Ravi’s Rants

I was getting about 500+ spam-comments a day. I’m now down to about 20. Based on my personal experience with spam, I have created a list of “bad words”, which, when used as a blacklist, will make most of your spam go away.

If you’re using Wordpress, copy the list below and paste it into the “Options > Discussion > Comment Blacklist” box.

Now WordPress warns:

“This is a list of words that you want completely blacklisted from your blog. Be very careful what you add here, because if a comment matches something here it will be completely nuked and there will be no notification. Remember that partial words can match, so if there is any chance something here might match it would be better to put it in the moderation box above.”

So, go through the list and weed out any words that you think might be acceptable for your blog. So here goes…

Note: This list will be updated as often as I find new words to blacklist. So bookmark this post (see “bookmark” and “subscribe” links in the menu to your right) and check back occasionally.

4free
4u
accutane
actos
acyclovir
adderall
adipex
allegra
Alprazolam
altace
ambien
Amoxicillin
amoxil
amphetamine
anal
anime
antibiotic
arousal
atfreeforum.com
ativan
attorney
augmentin
Azithromycin
babe
baccarat
bdsm
benadryl
biaxin
bitch
blackjack
blowjob
bondage
boob
booty
bowflex
bulabital
bupropion
butalbital
camry
car
carisoprodol
cartier
casino
celebrex
celexa
chick
cialis
cipro
citalopram
claritin
clonazepam
cock
codeine
codine
Crestor
crotch
cruise
cruises
cum
cunt
cyclen
cyclobenzaprine
cymbalta
dada
diazepam
dick
didrex
diovan
directbookmarks.info
dodge
doxycycline
drugstores
edvttj
Effexor
elavil
ephedra
ephedrine
erotica
escort
estate
facial
famvir
finland
Fioricet
forex
freewebs
fuck
gambling
gay
glucophage
gucci
helsinki
hentai
holdem
honda
hoodia
horny
hummer
hydrochlorothiazide
hydrocodone
incest
indianapolis
jaguar
jewelry
Lamictal
lasix
lesbian
lesbians
levaquin
levitra
Lexapro
lexus
lipitor
loan
lopressor
lorazepam
masterbating
mazda
medication
meridia
metalica
mevacor
Minolche
myfreedir.info
mysex
necklace
Nexium
Nicotine
nissan
norvasc
nude
orgasm
orgy
Oxycodone
Oxycontin
p0tassium
panties
panty
paxil
penis
percocet
pharmacy
phentermine
phpbb
plavix
poker
porn
Potassium
pravachol
prednisone
prevacid
prilosec
propecia
Protonix
prozac
pussy
rape
refinance
ringtones
ritalin
rolex
roulette
seroquel
sex
shemale
silveno
slot
soma
sphost
swinger
tadalafil
tadalis
tawnee
teen
testosterone
tetracycline
tissot
tit
toon
toyota
Tramadol
Trazodone
twinks
ultracet
ultram
valerian
Valium
viagra
Vicodin
vioxx
Wellbutrin
wholesale
Xanax
xenical
xxx
zanaflex
Zenegra
zithromax
zocor
Zoloft
zolus
zovirax
Zyprexa

Last updated on…:
2007: 3/30, 3/31, 4/2, 4/3, 4/20, 7/17

• Backdrop and Shower curtain from Wal-Mart: $18
• Tripod from Sears: $30
• Expensive, Wireless Headphone (with “compander circuitry”) that sounds like crap: $100
• Cheap-looking, Wired Headphone that just works: $20
• Pink-shade Table Lamp: $10
• 100W bulb (that you need to keep switching off between takes because the lamp-shade says it can handle only 40W): $2
• CyberLink PowerDirector: $90
• Getting great feedback from (rather kind) friends and family who enjoyed your spirited attempt: Priceless!

Ok, I finally gave in to my alter ego (”Wilson”) and started a channel on YouTube.

