Archive for the ‘Web’ Category
Every few years, sometimes months, I redesign my Web site. Most of the time, though, it’s not so much a redesign as it’s a variation on a theme. I admit there are certain elements that I use again and again, sometimes moving away from them for awhile, but inevitably returning. That’s how I am with most of the things that interest me. I’ve always wanted my Web site to convey my personality, not just mirror what’s hip on the Web.
For many years, I used my Web site for self expression and not necessarily anything else. (Even now, I’d like to think that I’m maintaining this site not just to impress anyone or increase my PageRank™.) Despite the fact that I like to code and I’ve always updated my site with new coding techniques, I used to think that I couldn’t work in the Web world.
I was offered an internship at a Web company in 2000 or 2001, but I turned it down. I went to the company’s site and it had a long Flash intro without a skip button. I was pretty turned off. (Even today, if I go to a site that has that blasphemous Web behavior, I probably will never return to it.) But that wasn’t the only reason why I turned down that internship. I didn’t want a Web job, or a job working exclusively on a computer.
However, I’ve gladly spent many hours on my Web site for over a decade just because I like doing it. And now that I work in the Web world, it really isn’t so bad. It probably would’ve helped me a lot financially if I realized this several years ago, but I wouldn’t change what I did if I could.
19 October 2008 – 5:00 PM
Posted in Web | Tags: | No Comments »
Last year, someone bought bangbay.com and bangbay.net. Suspiciously, it happened after I unsuccessfully tried to transfer one of my domains to godaddy.com. A month after that happened, those two domains were registered with godaddy.com. In July 2005, I noticed bangbay.com was forwarding to a porn site, but it isn’t now. Tarnishing my good name.
Anyhow, catalog.com has some suggestions for me if I want to register a domain similar to bangbay.com.
What the heck is a beatbight?
7 February 2006 – 11:30 AM
Posted in Web | Tags: beatbight, domain names | No Comments »
When my family bought our first VCR, the first thing we recorded was The Wizard of Oz. We didn’t stop the recording during commercials. Later on, I usually didn’t record commercials. In retrospect, it would have been nice if I recorded more commercials, but back then I viewed commercials as I view them now–with annoyance. Of course, I may become nostalgic for today’s commercials ten years from now and wish that I had recorded some.
So, from The Wizard of Oz tape, there are about sixteen and a half minutes of commercials. I edited out my favorite commercials and they can viewed in the Fun section of my website. Highlights include the infamous McDonald’s “Recital” commercial with “Für Elise,” a Michael J. Fox Pepsi commercial, and an uplifting, multi-cultural Discover card commercial.
3 February 2006 – 1:00 PM
Posted in Web | Tags: Discover Card, McDonald's, Pepsi | No Comments »
A few months ago, I looked at Martin Luther King, Jr’s mug shot on The Smoking Gun and was intrigued by the scrawl on the photograph with the date of his death. I didn’t know that he died on April 4th, which struck me as an unlucky day to begin with, if you believe in that sort of thing. That night, in one of those impulsive search moments, I decided to look up more info on King via Google. It was then that I came across the seemingly innocuous martinlutherking.org.
The search martin luther king turned up these results.
Now, the front page of martinlutherking.org gives the website the appearance of being an “educational” resource about King. Before delving into any other part of the website, there are two odd items on the front page: a quote from a Newsweek article and a link to “Why the King Holiday Should be Repealed!” Pretty soon, you’ll find out the website is just a scam by white supremacists.
This is to whom martinlutherking.org is registered.
Don Black, huh?
So, I must admit that I was both disturbed and fascinated that this website existed and that it could have received such a high ranking in the search for martin luther king. However, if you search for martinlutherking without any spaces, these are the search results:
The description from the first search is from the website’s meta tag. I wonder how the description was changed in the second search. I have a suspicion that it’s either an editorial decision or some sort of manipulation is going on, like the miserable failure search.
I’ve always been fascinated with the possibilities of search engine manipulation. Several years ago, I came across a website for Asian American women, where the creator had used porn keywords to lure people to her website, which had nothing to do with porn, and was about culture and education. She said she received a lot of hate mail for this experiment. I don’t remember the website name or URL and I wish I could find it (if it still exists), but unfortunately every search I do with the words Asian and women inevitably turns up real porn, instead.
By the way, if you want to mention the martinlutherking.org website anywhere on the web, take the advice from Ed-Tech Insider and use the tag rel=”no follow” to prevent Google from increasing its PageRank.
17 January 2006 – 12:00 AM
Posted in Web | Tags: domain names, KKK, MLK, SEO | No Comments »
