Andy Fletcher

How long does Google take to react to a 301 redirect?

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:40:00 +0000

My Taekwondo site had sat for years on a subdomain at http://tkd.tomcatuk.net. I felt the site deservered it's own domain, so I did a little keyword research using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Ran the keyword "taekwondo" through it, then sorted the results by global search volume. Top of the list (of course) was "Taekwondo" with over 3 million monthly searches. Obviously taekwondo.com, taekwondo.net and taekwondo.org have all been taken up long since. It does surprise me they don't actually have sites on them, and are just cyber squats. Presumably the owners are waiting to make a fortune selling them.

Next on the list - "Taekwondo Olympics" with 110,000 global searches. Then at number 5 "Olympic Taekwondo" with 49,500 global searches. I know I'm going to have to go for a two word domain, and this looks like the number one keyphrase. Time to visit my registrar.

Bingo - managed to get a domain I really like - http://www.olympictaekwondo.org / . Quite surprised it was available (checked Alexa and it's never been registered so no issues with it being used for bad purposes in the past either). Perfect! No dashes or underscores, just two totally relevant keywords with a "reputable" domain extension (I don't like URLs with special characters or numbers and suspect Google doesn't either). Anyone who's tried to register a domain knows just how tricky it is to find any good ones. I was only interested in getting a .com, a .net or a .org. Didn't want any of the "lesser" extensions such as .biz, .info or .me. As the site is really suitable for an international audience, I wasn't keen on .co.uk, but would have accepted one of those if the name was good enough.

Next step: copy all the content from the old subdomain over to the new FQDN (still on the same server). Since the site uses Blogger for the blog I had to republish that after changing the publishing settings within Blogger. Then write a 301 redirect into the .htaccess file within the old sub domains root by entering this line into it:

redirect 301 / http://www.olympictaekwondo.org/

Publish the .htaccess file on the old sub domain and bingo, any clicks to the old sub domain now get automatically redirected to the new domain. This will include any links on other sites, links in people's favourites and, of course, most importantly and links in SERPs.

Prior to doing this, I double checked what the Google PageRank was for my pages - Homepage a 3, Blog page a 3 and all content pages a 2. The "About" & "Contact" pages had no PageRank which I kind of think is good of Google as these aren't pages I expect to rank in SERPs. Individual Blog entries had a mixtures of 0,1 and 2 PR.

I did a little reading up, and it seemed the consensus was that when using a 301 redirect I could reasonably expect Google to start showing the new URL in search results, in the same position as the old pages in about two weeks. It should also reassign" the PR from the old to the new in about that time frame.

The 301 was put in place on July 10th 2009. I'll amend this post when I have a proven timeframe for the SERPs positions and PR of the new domain matching the old.

***Footnote***

Google's webmaster guidlines recommend using the "change of address" feature in Webmaster Tools to advise Google of a moved domain. Sounds good, but unfortunately it doesn't help in this case. They do not give an option to move a subdomain, only a FQDN.

***Update 1***
On July 15th (just five days after implementing the 301) I have PR0 on most pages, notably the homepage and blog homepage. Some of the internal pages seem to have regained their PR2 value already. Google Webmaster tools refuses to make any statements about the PR of the sites' pages, so presumably at this stage it is still all still ironging itself out.

HP laserjet 4700 paper jam (13.01.00)

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:37:00 +0000

Managed to get this error this morning (13.01.00 - error in paper path for tray 2). Checked feed path - no problems. Checked guide rails in the paper tray, again all was as it should be.

This didn't help.

Turns out that whoever had filled it last had allowed to bottom sheet of the ream they inserted to curl over the sensor at the front of the tray. The only way to see this is to remove all the paper from the tray. To fix it, just refill the tray PROPERLY.

The best way to stop this from happening is probably to stop people filling the paper trays and just do it yourself. This little mystery cost me 20 minutes whereas just refilling the printer myself (I tend to do it properly!) would have taken a few seconds.

PageRank sculpting & nofollow

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:24:00 +0000

I'll assume you know what the title is about. If you don't, read this. On a side note, quite how that page has a PR of 7 when it went up only two weeks ago...that's something to talk about another time.

