Blog spam

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 19 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

I like to receive comments on this blog – it’s always good to hear when my ramblings have helped someone out, or if someone has something else to add to something that I’ve written about – but I hate blog spam.

A few months back, someone left a comment on a post pointing to his own website (and then got upset when the Google index appeared to quote him out of context). I felt sorry for him (and the irony is that any links in comments here are tagged with rel=”nofollow” so they don’t increase PageRank and other search engine placement link counts).

This evening, I’ve spent quite a bit of time removing comments from posts that were just blatant links to suspicious websites, so, it’s with regret that I’ve had to enable comment moderation. I won’t screen comments (except to remove the obvious spam) but please bear with me if it takes a while for a comment to appear on the site – sometimes it might take a couple of days for me to approve a comment whilst other times it might be a few minutes. I still allow anonymous comments and I haven’t yet resorted to word verification – let’s hope I don’t have to, but please bear with me.

Whilst on the subject of spam, to all the people of the world who send e-mail because they think I need medication to help with (erhum) “personal problems”, I have a young son and another baby on the way so don’t think there are any issues there. Also, I don’t need cheap software, loans, or advice on hot stocks. All you’re doing is giving me some messages against which to test the intelligent message filter in Exchange Server 2003 (more on that soon).

Grrr.

New domain name – markwilson.it

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 19 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A few weeks back, I registered a new domain name for this blog, along with my other IT-related activities. markwilson.co.uk will still remain in place (and will be the primary domain name, so as to preserve my Google PageRank) but over a period of time (as some page re-writes will be required) the IT-related content will also be made available at markwilson.it.

The .it top level domain is intended for Italian sites but as, in English, IT is also an abbreviation for information technology, it makes sense to register it for my IT-related activities.

EuroDNS
It’s the first time that I’ve used the EuroDNS domain name registration service and I’m pleased to say that the process was extremely smooth (despite La Naming Authority Italiana‘s insistence on the use of a written contract, which delayed things for a while). EuroDNS were able to send me the contract electronically (together with an English translation) and I was able to send the signed copy back in electronic form too. Something else I found (which is extremely important as domain name registrars are generally notorious for poor support) was that, after the application had gone into a black hole at La Naming Authority Italiana, EuroDNS were helpful and responded to my e-mails to get things moving again.

Blog updates now available via e-mail

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 19 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Readers of the HTML version of this blog may have noticed the FeedBlitz details which appeared yesterday under the syndication header on the left side of the screen. FeedBlitz is a service which I’m trying out to provide a daily digest of blog updates via e-mail. Hardline bloggers may not see a need for this (after all, isn’t RSS the transport of choice for bloggers?) but e-mail is one of the Internet’s killer applications and I quite like the idea of getting a single daily e-mail which details the updates to the blogs that I read – and it’s a great idea for people who might be interested in hearing when a site is updated, but who don’t have a feed reader, don’t understand what RSS is, or are just generally confused by anything other than basic e-mail and web browsing services.

If you would like to receive updates in this way, enter your e-mail address below and click the subscribe button for a daily digest of new posts to this blog:

Apologies for the recent lack of blog posts

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 19 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

I few minutes back I published some rules for blogging and one of the guidance notes was to post regularly. That particular guidance could be interpreted a number of ways (once a week; daily; fast and frequent; or just whenever there is time) and this blog tends to fall into the latter category but even so, regular readers might have noticed the output level drop recently. This is down to a number of things including a recent holiday; returning to work to find a greatly increased workload; and a 10-month old son with a cold (the result of which is a lack of sleep for his parents, directly impacting upon my desire to spend my evenings writing blog posts, even if it does seem to be affecting my Google PageRank).

Even if the quantity of posts has dropped slightly, I hope the quality is still there, so if you keep reading, I’ll keep blogging (but it might sometimes be a few days between posts).

Before I sign off, thanks to everyone who has left a comment against a post. As I highlighted recently when I added the rules for comments, I don’t have time to respond to every request for help; however, I do read all of the comments and it’s always good to hear when something I’ve written has been useful for someone else out there in cyberspace.

New job at Fujitsu Services – no longer blogging at Conchango

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 20 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Over the last few years, I’ve been a consultant for a major IT Services company; worked for a UK-based support services company (and hated most of my time there); contracted for Australia’s largest independent magazine distributor; worked in-house designing and project managing a Europe-wide infrastructure refresh for a major fashion design, marketing and retail organisation; and then I joined Conchango, a mid-sized consultancy which specialises in delivering technology-driven business solutions that incorporate the latest methodologies and technologies.

I’ve worked with Conchango, first as a client and then as a consultant, for about 3 and a half years in total but the time has come for me to move on. For anybody who lives within commuting distance of London or Surrey, enjoys the variety of work which consultancy offers, and who knows a significant amount about enterprise intelligence, interactive media, agile development and program management, or mobility, Conchango is a fantastic place to work. It feels a bit strange to be leaving a company that I still enjoy and which is packed with talented people but as Conchango’s focus shifts away from infrastructure services, I’ve decided to rejoin Fujitsu Services (it was ICL when I was there just over 5 years ago) to embrace a new role as a Senior Customer Solutions Architect, taking technical responsibility for IT infrastructure projects within their Architecture and Design Group.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most at Conchango (apart from being lucky enough to feature in the IT press) is that they encourage blogging (there’s a whole load of Conchango bloggers now) although my blog output has prompted some to comment on its volume and to say they almost expect to see what I had for breakfast appear next! One of my clients says he can find out what he’s been up to by reading these pages! I just hope that what I write is useful and that people enjoy reading it. Since last November, most of my posts here have been mirrored on my Conchango blog – from today, that will no longer be the case, and as far as I know, Fujitsu doesn’t have company-sponsored blogs, so this site is once again the single focus of my technology-related blogging (although I still hope to have the occasional article published on the Microsoft TechNet Industry Insiders blog).

I’ve got loads of stuff waiting for me to write about (but not much time to write it) – in the meantime, watch this space…

“Incessant infrastructure and tech gossip”

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 20 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

For a while now I’ve wanted a catchy subtitle for my blog (something descriptive, maybe with a touch of humour, and perhaps also a little bit thought provoking – like, for example, a “grey matter honeypot, distracting the mind with information overload“) but I’m just not witty enough to come up with one myself.

Well, now it looks like fellow Conchango blogger, Jamie Thomson, has come up with the goods for me in his latest post, where he describes my musings as “incessant infrastructure and tech gossip”. Well, it’s certainly descriptive!

Back with a new blog

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 20 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

I’ve been offline for a couple of weeks, on paternity leave after the birth of my son.

Now I’m back at work, and Conchango is encouraging its consultants to blog under their name. I’ll still post here, but anything work related will be mirrored on my new Conchango blog.