Once in a while, I wander through the web server logs, to see who's a bot and who's not, and whether the bots are well-behaved. I'm not all that strict—I don't even have a robots.txt file (yet)—but I don't like bots that suck all the pages down extremely quickly or display other anti-social tendencies. One of the bots I have banned is from an outfit called NameProtect, since any mentioning of trademarks anybody on this site will be doing will be entirely within the bounds of fair use. I've left the bot from TurnItIn alone, since I don't have any particular objection to plagiarists who are using our stuff getting caught (if my understanding of how TurnItIn works is flawed, please let me know). Every so often, though, I've noticed a bot that's pretending not to be a bot. Frequently, these are spam address harvesters, but I've noticed occasionally that the IP range from one of the spoofers is owned by these assholes. Today, I finally looked in to who they are and whom they work for, and I'm sorry I didn't ban them a long time ago.
Following in the footsteps of that other famous "religion," the Roman Catholic church has decided to enforce copyright on its pronouncements. Next up, a fee schedule for the sacraments. Ooh, can't afford Last Rites (I apparently mean Anointing of the Sick)? Bummer, dude.
I'm not sure we necessarily need to put it in the Stuff We Like area, but we definitely like Jane, and she has a blog.
Update: Nah, we love Jane, so into the permalinks she goes.
I noticed that Outlook Express was doing the wrong thing with the LF character at the beginning of my address, so I've changed it to a space. If the spam bots are smart enough to remove the space, I'll have to do something else. Since they weren't smart enough to remove the line feed, I'm trying to remain optimistic.
Update: spam bots apparently are smart enough to take out the space. I'm trying a vertical tab character now. Outlook does the right thing; I'll check OE as soon as I remember. Odds are good I'll have to change the alias, though, since I have gotten a spam attempt. I'll keep the mailto links up to date, and try to remember to keep any other in-line mentions clean, too.
Two Wheels North: Cycling the West Coast in 1909, Gibb
Two guys just out of high school decide to ride their bikes from Santa Rosa, CA to Seattle to see the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition. Great adventure told in a great voice (the author's grandfather was one of the guys and a great storyteller). Five stars for adventure.
The Vacation, Horvath (Y)
I really like Polly Horvath's writing, but there wasn't much beyond that in this book. Her philosophy (at least the one our hero discovers within himself) is very similar to my own. Fun read, two stars.
The Real Festivus, O'Keefe
Not so much a guide to celebrating the holiday as a chronicle of the holiday in his family. A really nice book, overall. Three stars.
The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World: an Imagineer's-Eye Tour
A nice (if somewhat self-congratulatory) guide to all the little design details in WDW, which is mostly also applicable to Disneyland. I liked the emphasis on immersive detail. Four stars.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Foer
Funny and heart-rending. I haven't ended up so blotchy and tear-stained since I read Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, another book with a little boy protagonist. The non-text elements were also brilliantly done. Five stars.
Nastybook, Yourgrau (Y)
The person who recommended this book to me said that she didn't think much of it at first, but that the stories kept coming back to her. I can see why she said that. I just finished it, and look forward to it coming back to me (especially the story with the panda). Three stars.
How I Live Now, Rosoff (Y)
I really didn't think I would read two five star books in the couple of weeks between posting my year-end roundup and the actual end of the year, but here's the second one. I don't always agree with the choices made for best books, but this Printz award winner really is all you'd hope for. Five stars.