Moving, moving, moving... · Saturday March 30, 2013 by colin newell
If you have noticed an absence of activity around these parts for the last month, it is because I have been prepping numerous websites for an “experimental” move off of Islandnet.com (after almost 18 years with them…) after many technical hiccups, slow downs, the occasional Ddos attacks etc – it was simply time for a change.
Do not get me wrong – Islandnet has been great – it has been puzzling to me why (for me) that are the slowest loading pages on the internet. My customers and readers simply cannot wait 10 to 20 seconds – sometimes minutes for the pages of my sites to load. Additionally, I will be keeping my Islandnet accounts very much alive as instant back up for my own new ISP that I have created – I do still believe in product loyalty and keeping “largely good” relationships intact.
So, I have moved over to Linode.com where I am my own ISP maintaining my own virtual cloud servers – 10 times the firepower and arguably 5 times the speed – for around the same coin – with tons of space to spare.
My bottom line folks is keeping my websites fast and accessible to my readers – no excuses, no technical foul ups, no mysteries…
I do not “do the web” merely as a pass time. I have a message and lots of media to share – and if there are black-outs, I want to be the one responsible for it.
Enjoy the new experience on DXer.ca and Coffeecrew.com for starters. More to come.
And now I can concentrate on getting some new content out there. Thank you for your patience!
Shaming the forum/comment referral spammers - chapter 1 · Saturday February 23, 2013 by colin newell
Forum spam and website defacement in the form of comment/blog/forum unsolicited shills and ads cost webmasters and editors millions of dollars a year.
I got so fed up with it on one of my websites that I instituted a new registration policy that requires an authentic e-mail address for the user to post anything on my site – As a result I have been regularly harvesting the most notorious of these vandals – with fresh e-mails ready to post to sites like: http://www.stopforumspam.com/ their mission to out these shameful crumbs and the large corporations that they work for.
Here are some examples of actual authenticated e-mail addresses that were used to register on one of my websites that would likely vandalize, deface and spam my forums with referral ads:
reoton@onlinepharmacy-levitra.com – via@viagranowdirect.com – xcvss@lvbagsjapan.com – weeraitale@gmail.com (username – buy zithromax ) – lfqaq@louisvuittonhandbagsprices.info – kevin@onlinepharmacy-order.com –
Forum and comment spammers cost us web folks millions of dollars in clean up every year – they are the lowest form of life on the World wide web and need to be shamed and stopped. They benefit by riding on the success of popular websites and are, sadly, a common method for large corporations to cheaply get their message out.
I have e-mailed hundreds of companies over the years asking why they roam the internet defacing websites to improve their bottom line: Quite often they respond with “We did not know this was going on…” or “We will definitely get to the bottom of this!” I have even been threatened with a law suit after outing a series of forum spammers on the very website they were spamming!
Like I said, they are the lowest form of internet life.
How can you help? Visit support sites like StopForumSpam and out these hucksters and their billionaire partners.
(Reboot) Papardelle Pasta with Scallops and lemon brown butter sauce #2 · Sunday February 17, 2013 by colin newell
We loved this dish so much that we took another swing at it — with improvements!
Put Pasta (fresh or dried) on to boil – enough for 2 people
In a heated saute pan – medium high, melt 4 tablespoons of butter.
Cook butter for 6 minutes until browned. This is called brown butter.
Meanwhile toast 1/4 cup of fine bread crumbs.
Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the brown butter over the toasted bread crumbs – toss to coat.
Take 5 large sea scallops – cut into quarters – add to brown butter – and cook until
“cooked through” about 1 minute.
Remove pan from heat – stir in 2 tablespoons mince garlic and 4 tablespoons squeezed lemon.
Pour scallops and brown butter sauce over drained pasta.
Add the bread crumbs + fresh chopped parsley or cilantro and toss to combine.
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with wine and garlic bread.
Baked Oysters au Gratin · Monday February 11, 2013 by colin newell
Who does not like a good Oyster bake-up from time to time. Our local fish vendor had local Oysters on sale so we thought, what to heck – here is the recipe we used.
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 (8 oz.) tubs oysters, drained
3 Tbsp. white wine or vermouth
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Brush a 9” x 13” baking dish with 2 Tbsp. of the butter.
Set the oysters in the baking dish.
Combine the wine, lemon juice and garlic in a small bowl. Spoon this mixture over the oysters. Combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, oregano, salt and pepper in a second small bowl.
Sprinkle this mixture over the oysters and then drizzle them with the remaining butter. Bake for 12 to14 minutes, or until bubbly and golden.
Serve with Foccacia bread, oil and vinegar.