I just watched the SEOMOZ whiteboard Friday video on nofollow and PageRank sculpting, but didn't leave it with any conclusions. The answer seems to be in Matt Cutt's announcement, and this is how I read it:

Google does not like people messing with PageRank and is telling webmasters to stop trying it.

That being the case, as far as I'm concerned stop using nofollows (or any alternative methods) on internal links. You're giving Google a negative indicator, ie that you don't vouch for your own content. That can't be good. To think as a webmaster you can funnel PageRank using another method without Google noticing is probably foolhardy, and certainly arrogant. So I'm not looking into it.

What saddens me about nofollow is it's abuse - particularly WikiPedia (and other large sites - Wiki is just the top example). WikiPedias' content is moderated and the external links have not been paid for so the use of nofollow is not in line with Google's (or other engines) advice on what exactly the tag is for.

Google Adsense Allowed Sites

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:27:00 +0000

The allowed sites feature is great. As someone who's been through the process of having his Adsense account disabled due to ads appearing on sites I don't control (basically vandalism on the part of another webmaster) it's great to be able to sleep at night in the knowledge my publisher ID isn't being served on any pages that could get my account banned.

However, having just switched to using Analytics, I had a quick look at it this morning, then a look at Adsense. Adsense is recording more than double the number of page impressions that Analytics is. Luckily, within your Adsense account there's a list of the sites that are attempting to display your ADs. Guess what? They are all Google pages, so this is people viewing my page in Google's cache rather than actually visiting my site.

The answer to this is simple - add google.com to your allowed sites list. It also make sense to add your "local" Google, so I added all the English language Googles I could think of.

Bounce Rate - seems to work

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:30:00 +0000

Bizarrely, a post I put up a while ago about press ups in Taekwondo started to appear on page one of Google.co.uk for the keyphrase "press ups". If you're doing TKD hopefully it was a useful, inspired and interesting read, but if you don't, the odds are it wasn't exactly what you were looking for based purely on that keyphrase search.

Looking at Analytics, the bounce rate for that keyphrase is 100%, and gradually Google is dropping my position for it accordingly.

It's always seemed logical for me that Google's algorithm should pay close attention to bounce rate to help it guage the relevance of it's results, but this is the first time I've actually been able to see it actually working in a real scenario. Hopefully they'll drop me altogether for that keyphrase as it's dragging my total bounce rate up - most pages on the site, when they are reached through an appropriate keyphrase have bounce rates beneath 40% which is much more like it.

CSS & Blogger Template

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:03:00 +0000

Finally got around to merging the stylesheets for my TKD site - now Blogger is calling the same stylesheet as the rest of the site, and all the same include files.

I thought this would be easy, but as always once you get started all manner of little quirks manifest themselves! Had to write in 4 or 5 extra hacks to get Internet Explorer 6 & 7 to work with the single stylesheet. What I thought would take an hours or so took more like 4 hours to do. Never again!

C902 debrand from Vodafone - for free

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:14:00 +0000

Got a little tired of the Vodafone branding on my C902, and a little digging around found out how to 1) debrand it and 2) have future firmware updates from the Sony Ericsson Update Service (SEUS). I debranded a phone once before (paying for the priviledge) and as a result couldn't get any new firmware - I would have had to keep on paying each time I wanted to update whch wasn't really a great solution.

Debranding a C902 from Vodafone turns out to be easy and free.

Firstly, you'll need a piece of software call A2Uploader, and an XML file to fool Ericsson's update service into thinking your phone is unbranded. Click here for the copy I made and used. Then you simply use SEUS to flash your firmware to the latest version, saying yes to all the warning about possible data loss.

I was a bit put off by the fact that my AVG anti-virus warned me that A2Upoader contined a Trojan. It didn't, so to get it to run I had to turn off the residnt shield within AVG. Then you just follow the prompts like this:

1. Turn off your phone, take out the battery, re-insert the battery (don't turn the phone back on)
2. Fire up A2Upoader, click "File System Tool" on the right, hold the "C" button on your phone and plug in the USB cable. A2Uploader should then recognise your handset.
3. Use A2Uploader to browse your phone to "tpa/preset/custom" and copy the XML file onto your phone.
4. Shut down A2Uploader, disconeect the USB cable from the phone, and switch it back on.

