November 16, 2003
In the first 15 days of November, I had 1008 unique search engine hits from Google, contributing to most of my 38,181 hits and 4,258 visits. Here are the top 8 queries:
- jewish racism
- cultural misunderstanding
- html compression
- george bush award for excellence in public service
- middle east terrorism
- victorian morality
- arguments for fox hunting
- prostitution and religion
November 14, 2003
Updates
I realized that my JavaScript quote include had some debug code that broke it. It should now work. In fact, you can see it in action @ Keenan’s new blog AbsoluteReason.com
You can still submit your favorite quotes to my database. I’ve only gotten one good quote and a few dozen insults so far. I get the distinct impression that most of my readers absolutely loath my views, which is somewhat puzzling. Don’t you people have an anti-war or Howard Dean rally to attend? I think this may be explained by the 80/20 rule.
November 13, 2003
MT-Blacklist
If you have a Movable Type blog, there is a high probability that you have been hit with a recent deluge of comment spam. To keep those spammers out, I highly recommend MT-Blacklist as a simple and effective solution. I understand that spammers are actively avoiding even trying to post to blogs with this plugin in order to avoid being blacklisted (the plugin can share your blacklist with other enabled blogs.)
(If you are hosting a Movable Type blog at one of my domains, and have ever given me your MT password, your blogs have already been immunized and deloused.)
November 08, 2003
New Photo Album
I'm spending the day creating a new gallery for my photo album. With 3,200 images taking up 880MB of space, this is truly a monumental task. You can keep track of my progress here.
Update: My new album is finished! What do you think of the theme?
October 24, 2003
New Essays
It's been a few months since I added any essays to my site, so it's time for a new one: "Creativity, the Man-Made and the Metaphysically Given" (Let me know if you have a better title for it.) I also added my essay on sex. I wrote it several months ago, but was never satisfied with the results. (Though the conservatives at Texags seemed to like it.) However after 6000 words, I’ve gotten so sick of the topic that I slapped on a “work in progress” and uploaded it.
I’ve been lazy about writing essays lately – mostly because my blog allows me to jot down my thoughts without the formality of writing a self-contained and structured theme. It doesn’t help that I’m taking a full load of classes and working. However, I’ve almost finished my first round of exams, and will try to write a few editorials before the next deluge of class work hits.
October 21, 2003
October 15, 2003
Office 2003
So I finally installed Microsoft Office 2003. I disliked the new interface at first, but after a few days, it’s grown on me. I can’t say there is anything objectively better about all the new icons – more like the latest fad in UI design. You can be sure that in a few months, all the new software will be sportin’ the new “shiny” icons. What Windows really needs, is SVG icon support. There aren’t that many new features I found all that useful, except SPAM filtering and the new Outlook 2003 layout, which is very neat with two monitors. Unfortunately, my server-side SPAM filter thinks all mail from Outlook 2003 is forged.
In related news, it seems that spammers are either using my account to send spam or faking my return address in their spam, so I’ve been getting hundreds of bounced emails and “unsubscribe requests” daily for the last few weeks. I’m not sure what I can do about the forged return address, but for now, I’ve disabled my wildcard email addresses so that only [email protected] will receive email. Whatever the case, it’s clear that my domain was singled out by spammer(s).
October 12, 2003
Do you like the layout of my website? Would you like to get a blog of your own, or to upgrade an existing one? If so, you can use my template and/or domain names for your own website. If your website is dedicated to promoting ideas I support, I might just help you for free, and if not, a little motivation should the trick. One Objectivist club is already using my template, and I haven't heard too many complaints so far.
October 06, 2003
You will find some new links among the blogs on the right. They are all good reading -- sometimes informative, usually right, and always interesting. Let me know about any other websites you'd like to recommend.
September 06, 2003
If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know that I got a job last week. There’s a very good chance that my boss/coworkers visit this site, so I’ll do my best to refrain from slandering any of them -- not that I have any cause to. Actually, my mom reads my blog whenever I don’t answer the phone, and if I don’t moderate my comments for her, I doubt I would for anyone else. (Don’t worry mom, last week’s hangover was the first time in a long while – I can’t afford that much alcohol very often.)
Anyway, I will be doing hardcore .Net programming at work, and extending and applying what I learn at home as well. My homepage, which was originally created in plain html, converted to php, then converted to asp, then converted to .Net, and finally converted back to php, will probably be converted to VB.net and then C# as I apply my new knowledge to this site. Although I find LAMP to be a better solution in many cases, .Net offers power and features that are unmatched by any other solution. (If you’re interested in a comparison of the two, check out Microsoft’s take on MSDN. Although the disadvantages of .Net are mysteriously left out, the superiority of .Net as a platform is made very clear.)
In any case, I am looking for potential projects that I can use as a learning experience for .Net. If you would are looking for someone to design your interactive non-profit website, let me know, and I might do it gratis.
September 01, 2003
The Joys of Blogging
Going along with the theme of my previous post, I would like to review the progress of this blog, and perhaps inspire some of my readers to start their own (and feed my already super-sized ego.) I started blogging 16 months ago to improve my writing, thinking, and web-design skills. 595 entries later, the blog has been far more successful than I expected. My literary abilities still need much improvement, but there have been many tangible results. Traffic has grown from nil to 2155 unique hits and 5364 visits this August. Google and Blogshares count 75 and 44 links to my homepage, respectively. When the value of incoming links is measured, my site is in the 644th place (with .0082% marketshare) among the Blogshares top-valued blogs, placing it in the top 1% of blogs by any standard. The success of my homepage has inspired me to start several other sites, and several people to start their own blogs, some of which may soon outpace mine in traffic. Many of my sites are growing at near-exponential rates, which makes me excited for the future and worried about how much it will cost me to host everything.
Although I blog primarily for myself, I appreciate all the tips and comments I get. My fall schedule will allow me little time to read the news and surf the blogosphere, so I’ll be even more dependent on your submissions. To help my marketing efforts and test my new polling script, please let me know how you came across my site.
August 26, 2003
I've added more great artists to my art gallery. Most of my new stuff comes from ArtRenewal, but they have many thousands of artists, so it can be hard to find the best artists if you don’t know what to look for. I’m going to look for some Victorian, Impressionist, and Renaissance pieces next, so it doesn’t look like I’m just mirroring their collection (which I’m tempted to do!) My logs show that my collection has been very popular with a certain gay bodybuilding forum – so check out my art gallery– four out of five gay bodybuilders like it!
March 29, 2003
December 07, 2002
The anti-war protesters: what are they for?
I've written a new essay: The anti-war protesters: what are they for?
(shorter version:)
"A recent incident at University of Texas is indicative of the nature of the pacifists opposing a war with Iraq. After the student government of the University of Texas passed a resolution condemning a U.S. attack on Iraq, the Young Conservatives attempted a debate with the "Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice." However, as CNN reported, "Most listeners in the audience seemed to agree with the Campus Coalition, or at least people on that side seemed more vocal about their feelings. When an antiwar advocate began heckling a student in the pro-war camp, other supporters of the President's policies stood up, and a fistfight almost broke out." One can easily imagine what "more vocal" means when reverse-translated through the filter of CNN's liberal bias. Apparently, the "peace protesters" are not so peaceful. All over the world, they have been rioting against "aggression." What is the true nature of the anti-war sentiment in America then? Much insight about the nature of the "anti-war" protest can be found in their "Statement of Conscience," which has been endorsed by thousands of professors and students across America."
November 10, 2002
November 08, 2002
New Domain!
I got a new domain today:rationalmind.net and a new email: [email protected]
Hopefully, this will be my home on the web for the next few years!