Category Archives: Thoughts

Spam This Post – It’s Protected By Cleantalk

Spam is one of those things on the web that no matter what, you can’t really escape from it.  I’ve been posting stuff on the web for years, helped moderate a number of forums etc and always Spam is a problem.

Chicken Spam

I have this WordPress site you’re reading this post on, and two Drupal sites that I maintain.  One of those Drupal sites I do my very best to keep it out of Google, it’s just a personal blog with information only I and maybe my family care about.  So it’s got a robots.txt on it and a number of HTTP Headers that are designed to stop it getting any traffic.

Still it gets Spam.  I’ve been writing and posting in that Diary for over 20 years now, so it’s been around a while.  For ages I just deleted Spam as it came in, there was only one or two posts a month if even that.  Then just as it started to get really bad, along came Mollom.  Mollom was a great web service that you just plugged in your Drupal instance and it would flag any new content as either Good, Bad or “Maybe”.  Anything Maybe you had to manually review to ensure you weren’t hiding good content.  Mollom was an excellent free service, but after many years Acquia decided that it wasn’t a Core Product and terminated it.  There’s a great blog post by Dries talking about it and its eventual demise.

The sad, dead Mollom Drupal Plugin

Once it died, neither of my Drupal sites were Spam protected anymore and of course the Spam rolled in.  I tried a few different things in that timeframe, mostly either “Anti-Bot” type plugins, or Captchas.  Captcha seemed like the best solution, but I hated that on this very wordpress blog, whenever I went to login to the Admin panel I would be greeted with a picture where I had to click traffic lights and all that nonsense.  And so I moved to hCaptcha and it seemd to be a bit better, but then once again the Spam started rolling in.  Not really a surprise when you realise there’s plenty of Captcha Solving Services available.  I guess it’s profitable to pay the small fee to be able to post Spam.

Ugh! So again I was back to square one, and even for a time turned off comments on the popular posts on this site that were getting spam.  Then I got annoyed and went hunting for a solution and that’s when I discovered Cleantalk.

The first thing I was impressed with is there’s a plugin for both WordPress AND Drupal.  With WordPress being the primary blogging platform a lot of people use, I was glad to see Drupal (Which I think is superior myself, but they serve different audiences) hadn’t been forgotten about.

The WordPress Plugin is super easy:

Cleantalk WordPress Plugin

You install it, paste in your key provided by the cleantalk website and off you go.  You’re protected from Spam.  You can click on “advanced settings” if really need to tweak some settings when you’re using a WordPress Caching plugin, or some of the e-Commerce modules.  The Cleantalk WordPress module has settings to make sure all different types of WordPress sites are supported out of the box.

Drupal is a similar story:

Drupal Cleantalk Plugin

Again it’s very easy to setup, you put in your API key and tweak a few settings to how you need them for your setup, and away you go.  Your site is protected against Spam!

As I said, I’ve got 3 sites.  2 Drupal and 1 WordPress.  To see the status of your Spam Protection you just log into the Cleantalk Portal and you get a nice simple overview of your sites:

Cleantalk Admin Panel

From there you can see how many Spams were blocked before they were even attempted (SpamFirewall), for those spammers lucky enough to get through the SpamFirewall, how many Approved or Spam comments were processed and dealt with.

The SpamFirewall Logs

The SpamFirewall Logs

I’ve only been using Cleantalk for a couple of weeks thus far, so I don’t have a lot of Approved comments (my blogs aren’t that popular I guess!) but I sure have a lot of blocked spam.  Handbag sales, do I want a video etc.  All blocked.  No longer do I have to keep comments disabled, no longer do I have to delete comments as soon as they’re posted etc.  You can see here the content that Spammers tried to post being denied:

Spam being blocked by Cleantalk

Overall I’m very happy with Cleantalk.  It’s fitted in where Mollom left off – automated, hassle free Spam prevention.  I think the cost of the service is reasonable, even for a hobbiest like me.  I’ve asked a few support questions and both times the support people were very quick to help and offer solutions, and that’s always a good thing.

