In case you've ever wondered why you keep getting pop-up or pop-under ads, even though you have pop-up blocking enabled in Safari or Firefox, MDJ has the answer in today's issue:

Several people have noticed more pop-up and pop-under Web ads recently, even if Safari's pop-up blocker is turned on. Safari can't block them because they're not coming from JavaScript - they're coming from Macromedia Flash content. Macromedia has spent the past few years bragging about Flash's browser ubiquity, convincing developers to create everything from simple animations to full-fledged video in Flash because every browser can run it.

Now we're seeing the dark side of that - Flash content can also open windows, and advertisers are using it to subvert standard pop-up blocking, which typically prevents JavaScript code from opening new windows unless you clicked on a link to do so. So there you have it. Yet another reason to hate Flash.

Am I the only one who doesn't get the whole del.icio.us craze?

Thanks to inspiration from Lee, and code from Chris, I have the master archive index page I've been wanting. You will note there is no longer a monthly archive list in the sidebar. You can always get to the site archives by clicking on that "Archives" button in the navigation menu at the top right of each page.

Enormously, incredibly stupid. Michael was right. I was insane. I am man enough to admit such. No more blogging at Godblog or digitalpembroke. (I do not link to the former because that domain will eventually go bye-bye, but do to the latter because I will keep it; it was my first domain, my first blog, my online baby.) So while Retrophisch will maintain its focus on Macs and technology, items that were previously reserved for the above blogs, plus the already-retired Ludichris and Forty Caliber, may find their way here as well. Fear not, dear reader. Those other blogs were woefully underposted to begin with, which was what led to their retirement. You will not see a sudden influx of firearms or political-based postings. There are other bloggers doing a far better job than I on those topics. Yeah, there are bloggers doing a far better job on pretty much any topic I choose to cover. So I'm an egomaniacal narcissist at heart. All bloggers are. ;-)

Tom notes logging in to his Gmail account this morning, and finding 50 invitations to offer to others. This prompted me to do the same, wondering if I would also have 50 invites, seeing as how the last time I looked at my Gmail account, I still had 4 from the previous 6 given to me still available. Sure enough, there's the little box, just like Tom has in his post, with 50 invites ready to go. How am I supposed to get rid of this many invites? Has Gmail already reached a saturation level, and it's not even out of its invitation-only beta program? Maybe it's just me; I have a fairly close-knit group of online friends, with a slightly larger group of acquaintances. Everyone in these two groups who wants a Gmail account already has one. Heck, the reason I have a Gmail account is because one of my friends pointed me to a post by Tom offering Gmail invites back when they were hard to come by, and this is how he and I began chatting. (FYI: my winning funny is #2 in the comments.) I've had a hard enough time unloading the last six invites Google gave me. I've joined Gmail for the Troops, but have yet to unload any invites that way. My own attempt to have fun while giving out invites met with one whole reader taking me up on the offer. So now I've got 50 invites. Want one?

Everyone seems to be linking to The Register's interview with a link spammer. This is what caught my attention:

"The hardest form to spam is that which requires manual authentication such as captchas. Or those where you have to reply to an email, click on a link in it; though that can be automated too. Those where you have to register and click on links, they're hard as well. And if you change the folder names where things usually reside, that's a challenge, because you just gather lists of installations' folder names." So now you see why I'm using TypeKey.

His Gruberness has written, on behalf and with the input of, Six Apart, a comprehensive guide on weblog comment spam. This has given me some ideas for moving forward, though since I have instituted comment registration via TypeKey, I haven't had a comment spam problem. Registration through TypeKey is free, easy, and fast, and it allows you to comment on any site which supports the protocol.

Anyone else out there find the 2004 Year-End Google Zeitgeist to be a total yawner?

I have come to the conclusion--and many of you may be wondering what took me so long--that Amazon's search engine could be vastly improved. Viz: I enter "Politically Incorrect Guide to American History" in the search field, with the pull-down menu set to Books. In the first page of results, nada. By inserting "The" at the beginning of the search phrase, the book pops up as the number one item returned. One would think that the search phrase I originally entered would have been enough. Likewise, I entered "Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World" in the search field, again with Books selected in the pull-down menu, and again, got nothing returned in the first page of results. I entered the author's name, "Wesley J. Smith," and his tome appears as the first search result. Only it has a capital "A" in the title. Again, the original search phrase should have been enough for Amazon's search engine to figure out what I wanted.