Had a lot of fun creating the videos. Here’s what I ended up learning (and buying), in order to make a half-decent video:

• Ventriloquism is 60% “funny script”, 30% “sense of humor and timing” and only 10% “mouth-not-moving skills”
• You need to have a decent back-drop (read, your computer desk in the background really sucks). So, got some fabric from Walmart for $6, an extra long shower curtain for $12, and walla - bearable background for my videos! I just placed the shower curtain on the front edge of my book shelf - so didn’t even have to bring out the screwdriver (or my drill) - and no nails were hurt during the hanging of my backdrop.
• Need a tripod - so got a 66″ tripod (~ $30) from Sears - ordered online and picked up the same evening in-store. The 3rd-party merchant I found on Amazon that was selling the 70″ tripod I really wanted, said it would take 3 weeks to ship. I wanted it like, er, “yesterday”. So, 6 inches short, sure, but got it in 3 hours flat.
• You need more-than-good-enough sound. My spanking new $100 wireless headphone bought-just-for-this worked like crap. Went back to my old $20 wired, brandless headphones that I bought from Staples 4 years ago, and the sound is like 10 times better (see difference in sound between video #1 and #2 below). So all you really need is a half-decent mike - don’t splurge on the microphones, unless you have the $500+ ones.
• Need good video editing software - have had PowerDirector for a few years now - have edited a few home videos and stuff. Paid for an updated version - it kicks butt and has pretty much everything a non-power-user would need. Very happy with PowerDirector (~ $90) so far, but I have a feeling I will be outgrowing it sooner than later (especially, when I think of doing, say chroma keying (the green-screen stuff).
• Of course, you need a camcorder (I have an old, big-ass Sony), and the cable to connect it to your computer (faster if you have a FireWire port).
• The regular lighting in your room is no good. So I borrowed my 8-yr old daughter’s pink-shaded table lamp (without her permission, and got yelled at later) and set it up on a chair next to me during the shoot.
• If you have PowerDirector (PD) installed, it automatically prompts to be launched when you plug your camcorder in. Just put the camcorder in “Play” (VTR) mode, and hit the red “Record” button in PD, and it starts recording right away. Once you finish recording, hit “Stop”, save the file, edit it (very intuitive interface) to add sound effects, transitions, trimming out bad takes, etc
• PD v5 has a cool new “Create File for YouTube” feature - where it will create a slightly low-res Windows media file (.wmv) that has a smaller file size compared to MPEG’s (given YouTube’s 100MB limit), and will even upload it directly to YouTube (provided you’ve logged in previously, of course)
• Create a new YouTube account with the same name as your channel (because you can’t change the login later).
• Create and upload the video directly from PD.
• Wait for like at least 2-3 hours before you can see it live (used to be live within just 10 minutes as recently as 6 months ago!)
• Any changes you make to your channel (description, change to template, colors, etc) will take anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours to take effect.
• Wait for it to go live, spam your friends and family, and publish the video on your site or blog

Before launching on this venture, I had performed ventriloquism only once - I had learned it a few hours before my daughter’s b’day party a couple of years ago. So, “amateur alert” ahead

Episode 2: Terrorists and 72 Virgins ($20 headphones)

Episode 1: Wicked Wilson - Woman On A Plane ($100 headphones)

The channel home page is: YouTube.com/WilsonTheWiseOne

To be notified of videos as they are added, please subscribe to my channel at the above link.

Ravi Jayagopal / YouTube.com/WilsonTheWiseOne

If you’ve used a computer long enough, you probably have tens of little icons in your system tray (next to your system clock), that are an indication of all the apps that are currently running. Many of them may be programs that automatically add themselves to the startup process, or may simply be applications that you no longer actively use and may not need them to launch during startup any more.

It used to be easy to delete these apps simply by deleting their shortcuts from the “Startup” folder, but not all apps create a shortcut there, and many directly modify your Windows registry and add themselves to it.

So, if you want to remove programs that launch during startup (when you re-start your computer), here’s a handly little app called “StartupRun” that I use myself.

- Ravi Jayagopal / LinkOverLoad.com