I saw a Canary Wharf-type zipping about in a sparkly new Audi R8 today.
I can’t drive, it sorta looks like a George Foreman grill, yet I still want one.
It’s official: I’m moving back to Wales
January 9th, 2008
But where exactly? Looks like I have another nervous wait…
Louise – nudged into it in no small part by myself – applied to Wales for her foundation training as a doctor, and got in. This is the good news. The bad news is that competition is fierce for jobs in South Wales; nobody wants to live in the North or West of the country. Of course, places like Rhyl and Bangor need doctors too, but unfortunately for them, their allocation of doctors will be the ones who were unsuccessful elsewhere and were given their spot via clearing.
She has ranked 8 or the 106 courses on offer in order of preference; now we play the waiting game. On January 22nd we find out if she needs to rank another 8 posts in order of preference from those with spots remaining. In other words, if we don’t hear anything on the 22nd, then we can safely presume that one of the original choices was successful. (We find out which one on February 20.)
Having jumped through hoops just to get a place with only a guarantee of employment for 2 years, she then has the significant task of passing her finals this May. I don’t envy her one bit. This year will mark 3 years since I graduated, and if I have to sit any other exam (other than my driving test) it’ll be too soon.
EnTrip
January 8th, 2008
I’m pleased to report that as of this afternoon I’ve officially joined EnTrip as a part-time website design and SEO consultant. My good friend Nick set up a prototype app to track his two-month holiday around the United States, and the interest it generated has inspired him to take the project further. He’s recruited two guys to work on a full-time basis and we’re all hoping that we can launch the site, albeit in preliminary form, within the next six months or so.
I’m certain that the site has potential but I’m also acutely aware that the vast majority of start-ups – both on and offline – don’t succeed. That’s not to say I’m pessimistic; at best it could prove a lucrative investment of my time and at worst it will provide an interesting learning experience.
Another year, another Christmas
December 25th, 2007
It’s that time of year again, and for only the second time I’m spending it at home. I wonder how much of a hash I’ll make of the turkey…
I cannot overestimate how great it is to not have any work to do (or at least, not be expected to do any). Beer, turkey and DVDs sound good to me.
Idiot Telemarketer
December 3rd, 2007
I hope this is some bizarre viral campaign, but it probably isn’t. A guy at a “world leading” UK-based web marketing firm – so “world leading” I’ve never heard of them – loses his rag after making what I’m guessing is one too many unsuccessful telemarketing calls to the U.S. If this guy was working for me he’d be fired and out of the door before he could think”George W. Bush” let alone say it. What makes this worse is that this isn’t some impatient jobsworth, he claims to be the director of the company! Absolutely shocking.
Flash & Actionscript: Eaters Of Time
November 13th, 2007
As part of my job at UCL, I’ve spent the last two weeks working on some Flash-based gimmicks for the sites I’m putting together. Very whizzy and Actionscript-laced they are, too. Except I have a meeting with my boss later and I only have one-and-a-half SWFs to show off.
How come Flash programming eats up my time so much? My problem is I get caught up in unnecessary details – turning the slightest movement into a carefully-described variable, rather than just tween an instance from A to B (you know, just in case…) or defining dynamic text boxes and filling them out via Actionscript rather than – you guessed it – just writing it in a static box and forgetting about it. Granted, these examples only illustrate a workload increase of seconds rather than minutes or hours, but over the course of a fortnight these really have stealthily gobbled up my time.
I’m approaching my work too much like a programmer and not enough like a designer.
Automated SEO Reciprocal Link Requests
November 9th, 2007
I’m receiving an ever-increasing influx of emails asking me to link to Site X in exchange for a link from some crappy subpage of Site Y – a twist on the old reciprocal linking model. I must get about 50 of these every day. Today, however, I’m in a bad mood (and a little bored) so I replied to one of them inline. Enjoy.
Hi,
I came across your website and was wondering if you would consider a link exchange with me. In return I am willing to place a link to your site on our PR7 site here: http://www.scienceonstage.net/top-hits.html (I can put your link in the perfect category match for your site)
YAY another generic directory. Doesn’t look like spam at all – sign me up!
I understand that you probably get 100’s of spam emails everyday asking the same thing, but I am a real person and not a spam bot.
“I understand that you probably get 100’s of spam emails everyday asking the same thing. Here’s another.” <- fixed.
If this is of interest to you simply reply to this email and I will put your link live first. (Please send me your link details along with a short description of your site)
Title: SEO Services
URL: http://www.doneseo.com
Description: DONE! SEO Services is a leading Search Engine Optimization Company based in California, USA. Call us at 1-888-372-8335. Founded by Internet Entrepreneur Ben Padnos.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Kind regards
You have got to be joking.
