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Mysterious silent guests


dra007

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Some are the result of configuration things, such that you don't see Google bots showing as a Member .. (and before anyone asks, I have no idea what JT has written up for a robots.txt file)

Others are folks that followed a link, bookmark, whatever, but haven't actually logged in.

There isn't much doubt about who and what's behind some of those guest entries, just obviously other concerned indivduals doing their research <g>

Also, take into account the 'overlap' of the referenced "last 10 minutes" ... there might not be anyone else on at this precise moment, but the imprints haven't left the stage yet <g>

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As to the "odd hours" I sure hope that there are guests from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore who are concerned about spam.

If Wazzo has access to the IP addresses maybe he can work out probable time zones, but I would suppose that any web board or mailing list with worldwide member ship would never sleep.

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I keep wondering who the guests are, lately I have seen them no matter what time I come to read here.

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I for instance am in Sydney Australia and many SpamCop members are from verious other time zones on planet. Not always does ones computer keep SpamCop cookies so appear as a guest unless they log in

That said I am also sure spammers watch what is said/writen and even scrape email addresses from here if they can (I'm reasonably sure "RT" would have the site poisoned for such spiders)

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I keep wondering who the guests are, lately I have seen them no matter what time I come to read here.

23750[/snapback]

Some of us, in far corners of the globe (not that a globe has corners) have been "the other side of the mirror" since Powerboard 2.x, unable to access the entry panes to make a posting, just able to read and pull faces unseen and to report spam. Anyone ever wonder why the number of postings had dropped off? Before Wazoo expanded the topics and it got a bit harder to make comparisons?

New computer now, all the latest bloatware (Bill Gates one step closer to owning all of the observable universe), a step further into monoculture, all the better to receive spam and virii - one of us is back. You will, of course, restrain what might othewise be your unbridled joy.

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Some of us, in far corners of the globe (not that a globe has corners) have been "the other side of the mirror" since Powerboard 2.x, unable to access the entry panes to make a posting

Are you saying that this upgraded, full version of IPB is somehow incompatible with older operating systems and/or browsers?

Anyone ever wonder why the number of postings had dropped off?  Before Wazoo expanded the topics and it got a bit harder to make comparisons?

How is it "harder to make comparisons"? Most of the original forums are here, and they're finally in a more logical order. I see this as an improvement, but YMMV.

New computer now, all the latest bloatware (Bill Gates one step closer to owning all of the observable universe), a step further into monoculture

The forums function perfectly well with FireFox, and I've never, ever used Outlook Express to receive a single piece of email, so it's still perfectly possible to avoid at least some of the junk from Micro$loth.

DT

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Yes David, the current "full" version Powerboard and the previous "less than full" version 2 BOTH use features not available in Netscape 4.79 and, no doubt, other browsers. Before version 2 was version 1 which was more widely accessable.

The new arrangement of the forums is indeed an improvement (well done Wazoo and the numerous contributors to the FAQs), that was not the point.

I am sure I will want to switch to Firefox when I have a moment, unless I grow to love my bloatware in the interim. Inertia is a potent factor in the M$ penetration strategy. If only it worked in all penetration strategies ;-]

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Welcome back Farelf ... there's been a number of folks that seemed to disappear, but this reason wasn't that obvious. Thanks for the feedback/heads-up on this ... The IPB support Forums are full of probems and issies in updating from say version 1.3 to 2.0.x .. but I can't recall stumbling across this one. On the other hand, it might be a bit obvious, as most of the "skinning" and layout of the board is done via .css, rather than plain HTML. Along that line, I am tracking one discussion on an individual attempting the development of a skin for a blind user ... the lo-fi version allows her to "read" things just fine, but one can't "post" from that view ... and the "full" board just drives the 'voice reader' totally nuts .... (though I'm guessing that it's really the same issue, the .css structure as compared to seeing plain HTML ...)

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Hi Wazoo,

Good to be back. Yes, it could be/most likely is a CSS issue, in which case Netscape 4.79 would be the worst (maybe only) "mainstream" browser affected. The before and after numbers of postings would be an indication in any event (July 19 2004 was the magic date). NS 4.79 has a considerable depth of CSS support but as Roedy Green says in http://mindprod.com/jgloss/css.html, "The best browser for CSS is Opera 7.51. The worst is Netscape 4.79."

I emailed Jeff at SpamCop support back at the beginning of August 2004, near when when it first went pear-shaped for me, and he made the sensible (only possible) suggestion - "get a new browser." With system requirements that seemed to mean a new PC, on the path of least effort that means, in turn, "with Win XP" and try running that (support issues) without broadband, then with broadband maybe one should have a hardware firewall and so it goes. Needless to say the ability to participate in the forums, send PMs etc., cannot be the determining priority for the upgrade in that scenario.

