losing battle.
However if, like me, you are only experiencing a small amount of referrer spam then here’s an article that explains how to create an “.htaccess” file to block referrer spam (scroll down to the “How to do this” section).
WordPress users try Referrer Karma (now running on this site), or bad behavior, and then anyone can use WannaBrowser to test if they are working.
So, hopefully I’ll be referrer spam free(ish) from here on out, ohh and if anyone gets a message along the lines of “Please click on the following link if you are not redirected automatically (sorry for the inconvenience)” then let me know.
Off to dinner at Yen Rotunda, a yen oriental & teppanyaki restaurant, where 20 or so of us will be dining in the teppanyaki section. It’s my first time in that restaurant and my first time experiencing teppanyaki and I’m quite looking forward to it. The fact that the company is stumping up the lion share of the bill may also have something to do with it.
Only problem is that it feels like my holiday begins tonight, meaning dragging myself out of bed tomorrow morning will be quite a challenge.
We went, we saw, we ate
God damn that was a great meal!
The food was superb, the staff were efficient if a little bossy at times (but then we were a party of 20 and we do get a little noisy), and I’ll be going back there again!
Naturally the chef is the star turn, clanging, flipping and twirling his spatulas, flicking bits of food up in the air for you to catch or, in the case of one of the ladies in our party, to lose down your top… but despite all the showmanship everything was cooked to perfection. Eight courses in all, a small starter of oriental beef and suriyami, then salad in a sesame dressing, miso soup, then the first “meat” course – I had king prawns – then fried rice, the second “meat” course – I had chicken – then some fried vegetables, and finally a lovely dessert (PDF of menu), and whilst I felt full I didn’t feel stuffed to the gunnels.
Next time I’ll be more adventurous with my choice of “meat” dishes but I decided against the lobster tails as it was a company dinner and one doesn’t want to be seen to be extracting the urine, and personally I think it’s just bad form when you are out in a group of people to be that selfish. I digress.
The photos of the evening don’t do it justice, and there are only a few as the rest are mainly of the people I work with and, frankly, they’re not the prettiest bunch…
Update – If you decide to eat at the restaurant, and this review has been helpful, please let me know via email: gordon AT gordonmclean.co.uk
So on Friday we head for sunny Torquay, the place where the world’s most famous mystery writer, Agatha Christie, was born in 1890.
Torquay as we know it dates back to the end of the 18th Century, with the source of the name still offering some confusion. It’s either the “little harbour” (Torre Quay) or roughly signifies “Thor’s Harbor” (cognate to Tórshavn, Faroe Islands and þórshöfn, Iceland), but a more likely root is the Devonian word “Tor”, a hill or outcrop, especially common in placenames on nearby Dartmoor (thanks Wikipedia).
So what to do, what to do. There are a few well known tourist attractions which we’ll try and squeeze in alongside trips to the Quay West water park, the reading of books and the quaffing of wine – Paignton Zoo Environmental Park, Cockington village, Torre Abbey, Babbacombe Model Village, and a wander round Torquay Harbour (you might even spot us on the webcam!) will all feature I’m sure.
Alas no Fawlty Towers as that wasn’t actually filmed in Torquay (bar one of the few outdoor shots of Basil outside a restaurant in Torquay), but what else is there to do? I warrant some wandering on beaches and along cliff top paths would be desired, but if anyone has been on holiday or lives in the area I’d appreciate some suggestions.
Well it looks like the buggers are at it again. Anyone else getting huge numbers of referrer links from the likes of:
And will someone PLEASE tell me what they are trying to achieve with this? Is someone actually paying people to do this?? Don’t we understand the internet yet people!!