ThePickards
standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist

I thought I’d do something that I don’t do very often and talk specifically about other blogs I’ve been reading.
Well, I’ve been enjoying hearing about Bruce Lawson’s Holiday In Cambodia (& Thailand), as well as the fact that he threw in a Dead Kennedys reference. Nice one, Bruce. I did wonder idly whether he’d appeared [...]

Read: A Reading Roundup »

Someone used my contact form on my site on the 9th of August to manually send me a note which read:
I’m a digital marketing manager at Holler.

Here at Holler we recognise The Pickards as a great informative online resource for all things Sci- Fi. As we are working a huge amount of movie and cinematic [...]

Read: Holler Back Boy »

As it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve updated my site, my spam filters have been doing their usual job of allowing pretty much all the non-spam comments to get through unmoderated (with a couple of exceptions, which I’ll come to in my next post); immediately recognising about 90% of the spam and dumping [...]

Read: Another Spam Selection »

I probably have over £10,000 in fake currency in my home, in a mixture of Monopoly money and the kids ‘bank of toyland’ stuff.
What, you wouldn’t call that fake money? Neither would I, as it happens. I’d call it ‘toy money’. I’d only refer to it as ‘fake’ or ‘counterfeit’ if I believed that [...]

Read: My Fake Currency Stash »

I’m not a natural cynic, it may surprise you to learn. I tend to see the good side of people; I tend to assume that the people I deal with are honest, fair and decent people. But equally I’m cautious. I’m aware that many people aren’t honest, and therefore I’m not likely to assume that [...]

Read: Is It Time To Teach Cynicism In Schools? »

As some of you know, I’m a moderator for AccessifyForum. Basically what this entails is trying to delete spam posts from the forum, and attempting to prevent the more heated debates from turning into blazing arguments and personal attacks. I’m probably moderately successful on both counts.
Except today, I noticed a rather odd piece of spam.
It [...]

Read: Identity Theft: What Not To Do »

Just thought I’d share with you some of the more interesting spam comments that have been heading my way recently:
I find new link about ringtones! What you think about thisxeessxxx
I don’t think it’s particularly surprising, or interesting for that matter. What puzzles me however is why after suggesting you’ve found a new link about ring [...]

Read: Another spam fritter… »

as I’ve just been informed by someone from the “astral mission” that:
We are in The Apocalypse, The Apocalypse has begun.Third World War will beguine possible in 06.06.2007
Hmm. So far as I am aware, there is no particular reason to believe the world will end on the 6th of June. It will be the end of [...]

Read: Don’t book your holidays… »

…or is anyone else noticing a significant increase in spam commenting at the moment? They aren’t getting through my spam filters, but they are reducing the chances of me spotting anyone genuine who’s been marked as spam by mistake. After all, there’s only so many messages you can read with “visit my thai nude [...]

Read: Is it just me… »

I got this spam:
i need a list of 40 buyable things beginning with A, can anyone help?!?!moi
Moi? Pretentious or what?
On the one hand, if it’s spam, it’s crap spam, as the post contained no links and the comment poster’s site didn’t actually exist. Therefore I’m going to assume that for some reason best known to [...]

Read: Spam Meme »