User talk:Bob M/Archive5

Get well soon!
Sorry to read that you were ingresado. Hope you get over it and that you're out by the time you get to read this. Best wishes, P --Technopat 17:44, 20 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Just got home yesterday afternoon. Right hand still bandaged up. Can't use first two fingers as the middle one has the bone in the tip broken and the first one has stitches and a problem with the knuckle. All a new experience.  Thanks for your concern.--Bob M 06:18, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Ouch! Apart from a difficulty in tying up shoelaces, and other two-handed finger work, how's the left-handed anti-spamming going? --Technopat 10:25, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's def. worth block 'em 'cos otherwise they come back: User talk:142.22.16.52 (just a random one - have found others). --Technopat 10:45, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * How come it comes out red and it Ican't see the history for this IP? --Technopat 10:47, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * If my wife wasn't a nurse I'd be having really big problems at the moment. Fortunately she can change my bandages, clean my wounds and generally help out with health-service things. Typing and mousing left-handed could be easier.--Bob M 13:01, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Comcast
You are correct that Comcast is a huge ISP here in the United States. I think they own, like, 30% market share here. In fact, I use comcast as my ISP. Gooniepunk2005 17:17, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * By the way, are you sure c-24-118-247-165.hsd1.mn.comcast.net is causing spam? Just wondering, because THAT'S MY DAMN IP ADDRESS and MN is Minnesota, the state I live in. If you are certain that I am somehow causing this spam, then let me know, as I can get that addressed. Gooniepunk2005 17:19, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No, I'm by no means certain of such a thing. I asked because c-24-118-247-165.hsd1.mn.comcast.net has 836 page views and 3871 hits using 24.16 MB of bandwidth. This makes it the fourth most active user on the site. Numbers one and two are
 * hosted-by.altushost.com 2927, 2927, 60.62 MB and
 * hn.kd.ny.adsl 1329, 1329, 16.54 MB
 * And I'm pretty sure they are spammers. So I was wondering about the next biggest. But if it's you then it just reflects your activity on the site. Sorry I accused you inappropriately. :-) Bob--Bob M 19:31, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Just seen yours of even date. No idea, but if you think it might be, please go ahead and block. I'll let you know by other means if it had blocked me. Good luck! --Technopat 19:19, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * BTW, is there any way you can sort of scan and see if any of the IPs have slipped though our unconcerted efforts and not got blocked, or any articles that haven't been reverted? Just a thought. --Technopat 19:23, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No, recent changes is a better way of viewing things than any other reports that I have - or that I am aware of anyway. I've been blocking a few more IP's that look like they have been scanning the site from China or Korea. Found some strange things too. I can understand Google running something but I'm not so sure about Amazon and the people who own Blackberry. I didn't block them.--Bob M 19:36, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Did you block the Madrid-based one? As you can see I had no problem logging in now, but whether that's 'cos you haven't done it yet or 'cos it ain't my IP... Good luck! --Technopat 02:09, 22 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No, I'm pretty sure that it is you - or possibly something to do with me. At one point I almost blocked myself.--Bob M 07:09, 22 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Just a thought: if it were my IP, surely BlightyNet, where I've been doing some serious editing over the last few months, would automatically have been spammed also? As far as I know/can remember, there ain't been any spamming there at all.--Technopat 11:07, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Hello Bob
Are you doing better these days? Last I knew, you were in the hospital. Gooniepunk2005 01:44, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for asking. I was in hospital for about ten days back in August but I've been out for a while now. I'm left with very little movement in my right index finger and still waiting for the nail to fall off my second finger. Some scars too but they are not that impressive. .-)
 * Hopefully with a but of time and physiotherapy I'll get back up to full speed. ;-) --Bob M 06:51, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Server blocked
Bob, it appears that you have server blocked me, and I must now use a proxy to access this site. I doubt this was intentional on your part, but how do I get myself out from being server blocked here? Gooniepunk2005 21:57, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Blast! I've been monitoring my traffic very closely and when anybody goes over a certain bandwidth or number of hits I check them out in various ways, especially here. If they look suspicious I block them.
