May 11th, 2011

Keeping Blog Spam At Bay (Akismet and WordPress)

Over at Simple Justice, Scott Greenfield had a nice little piece about a spammer claiming to go by the name of Tom Sanders. “Tom,” it seems, wants Greenfield to pay him money to leave blog comment spam. Greenfield — noting that he got 500 comment spams overnight — has some fun with this pathetic excuse for a human.

And so I wondered, how much blog comment spam do I get? I’ve had spam problems before, most irritatingly from law firms because they should know better than to outsource their marketing since it’s tied to ethics. But I don’t get as much as I used to.

Why has the problem seemed to diminish for me? After I changed over to WordPress from Blogger a year ago, my techie guy installed a widget called Akismet. Not only does it do a great job keeping out the spam — I just checked and saw 23,000+ were blocked in the last 60 days — but it has a great feature that I use that Blogger didn’t have when I left it.

And that feature is that, when spam comes through, I get the pleasure of marking it as spam. And Akismet learns from it. The info is sent to its central computer brain, and applies it to its database. In other words, when the spam comes in I get the satisfaction of knowing I am helping to block that loser from getting spam through to others. It is, as far as I can tell, the only good part about spam; I get to give the spammer an electronic kick in the shins.

Here is a little bit more about how it works:

When comments are submitted to your blog, the Akismet plugin analyses them, consults the Akismet servers, and if the comment is identified as spam, it moves the comment to your spam section. The comments remain there so that you can review them if you wish. If you do nothing, Akismet will delete it in 15 days, but if you review a comment and decide that it is not spam, when you click the not spam link, this sends details about the comment to the Akismet servers so that they can learn from your decisions. As more users put the service on their blogs, it gets better and better at identifying what is spam from what is not. Imagine the power behind that, and how much it could add to email spam suppression if they could apply that to email!

Of course, there is at least one law professor that actually likes spam. Go figure. I assume it’s because no one reads the blog and pays it much attention. So go follow Greenfield’s link and be sure to let said blogger know that, in the wise words of so many spammers: Your site is very useful. I will bookmark it for later use. Or, you can use the elegant prose of this literary giant:

If possible, as you on expertness, would you brainpower updating your blog with more information? It is hellishly utilitarian in behalf of me.

May 8th, 2011

Would Scalia Like The Original Supreme Court?

The poorly lit Old Supreme Court Chamber, as it existed on April 22, 2011 when I visited

Scott Greenfield reports that there are major problems over at the US Supreme Court due to ongoing renovation. Seems that the Court would like to continue using the building while the renovators due to their thing. Anyone that has ever lived in a house while it is being renovated can appreciate the predictable problems. As Greenfield notes (via a walled off Tony Mauro story):

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was making a presentation to foreign dignitaries at the court a few years ago when the sound of a hammer drill erupted nearby.

In 2006, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. was in the midst of a filming session when a noisy construction worker interrupted.

Vignettes like these from the long-running $75 million renovation of the court’s majestic building in Washington are central to a sharp dispute that has broken out between the construction company doing the work and the government agency overseeing the project.

Conflicts between the Court’s desire to continue using the building and the contractor wanting to get the job done have resulted in$40M in overruns. And some of that work has even taken place while the Court is in session:

In another incident in 2006, Grunley [Construction] workers were found using a hammer drill and pouring concrete while the court was in session.

“When questioned, Grunley’s superintendent was not even aware that it was a court day,” according to a report from the Architect of the Capitol.

So this is my humble suggestion, which should go over well with the originalists on the court: Use the original Court. It was used from 1810-1860 and sits vacant in the basement of the Capitol building across the street. Chief Justice John Marshall presided here, as did Roger Taney who succeeded him. The robe rack for Taney is still there, labeled with his name, and waiting for his ghost or a successor to come use it.

I visited two weeks ago, and took the pictures you see here. Yeah, it’s a bit dark and dungeon-like (hence the low quality picture quickly snapped with an iPhone), but hey, it’s original. Who can argue with that?

(More history and virtual tour at this Senate site)

May 7th, 2011

Alabama Tornado Victims (And Free Legal Help)

The killing of Osama bin Laden has overshadowed all other news. But that is to the detriment of Alabama tornado victims that were hit just days before, when over 300 people died.

The search for survivors continues.

And there is free legal help available:

Jon Lewis from Birmingham has the details.

The word should be spread, so that people know about it.

See also: Pro Bono Push Part of Alabama Tornado Recovery (National Law Journal)

May 5th, 2011

Charlie Crist, Personal Injury Lawyer

You may remember Charlie Crist. He was the governor of Florida. He’s moved on from politics now and gone to work for Morgan & Morgan, the largest personal injury firm in Florida.

Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Based on what I do for a living, you would expect me to support those that fight on behalf of consumers against behemoth insurance companies that treat people like files.

But I do have a bone to pick. It’s about his 10-second commercial:

I’m Charlie Crist. If you need help sorting out your legal issues as a result of an accident or insurance dispute, visit me at [email protected].

Now I understand it’s tough to create a quality personal injury commercial (and also tough to create a decent PI website, as I’ve discussed). But it can be done. And with that, I return you to the best PI commercials I have ever seen, from the New York firm of Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman: Power Company, Machete, and Song Stuck in Head.

And so, a note to Morgan & Morgan. You spend enormous sums of money advertising in Florida. You can do better than having a former governor do a 10-second spot that says “visit me.” If your ad agency lacks the creative juices to break out of the tired mold of “If you’ve been injured, blah, blah, blah,” then find a new agency where people have some imagination.

(Hat tip: Mitchell Senft)

April 28th, 2011

Linkworthy

Things I would write about if I only had the time…

Traffic deaths are at a stunning 60-year low. Can we blame the lawyers a little?

The New England Journal of Medicine on medical malpractice liability “reform;”

A New York appellate court upholds a multi-million dollar verdict for a man on the tracks that was hit by a subway;

Fantastical’ 9/11 Lawsuit Could Lead to Sanctions for Lawyer, 2nd Circuit Says; and a 9/11 wrongful death case goes to trial like a speed-chess match;

Twitter art. To Scott Greenfield. Part of Charon’s art series;

And Greenfield again on clients being referred to as “leads” by marketers. And he ain’t happy ’bout that;

From the “You learn something new every day Department,” my former lawyer Ted Frank was one of the people that vetted Sarah Palin for the Vice Presidency. And had I known that about Ted when I hired him, well, uhh, I would have hired him anyway (via Point of Law);

Today’s trial practice tip: Learn how to tell a story. A subject I visited four years (!) ago: Telling the story from the middle;

The press reported that Obama released his birth certificate. But they all seemed to blow the story. It was Hawaii that did;

Want to run a half-marathon trail race near New York City? What the hell, I’ll plug a race I created, which this year hopes to send 750 people racing across one of the great half-marathon race tracks in the northeast: Paine to Pain Opens Registration. And if you insist on some kind of legal angle, I wrote previously about how you meet real people and make real friends by doing this (as opposed to pseudo-follower-friends), and also about assumption of risk. But really, it’s mostly about running around in the woods like a kid.