You can now use the Sony Ericsson Update Service and get the latest firmware. The Sony Ericsson firmware, not the Vodafone stuff.

Having done this, my phone is:

1) running much faster
2) has a decent battery indicator
3) much nicer icons in the main menu
4) hasn't got 50 shortcuts to Vodafone Live! that I can't change (I hate that)

You can also use A2Uploader to get rid of the awful pre-installed games, and any media files (ringtones, pictures etc) that you can't normally remove using the phone. Great!

I thought it might be an idea to show a couple of pictures of the debranded c902. A bit tricky to get the phone to take a picture of itself, so I asked Tony if he could take a picture using his iPhone. And here it is:
Turns out the iPhone camera is, to be frank, absolute rubbish so you probably can't read what's on the phone. Even funnier, I asked Tony to bluetooth the image over to me once he'd taken it, and he told me he couldn't - the iPhone can't transmit files via Bluetooth. Pathetic eh?

Just for the sake of fairness, I took a quick shot of his iPhone with my c902, see if you can spot the differences in image quality:Both images were taken indoors, with poor lighting and no setting camera options to anything other than default. I'm horrified the iPhone has such a crap camera, and is incapable of sending files via Bluetooth particularly as it's so incredibly expensive.

Cool It - The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:02:00 +0000

Right now I'm reading Cool It by Bjorn Lomborg (recommended to me by my uncle) and before I've even finished it I have to recommend this as a book everybody who has even a slight concern over the future welfare of humanity should read.

The book is totally engaging, and totally strips away the propaganda around the whole man made global warming issue, and just what we should do about it. I don't want to spoil what should be a great and eye opening read, but can't stop myself mention the central theme that the Kyoto agreement (signed by multiple nations agreeing to reduce carbon emissions) is going to cost billions of Dollars, yet have minimal impact on the climate and negligible (sometimes even negative) impact on the welfare of the people of this planet. Bjorn argues that these Dollars can be far more usefully spent, and huge numbers of lives saved and improved.

The question we need to ask ourselves is do we want to reduce the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, or is our goal a better environment. The two are not the same.

Sony Ericsson C902

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:44:00 +0000

Finally got an upgrade from Vodafone, and opted for the C902 Cybershot camera phone. The camera is, as I expected, a joy to use and produces some very nice images. Here's a shot taken on my recent holiday to the Lake District in Cumbria. Good eh?

Unfortunately, I have also had problems with this handset. Within two weeks of getting it, it died. Switching it on just resulted in the camera button lighting up, but the phone itself refused to start at all. Returned it to Vodafone, and they reinstalled the firmware. This seemed to fix the issue, but then today it did exactly the same thing again. Not wanting to send it off for repair yet again, I tried overwriting the firmware using the Sony Ericsson Update Service (SEUS). It seemed to work, akthough I am still stuck with the rather awful Vodafone branded firmware that they insist on installing on it. I have asked Vodfone directly if they would be willing to put the Ericsson firmware on it (I'd be happy to pay a reasonable amount) but they say they simply won't do that. Bad show I say - I've been a Vodafone customer for almost a decade now and really do think this is pretty tight fisted of them. I'm sure the phone would be more stable with Ericsson firmware, and would REALLY like to be able to delete some of the awful stuff they've installed on it such as the bad collection of games. They're all demos installed just to attempt to get me to make a purchase. Every other phone I've ever had, right back to my Nokia 3310, came with at least one full game installed. The fact they've allocated two shortcuts that I can't edit to Vodafone Live is a bit of a niggle as well. They've also instisted on hard coding the homepage of the web browser as their own website. that totally sucks - even Microsoft haven't got the sheer cheek to hardwire the homepage of their web browser.

Overall, a great phone, with awful firmware if you're on Vodafone.