 * I must have become over-enthusiastic. If you get your IP address to me I'll free you up. Very sorry about that.--Bob M 06:55, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I must have been blocked to, now that my IP has changed I can access the site again. I thought it was down, I've never been IP banned from a site before! --Onion 20:10, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry about that. I clearly have become over-enthusiastic in my wiki-protection.  Still it's new experience for you!  How does it show up?  Just "Site not available"?--Bob M 14:31, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Standard 403 error, it says I cannot access the site because it is forbidden. That may sometimes happen after a website crashes, so I thought it was down. --Onion 23:44, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for unblocking my IP. As far as the 404 is concerned, it comes up as "403:Site not found" and then says "The domain you are trying to access is unavailable or forbidden." Gooniepunk2005 21:32, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Interesting thanks guys. What I'm trying to do is stop people scanning the site and spammers bots and spiders doing odd stuff.  It seems to be working, but I also seem to be creating some collateral damage. --Bob M 07:03, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Gaming vs gambling
Greetings Bob. Am intrigued as to your objection to the following question over at Gambling conversation questions: "What's the difference between active and passive gaming?" - In the world of gaming/gambling/politics/business/ethics it's of critical importance. --Technopat 21:36, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Frankly I don't understand it. The phrase "active and passive gaming" (with quotes) gets six google hits - one of which is us so it does not seem to be very common. Given that I don't understand it, is seems unlikely that students will.  If you'd like to rephrase it so that it includes context which defines is - while keeping it short - then I'd be happy to have it back.  Alternatively a series of questions around the topic.  Good to see you around.--Bob M 06:12, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It would never have occurred to me to google the phrase "active and passive gaming", and, to be honest, I'm surprised you got as many as 6 hits as the two concepts are opposed. However, be that as it may, "active gambling" on its own gets 8,500,00 hits and "passive gambling" gets 529,000 - but Google hits are NOT a reflection of the relevant importance of an item. Google just comes up with any text that contains the words in question, regardless of context. Anyway, back to the case in point: any one with notions of gambling and/or gaming knows that passive in this context refers to, usually, state-operated gaming as opposed to active gambling, typified by casinos, usually run by private interest such as mafias. I think that conversation questions should cater for all levels of knowledge. If no-one in a class happens to understand any particular question, and the teacher hasn't done his/her homework, the question just gets skipped... No big deal. Regs., --Technopat 22:47, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
 * If we go to google definitions and look up active gaming we get one hit which is not relevant. If we try the same thing with passive gaming we get no hits. If we do a google search on just the individual terms "active gaming" and "passive gaming" we certainly get a large number of hits, although almost all of them appear to be about video games. I certainly accept that we should have questions which deal with all levels of ability and knowledge - but the idea of these questions is "printum an run" (like the name of my estate agent). I don't feel that they should involve the teacher (who may not even be a native speaker) in extensive web research on comparatively obscure terms.
 * Finally, having read your response above, I'm not even sure the question was well formed. Should it have been:  "The difference between passive gaming and active gambling" or something of that nature?--Bob M 06:32, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
 * what is "passive gambling" anyway? How does one gamble passively? I am not sure that this is even relevant to teflpedia. totnesmartin 15:34, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure, though in theory almost anything could be fodder for an English conversation class. My problem with it that if the concept is unknown to native English speakers it is unreasonable for us to expect out students to have an opinion on it.--Bob M 16:45, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I have never heard either phrase used. - and I've been around a while. 17:10, 26 September 2010 (UTC) Toast
 * Sorry to be pedantic folks, but the first reference that comes up on Google (under "passive gambling"), from the Bahamas, a major reference in the gambling community, gives a perfectly clear description: http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/letter-to-the-editor/Gambling_re_Bahamians_and_Residents_-_Rudy_Sawyer7374.shtml
 * As for students' opinions, one of my aims in Life is to get students to express their opinions on whatever they want. And, given the opportunity, it's often difficult to get them to stop. But no sweat, the question doesn't have to be in there, and I'll just ad lib it with me students and show 'em how multi-or-poly-whatchamumacallit I am. Cheers! --Technopat 10:59, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Email
I have sent you an unimportant email. totnesmartin 14:37, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I will send your parcel of eels via hovercraft.--Bob M 15:01, 26 September 2010 (UTC)