Author Archives: Jesse Zylstra

About Jesse Zylstra

Hey! My name is Jesse Zylstra, and I am the administrator of this website. I used to write about free software and programs, online web applications, and new technology -- especially open-source. Now I just write udder nonsense. I also play pipe organ, which I'm told is a fun and interesting fact about me. In the past, I studied network administration. Now I've been trying to pursue a real fake bachelors degree for the last, oh, 10 years or so.

The Best Songs about Las Vegas

By guest author Samantha Black: The best songs about Las Vegas Because Las Vegas is such an iconic city, it makes sense that there would be a large number of songs written about it. The bright lights, 24/7 party atmosphere, luxurious … Continue reading

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Spambot Updates: Next steps, account activation testing

We are taking the next step in our spambot experimentation, it begins today. We are once again completely resetting the test forums. The main change for this next round is to see how many bots can get past email activation. To … Continue reading

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Next steps: How Spambots use email

Our most recent bit of research is looking at how spambots use the email addresses that we register. We want to find out if spambots attend the email addresses they register at and if they are using real persons email … Continue reading

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How to discern convincing spam from real comments

SPAM is becoming more and more convincing. After years of dealing with it, it never occurred to me that to new site owners it can be very difficult to tell convincing spam from real messages. Computers are becoming better at … Continue reading

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Spam Research: Experiment Continued on SMF Forum

A continuation of the Spambot Experiment with an SMF forum, read about the first experiment here: https://zylblog.com/2011/12/spambot-experiment/ The forums were completely wiped out on the 24th of December (all registered members were deleted, all posts removed, etc). A few options … Continue reading

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Digital or Acoustic Piano?

Whenever I visit Costco, the first place I go is right to the keyboards. Its funny because I never actually like any of them, I play the same song on each one (a very cheesy love song). As of yet, … Continue reading

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Spambot Experiment

On August 28, 2011, I started a spambot experiment on my website. One inaccuracy that I want to clear up before I begin posting the results: About a month or so into the experiment, I changed the difficulty of the … Continue reading

Posted in Computer Stuff, Programs and Software, Spam Research, Web Services, Application, and Design | 1 Comment

Best support answer ever

Take a read on Google Chrome support, read the question, and the “Best Answer”. http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=73c3a0e0c96cdbfd Edit: This answer has since changed. A copy of the original “best answer” can be seen here, quite funny: http://i.imgur.com/7cWDe.jpg

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Type in: “Let it Snow” on Google Search, and it will do just that.

Type: “Let it Snow” (w/out quotations) into Google, and it will do just that. (Also try: “Do a barrel roll”) (These may not work in Internet Explorer or outdated browsers)

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Did you know? If you Middle-Click a FireFox tab, it will close.

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