Widget Linkbaiting

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 12:46:00 +0000

An interesting topic was posted yesterday by the self proclaimed World's Greatest SEO aka Darren Slatten on Widgets as linkbait. Matt Cutts said some interesting stuff in the interview with Eric Enge, but as usual the answers were, when analyzed, rather bland and really what he was saying was go back and read Google's webmaster guidelines. Save yourself even more time by simply following the only really important Google suggestion on this topic:

"Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

I love the elegance, simplicity and yet huge capacity for failing in this. Google is saying we should really KNOW whether what we are doing is ethical, and perhaps most of us do. It's not possible, however, to accurately measure your own standards of ethics next to Google's of course!

Plastic bags - environmental problem...solved!

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:49:00 +0000

Fed up of hearing about having to pay 5p for a plastic bag? Worried plastic bags will be banned and you'll actually have to bring a bag to Tesco's? Unlike Global Warming, the plastic bag problem has always been an environmental issue I actually believed was happening. Well now it's solved, and seemingly completely and forever! Perhaps (I'm not holding my breath here) some other important environmental issues might get some attention now this one is sorted.

XP Service Pack 3

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:08:00 +0000

Microsoft have released it, so I duly scampered over to the update site out curiosity as to what this service pack would do before it automatically got installed on all the machines at work and everything fell to bits.

Pleasantly surprised. It didn't take all that long, required a rebbot (fair enough really) and presto the machine is running just fine. The only change I notice is that CD/DVD autorun, which had stopped running on my Laptop ages ago is working again. Funnily enough, I hadn't missed it though.

More man made Global Warming nonesense

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:07:00 +0000

The Register ran an interesting story today. Basically (surprise surprise) there seems to some confusion as to whether or not the planet is actually getting any warmer, much to the chagrin of the anti carbon crowd who are being made to look less and less credible on a near hourly basis.

The problem seems to be that the UK Meteorological Office's Hadley Center for Climate Studies are saying temperatures have been dropping since 1998. NASA say they have risen.

The best part of the Register's article is the suggestion that, if the world is cooling, we might halt the coming Ice Age by burning MORE fossil fuel, thereby releasing the needed CO2 to raise the planet's temperature.

The basic point being of course, that there isn't so far any actual proof, of any kind, that Carbon Dioxide actually has a measurable impact on the greenhouse at all, and in all likelihood isn't really doing anything much at all. Apart from making life possible on the planet, but let's not worry about that eh?

It's about time this was put to bed. This planet is facing some huge man made environmental issues which are on the back burner (if they are even treated with any importance at all) such as over population, food shortages, deforestation etc. Did you know for instance, in the last 200 years humans have removed HALF of the world's trees? Now THAT I can believe will have a dramatic effect on the planets' entire ecosystem. Forget buying a Golf Bluemotion (and in the process allowing your old car to go into landfill and poison the planet some more). Plant some trees.

Last week my uncle suggested I read what Bjorn Lomborg has to say about how best to preserve this planet as a habitable place for humans. In a nutshell, the amount we plan to spend pointlessly controlling carbon emissions is more than enough to solve some real problems - like the shortage of fresh water supplies, Malaria and HIV. Popping out for the book now. After planting a tree.

Andy Fletcher meets... Andy Fletcher!

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:42:00 +0000

It had to happen eventually, given that in this wonderful creation we live in (the universe!) every particle doesn't simply follow one path, it follows ALL possible paths. At least according to Quantum Mechanics they do.

Andy Fletcher met Andy Fletcher in a rare quantum event on the 24th April 2008 at one of Andy's seminars. There was, of course, some trepidation that two identical particles occupying the same space and time might result in a spontaneous mutual annihilation, but fortunately the laws of physics saw fit to look the other way for the evening and the Universe, Andy and myself survived the evening unscathed.

Andy's talk was, I'm very pleased to say, exactly what I was hoping it would be. A lot of extremely complicated science presented in a lighthearted, intriguing and, most importantly understandable way (especially for a dunderhead like myself).

I got my copy of "Life, the Universe and Everything: Investigating God and the New Physics" signed with, and a rather fetching T-Shirt was also mine. You can't really qualify as a geek without a T-Shirt that's got a joke about Quantum Mechanics on it (black of course!) and the icing on the cake is it has "Andy Fletcher" written on it to boot.

