Apologies to anyone trying recently to leave a reply or comment on the website, we had a technical issue whilst trying to fight the spam bots.*
Spam bots are devious internet blighters who seek loop holes in website defences in order to leave spurious messages in order to entice the unwary to follow a link.
We had a Captcha facility that prevented this happening, but our defences were breeched though a loophole. This allowed some dear fiends from Russia to leave 100’s of spam messages in our inbox. The irony is the messages were in the Cyrillic alphabet, which somewhat limited the immediate impact.
In the short term we switched the comments facility off whilst we sorted the problem. ‘Tis now all resolved and you can leave a comment verified by the Captcha filter that will verify that you are a human and not a bot, which can be quite reassuring in these technical days!
* A spambot has nothing to do with a person’s rear end after eating a surfeit of Spam fritters. This is a computer program designed to collect, or harvest, e-mail addresses from the Internet in order to build mailing lists for sending unsolicited e-mail, also known as spam. A spambot can gather e-mail addresses from Web sites, newsgroups, special-interest group (SIG) postings, and chat-room conversations. Because e-mail addresses have a distinctive format, spambots are easy to write.
One comment on “Are You Human?”
So sorry to hear that Brian has passed away. I found out by accident after stumbling across Brian’s house up for sale on Right Move. We lived at No.13 Grange Lane up to early 1970’s when we moved to Old Skellow. Brian worked at International Harvesters at the same time as my dad Derek Strawbridge. After I left Adwick Comprehensive School in 1984 I attended Doncaster Art College, Church View, where I did the 2 year Foundation Course in Art and Design, and had the privilege of knowing Brian personally as he had taken up the position of Technician there. I remember what a truly skilled artist Brian was, and the impressive selection of landscape and seascape watercolour paintings that he had on exhibition in the college foyer. Unfortunately, over the years I have lost touch with so many people but still have fond memories of knowing Brian and going to Art College. It is funny how some things stick in one’s mind, like the conversation about his daughter Maurice who had been at school about the same time as me, and had expressed an interest in having her wedding ring made by Mike Flannery who was our lecturer in Jewellery Design. My time at Doncaster Art College was the thing that really opened my eyes, and kick started my career in Art, Design and then Prototype Engineering. However, for the last twelve years I have been Technician at the Transport Museum and Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry, and I owe it to people like Brian Glidden who have inspired me along the way.