Posts Tagged ‘SEO’

Allegedly.  I’ll come to that in a minute.

Most spam is annoying but once in a while the bots assemble two random concepts that make a slightly surreal or scary combination.  Once in a while those are so out there and look so like real messages that they make it past the spam filters.  Here’s one I got today (I’ve pixellated out the site’s info not because I don’t want to embarrass them but because I don’t want to give them any publicity) about my post about gobos the other day…

I’m not going to go into the rubbish about SEO other than to say if they’re link building this way how do I know they’re not doing all sorts of black hat SEO that’s going to get them blacklisted as a bad neighbourhood and do me more harm than good.

In this case the bot found some of my recipes and some of my stuff about gobos and decided that there was a chance that there was some sort of long tail search that it could optimize for.  Given the money being mentioned for some of that kind of automatically written content it’s no wonder that companies are trying to get in on the act.  This one though takes the biscuit.  Or as the American’s might say the cookie.  Cookies are made with Cookie Cutters which is a term sometimes confused with gobos although strictly speaking cookies and gobos are not the same thing which is why I think the bot may have made its blind leap of machine logic.

What I find funny is the idea that they would include gobos in a recipe database.  Gobos.  Pieces of glass that are etched or otherwise treated so as to project images or patters from lights.  I can’t help thinking they would be a little bit chewy and might cause some indigestion.  Not quite as funny as Monty Python’s Albatros or Crunchy frog but not too far away.

Anyway it amused me but I’ve not explained the Edible Underwear connection.

So what does any of this have to do with Edible Underwear?  Not a lot really other than something that happened when out drinking with some friends who do a bit acting.  They’d been eating the left over sugar glass props (bottles and some glasses used in a fight scene) from a play to see how one of the bar staff they knew would react.  One young lady who was normally quite prim and proper who had probably had a bit too much to drink said it tasted like edible underwear and promptly went a fetching shade that matched the beetroot red of the wine bottle she was nibbling on…

• Weather = Yuch so just messin' around with Vue #
• @very_true_thing So did it work? in reply to very_true_thing #
• Comment spammers found my site yesterday and (so far) akismet has caught every single one of em #
• Sustained in my editing efforts by an excellent batch of Pork and Mushroom Curry http://bit.ly/AgZze #recipe #food #
• RT @AllenVarney William Shatner masterfully recites Sarah Palin's farewell speech (Conan O'Brien): via @JamesWallis #
• RT: @jearle Big Cat sighting in Scotland. – it's a Puma, by the look of things, running wild. #
• RT: @KimKnox ooh this looks very cool. Trailer for Waters of Mars – Doctor Who #
• So I need to join Scribd to download a pdf copy of a document but not to print it? Stupid controlfreakery and bad for the environment too #
• And printing from Scribd in Firefox = completely broken too. 20 sheets of paper wasted. /rant #
• RT @jearle If you Google "Scottish Cuisine", my Munchy Box blog post is on the front page. http://bit.ly/e640w #
• @jearle Wish I'd photos of the Scottish Indian I had a business trip. Unlike any English Indian I've had. Clearly related to your Munchy Box in reply to jearle #
• @jearle I wish I could work that into my current project. I'm forcing myself to stick to just London so it wont get out of hand in reply to jearle #
• Can it really take an hour and a half to visit the Pencil Museum? Is it twinned with the Hotel California? #
• @KimKnox So how cheesy is Satin Spar's cover or is it classy like Dark Host? in reply to KimKnox #
• @KimKnox Good news – I'll look forward to seeing it then. Meanwhile contemplating if IsItCheese.com or CheeseOrNot.com is a better URL… in reply to KimKnox #
• @KimKnox Hmm. That ones barely work safe… in reply to KimKnox #
• Aarrgh. Basic maths failure. What was I thinking when I wrote a table for a 3d6 roll with the first entry being for a roll of 2? #
• Some really nice entries for the Vue 3D Environment Competition 2009 http://bit.ly/1b7BE9 glad I don't have to pick the winner #
• listening to "cacharpaya – incantation 1982" ♫ http://blip.fm/~at2mc #
• listening to "Capercaillie – Coisich A Rùin – video clip Gàidhlig Gaidhli" ♫ http://blip.fm/~atgp8 #
• listening to "MANDOLIN RAIN original video" ♫ http://blip.fm/~atp60 #
• RT @criticalhits Why can't we show these ads instead of Evony http://is.gd/1TeiZ #
• I always thought some perfumes should be banned under the Hague Conventions http://bit.ly/t2LBr #
• @jearle lol. We'll keep that off the banned list just for you. in reply to jearle #
• @KimKnox Let Blur distract you. That way the rest of Write Club don't feel so bad about our pitiful comparative word counts in reply to KimKnox #
• for @KimKnox your mission should you choose to accept it is to finish Space Fluff ♫ http://blip.fm/~autqy #
• RT @johnmcc: Probably the best explanation of the xhtml 2 announcement I've yet seen: http://bit.ly/2pSCJN via @jearle #
• Will economics defeat Moore's Law? http://bit.ly/ThLjm #
• @KimKnox Sounds like you need this instead of Mission Impossible ♫ http://blip.fm/~auw9u #
• Looking for the Johnny Clegg original I found this cover ♫ http://blip.fm/~av040 #
• listening to "Tanita Tikaram – Twist In My Sobriety" ♫ http://blip.fm/~av0pd #
• listening to "Pet Shop Boys – Suburbia (HD)" ♫ http://blip.fm/~av1gx #
• Hunting for the early 90s rock cover. This isn't it but hey… ♫ http://blip.fm/~av1x0 #
• And it definitly isn't this one either – I give up ♫ http://blip.fm/~av2gz #
• Thats a tough one RT @mediaguardian: Vote for your favourite TV show of the decade: http://bit.ly/4t5loz. #
• From the Guardian: 'Swine Flu readiness has become a competitive sport'. Will we be hosting the world cup? http://bit.ly/kHmjv #
• @richeym The Wires really caught up. When I voted The West Wing was ahead of it. in reply to richeym #
• RT @DanDiplo Why you shouldn't design birthday cakes using Microsoft Word…. http://bit.ly/m484u #fail #programming #webdevelopment #
• Sausage Brown Barm Red Sauce #famishedfriday #
• @JamesWallis Far too early to call the Ashes because of three little words: England Batting Collapse in reply to JamesWallis #
• RT @guardiantech: Volomedia claims podcast patent http://bit.ly/yNcsq #
• @very_true_thing #VisitLondon (http://ustre.am/4n0W) Tower bridge faster than twitter – Just closed when I got the page loaded #
• listening to "The Peanuts Theme" ♫ http://blip.fm/~az5p3 #

