There are a lot of internet filtering devices and services out there. Most are reasonably affordable and do a great job.

I just heard of a service called OpenDNS from listening to the Geeks and God Podcast (Episode 56). It’s free, and does a lot more that filter content—that’s just a bonus. It’s main features, as listed on the OpenDNS site are:

• Adult Site Blocking
• Domain Blocking
• Domain Whitelist
• Phishing Protection
• Statistics
• OpenDNS Guide
• Customization
• Shortcuts

You can keep track of sites visited, block sites, and create shortcuts for use on your network.

For example, a domain name like http://www.churchbytheglades.com could be set up as cbg. (Note: This only works on your network/computer.) It is also supposed to add a little zip to your web surfing as their DNS is supposed to be faster than the one usually provided by your ISP.

There is plenty of information on their site, so if you are intrigued, check out the site, OpenDNS.

I suppose everyone who blogs or own any kind of website likes to think their site is popular. We may tend to imagine millions in the blogosphere on the edge of their seats waiting for our next post. Such is rarely the case. I am sure that there are many bloggers that are overwhelmed with responses from reader and have pages of comments on every post. That is not true in my case. And, most likely, it is not true in your case either.

In fact, when I first started blogging, I was ecstatic over any comment—good or bad. I would stop everything to moderate that comment that just came in. Someone was reading my stuff and they took the time to comment. Hurray for me!

Then suddenly comments came in by the droves. Everyone liked my site—or so they said. Upon closer inspection, these commenters, who had all sorts of praises for me, were including links to sites that I’d rather not listed on my site—or anywhere for that matter. It didn’t take long to figure out that all of those “I loved your site” comments were just automated comment spam, playing on my desire to be popular on the Web.

Since I didn’t want to completely disable comments, I turned to the Akismet plugin for WordPress. So far, it has caught 1,153 spam comments, and I have had no false positives—yet. It is a great plugin and free for personal use.

Whether you use this plugin or some other method of catching comment spam, make sure you are diligent in reading comments that you allow and making sure any links are acceptable. Also, think twice before you start a comment with “Cool site” or some other generic phrase. If you like my site—tell me why. If you don’t—tell me why.

So, is anyone out there? Quick, I am waiting to moderate.

Cornerstone Church has a new website. This new site features external links to an event calendar, Flickr and Pastor Derek Vreeland’s own blog, as well as podcast of weekly sermons via WordPress and the PodPress plugin. The new site could be described as “organic” in appearance featuring conrete and torn paper backgrounds.

This site also features Microformats embedded in the footer of each page which, if you are on the cutting edge, allow you to add the contact information directly to yor address book or get a map from Google or Yahoo.