So, if there are more like me, that could be part of the explanation for the anonymous critters in the walls of the forums commented upon by dra007. Significantly, in support of this hypothesis, there is no evidence of the volume of reports being affected when it does appear that forum participation is down IIUC. Newsgroup participation (if unaffected or increased) might be another indicator. Actually, I would prefer it if it were just concerned citizens brushing up on their spam fighting lore, as was suggested above. Next favourite - anxious, phallophagic spamsters (may they rot ... though individual or collective insertion into the nether regions of dead bears might suffice).

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With system requirements that seemed to mean a new PC, on the path of least effort that means, in turn, "with Win XP" and try running that (support issues) without broadband

FireFox works just fine with Win98 and WinME, even over dialup. That's what we have at my church, so again, I guess I don't see the problem. There are very few "holdouts" still using Netscape 4.79, but I don't have time to investigate the stats on that.

DT

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I second Farfel's well worded curse to the spamsters noting that the number of silent critters far exceeds that of members at any given time. I have also noticed interesting bogus addresses/spam subject lines in the spam I get lately:

From: boogusmcsmoogus[at]btopenworld.com

/snip

Tue, 01 Feb 2005 02:59:22 -0500 (EST)

Received: from source ([203.235.21.242]) by xxx

Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 23:59:32 -0500

Subject: Forget about your erectile problems today !

The reference to boogus moogus makes this one interesting!

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I guess I don't see the problem.

DT

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You may not have anticipated a 1995, 133MHz, Win 95 computer with a partitioned 2 Gb HDD. Yet it it received spam faultlessly. And reported it too. Over a 28.8K modem. Your church is evidently not the baseline of computational austerity. Don't ask about the car I drive.

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OK, I get the point. In the past, I've often been the one in the "slow lane" of the Internet...I stuck with Win95 for a very long time, and I'm not in favor of upgrading just for upgrading's sake. It's been a long time since I went online with my old Kaypro II CPM machine, but that's how I started out.

As for my church...I think my pastor is still composing his sermons using Word Perfect 5.1 in DOS mode, saving them on floppy disks...

DT

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You may not have anticipated a 1995, 133MHz, Win 95 computer with a partitioned 2 Gb HDD.  Yet it it received spam faultlessly.  And reported it too.  Over a 28.8K modem.  Your church is evidently not the baseline of computational austerity.  Don't ask about the car I drive.

Now you've got me laughing, after restraining from writing what I was thinking last night/ early this morning when reading your last. Sitting here on the couch, surrounded by stuff ... one keyboard attached to an ancient Packard-Bell P75 machine (Win-95), another keyboard attached to a P100, another connected to a P133, another headed off to an AMD200, currently have a 233MHz Compaq laptop actually sitting on top of a G3-500 iBook ..... (though admit typing this on a keyboard with most of the letters rubbed off the keys attached to an AMD-XP 1600) ... other than the iBook running OS-X 10.2.x, the others are Win-98SE based, not having a one them being freindly to any version of Linux I've tried thus far (most folks griping about support for the video card released yesterday, my problem being that the hardware is to ancient/weird <g>) .. not referenced are the various boat-anchor systems used as platforms to hold up the monitors <g> Anyway, the point was that they all conneted just fine, though I'd given up on Netscape years ago ...

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Heh heh. Bit like the hardware equivalent of a Scott Adams routine, isn't it?

Character 1 - "C? When *I* started, we had to code in assembly language!"

Character 2 - "Assembler? When I started we had to code in zeros and ones!"

Character 3 - "You had ones? We had to use zeros and lower case Ls!"

Character 4 - "You had zeros?"

All hail Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Meantime, dra007's critters in the walls continue to skitter around, bon appetite little fellas.

And I'm still using that old IBM Aptiva for mail until I get my broadband connection (this is about the only site I visit with the new set-up and a temporary dial-up connection). I've seen viruses *die* trying to infect the Aptiva. Maybe of boredom?

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You may not have anticipated a 1995, 133MHz, Win 95 computer with a partitioned 2 Gb HDD. 

23809[/snapback]

It's been a long time since I went online with my old Kaypro II CPM machine, but that's how I started out.

As for my church...I think my pastor is still composing his sermons using Word Perfect 5.1 in DOS mode, saving them on floppy disks...

DT

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Careful guys. You might force me to go out in the garage and unbox my Atari 400. It had the peanutbutter-proof keyboard.

And if you really tick me off, I might have to unleash my Timex/Sinclair 1000. I had the 16KB memory pack.

Seriously, I do still have these. I wonder if there is a personal computer museum somewhere.

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Seriously, I do still have these.  I wonder if there is a personal computer museum somewhere.

23852[/snapback]

You're joking Mikey? Google seems to give over 15 million hits on the words computer and museum (don't make me send you my "justf---inggoogleit" link). This site, in old Virginie, seems pretty comprehensive and has links to a whole obsolete computer web ring:

http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/

Seriously, don't ever get tempted to just throw those things out. Or, for different reasons, any junked electronics. Dunno about elsewhere but here in (parts of) Oz there's not a lot of effort to keep it out of landfill. Lovely - lead, gallium arsenide, the lot, working its way into the water table. Cripes, its enough to turn an old, unreconstituted, reactionary conservative into a tree-hugger.

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