Category Archives: Computer Stuff

July Site Updates

I have not published a site updated for a while now, however some changes have happened that I thought were notable. Uptime has been great 99.78% uptime over the last 30 days (that was 10 instances of the site going … Continue reading

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Computer Components: What really lasts?

I have repaired computers for normal everyday computer users for a very long time. I have also spent a lot of time repairing computers for a local school district. I’ve seen all major brands, and have used and repaired computers … Continue reading

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The Kindle E-Reader (The $79 Wonder)

I ended up with an Amazon Kindle, the $79 “just plain Kindle” with no special features. Prior to having a Kindle, I always thought that they were strange devices. I had a hard time understanding the concept of abandoning a … Continue reading

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Google Memorial Day Doodle

A reader recently asked me about my previous Google Doodle post that I made after Memorial Day of last year, this is an excerpt of what I wrote back: “Myself, I have a lot of respect for people who have … Continue reading

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Free Ebooks (in many formats, including PDF and Mobi) for E-Readers

These are a few of the more interesting sites I have found for free ebooks for the Kindle and other devices. Many of them only have PDF files. The OpenLibrary also features books  that can be “checked out” like a … 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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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

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