Spam, spam, spam

Spam is always a problem. It’s a problem for everyone. Blocking it is also a problem. You can lots of the time have false positives. Which gets annoying. Also when your anti-spam doesn’t block enough. Or when it gets in your way. Maybe it doesn’t even work with your specific software.

I have spam problems too. SpamAssassin is the most well known open source mail-based anti-spam solution. The developers behind SpamAssassin need your help. They need you to submit “ham” and “spam” mail in order to teach SpamAssassin to recognize new spammer techniques.

Check the project out at this wiki page.

Everything’s made out of matter… right?

The office chair or the iPhone you’re touching right now is made of matter. So is the air around you, and the keyboard and mouse you’re using to view this blog. No one doubts that everyday items all around you are made up of building blocks called atoms.

But there’s still one type of “matter” that perplexes me, and I’m not even sure if it can be classified as “matter.” This blog is made out of data. Before we go on though, let’s make sure we have this concept clear. It’s the data we’re talking about; not the data storage device, be it a flash drive or a hard drive; nor the type of machine you’re using to view the data, be it a mobile phone or a monitor.

1s and 0s are all that make up this blog. Matter takes space, but data doesn’t. Matter has mass, but data does not. A hard drive with 1 terabyte of free space will not weigh less (or more) than the exact same hard drive with no free space remaining. Yet, the hard drive that is completely occupied with data weighs no more than an empty hard drive, and still can store thousands of photos, videos, and applications. A photo album with no photos in it will weigh less than a photo album with a thousand photos in it. Yet with a hard drive, more photos does not equal more weight.

So here’s the question- is data matter? Are we violating Newton’s first law of thermodynamics, saying that you can’t get something out of nothing? Are we getting something out of nothing? Is this a paradox? Does this spell doom for physics? science? the world? the universe??? existence as we know it?????!!!!!!

Blog statistics for August


As you can see, our blog views have really declined. NO ONE who is a registered user of OKS Blog has viewed this blog in the past four days! Right now, the total number of views is stagnant at around 1,377 and we wish someone would come and view this blog. We had 40+ views on August 10th, followed by a few more peaks & valleys, but the line is flat. Help OKS Blog raise that line! Link to us on your blog, on Twitter (follow @oksblog), Facebook, Myspace, whatever. Tell your friends, colleagues, co-workers about this great blog!

I’m back as well!

Wow, after so long waiting for Darren’s blog to be put back up, it’s finally up!

During the time that this blog was down, I actually created a new blog on WordPress, which this blog is based off of. It’s at deathgleaner.wordpress.com

But now that this blog is back, I don’t know what to do. Should I keep my blog on WordPress? Or should I post here? My previous preference before this blog went down was to post on this blog, but for now, you can find me active (more or less) on both my WordPress and this blog.

Update (3/6/09 17:15PST): I have made up my mind. School-related stuff will go here and everything else on my other blog at WordPress. Of course, I’m flexible, so keep updated!

Update (9/6/09 20:15PST): Maybe not just school stuff will go on this blog. I will decide at my own will which blog I’ll post to.