I'll admit that it's been nearly two years since I was last on the job hunt trail but the experience is still very fresh in my mind. While I was fortunate enough to not repeat the rather unpleasant experience of very first job interview, there were still times when I wished the process were more straight forward and that people were more upfront.

During my last job hunt I benefited from the reading a book and newsletter from a guy by the name of Nick Corcodilos. Entitled "Ask the Headhunter" the book and letter detail insider information about the hiring process and the inner workings of the human resources industry. Even though I am no longer looking for a job I still enjoy reading the letter from time to time. I often glean a bit of information which will either be helpful to me in a future search, as something I can pass along to many of my friends who are actively searching for work.

A Raleigh-based advocacy group says home foreclosures have jumped dramatically in Durham and statewide, and says the trend is fueled by so-called "predatory" mortgage lending practices.

In 2006, North Carolina saw 45,512 foreclosure filings, an all-time high and almost triple the 16,630 filings in 1998, according to the N.C. Justice Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates on issues linked to poverty.

I had to apply this trick to another one of my sites. Despite my instructions for Google to not cache the bugger, and various link following bots, I've started to get spamed in the anonymous comments section. Because of my audience I want to keep comments anon for now since it's easier to use and doesn't require registration. Anyway the following is a script that I've been using for a while that works with Apache.

It requires 3 files: .htaccess, redirect.html and forbidden.html. The last two are just regular HTML files that contain a message a valid link to the site. The first directs Apache to deny access to a set list of IP addresses or domains, and to only accept referrers (i.e. links from other sites) that are in the list. This file uses regular expressions so don't worry about the strange directives. Just remember to always \ escape your "."s. Enjoy!!

A look back at possibly the best Petit since the series' inception

The 2006 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta began with great promise and a great list of entrants. There was still some disappointment among fans though because GT2S participant Lexus failed to materialize, as well as a smaller than expected GT1 field. Despite this, fans were treated to one of the largest LMP1 privateer showings in recent Petit Le Mans history. In attendance were both series regulars such as Dyson Racing, Highcroft Racing and Autocon, and also European squads of Zytec Engineering and Creation Autosportif. In the LMP2 class points leader Penske Motorsport battled rivals B-K Motorsports and Intersport along with European visitors van der Steur Racing and Horag Racing. Though GT1 only featured the two factory teams of Corvette and Aston Martin, GT2 hosted a fierce battle between Porsche, Ferrari, Panoz and BMW.