I’ve already got a post about the LHC lined up for tonight but I just came across this…

All my hard blogging has finally paid off as the Technorati Rank #1! If you can’t make it out in that shot how about this one:

The only photoshoping of the images was to crop them. No retouching at all. The last few weeks have been good but this just tops it. I’m going to run for PM at the next election on the basis of this. I’m just so popular at the moment that I’ll at least give Brown a run for his money and Cameron will end up a definite number 3. I expect to be swept to power on a wave of love and adoration. I promise to be a force for good. A bringer of change. A new brush. I don’t hear any drums in my head.

Right now I’m number 1 and it doesn’t bother me that anyone else with a blog listed on Technocrati is too. In fact I think their new approach of throwing out the judgemental system that ranks one blog over another is quite leveling. It frees us again. Right now we’re back to where we were in the heady days of ’96 (or maybe before then) when page rank ment nothing. SEO didn’t matter. What mattered was that we could post stuff on the web and other people could find it and enjoy it.

Of course this heady August revolution won’t last. Someone will fix the bug and we’ll all be ranked against each other again. But right now I’m number 1 and I’m going to enjoy the feeling

Its taken me most of today to get to this which given today was a rather gloomy bank holiday it shouldn’t have. I split yesterday between wxPython in Action, Boston Legal and Mambo.

Mambo in some ways was the easiest of the three as I got it up and running with only two references to the support documentation. One to get the WYSIWYG editor working and one to get SEO friendly URLs working. I’m not going to use it for the impworks site but I’ve been asked about it at work a couple of times and it seems like it might be the tools to help friends who want to make web sites but don’t want to fuss around with learning html create their own sites.

wxPython in Action is a well written technical guide to using wxPython! By the end of the day I’d ploughed my way to past page 100 and not written any code. I have covered a lot of theory which given my past track record with learning to code GUI applications is not a bad thing.

Boston Legal has given me a convenient opportunity to relax between chapters. Kim recommended it to me. Well more told me I had to watch it. Repeatedly. She was right. Other than the annoying theme music I’m really enjoying it.

Have you ever wanted a plateau on your terrain that a building can stand on or to cut a flat road through a scene?
Here is a new Python script for Vue 6 Infinite and Vue 6 xStream to make doing both of those easier. It appeared as a work in progress yesterday (Terrain Sculpting Python Script WIP. I’ve chopped a couple of options out of it that were slowing it down. If I can think of a quicker way of getting the code to work I’ll add them back in later versions. The picture above is a quick test render of a standard mountain terrain that I used the script to cut a flat area for the house to stand on.

You can download the script from the impworks’ Terrain Matcher vue python script page.

How to use in 6 easy steps

1. Download this file onto your computer
2. Create a terrain (at this stage you can scale it
   but avoid rotating it)
3. Place objects above the terrain that you want to
   affect the terrain (don’t put them too close to
   the top of the terrain)
4. Select the terrain to be modified
5. Then run script.
   To run it go to Python -> Run Python Script
   Then locate the file on your computer
6. Answer the questions that appear in the pop ups
   then let it run till it pops up to say it’s
   finished

I’ve been using Google Sitemaps on the impworks site for a month. I’d not realised I could use it on a blogger using the atom feed until I was browsing the web earlier. It hardly took any time to do.

1. Log in to Google Sitemaps using your Google account (or sign up first if you don’t have one)
2. Enter your blogspot address (eg http://impworks.blogspot.com/
3. Click on “verify” next to the address and select “Add a META tag”
4. Copy the code (something like <META name=”verify-v1″ content=”foofoofoofoofoofoo” /> )
5. Open up your blogger account and go to the “Template” tab
6. Add the copied meta tag into the head section of the template and save the template changes
7. Republish your blog
8. Go to “Settings” then “Site Feed”
9. If “Publish Site Feed” is set to No change it to Yes
10. Copy your site feeds URL (Something like http://impworks.blogspot.com/atom.xml )
11. Go back to Google Sitemaps, go to verify again and then go to “Add a META” tag again
12. This time click on “Verify”
13. Now go to Sitemaps again then click “Add a Sitemap”
14. Select “Add General Web Sitemap”
15. Paste your site feeds URL and click “Add Web Sitemap”

Not quite 3 easy steps but it works and once you’ve done this Google knows more about when your blog is published and you get to see extra information on how google sees your blog, how often you get added to the index and what searches your blog is appearing for on Google.

Previous post about Google Sitemaps: Google Sitemapped