This just in

Folks, I don’t know what is going on, but today my spam filter is just not doing its job. I have had to manually delete a lot of spam from the comments this afternoon, and I haven’t had to do this in a long time: I use the latest comment-spam-filtering software available.

I am not sure what the problem is, but here are recent changes I have made, and perhaps some of these are responsible:

• Switched to a new theme yesterday (a three-column, wider theme, since most of you have screens wider than 800 pixels). This probably is not the cause of the problem, so I will leave it alone in place for now.
• I had been using the most recent beta (alpha, actually) version of the WordPress blogging software. This morning, it had a major problem in that it would not let me write a new post. So, I downgraded back to the latest public version (2.2). This might have something to do with the spam problem, although I did not have the problem when I used 2.2 for a week.

So, I am not sure what is going on. I may have to change back to the previous theme. We’ll give it a bit more time to see.

Now, to a more interesting just-in item:

• I have learned that next week is the 10th anniversary of Ilium Software, makers of such top-notch programs as eWallet, ListPro, and NewsBreak (among others).
• My crystal ball tells me that you should visit them next week, as I would suspect you might enjoy their celebration.

This also reminds me that I will begin participating as a Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine judge for the 2007 Software awards. (The judging starts very soon and will last for up to a couple of months.) Consequently, I have to be careful to not discuss any software that I will be judging, at least until after the awards are final. Fortunately, I know which categories I will be judging in, for both Pocket PCs and Smartphones, so I feel safe that there are still several products that I can discuss without concern for conflict of interest.

Back to the spam: I hope nobody gets offended by any spam that sneaks in, and I certainly apologize in advance for any that sneaks in. I will of course delete the spam as soon as I see it, but sometimes that could be a few hours after it has already been placed into the comments.