Firstly, your “Science on Stage” site is a dropped domain you’ve picked up. Smart move – toolbar PR still shows 7 and you still have backlinks from CERN and the European Organisation for Astronomical Research from back in the days when it was a legit, useful website and not another piece-of-shit spam directory.
Secondly, you expect me to provide link to your SEO company and in return I get a link from some crap linkdump, sharing a page with about 200 others? No deal.
Thirdly, thanks for the personal touch – addressing your enquiry to root@ rather than the email@ address I have posted on my site. Now I know you’re not a bot, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Keep wearing the ever-darkening grey hat.
Mathew
Irritating as this approach is and however questionable the ethics, it’s probable that – at least for now – this stuff passes under Google’s radar. Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, no recriprocal link, everyone’s happy. It’s not an obvious paid link for Google to investigate either, which is how many of us fear Google is investing it’s time.
I’m really interested to know if Google have anything in the works to combat this sort of spammy approach. I’m looking at you, Matt.
Check Your Current Pagerank
October 24th, 2007
Google have been frustrating SEO watchers for a couple of months now by putting off updating toolbar PR for most sites, although they’ve annoyed a lot of pro bloggers by downgrading PR en masse for a whole heap of blogging sites.
Presuming you weren’t one of these unlucky few, I’ve found a way to check your current Pagerank, as long as your site is in the Google Directory. As most people realise, Google gets their data from Dmoz, so if you’re in one directory, you’re almost certainly in the other one. The difference between the two is that Google Directory sorts it’s directory listings by PR.
My web design business, MB Web Design, currently displays PR4 in the toolbar (and has done for months and months). However, check my listing in Google Directory and it shows PR6. I’ve seen a couple of other sites with different toolbar PRs versus their PR in Google Directory. So, go and have a look. You may be pleasantly surprised.
I think that Google’s sudden demotion of PR value for leading blogs is a way to deter such sites from selling links purely for the link juice. Some evidence supporting this theory follows:
- Autoblog‘s toolbar PR dropped from 6 to 4. Interesting that in Google directory it’s a 7.
- Engadget‘s toolbar dropped from 7 to 5. In Google directory it’s still 7.
- Andy Beard dropped from 5 to 3. Nope, in Directory he’s still 5.
- Search Engine Journal dropped from 7 to 4 and… you guessed it.
Interestingly however, ProBlogger went from Pr6 to PR4, but according to Google Directory, has no PR at all…
Feel free to contibute any other discrepancies between Google Directory PR and toolbar PR.
Goodbye to the Rugby World Cup 2007
October 21st, 2007
And congratulations to South Africa, deserving world champions. I must say, I’m glad that they won but it’s a shame that the final went without a try being scored – not a good advert for the sport as it was rather dull. That, however, has been England’s game and it had worked well for them until tonight.
I’m now left with that deflated feeling one tends to get at the end of a party or on the night of December 25th – what am I going to do with my weekends now? I guess I only have a few months to wait until the Six Nations.
The competition really has been the story of the underdogs.
- England, after suffering a 36-0 defeat to South Africa in the pool stage, go on to reach the final.
- Argentina shock France on the opening night…
- …Then they wipe the floor with them in the 3rd place playoff
- Fiji steal a 38-34 win from Wales to knock them out of the tournament at the pool stage.
- Georgia come within a whisker of beating Ireland.
- Tonga’s amazing comeback (and near victory) against South Africa 30-25
The list goes on. It really has been quite amazing to watch, especially the better-than-expected performances by the so-called “minnows” of the rugby world cup against the established sides. I was in St. David’s Centre in Cardiff when Portugal scored against New Zealand, to an enormous, rapturous ovation by the Welsh AND Australian fans in attendance. The perceived gulf of standard between the minnows and the established nations is narrowing, but such sides really need to be in regular competition against other good teams. Once every four years simply isn’t good enough.
What happens next? Well, Wales have a friendly against the newly-crowned world champions South Africa in November. Wales, whose form has been disappointing at best, are without a coach. I am debating picking up some tickets to the game. The probability of witnessing a hiding is high, which would make this an unattractive prospect if I was a fair-weather supporter. Alas, I’m not.
Will Greenwood Is A Prick
Or at least, someone at ITV is a prick for hiring this guy to do commentary.
Thank you Will Greenwood for completely ruining the South Africa V Argentina game with endless references to the England squad, and selling Josh Lewsey’s injury the previous night like he’d been shot. I’m not the only one to notice this:
Facebook group
Thread moaning about him on ITV’s forums
The Will Greenwood Drinking game
How Will Greenwood are you?
If there’s any justice in the world he will never, ever be let anywhere near a microphone again.
Tags: commentary, england, itv, rugby, rugby world cup, will greenwood
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