One final note: I signed up before my trial period (7 days) was over.  In doing so, I was granted an extra 6 months free, on top of the 3 years I purchased.  In writing this review, I will submit it to Cleantalk and they’ll give me a bonus 12 months of Spam protection.  So this post is, in a way, sponsored.  But the reason I’d like a bonus 12 months is because I’m very happy with the service they’re providing!  So much so I wrote this post.

Thanks for reading.  Now go and protect your website from Spam the easy way with Cleantalk!

Cleantalk Logo

Tim

Why Don’t They Write Back?

Hi Tim,

You earlier showed interest in video creation for Muppetz. Haven’t heard back from you in a while.

Me and You can discuss and also plan more affordable + effective Video Strategies.

If there is a more suitable Budget, I can share examples that can be created within the same OR If there is a type of video you liked on our website, I can discuss similar ideas and budgets.

Thanks,

Be Awesome
Orko || Director & Producer
PH +18664483073


Is it ever the RIGHT time though?
Leaves fall from the sky this time of year, the hot air balloons come crashing down all around me while I scream internally “I NEED A VIDEO OF MY LIVER WEARING PYJAMAS”

Has anyone made a video of them eating a whole ream of A4 paper?

Now might be the time for us to shine!! I want to optimise my Search Engine Optimisation, are videos and sitemaps.xml meant to be deployed at the same time or should I work on my same origin policy?

Christ I love Videos,

Tim

SUPERMARKET NEWS

Hi There!

I have some questions about Supermarket News, I am hoping someone there could answer them for me.

Firstly, the banner says “TRUSTED, RESPECTED, PREFERRED” – I have no issue with it being trusted, nor respected.  But preferred?  I mean I don’t think there’s anything else in the marketplace quite LIKE Supermarket News, is there?  I would say you can’t claim to be preferred if you’re the only game in town.  Or there is a RIVAL supermarket happenings publication I’m not aware of?

Second, WHY IS THE TWITTER FEED ALWAYS SHOUTING AT US.  WHY??? https://twitter.com/NZSupermarket
The content is important, no doubt.  But you don’t need to keep shouting at us, do you?  I mean it’s Supermarket News, not CoronaVirus updates.

Finally, your website isn’t https compatible.  It gives certificate errors.  You might want to contact your webhost about this.

Finally, my email is repeated in a format that the @NZSupermarket Twitter person will be able to understand, case they’re the person who gets this (HI!)

HI THERE!

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT SUPERMARKET NEWS, I AM HOPING SOMEONE THERE COULD ANSWER THEM FOR ME.

FIRSTLY, THE BANNER SAYS “TRUSTED, RESPECTED, PREFERRED” – I HAVE NO ISSUE WITH IT BEING TRUSTED, NOR RESPECTED.  BUT PREFERRED?  I MEAN I DON’T THINK THERE’S ANYTHING ELSE IN THE MARKETPLACE QUITE LIKE SUPERMARKET NEWS, IS THERE?  I WOULD SAY YOU CAN’T CLAIM TO BE PREFERRED IF YOU’RE THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN.  OR THERE IS A RIVAL SUPERMARKET HAPPENINGS PUBLICATION I’M NOT AWARE OF?

SECOND, WHY IS THE TWITTER FEED ALWAYS SHOUTING AT US.  WHY??? HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/NZSUPERMARKET
THE CONTENT IS IMPORTANT, NO DOUBT.  BUT YOU DON’T NEED TO KEEP SHOUTING AT US, DO YOU?  I MEAN IT’S SUPERMARKET NEWS, NOT CORONAVIRUS UPDATES.

FINALLY, YOUR WEBSITE ISN’T HTTPS COMPATIBLE.  IT GIVES CERTIFICATE ERRORS.  YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONTACT YOUR WEBHOST ABOUT THIS.

Fondest Regards,
Tim Harman

Thanks Tim.

I’ll look into the SHOUTING on twitter.

As regards magazines – there are two b2b in the market and about 45 overseas publications that are the same.

As for website ditto above, I’ll look into it.

Can I ask why you are getting in touch with us?

I haven’t heard of you, but then we’ve only been in business since 1923.

Cheers,

(Supermarket News Person)

Hi (Supermarket News Person)!

