BLUG

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Re: [BLUG] signup bots

The only anti-spam measures I've ever found to work on boards and
cms's was a login required to comment AND adding a custom form
question like "Are you a bot?" to the signup. Some boards like
Invision are sophisticated enough that you can create that in the
signup form and filter out signups that don't answer correctly by
using their admin interface, not hand-coding. That has obvious
benefits like not getting broken with each upgrade. By the time I
added a CAPTCHA to my PHPBB install years ago it was already busted by
a most spambots anyway, it barely put a dent in the spam.

I would think it to be possible to have a part of the package install
ask you to enter a unique question which a human could answer. The
admin would have to write the question, or questions so it's not
canned. But, if it's a wide-spread module or package in use, I guess
it basically comes down to randomness. A bot could just watch for form
questions in the signup which it doesn't recognize, that would
identify most anti-bot questions. Then it could attempt a login for
each choice to that question until it gets a success. Even if you
randomized which answer was a human reply, the bot could get away with
retrying the submission until the random question happened to use the
answer the bot was sending.

Gah, this is a difficult problem after all.

-Nathan

On Jan 12, 2011, at 7:53 AM, Mark Krenz wrote:

>
> It took exactly 3 hours 36 minutes for a signup bot to adjust to the
> new Drupal based BLUG site. Sigh.
>
> ----- Forwarded message from info@bloomingtonlinux.org -----
>
> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:25:16 +0000 (GMT)
> X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=4.9 tests=NO_RELAYS
> autolearn=unavailable version=3.3.1
> From: info@bloomingtonlinux.org
> To: info@bloomingtonlinux.org
> Subject: Account details for Ioqusimux at Bloomington Linux Users
> Group (pending admin approval)
>
>
> Ioqusimux has applied for an account.
>
> http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/user/7/edit
>
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> --
> Mark Krenz
> Bloomington Linux Users Group
> http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
> _______________________________________________
> BLUG mailing list
> BLUG@linuxfan.com
> http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
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[BLUG] signup bots

It took exactly 3 hours 36 minutes for a signup bot to adjust to the
new Drupal based BLUG site. Sigh.

----- Forwarded message from info@bloomingtonlinux.org -----

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:25:16 +0000 (GMT)
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=4.9 tests=NO_RELAYS
autolearn=unavailable version=3.3.1
From: info@bloomingtonlinux.org
To: info@bloomingtonlinux.org
Subject: Account details for Ioqusimux at Bloomington Linux Users Group (pending admin approval)

Ioqusimux has applied for an account.

http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/user/7/edit

----- End forwarded message -----

--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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BLUG@linuxfan.com
http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Re: [BLUG] New BLUG website up too

On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 10:52 PM, Mark Krenz <mark@slugbug.org> wrote:

Wow, I'm just full of surprises tonight. I started making a new BLUG
website. Here you go.

http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/

The goal was to make a website that showed how fun BLUG is more than
just have a list of dates, topics, etc. We'll add those things later
though.

I hope nobody minds that their picture is up on the site. I think we
need to take some better pictures for the site, that's all I could find
right now.

--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/

Both websites look great!

Sid

[BLUG] New BLUG website up too

Wow, I'm just full of surprises tonight. I started making a new BLUG
website. Here you go.

http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/

The goal was to make a website that showed how fun BLUG is more than
just have a list of dates, topics, etc. We'll add those things later
though.

I hope nobody minds that their picture is up on the site. I think we
need to take some better pictures for the site, that's all I could find
right now.

[BLUG] Day 15000 website up

Here you go.

http://www.day15000.com/

Note quite done yet, but close enough for people to start looking.
Let me know what you think.

[BLUG] Couple of things needed for the 15000 day party

So the plans for this 15000 epoch day party are rolling along. I
actually reserved Fountain Square Ballroom downtown for the evening of
the 25th from 5pm - 9pm for a 6-8 event. It will be called the "root
party". Hopefully we'll get other events like this going around the
world.

Does anyone on the list do any DJing and have a sound system? Or know
someone who does and could do the party for free? This would be a good
chance to practice or promote yourself.

Would anyone be interested in giving a high impact 20-30 minute
presentation on the history of Unix? Basically, something goody feely
that opens people's eyes to how much its actually used. I can provide a
projector and screen.

I could also use a little help on the evening of the event. Maybe one or
two more people to help with picking up food. Also, I was thinking to
stream the event over justin.tv or something similar that does
multicasting.

If anyone knows how to make a cool javascript clock or something for
the website that will count down to the moment of the switchover, I'd be
interested in getting your help. Its likely that this would be used
worldwide for all the parties count down as it was also done for the
1234567890 epoch second parties. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85EnRLs4ilY

Bloomington Geek Dinners has also expressed interest in having their
event at the party too so that will probably bring in 30 more people as
that's what their usual attendance is. I've had people write me about
promoting the event beyond Bloomington and I almost have a website
ready. I think this could end up being a worldwide event with parties
all over the place.

The overall idea of the event is to bring all people in the tech
community together to celebrate the longevity of the Unix and open way
in computing. I was also thinking of giving the party a theme like
"Dress like the past because Unix is the future" would make it more
interesting and get more people into it.

Re: [BLUG] Unix epoch day 15000 coming up

On Fri, Jan 07, 2011 at 01:15:51PM +0000, Mark Krenz wrote:
> I was thinking of throwing a party and even help coordinate a global
> celebration via a forum. I wanted to ask, do you think this would be
> something interesting that you'd attend. I know its really geeky, but
> hey, so what.
>
> Suso is actually supposed to have one free use of the Fountain Square
> Ballroom once a year so we could use it for this and have a nice party
> that we'd pay for, have a cake, etc. and a meet and greet. I'll have to
> check if its available though.

Looks like it's on:

http://www.bloomingtongeekdinners.com/2011/01/day-15000-celebration-january-25th.html

--
Jeremy L. Gaddis

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

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