I’m not sure who the wise guys are, but they can stop sending out the spam comments. We had nearly 1500 comments containing spam in moderation this past week. It’s pretty sorry news for a site that we haven’t posted that many updates lately to be the focus of spammers.

This event convinces me is to continue using and promoting the Akismet plug-in to help fight the spam. Not a single piece of comment spam was seen by visitors as all the spam were filtered through the Akismet services and put into moderation. Spammers really need to get a life…

One big plus from this event…the Virtual Private Server I’m using to host this site and others didn’t have a single hiccup despite all the spam we got in a short time. The VPS I’m using is available though my resale hosting service, Dakota Hosting. I’ve used a VPS for the past year and recommend it for anyone who is comfortable with server administration.

I’m actually a fan of the idea for replacing the US paper One Dollars with a One Dollar Coin. In the past the coins never really caught on. However, I think people like me are finally ready to begin plucking $1 coins in the vending machine instead of spending 5 minutes trying to get the machine to read that crumpled old dollar bill.? Americans have a hard time with change when it comes to this stuff, but I think this time around they are ready for it.

The United States Mint will be introducing the Presidential $1 coin in 2007.

The $1 coins are being introduced as a result of the Presidential Coin Act of 2005, which requires the United States Mint to mint the dollar coins commemorating the service of former United States Presidents in the order in which they served.

Like the United States Mint?s successful 50 State Quarters? Program on which it was modeled, the Presidential $1 Coin Program features a systematically rotating design. The first four $1 coins will commemorate George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

Besides getting excited that my son and I will have a new coin to collect, I’m personally going to spend my time at the bank exchanging my one dollar paper money for as many dollar coins as I can. I’m planning to use the dollar coin for all my purchases that call for anything less than $5. Hopefully this time around people will like these coins so much that we can finally put an end to the one dollar paper bill.

It’s not that I don’t have anything against the ‘ol greenback, but honestly a dollar today doesn’t buy too much more than what a quarter did when I was a kid in the 70s. Isn’t it time we get the pocket change out of our wallet and back into our pockets where it belongs?