I only ask because I like to ask questions 😊

You wouldn’t have heard of me, I’ve only been in business since 1976 when I was born, but I didn’t even move to New Zealand until 2000.  Yes, I’m an annoying Australian. I work in computers and have nothing at all to do with supermarkets.  Well, I used to do nightfill at Purity (now Woolworths) in Sandy Bay, Tasmania back in ~1996 or so, but I don’t think that qualifies me to know much about supermarkets (except how dirty they are out the back, erk!)

I appreciate the reply, most people, strangely enough, never seem reply to my questions!

Much Love,

Tim

Not 2 hours after I sent this email, the Twitter feed stopped shouting at us:

Oppression at Goodman Fielder

Hello,

Today I purchased a Tuckers Ridge Pie. Overall it was very tasty and I thoroughly enjoyed it, however I became alarmed when reading the back of the pie’s packaging.It states on the back of the pie packet that “We’re up before the sun perfecting our classic recipes” and I got a chill down my spine. Was this a thinly veiled cry for help? Is a product development team at Goodman Fielder being held against their will, forced to rise before the sun every morning, pressured to make what was, in my opinion, an already excellent pie even better?

It goes on to state that they are “continuing our worldwide search for new ingredients to storm the mouths of New Zealand pie-hards”. Wonderful prose indeed, but why do they have to get up so exhaustingly early to do this? Do they live a very long way away from the Goodman Fielder office and have an extensive commute time?

The more I think about it, the more questions I have!

1) Who’s the “We” in “We’re”. Is it the pastry chefs? The team making the fillings? The people who print the pie packets? Or is is ALL Goodman Fielder staff being forced awake pre-sunup? Did you, person who has to read (and unfortunately, probably respond to) this email, get up before the sun today? Was it of your own accord? Given it’s Summer at present, this means the sun is rising at approx 5:40am. Ouch.

2) Are they prised out of bed in the dark because they must catch the first plane of the day, made to scour distant locations for these prized exotic ingredients? (Are they given a decent travel budget if so?)

3) Finally and I think this is the most important question I have: Do they get to go to bed early?

Thank you for any reassurance you are able to give me.

Kind Regards,
Tim Harman

PS: If your emails are being monitored and you’re unable to respond in plain text about the oppressive conditions you’re working under, just capitalise every important letter in your reply and I’ll decode it and raise the alarm.

Jesus Water

Hi,

I am writing to complain.

You have called your product “WaterDrops” when in fact you should have named them “JesusDrops” because they actually turn water into Wine.

Well OK maybe not Wine, but they give water some flavour and taste and that’s pretty much a miracle. The fact you have 12 flavours does, in my opinion, count as 12 different miracles and therefore I conclude that all of you should in fact be indoctrinated as Saints.

Writing to the Pope to express this opinion is in fact the next thing to do, after sending this email.

Summary: Water Drops are great, I love them. Bravo.

Tim

Dearest Tim,

It is true, in the beginning God made heaven and earth. And the earth was without flavour, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the drinks industry then the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said, Let there be VitalZing WaterDrops: and there was VitalZing WaterDrops.

The true ingredients of VitalZing WaterDrops are forbidden fruits from the Garden of Eden, holy water (which can actually magically be turned into red wine by our man upstairs), and 3 hail Mary’s mixed by a Virgin Mary who is world renowned for creating something incredible from nothing

I’d like to leave you with this final thought.
John 3:16 (slightly altered) “For God so loved WaterDrops, that he gave them to his one and only Son, and whoever believes in them shall not perish but have eternal awesomeness.

Amen

PS Thank you so much for making my day with your email. It’s hilarious!

New ParkMate Options

From: ParkMate
Sent: Friday, 28 September 2018 12:20 PM
To: tim@muppetz.com
Subject: Host Park has launched and check out the newly added features in ParkMate. Be sure to update on 02/10/18

NEW PARKMATE
FEATURES AVAILABLE FROM 02/10/18 UPDATE
Have you ever paid for parking with the wrong rego….

perhaps selected the same product twice….

or had a transaction declined resulting in an invalid parking session?

If you’ve ever had to contact us for a refund request, we’ve felt your pain so have made some key changes to help reduce the need for refund requests.

