Perri Nelson's Website 

Trackback and Comment Spam is an ugly thing.

Now I happen to enjoy trading links with other bloggers. I have linked to several posts over the last couple of weeks, and I have requested trackback pings for the ones where the blog I am linking to supports them. To my friends in the blogosphere that have linked to my site and or requested trackbacks, thank you. You are appreciated and I will continue to offer trackbacks to anyone that links to my site with a legitimate blog posting, whether I agree with their politics or not. The same goes for commenters.

I'm not going to help spammers if I can help it though. I realize this isn't something new. I've read about sping's and spam commenting on Technorati, and I've experienced it with every blog host I've tried. Since I wrote the software behind my blog though, there's something I can do about it here.

I just checked my email about an hour and a half ago. There were 50 error notices from my website. All of them were sent between 8:10 and 8:15 PM PST tonight. All of them were the result of a failed attempt to post trackback spam to my weblog.

Fortunately the attempted spammer didn't have a clue what they were doing. First of all they tried to do the trackback via a GET HTTP request, which my trackback system doesn't accept. Second, they tried to insert malicious script into the trackbacks and my filters caught it and sent the error message to my development email address.

This particular spammer used ten different IP addresses, all provided by the same ISP, INHOSTER in the Netherlands. I fired off a quick notice to the abuse address at their ISP, and then started going through my archives to check for other trackback spam.

Sure enough, I found some. Quite a bit actually. There were over 100 trackback spam pings on a single post way back in the archives. This was totally unacceptable to me. I added a new table to my database for banned IP addresses, then added some code to my trackback module to reject pings from banned IP addresses. I then populated the table with the IP addresses from all of the trackback spam.

The site has been updated. The trackback spam has been deleted. I'm sure, now that I'm starting to see more traffic on the site that there will be more trackback spam in the future. There are 55 new IP addresses it won't be coming from though, and 55 IP addresses that won't be adding comments to the site either.

I have added a policy notice to my site as a result of this attack. If anyone is interested, I will be adding a list of all banned IP addresses to the bottom of the policy notice page in the next couple of days.

In the time it took me to post this, yet another spammer got caught. The list is now up to 56 banned IP addresses. A static list of the banned IP addresses is in the policy notice page. I will update the page in a few days to retrieve a dynamic list of banned IP addresses.

I will also be revisiting the ban mechanism so that I receive notice of all trackback requests for approval, deletion, and banning this weekend. Trackbacks will no longer instantly appear on the site, but they'll be moderated.

While I'm at it, I will switch the comment mechanism around to my own code. Haloscan is a cool service, but they only let you add 20 bans.

Overnight another 19 trackback spammers were trapped. I also had another burst of 20 trackback spam attempts that tried to spam using HTTP GETs instead of POSTs. The total number of banned IP addresses is now up to 83.

The list of banned IP addresses keeps growing. It's now up to 173 entries. The spammer trap is still working, although one managed to get past it and spammed about five of my posts.

I've updated the trackback mechanism a bit. When I receive a trackback ping, the ping handler will automatically retrieve the URL referenced in the ping and scan it. If your post does not contain a reference to the post you are trying to trackback to, your trackback ping will fail immediately.

Seattle City Council among reasons viaduct cost could rise

The last time the estimated cost replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel rose the Seattle City Council decided that voters weren't smart enough to decide for themselves how they wanted the viaduct replaced. Now the estimated cost looks to be rising yet again.

Most of the city council wants a tunnel, and so does Mayor Nickels. This despite the enormous cost overruns that have been associated with tunnel projects in the past, most notably the infamous "big dig".

One significant reason why the cost might go up is the Seattle City Council themselves. The city passed an ordinance declaring an elevated viaduct inconsistent with its comprehensive plan and with height and usage regulations. Of course that ordinance fits in nicely with their plans to soak us for a tunnel anyway.

With the city council leaving threats on the table to stall the project with lawsuits and bureaucratic nonsense the cost of the 2.8 billion elevated replacement could rise even higher than the currently estimated cost of the tunnel.

The Seattle Times has more.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and most of the Seattle City Council want a tunnel. Key state legislators from Seattle support a new aerial structure.

...

With the cost estimated at $2.8 billion, the elevated structure is a cheaper choice and would cause less disruption during construction; the $4.6 billion tunnel option would open up views of Elliott Bay and reconnect downtown to the waterfront.

...

The city has said it could inflate the $2.8 billion cost of an elevated viaduct to nearly $5 billion by slowing permits, filing lawsuits and using other tactics to oppose the project.

We certainly don't need a tunnel at a cost of $4.6 billion. The Boston "big dig" tunnel overran its budget by $11 billion. What we also don't need is a petulant city council that decides to stall and otherwise block a project just because they didn't get their way.

But that's what they've threatened.

Cross posted at NWBloggers.com.

Police Chief asks Beaverton to outlaw toys

From Northwest Cable News: 

BEAVERTON, Ore. - Officials are looking to make Beaverton the first Oregon city to ban replica guns in public areas.

Beaverton police Chief David Bishop asked the city attorney's office to draft an ordinance that would ban airsoft guns.

...

If Beaverton passes its ordinance, anyone caught in a public place with a replica could be cited with a violation.

It's interesting that a specific brand of gun is mentioned.Of course Airsoft makes BB guns, pellet guns and paintball guns, all of which can be dangerous if misused. That's not the focus of the article though, or the reasoning cited in this case.

There have been incidents of fatal shootings by police when confronted with toy guns, and that's the reasoning in this case. It's isn't (at least according to the article) about whether the gun is actually dangerous. Rather it's about how realistic looking the gun is. Airsoft isn't the only gun that's made to look real.

I think this goes over the top. Are they going to go after children playing with capguns in the parks next?

Cross Posted at NWBloggers.com.

A victory for free speech!

The California Supreme Court has ruled on an appeal in an important case for blogger's free speech. According to the BBC News:

Bloggers and US internet providers cannot be liable for posting defamatory comments written by third parties, the California Supreme Court has ruled.

It followed the case of San Diego woman sued after posting allegedly libellous comments online about two doctors.

Some of the internet's biggest names including Google, eBay and Amazon have supported a woman in a US legal battle that may save them from libel cases.

The judges said the ruling would protect freedom of expression.

This should be good news for bloggers who post content or comments written by other people. The people that write the original libelous comments are responsible for what they say. The blogger that allows the comment to be posted isn't.

That's not a licence to commit libel online though. But it is a victory for online freedom of expression.

Yet another left-winger claims fraud in elections

It's a definite pattern that has held now for six years. A left-wing candidate loses an election, often by a narrow margin, and the accusations of fraud fly. It's not just an affliction of politics in the United States either. The BBC reports on Andres Manuel Lopes Obrador, the defeated left-winger in Mexico.

The defeated left-wing candidate in Mexico's presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has held an unofficial swearing-in ceremony. During his "inauguration" in Mexico City, Mr Lopez Obrador said he was launching a "parallel government". He claims he was the victim of fraud in July's election - a view shared by millions of Mexicans.

So what are we to learn from this? When a left-winger loses a close election they cry foul. When the courts refuse to overturn the election they cry foul. Instead of playing by the rules, they start their own game and pretend they won. If they can't do that, they call the voters imbeciles.

The story never changes.

Linked at The Bullwinkle Blog, Public Figures Beware, Basil's Blog (thanks for the link!).