blake johnson

I’m getting to my breaking point with spam. My blog gets a couple dozen spam comments a week, and in the last week, my email box was averaging more than a hundred spam messages every couple days. I’ve decided that it is time to take action.

Starting today, commenters on this blog need to pass a reverse turing test (sometimes referred to as a CAPTCHA, or a Computer Administered Program to Tell Computers and Humans Apart). I suspect that the current method I’m using can be broken quite easily with modern OCR software, but I’ll be moving to a solution soon which the best OCR software cannot pass.

I’m also thinking about starting an open-source project to provide a similar solution for email. The idea is to move to a whitelist system, and senders who are not on the whitelist need to respond to a reverse turing test challenge. Such software is already available commercially for Outlook and Outlook Express, but I want to build a solution which can be invoked in procmail (similar to SpamAssassin) and which has a PHP or Perl web interface. I hope to get this off the ground within the next month.

Paul Krugman’s column in the New York Times this weekend raises a point on an issue that has been driving me bonkers for the last few months— what are the democratic candidates’ positions on things other than the war in Iraq. Yes, the war is important, but sooner or later the war will be over (for real this time) and we will still have a president. So, why doesn’t the media devote any time/space to the candidates other views? What are their stances on trade, stem-cell research, digital copyrights, human rights in China, etc., etc.? The list could go on and on. Krugman’s column delivers a much needed plea to journalists to report on specific policy proposals, not on the candidates’ fashion taste.

I actually tried to ask a non-war question when I appeared for the taping of Chris Matthews’ Hardball with John Kerry, but the producers didn’t seem at all interested. In fact, there wasn’t a singled question asked which was not about the war.

Despite being put-off by early previews for this movie, I really enjoyed this movie— it succeeds as a brilliantly entertaining and moving film. Set in Meiji-era Japan, the plot is actually derived from a rebellion of a famous Japanese warrior, Saigo Takamori, known as the Satsuma Rebellion. The movie explores various cultural differences between the US and Japan, such as conceptions of honor, justice, and tradition, in a way which does not feel forced or trite.

My original fear for this movie was that it would take the Tom Cruise-as-samurai image too seriously, but it actually serves as a source of humour. For instance, one scene which shows Tom Cruise emerge in full traditional samurai armor caused the whole theater to laugh. Yet the movie takes this concept seriously enough to make it meaningful.

Wow, what a movie! Better than the fantastic Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers. Some people might be put-off by the rather leisurely pace in which this movie unwinds; however, it is completely fitting with the book’s similarly long ending. I only wish that Peter Jackson had ended the film with the image of the elvish boats and the fade to white, as it is an absolutely beautiful scene.

I had a reader comment that he thought my post regarding the potential collapse of the music industry was really just an attempt to justify illegally downloading music. Unfortunatley, I accidentally deleted the comment… but I wanted to respond.

I was not attempting to justify illegal file-sharing. Most of the songs I download are songs for which I own the cd or tape, but do not have the cd or tape with me at school. I think this type of use is justified by “fair use” rules. Otherwise, I purchase the cd in a store or from iTunes, buymusic.com, rhapsody, or another online music source.

The intent of my comments regarding file-sharing was to point out that illegal file-sharing is not what is killing the music industry. If you look at the revenue of cd sales for the entire industry in the period 1995-2003 you will notice that revenue has increased every year until cerca 2000-2001, at which point it basically holds steady.

It is not a coincidence that this leveling-off corresponds with the world-wide economic recession. Sure, these numbers might be higher without file-sharing; but the music industry does not have the evidence to even suggest that online file-sharing is the cause of their woes.

I would propose, instead, that the music industry’s problem is that it produces a product which is only appealing to a tiny portion of their possible market. Essentially, the 14-25 year-old segment of the market is the only one interested in the majority of new commercial music.

The music industry is dying because it has alienated its customers. The rest of us are sick of teeny-bopper teen-idol crap. We want music with depth, and we want innovation! If the music industry does not step up to the plate and begin offering a product to those with even a slightly sophisticated palate, then the music industry as we know it may be seeing its last days.