Active Rego Change
If you have multiple vehicle registrations loaded to your ParkMate account and accidentally start a parking session with the wrong rego, you now have 15 minutes to change to the correct rego. You can change rego by selecting your current session and then adding your correct registration.

Duplicate Products
We have removed the possibility of purchasing duplicate parking sessions. No longer will you be able to accidentally purchase the same parking product, therefore only paying for the session you use!

Multiple Payment Options
You now have the ability to load multiple credit or debit cards against your ParkMate account. You can simply switch between payment options on the confirmation screen – just in case one of your cards is running a little low on funds.


Hi!

Thank you for your email.

Some options I would like to see:

  1. The app hears when you get a parking ticket and automatically transcribes all the swear words into a nice email and sends it to the owner of the parking space.
  2. A sister app called “ParkEnemy” where you can buy someone else’s ticket off them in real time (at an inflated price to make it less likely to happen, and they don’t know it’s happened), thus ensuring that person gets a ticket.  Used when you see some idiot in their BMW taking up 2 spaces, or you just want to see your workmate crying at their desk.
  3. Upgrade of all parking metres to say things like “Hey you’re looking mighty fine today Tim” as you walk past them.  If you have just paid $20 or more for a park it’s even more complementary “Those glasses really suit you Tim, have you lost weight?” etc.
  4. The app detects when you’re riding a bicycle and sends abusive text messages to your friends “Look at me being all high and mighty riding a bike, I should be in a car like normal people, who am I, Lance Armstrong??”

I have more ideas if you’d like to hear them.

Kind Regards,

Tim Harman

ETA Thick Cut Peri-Peri Hot

Hello,

I am just writing to express my appreciation for your Nandos Peri-Peri Hot Thick Cut chips.

As a 41 year old man, there are not many times I use the expression “These are bangin'” but I think in this case it is warranted that, upon tasting these chips I exclaimed to myself in the car “Damn, these are some bangin’ chips”

I don’t know what I enjoy more, the delicious spicy flavour they impart, or the fact that I know should my 3yo son try and sneak one of “Daddy’s Chips” when he knows I’m not looking, he’ll start screaming and never do it again.

Probably the flavour, now I think about it, but the “will-never-eat-my-chips-again” son is a close second.

Anyway I thought I should just write and let you know these chips are bangin’. Oh sorry there I go again.

Bang on,

Tim

 

Hi

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and providing us with feedback on our product.

We are delighted to hear that our products meet your expectations.

We will pass your comments on to our Quality and Marketing team for their review and we hope you continue to enjoy our fine products.

SubwayNZ’s Social Media Drought

Sent:

Hello,

Whilst I am aware the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to a corporate such as yourself, I feel this request is important enough to warrant an exception and I will ring up the Ombudsman if one isn’t granted.

My very reasonable request is as follows:

Why doesn’t the @subwaynz Twitter account tweet anymore?

I welcome a reply at your earliest convenience.

Yours in a love of random meat products slapped between two bits of bread then drowned in sauces and cheese,

Tim H

Received:

Hi Tim,

Thank you for getting in touch,

We are flattered to see you have missed us, we are currently reviewing all Social media platforms. We should be back soon.

Kind regards

R

Customer Service Team

Street Snack Chilli Con Carne and Rice

Street Snack

A gritty, urban meal.

Hi,

Love this product. Very tasty, chuck a bit of hot sauce on, Bob’s Ya Uncle. Can’t go wrong.

However I am confused about the product terminology. It claims to be a “Street Snack” but I am unsure what this is in reference to.

Attempts to heat/cook the product on “the street” would fail as it requires a microwave. I have not tried it, but no doubt using a BBQ, Open Fire or other “street” type heating methods would result in the plastic container melting.

Interpreting it as the product having some form of street credibility also fall down on further investigation, as most people whom I consider to be “hip”, “with it” and/or “street smart” have not heard of this product. It is possible of course I am not cool enough or know the right kind of people, but I am fairly certain that this product is not known “on the street” and thus have ruled out this meaning as well.

Therefore I am stuck: What does Street Snack mean?

No doubt I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to make this enquiry so perhaps future packets produced could have a little “Street Snack(*)” and then a little bit of tiny writing down the bottom you almost have to go cross-eyed to read, that explains what exactly this text means.