So some of you may have noticed the site was down earlier this evening for about an hour. My sysadmin pulled the plug, so to speak, because those scum of the 'net were hammering our server so badly, Apache may as well have been under a true DoS attack. I am referring, of course, to comment spammers. So, henceforth, we're going to try comment registration. It's free, doesn't cost you anything but a few moments of time over at TypeKey. With your TypeKey login, you can comment on any site that supports the protocol. (Nearly all of these will be those that use Movable Type or TypePad.) I'm sorry it's come to this, but as with most things, a few bad apples ruin the whole barrel.

The previous entry marked number 800 for this now two-year-old blog. Despite it being noted on my calendar, I completely missed the two-year anniversary of retrophisch.com on the tenth of this month. So, two milestones this month, and here's to many more to come.

I discovered these desktops by co2metal, aka Andy, while cruising through ResExcellence last week. Now, I'm not nearly in to the whole GUI customization thing as I used to be. I don't really bother with custom icons any more, and more often than not, you'll find my desktop pictures to be photos from our vacations or of our little one. Yet I'm drawn to Andy's abstract and fractal creations. I'm thinking of making a custom Mac OS X screen saver with selections from his gallery. I hope Andy doesn't mind!

So after deliberating over whether or not to eliminate categories--and thank you so much for all those comments with feedback--I have decided to can the categories on this and all of my blogs. (Seriously, I do thank those few who did weigh in on the issue, either through comments, e-mail, or instant message.) I feel Raena summed it up best in an IM: "Seeing as how you have the uber blog empire, I wonder whether it's worth using categories either. If you were using one blog for all that stuff, then yeah." After replying that she flattered me--while I'm running five separate public blogs, I in no way feel I have a "blog empire" a la my favorite n3rdling--Raena then stated the obvious, which I suppose I hadn't really considered: "Seriously, though. You have separate blogs for separate interests, so I don't see that categories are as much of a concern." She's right. Initially, everything was posted under Retrophisch, and categories were a necessity. No longer, however. With the different blogs for different interests, categories within each blog seemed nitpickish and maybe even a wee bit obsessive-complusive. Yeah, I think we can do away with anything obsessive-compulsive... While I will no longer be posting within categories, the old category pages are still there, if you know how to find them, or you previously linked to or bookmarked them.

In the first 17 hours of October 2004, these are the Top 10 Search Phrases for retrophisch.com: 1. earthquakes in france 2. definition of a liberal 3. mac archives 4. www daddy yakee com 5. dilbert clone knickknack 6. zero intelligence 7. osan beanie babies store korea 8. citizen persona amex card 9. lrs2 blaser 10. directv jobs charlotte I was a bit thrown with the "osan beanie babies store korea" phrase, until I dropped it in to Google to see that I was the fourth link returned. Yeah, I blogged about a beanie baby, okay?

That is the question. I have wondered, of late, if I should continue to bother. If I shouldn't just stop categorizing, and kill all current categories. As a blogger, some times it is downright annoying trying to categorize a post. If a category doesn't yet exist, you have to create one. If you create one, then you may go months without a post assigned to that category again. I have found, as a blog reader, that I really don't pay attention to categories on others' sites. If I discover a new blog, and want to read more than just the post that brought me there, I usually go in reverse chronological order, rather than sorting through categories. I know some of my fellow bloggers out there utilize categories, and some do not. I'm looking for both bloggers and blog readers to weigh in on this issue. Leave your thoughts, pro or con (or both), in the comments.

Have you head the radio ad from Register.com with the two guys, "We lost the client because we didn't have a web site"? What utter tripe. Apparently, Register.com doesn't have a clue how an actual sales meeting would work. If I am a sales person, already in a client's office, meeting face to face, half the battle is already won. I am the face of my company, especially if the company is my own. I have full knowledge and pricing of my company's products, and can show examples to the client in question. Presumably, on my business card will be an e-mail address of some kind, so the client can get in touch with me in some manner other than by phone. If said client--who has met me, seen my examples, been given a catalog, brochure, or other marketing materials, as well as my prices--then decides to not buy my products or services simply because I do not have a web site, then said client is insane. If by not having a web site means one would not have an e-mail address, then Register.com should note that in their commercial. The whole thing is nonsense, and really annoys me each time I have to hear it. And for crying out loud, don't pay Register.com twenty bucks when you can go to GoDaddy and register a domain name for nine dollars.