Andy will of course, expect I suggest to anyone reading this that his book is not only a great read, but will add kudos to any bookshelf, so here's where to get it. Get it!

Playstation 60GB

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:53:00 +0000

I finlly decided I would cough up and get a PS3. It's a lot of money, but unlike the general populace I know just how powerful this thing is, and not surprised it's a lot more than a Nintendo console since they just use cheap out of date technology.
Unfortunately, it turns out Sony have stopped supplying the more expensive 60GB version that has backwards compatibility with PS1 & PS2 games for the European (PAL) market. I can't bring myself to buy a 40GB version that has been "crippled" to make it a few pounds cheaper. I'm certainly not keeping a PS2 connected to my TV alongside a PS3, and there's NO WAY I am throwing away my PS2 games - they're far too good for that!
Sony, for heavens sake, backwards compatibility (as I understand it) is done in software on the PS3 so since you've coded it already, add it to the console! You do WANT to sell me one surely?

***UPDATE***

Just realised this post needs the following added:

I crumbled and bought the 40GB version. Turns out the 60GB was withdrawn from sale due to a rather embarrassingly high failure rate. I was concerned that the backwards compatibility was missing, and still am although I really don't understand what the problem is, and why backwards compatibility with the PS2 needed to be done through hardware. Here's what I think. The PS2 was powered by a 300MHz RISC processor (a single core). The PS3 is powered by the cell - a multi core (there are 7 cores) processor that runs at 3.2 GHz. Now I'm crap at mathematics, but if you could squeeze the miracles that the PS2 achieved with ONE 300MHz CPU, you really ought to be able to create a stable emulator if you have SEVEN 3.2 GHz CPU's available purely in software, or am I missing something? The sneaky suspicion of course is that Sony don't want me (as a PS3 owner) having access to a huge catalogue of cheap PS2 games.

As a footnote, Call of Duty 4 is without doubt the best FPS I've ever seen, but I can't play it because Activision/Infinity/Sony saw fit to not bother including mouse support. I angry as a hornet about that, and may well end up buying this.

GT5 Prologue is just so damn impressive and enjoyable I set up a new GT5 Blog just to talk about it.

Man made global warming - rubbish!

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:15:00 +0000

This week I was horrified to discover that man made global warming is now part of the national curriculum here in the UK and my children are being spoon fed this nonsense as part of their education. How on Earth an unproven media scare can be classified as science amazes me.

Here are a few problems with the "theory of man made global warming" which from what I read are not in dispute:

1. Global temperatures fell between 1945 and 1975, just when the post war economic boom was creating ever more man made carbon emissions. Solar activity was lower during this period (as anyone with any common sense knows, it is the sun which ultimately drives climate change).

2. Ice core samples, going back millions of years show a higher level of carbon in the atmosphere are as a result of temperature change. Not the other way around. Al Gore didn't feel this was important enough to mention.

3. Human CO2 production is MINISCULE compared to the natural sources.

I honestly do not understand why this farce is continuing. The theory that it is being used to stifle economic growth in the developing world is an interesting conspiracy theory. The idea that political activists have joined the ecological activists and are using ecological issues to attack governments is easily believable.

I'd love to see some SCIENTIFIC evidence that can convince me that what we are told is happening is really happening. I never will of course - there is no evidence!

Sony Picture Package VCD maker

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:16:00 +0000

I'm asked if I can transfer some video footage from a Sony Handycam DCR-HC35. Sounds simple enough so I happily install Sony's software package "Sony Picture Package VCD Maker".

Problem 1. After the install routine has completed I try hooking up the camera. A warning flashes up that I should have installed Macromedia Flash Player. This'll sound odd perhaps, but I don't need Flash on my machine, so I've never installed it. If webmasters are daft enough to craft websites using Flash that's their lookout and their loss.

Problem 2. I bite the bullet and install Flash (having a feeling I will be rolling back the machine with a system restore or maybe formatting the whole drive again to clean this mess up...) and guess what? The Sony software doesn't recognize my DVDRW drive. The real stinger is my computer is a Sony Vaio - they don't support their OWN HARDWARE.