I thank you for your time today and look forward to your reply.

Kind Regards,
Tim Harman

(*) Also it never crossed my mind that you might mean the product is made from “the street” as the street is mostly made of concrete and rocks, and this product does not appear to contain anything like that.

Date: 09.11.2017

Dear Mr Harman,

Thank you for your recent e-mail, we appreciate you taking your time to contact SunRice regarding this matter.

This SunRice range was inspired by the varieties of street food available around the world and so we named the product according as a “Street Snack”.

We trust you will continue to use and enjoy our quality SunRice products with every confidence.

Yours sincerely,

Liza
Consumer Relations

Panasonic DMR-HWT260GN

Review: Panasonic DMR-HWT260

This is my review of the Panasonic DMR-HWT260.  When I went to buy one, there weren’t any reviews so I hope this might fill a gap if you’re looking to buy one. Keep in mind when reading this that I’ve already bought one, and people who own something are much less likely to point out flaws in something that they’ve made the decision to buy.

I must also point out that this is the New Zealand model, not the Australian one.  Features like FreeviewPlus and a number of other settings are New Zealand specific.  If you read the instructions you’ll get a feel for the differences, none of them are major.  Also I expect (but can’t confirm) that most of the features/comments here will apply to the Panasonic DMR-PWT560 as well, it’s the same looking device except with built-in Blu-Ray and a smaller (500Gb) recording capacity.

Summary

This is a great PVR.  I bought this to replace our MySky HDI box and the interface is very similar. It has a simple way to navigate around a grid of current and upcoming programs and it’s easy to select one and either record a single episode or “series-link” to record all the episodes.

It works well, is fast at all it’s primary functions (more on speed later) and the image quality is clear.

Overall Verdict: Excellent.

Unboxing

People who do “unboxings” are stupid and annoying.  If you really want to see someone taking an object out of a box you need to seriously examine your life choices. (Yes, I am nearly 40.)

Features

  • Record two shows at once using its built in Tuners
  • Can record to an external HDD as well as the internal 1TB one.
  • Play back media from a local DLNA server, or USB drives.
  • Built in Wifi, with a Wired option as well
  • Selection of Internet Apps, including Netflix, Quikflix, TuneIn Radio, Youtube
  • Undocumented “Chromecast” abilities.

Review Details

This review was done with v1.00 of the firmware.  There haven’t been an updates or patches since we’ve had the box, but we’ve only had it 3 weeks.  I’m approaching this review from the point of view of comparing it to MySky HDi which we’ve had for a number of years – I suspect that’s why a lot of people will be looking at a PVR like this.

Good Things

  1. Records TV just fine.
  2. Nice clear picture, HD quality is excellent.
  3. User interface is pretty good!  It’s easy to see what’s coming up, easy to schedule something to be recorded and the “keyword” feature looks quite good, with the below caveat about how annoying not having a proper keyboard is.
  4. Built in WiFi works well, though I’ve since connected it to the wired network.  I’m a firm believer if something can be plugged in vs WiFi it should be!
  5. Lots of options to compress recordings (as they’re being recorded, or after the fact) to save Disc space.  Though a 1TB will probably take a little while to fill up!
  6. DLNA playback is great, we have a big media library on a server and the ability to play pretty much anything from it is handy.  Want to watch a movie? A few clicks (in fact a couple too many for my liking) and it’s on.
  7. It has built in “Chromecast” support for some apps.  I can be watching something on Youtube on my Android phone then “Cast it” to the Panasonic.  The Youtube app loads up and the video in question plays.  Very handy. Note: This is not screen mirroring, this is the Android phone telling the Panasonic “Load your Youtube app up and start playing this clip” – This seems to be an undocumented feature (it’s not the same as Miracast)
  8. The Netflix app works well.  Again as above you can select the movie on your Android phone and then “cast it” onto the Panasonic.  If you have an Apple TV or some other “better” dedicated Netflix box then I think you’ll find you use that rather than the Panasonic, but if you haven’t got a Netflix device already then this works fantastically.
  9. The remote control has the ability to also function as your TV’s remote control, so you can turn on/off the TV and change its inputs & volume using a single remote.
  10. It’s quite small and lightweight.

