Site updates, stardate -315091.84:

I've been getting spam comments on this site here and there, and at a certain point the hassle of banning IPs, manually deleting comments, and manually forcing the RSS feeds to update (instead of the RSS feed being generated upon each request, I have a cronjob that checks every 15 minutes for new stuff and creates a new static file if necessary, so I can let Apache worry about 304 codes, etc.) outweighed that of implementing some sort of human detection system. I had just read something about reCaptcha and integrated it into commenting here. Then I stopped getting spam comments for a while (even after I took out the IP-banning code in anticipation of using a captcha), so I held off. They're started up again, so you'll have to type a word in two post a comment. Sorry for the bother and any unsightliness.

Further, I've added a little links stack. I don't like updating this site just for the sake of updating, and I don't like making a whole update just to share a neat link. I wrote a little pair of scripts (an Applescript on my machine, and a perl script on the webserver) to make it a simple key combo for me to add new links, and there you have it. I actually wrote this a while ago and have been adding new links, but was lackadaisical about implementing it on the site, so it's seeded with a few dozen links. You can see the latest five on the front news page, and the corpus on the links page (once I get around to writing it).

Some house stuff: here's a picture of the finished retaining wall. It has some oddities but I'm trying to get vines to overrun the whole thing, to cover them. Indoors, the bedroom is getting the full "down to the studs" treatment, and that should be wrapped up in the next fortnight.

Some work stuff: EHS hosted a robotics competition. SIUE used to put on their own fall competition for high schools, but they have since become a Botball regional site, so all of that effort and funding goes into that (for those of you not "in the know" of the southwest Illinois high school robotics competition scene, this was a Good Thing). We borrowed their RCX robot kits to lend out to participants and attempted our best approximation to their format. It turned out better than I had expected. A team of our freshmen ended up winning it, but we had no other placers in the top three. A perfect finish—we win the thing, but not a crushing defeat that leaves other schools thinking we rigged it.

So the other home improvement thing was that I had to fix my retaining wall. This one's a little boring so I'll make it quick: the wall was leaning out and the city said to fix it, so I cut it to half height and made a little terrace. Violà.

It's not quite done yet. The corner (far right in that picture) needs a few blocks cut to specific lengths, which will be done over the holiday.

1. Get a whiskey barrel and cut the top off (inhale deeply). Place it beneath a gutter.
2. Put a garden hose spigot near the bottom.
3. Run a hose from the barrel to a soaker hose in your garden.
4. Snake the soaker hose through the garden.

I did this mostly for aesthetic value. For me to save water like a hippie it would have to rain, say, every fourth day over the summer (rain falls and waters the garden, dry day, use collected rain in barrel to water garden, dry day, GOTO 10), which does not happen in these parts.

I plan to eventually put another barrel at the other downspout in the back of the house, and hook that in to the other end of the soaker hose. While it will roughly double my reservoir, I think the system will still classify as a novelty as far as water conservation is concerned.