Well, I used to think Technorati was bad at searching the blogosphere for posts and the like. Then I discovered Blogger’s search tool. Wow. It is bad. It really is that bad.

Now, in the past we here at WhyDontYou have ranted about the problems with blog indexes like Technorati (mainly that unless you are a major company or can public relations yourself to get a billion back links you will never show up), but blogger seems to be drowned under the weight of spam.

Out of curiousity, I did a search for “Open University” Technology Web Design, as I know there is a fairly good blog on TT380 and wondered if there were any more.

Sadly, if I only had Blogger search I would never know. I wouldn’t even know the TT380 blog existed. At the time of my search, the first page of results was almost entirely spam. There are a couple of “real posts” (not exactly blogs though) followed by pages like this – http://bonjourarraonsons77327. blogspot.com/ 2006/09/ soccer-team-strategies-with-3-4-3.html – pure garbage which appears to be there for the sole reason of getting links to other spam sites indexed by google.

It is insane. Blogger is powered by Google. Given the difficulty in getting first page results on Google, you would think this applied to Blogger as well. Obviously not.

Still, in my opinion google is getting less and less relevant now. I find http://uk.yahoo.com produces more, worthwhile, search results and pages I design get indexed there faster. Is this the dawn of a new Yahoo?

Anyway, on a more serious note – the TT380 site is excellent. Well worth a visit and a shame it isnt higher placed on the Search Engine.

Well, the rumours of the “slashdot effect” (Where getting a mention on slashdot brings your server to its knees) having died were obviously unfounded.

A recent article (Traveller detained for anti-TSA Message) seems to have had the predictable effect.

I haven’t yet been able to read the original, but the message on slashdot is that a traveller got detained by US Airport police for wiriting an message on a carrier bag which read “Kip Hawley (Head of the TSA) is an Idiot,” (For non Americans, you can read more about the Transportation Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Insecurity – http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=11&content=4714).

Isn’t it great having the United States of America as the last bastion of freedom….. The people will remain Free even if it takes locking up every single one of them to achieve it…

It is such a shame George Orwell didnt live to see this day.

Old Sarum 23 Sep 06 004,
originally uploaded by etrusia_uk.

Well, never again will I even give the slightest bit of creedence to phrases like “the camera never lies.”

This picture was taken at Old Sarum on 23 Sep, then heavily edited in Photoshop. While the overall image hasn’t changed – that is only because it was decided not to change it. It has been heavily enhanced in the green grass and blue sky (as you can see).

There were also a fair few people in the picture, but they got in the way and ended up being Clone Brush’ed out 🙂

Well, after a significant break – combination of work, sunny weather and Open University assignments – things may be ready to return to normal.

Just to let every one know we are still working hard and checking out new things, why dont you have a look at this Picassa / Google Web Album thing we have been looking at recently:

Festival of History

Aug 12, 2006 – 27 Photos

To get away from the trend of putting in less useful entries, here is a serious one. Symantec site points out that a “build your own trojan kit” can be had for about $20.

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/weblog/2006/08/buildyourown_trojan_starter_ki.html

I don’t believe this is really “news”, in the sense that’s it’s been well known for  a long time, but they give a fair amount of detail and even a screen shot. And this kit seems to come with full instructions so the complete newb could be up and trojanning within a short time.

It’s still hard to understand why these things are so widespread. I could understand that people might get a sense of intellectual achievement from creating their own trojan from scratch. I can understand actual fraud. Beyond that, messing up people’s pcs by making them install pre-pack malware doesn’t even seem to provide malicious pleasure, in that the people who do it can’t even see you tearing your hair out and having to sell the family dog to a pie company to buy a new hard disk.

On a scale of 0 to 10 for lameness, this post is clearly at the low edge of being mobility challenged. Nevertheless, does anyone else find they are getting half their music choices from the adverts?

My first foray into the demonic underworld of people who choose music on the basis of consumer promotions was the Joanna Newsom “This side of the blue” from an IBM advert – IBM no less. Soon followed, on the sort of downward path normally associated with Faust, by Jose Gonzales’ “Heartbeats” (Sony Bravia.) Now, it’s Bedouin Soundclash “When the night feels ” (T-Mobile)

Argh.

I find there is even a website devoted to this shameful practice. http://www.tvadmusic.co.uk/ It describes itself as “your number one website for songs from UK television commercials.” It just feeds the problem, by pointing out new adverts you have never seen.

Sorry.