Bad Things

The followings things are things about the device that have annoyed me to some degree:

  1. Pausing or Rewinding Live TV takes a few seconds, during which time you think nothing is happening.  It’s very slow and is a very confusing thing!  And then when you’ve paused it, you’re now in this new “mode” where certain limitations apply.  This means you often get the message “You must return to Live TV to do X/Y/Z”.  Which is easy enough, you just press stop.  But compared to the seamlessness of SkyTV’s MySky box, it’s quite clunky.
  2. Entering text into fields to login (Like TVNZ’s Freeview service or the “keyword” PVR feature) is a pain in the butt.  It’d be nice if there was a way to pair a Bluetooth Keyboard with the device, or plug one in.  But it doesn’t support that (Note: I have not tried plugging a USB Keyboard in)
  3. You can’t keep watching something using the DLNA service when a program is being recorded.  This means it’ll “kick you out” of a DLNA session to start a timed recording.  Annoying when the kids are watching Peppa Pig but something I want recorded comes on.  Seeing as the box states “Watch Netflix while recording Live TV!” I find this limitation bizarre and hope it can be removed in a Firmware Update.
  4. The Internet/Net applications are pretty slow to start. You’ll press the TVNZ On Demand button and wait ~5 seconds or something to happen.  This is to be expected really, the box doesn’t sell itself majorly on its Internet features, apart from Netflix.  But some indication it’s received your input and is doing something would be nice.
  5. Freeview Plus pops up a slide out menu every time you change channel to one supported by Freeview Plus.  This is useful maybe the first 3 times and from then on just pisses you off.  No way to turn it off without disabling Freeview Plus (entirely) in the settings, which thankfully is a setting.  The Freeview Plus menu/guide is also confusing for people: Is this the same guide? What does “starring” something do, does that mean it records it (Answer: No).  It’s basically a second, differently laid out, guide.  Very confusing.  Apparently all Freeview Plus enabled boxes are like this though.
  6. Sometimes the “Exit” button is confusing.  Do you press Exit? Or the Return arrow? Or do you press stop?  Depending on what function you’re in, it can have different consequences.  To stop watching something in DLNA and return to the Media Menu, you have to press stop.  Otherwise you exit out of the DLNA service back to Tuner.
  7. No volume control on the Panasonic remote.  Yes, I know having separate volume controls is silly (people end up turning the sound RIGHT UP on the amp and then using the input box’s volume control) but it’s a handy feature, saving you having to have multiple remotes to control things.  This is especially annoying for us as we don’t use the TV’s volume for the sound, we have a dedicated amplifier.
  8. Occasional 1 second picture flicker (goes black then comes back), like a HDMI negotiation issue.  Sometimes happens a few times in a 10 minute interval, sometimes we can go all night and not see one.  2 other people who own this have reported it as well.  Only seems to happen when viewing Live TV, haven’t seen it with DLNA or when using menus etc.  Someone has suggested turning off the FreeviewPlus feature also fixes the issue, but I haven’t confirmed this yet.

Some of the items in “Bad Things” (especially point 8) could easily be addressed in future firmware updates and I hope they are.  It’s a great box with a few minor niggles, none of which really get in the way.

Final Thoughts

It has a hilarious little “app store” built in where you can download a tiny smattering of extra media applications, most of which look terrible.  It has a clunky web browser built in, given the feedback above about no keyboard you can imagine how fun it is to use.  That said, it does render things very well.  But why would you?

It’d be nice to have a way to quickly jump to the DLNA server folder that you use all the time, at the moment it’s ~7 button presses to get there every time.  A favourites menu would be god here.  There’s a lot of places where a little bit more thought could have been put into how people are really going to use this device.  Some settings are tucked away in the main settings, while some are accessed by pressing the “Option” button while watching TV. The core functions are great and are well thought out, it’s all the add-on bits that are a little bit rougher around the edges.

Overall a really good box that works well.  There’s certainly some areas for improvement, but none of them I’d consider defects, just things that can annoy you a bit.  There are cheaper boxes on the market that have the same capabilities (Especially the DishTV aerialBox T2200) but it they seem to be plagued with major firmware issues.