July 6, 2009
TdF riders on Twitter. @levileipheimer, @bradwiggins, @dzabriskie, @christianvdv, @thedpate, @cadelofficial, @wegelius, @andy_schleck, @kaarvesen, @carlos_sastre, @mickrogers, @ghincapie, @markrenshaw1, @bdlancaster, @laurenstendam, @stevendejongh, @koendekort, @fumybeppu
source http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong/status/2494539488 and http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong/status/2494554789
June 8, 2009
Am seeing a new class of spammers on the Rosacea Support Community forum. They are obviously real human spammers, not the `robots auto registering’ sort that we have seen of late.
This new breed know how to use the rich text of the composer to hide web links in forum posts. Normal visitors won’t see the links – perhaps only be confused by the strange text from someone who isn’t really there for the usual reasons.
Web search engines will see the link though and give the destination site some `link juice’ from the forum site. This seems like a good ploy as some sites have been around for a long time and have become authority sites in the eyes of the likes of google.
Can I give a big free hint to you @#$@#$!^% spammers; google is clever enough to know what a hidden link looks like and will ignore it.
The annoying downside for site owners is that a forum needs to be baby sat. More and more onerous requirements on new members for eg. stopping them posting new links for the first 20 posts, just makes it more annoying for genuine members to freely use the site.
Whack-a-mole round #42 continues … as long as there are economies with cheap labour and industries who want to advertise the spammers will be with us.
seemingly innocent post
perhaps a bit clearer view of what they are doing
what they actually typed.
May 26, 2009
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski
rating: 2 of 5 stars
Well I finally persevered and got to the end. I wanted to read this book to see what sort of work would get the only 2008 Oprah book club recommendation. If it was a truly great piece of writing I wanted to know why.
I’m not much for huge thick works of fiction, but I really did try to `get this one’.
I had read Marlie and Me and hated it. It should have been called "About a Dog". Dogs are not that great, puhlease. I feared that this book would unfold to be a huge hardcover version of About a Dog. It rose above that, but not enough so.
The author writes beautiful words and I did enjoy that images that he evoked of an innocent time and life in the country.
Too many details about dogs, dog care, dog training, dog relationships, dog obedience, dog personalities, dog breeding etc. etc. etc. though.
I deliberately didn’t read the jacket as I had heard that it gave too much of the plot away – and indeed it does. A built in spoiler 
So I was hoping for an ending that would satisfy. Alas it left me disappointed. The ending is tragic and unsatisfying. So much so that I feel a bit ripped off and having invested all that time to get to the end.
I want to read a modern classic and love it, but this won’t be it.
May 26, 2009
Forgiving the Dead Man Walking: Only One Woman Can Tell the Entire Story by Debbie Morris
My review
This is a true story that everyone should read. Written simply and clearly Debbie Morris details her horrible trauma at the hands of a pair of rapists and killers.
The book describes her path since the abduction, leading to being able to forgive her captors. It was a long and difficult path, but one that I think we can all learn from. It was only after she was able to come to the position of being able to forgive that she could recover and move on from the ordeal. The refusal to forgive and desire to hang on to the hate will only eat you up.
I like that her forgiveness didn’t make her seem weak and glib. What she endured was awful but not unforgivable. Not unforgettable or un-punishable, but possible to forgive.
The main perpetrator was executed and wasn’t believed to ever show any remorse, so the act of forgiveness was for herself, for her own recovery and sanity.
Well done for sharing with us the journey I say !
This book will be an encouragement for anyone struggling with unforgiveness.
April 28, 2009
Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched on the Modern World by David Bodanis
My review
Quite enjoyed the way that the author showed how we stumbled across all of the principles that we take for granted today. It took many years for things like telegraph, electricity, radio, radar to be discovered and mass produced. There was lots of dead end research and lucky breaks along the way to piece together how electrons and magnets rule our modern world. It certainly wasn’t clear to me from my university physics classes that the early researchers had so little idea of what they were dealing with. Just what were those electrons, how can you measure them, how can you harness them for good (and evil too) ?? Just why do we call them volts, amps and watts ? A bit of interesting `dark’ background to Samuel Morse and Alan Turing too.
This is no mere physics book. It links together the luminaries of the field in a way that makes for a book almost like a novel.
I’m really getting into these sorts of factoid type entertaining reads. So many trivium to fill my wee head !
April 15, 2009
March 25, 2009
What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis
My review
I have to admit that the title of this book put me off from the start. Could it be a serious book based on a blatant rip off of WWJD. So I was a bit grumpy to start with, but the author won me over by the end of the book.
Jarvis does a pretty good job of pulling apart some of the things that Google has done and tries to apply it to other industries.
Google is perhaps give a bit too much credit as being the saviour of all businesses. Google got lucky with Adsense – it was a search company without any income until Adsense and Adwords was created. That was a stroke of genius that has made the company immensely rich. Going from that to youtube, google maps and gmail – and including them as brilliant innovations that will make google more $$$ is a bit of a stretch I think. Google still feels a little like a one product company to me. Time will tell which of their spaghetti on the wall sticks.
For those who don’t know much about the history of Google, or haven’t read The Search or The Long Tail for eg then this book is a good place to start and indeed complement them quite well.
March 12, 2009
So I’m really happy with siteground.com as a host – they are cheap and their support is fast and accurate, even brilliant.
But I do have to wonder what sort of false economy or empty marketing is used to promote a shared hosting service with 768000 MB of storage and 750 000 MB of bandwidth a month.
I had a process go haywire and they were close to shutting me off for using too many shared resources. So I know they monitor how much of the box your little account uses.
Leaves me wondering how anyone could possible use that much bandwidth without trigger a trap – or indeed how you would ever backup that much data.
March 9, 2009
My review
Not what I expected. Really challenged my idea of who and what `God in 3′ would look like. Also challenged my idea of good and evil and suffering. Not sure I’m about to change my view on these things, but it sure has made me think about the bigger picture some more. Even disturbed me a bit to think so afresh.
February 16, 2009
I’m really enjoying the fast and relevant tweets from a handful of professional cyclists and their support crew. This is really changing how one can follow cycling. Some are even posting pictures during the race. The Tour Down Under was a hoot to follow this way.
Here are some suggestions on who to follow.
http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong, Lance Armstrong.
http://twitter.com/johanbruyneel, Team Manager for Astana – posts updates during the race from the race car.
http://twitter.com/LizKreutz, Lance/Nike Photographer, posts lots of photos and links back to her professional photography blog.
http://twitter.com/mickrogers, Michael Rogers
http://twitter.com/ghincapie, George Hincapie
Ben from Trek, bike supplier to Astana.
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