Then it occurred to me that I'd been going about it the wrong way. I already have Nero and the "Nero Vision" part of the suite does video capture. Now Nero DOES recognize my DVDRW drive so I thought I'd be onto a winner. Unfortunately, it CAN'T recognize the Sony Camcorder!

The only thing left to try would be to re-install the copy of Adobe Premiere that came with the laptop originally but I'm loathe to do that due to a complete lack of faith that it will actually work, and my undying hatred of Adobe in general.

Next attempt will involve some actual video capture hardware. Let's face it, there must be a way to get this to work.

RIAA wins court case

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:38:00 +0000

Shockingly, the RIAA have successfully won the case against Jammie Thomas and been awarded damages of $222000 for her UNPROVEN "sharing" of 17 MP3 songs that she didn't own the copyright to.

She could have broken into the houses of 17 people and stolen a CD and got much less of a fine. In fact she could probably have gone on a nationwide crime spree and got a smaller punishment. Of course, if she had committed any "normal" kind of crime, the prosecutors would have been forced to produce evidence, rather than conjecture.

I'm glad I live in the UK. I don't use filesharing sites, but that doesn't seem to matter as the RIAA can sue you regardless of whether they can prove you were sharing files at all. They have in the past filed cases against people who don't own a computer or an internet connection.

Manners maketh man

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:18:00 +0000

What is the problem with people? I'm stuck today behind a car that's stopped right in the middle of the road. While I'm sat there wonder what on earth they are doing, the back door opens and this old lady climbs out. The car drives away. Since it's obvious she got out on the wrong side and wants to get to the other side of the road, I check my mirrors for any approaching motorbikes or cyclists coming up behind me, so as it's clear I smile politely and indicate to her she can cross - I won't run her over.

Now, when someone does me a favour, particularly someone I'm keeping waiting I'd have the decency to smile a thank you. The look this lady gives me could be translated as "I should think so young man" or more likely "Sod you, I'd have crossed anyway. Do you know who I am?".

Old people...one day I'm going to be one. Maybe I am one already and that's how I should behave.

BBC iPlayer BETA

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:04:00 +0000

Read a few random blogs yesterday complaining the new BBC iPlayer Beta wasn't up to much and didn't actually work. Well, for me it does and it's quite frankly brilliant. You can watch the last weeks BBC programmes free on your PC. Of course, if you're really smart, you have a wireless media connection to your TV and can watch it on there using your laptop as a browser.

Cool!

Senseless waste of time

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:24:00 +0000

So I get asked why one of the guys can't view a flash demonstration he wants to look at on the web and please sort it out now.
Now, I don't by default grant administrative rights to users. They don't really need them and it stops them from installing all kinds of dangerous rubbish on their machines. This guy was set as a power user and for some reason MS Server & XP Pro doesn't want Flash Player installed without admin rights. After 15 minutes of sodding about I give up and grant the user admin rights, and Flash is his to behold.
I tell him he should be good to go now, and out of interest what exactly was it (ie the URL of the page) that he was so interested in looking at...
Can you guess what happens next?
He doesn't remember. He knows the keyphrase he gave Google to find it, but there are 74.6 trillion results and which one he was looking at is (after 15 mins) a distant memory. Now I could at that point showed him how to use his browser history (ie a fairly basic operation with any web browser I would have thought) but he seemed to have lost interest in the whole idea at that point. I certainly had.
Anyhows, now he has admin priviledges, so the scope for cocking things up on the network multiplies about 20 fold. Looking forward to tomorrow! With a bit of luck someone will ask me how to find file>print. I'm not joking.

Traffic lights

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 16:41:00 +0000

So I'm sat at the traffic lights, and the lady next to me had been driving in front of me really slowly as we approached the lights. So I think to myself, take off quickly when they go green and I'll be able to get home a bit quicker.

Oh no. This lady decides it' a matter of honor for her not to be "beaten" at the lights and takes off, tyres screeching when we get green. Fair enough - I wasn't about to do anything dangerous, so I let her go ahead. Low and behold, having secured her prized pole position, she immediately starts driving at 28mph or so - on a 40mph limit.

