the most efficient way to stop spam from appearing as comments on this blog seems to be to simply rename the script handling the posting of comments, thus confusing the (presumably) automated programs used for posting spam. when i first changed the comment script name, the spam levels dropped to zero. it was such a relief. and from my logs, i could see that the comment script was called by its old name several hundreds of times per week, meaning that someone was trying to spam me but didn't succeed in doing so. then a couple of days ago, spam started to get through again. so i performed the same move again; renaming the comment script. and what happened? so far, no spam, but the logs are full of failed attempts at posting comments to this blog by using the old, obsolete script name. i think we're facing learning spam bots, or at least some sort of mechanism for keeping track of what posts were successful using this and that script name.

i've also noticed that there are more and more deep links to my photos than ever before, that is, someone links directly to a photo without linking to the post containing the photo. i don't really like it, mainly because i've no control over how the photos are being used. for instance, i've seen a picture of my wife in some forum which i didn't understand since it was in a language i don't read, and i've seen this photo at several places where it's been used to indicate threat or violence. simplest remedy would be to remove the photos. no good. next idea is to rename the photos. that works for about half a day. so, what i'd wish for is an obfuscator feature in movabletype that allows me to specify dependencies between objects (e.g., the comment script and that particular line in the config file telling mt what script to use for comments) and to automatically rename the objects involved in such a dependency at given intervals of time...

i'm guest posting over at heather's today. i hope you get well soon!

listening to while post-processing: a perfect circle - counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums. now there's a song title worthy the name.