I honestly wonder what this type of idiotic driving achieves. Writing a blog post about it might give the impression that I'm seething over the episode. Not so. If people want to behave like idiots on the road, that's their lookout. I just feel sorry for the cyclists. I used to be one, but there's only so many times of getting knocked off before you give up on that option if you are able to, which I have.

Life, the Universe and Everything by Andy Fletcher

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:08:00 +0000

Investigating God and the New Physics

Most book reviews end with either a recommendation or otherwise as to whether you should read/buy the book in question. I'm going to open up by recommending you DO at least read, and (from the authors point of view of course - no, I'm not him) ideally buy a copy.

I started reading with a slight sense of dread, that maybe the book (the author is American) would have an overbearing pro Christian theme and that I'd struggle with the points and conclusions. It doesn't. Anyone can read this book regardless of their personal beliefs and take something useful from it - I know I have.

Andy is evidently an accomplished mathematician, and no stranger to science (although he is quite modest about his prowess when it comes to science). He presents some fascinating facts about the universe we live in. Here's a few things you get to read about:

Relativity. One of my favourite subjects. Many books read on this subject, will never truly understand it though.
Quantum Mechanics. But in a way even I understood, and from an angle I hadn't considered.
Chaos Theory. This one will drive you nuts. Includes some interesting conclusions about:
The Second Law of thermodynamics. Entropy always increases with time. Andy doesn't actually mention Eden, but the implication of this law is that for there to be any order in the universe today (which obviously there is - you're reading this for instance!) then the initial conditions at the beginning of time must have been perfect. Absolute order. Eden.
Complexity. A group of "brainless" larvae arranging themselves to imitate another creature. If that sounds incredible, read the book and see what they do next!

Throughout the book I was reading stuff which I felt I simply wasn't even qualified to have an opinion on (particularly the maths!).

Here's Andy's website. To get a copy of the book, I'd recommend ordering via the net. Waterstones and WH Smith don't appear to stock it, although I am sure either could order it for you if requested. I got my copy through Amazon.
As a footnote, I've had an e-mail from Andy who should be in the UK later this year. I'm very much hoping I'll get the opportunity to meet him (and get my copy of his book signed!).

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:07:00 +0000

Just recently, MySpace changed the way they handle outbound links. So now, my MySpace page "effectively" doesn't link back to my website anymore. they've taken this action in response to spammers abusing MySpace popularity with Google to manipulate SERPS.

Looks to me like it was too little too late! Google appears to have penalized MySpace pages. My own MySpace page came number two (occaisionally No1!) for the keyphrase "internet idiocy". Today, Google doesn't even list it. I'm not talking page one, I'm talking list AT ALL. My MySpace page has been de-indexed before you ask, no I don't care - in fact I am pleased, the average MySpace page is the WORST kind of content on the net and certainly doesn't deserve high placement.

I don't wish MySpace any ill will, just that there is ZERO interesting content on it, and it appears Google have recognised this fact and taken some kind of "appropriate" action.

Of course, some (and I'm not saying I'm not one of them) people may take the stance that Google is penalizing a "competitor". Orkut anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (tomcatuk) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:36:00 +0000

Letter received in the post today reads simply:

Telemessage

(My name & address here...)

Private and Confidential

URGENT

Dear Mr Fletcher,

Please contact us immediately on 08700100563 quoting reference 05011600063223816

Lines are open between 9.00am and 9.00pm Monday-Thursday and between 9.00am and 8pm Friday.

What's truly bizarre is the footer of the letter. It says:

Registered office - 81 Newgate Street, LONDON EC1A 7AJ. Registered in England No. 1800000.
British Telecommunications PLC has no responsibility for the contents of this message or for the decision to send it.

I'll bet they bloody don't! Now if (and I don't belive it can be) this is a communication from BT, they've lost the plot.

If (more likely) this is from some idiot mass mailing people from a database he found somewhere in order to get them to call his national rate number so he can make a couple of pounds out of the general publics' inbuilt gullibility I wonder how much he'll make.

Are the British public REALLY this stupid?