The Subrosa Blog is now complete
Please be aware that this incarnation of the 'Subrosa Blog' has now ended - why not visit the new Stuart Homfray weblog?.
Of course, that's not to say that the Subrosa blog will never return... I may decide to reincarnate it as a sort of sideblog or something!
If you've arrived here via a search engine results page, you may also wish to consider entering the site via the main entrance, as Subrosa itself has now outlived it's usefulness...
posted by Stuart NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT POSTED VIA BLOGGER!
Friday, May 30, 2003
Spamming from Linkbuilder.com
Received this email yesterday from Link-Builder.com
I discovered stuarthomfray.co.uk in Yahoo, my favorite directory. I am requesting that you create a link from stuarthomfray.co.uk to my client's web site if you feel that their content is in some way related or complements your site. In exchange, I'll post a link from their site to yours.
Exchanging links will help bring in more business for both your web site and my client's. An added benefit is increased search engine traffic because the search engines rank sites higher that have a good number of relevant links.
This is not a free-for-all link exchange, I don't waste my time with them and you shouldn't either. I am only linking to related web sites so that all my links are relevant to my site.
I would like to send you my client's web address, so that you can review their site. My client offers industrial PC products such as rack mount computers and servers, single board computer, PC104 plus, embedded systems, atx motherboards, computer telephony, and more.
Please let me know if you are interested in exchanging links. I'll send you more details once I hear back from you.
Looking forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Carmela Wallace
carmelawallace@link-builder.com
http://www.link-builder.comIt would seem that this message is not quite as targeted as it might appear: "My client offers industrial PC products such as rack mount computers and servers, single board computer, PC104 plus, embedded systems, atx motherboards, computer telephony, and more". Until a had a quick check at Google, I thought I might be on the receiving end of a bit of 'better-than-average' social-engineering spam, but as Joy Larkin's Confessions of a G33k blog, and this posting on the news.admin.net-abuse.sightings newsgroup show, it's just your good old-fashioned, raw and uncooked spam.
posted by Stuart 3:08 PM
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
View of Earth from Mars
A thought-provoking, surprising detailed image of planet Earth as seen from the Mars Global Surveyor. Makes you realise just what a delicate, insignificant, yet incredibly valuable, little blue-green planet we all live on!
posted by Stuart 2:40 PM
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
UK National Biometric ID Cards
Home Secretary David Blunkett wants to get a biometric ID card scheme approved by the Cabinet this summer. These cards are intended to hold your personal details, a photograph, an authorisation PIN, national insurance, a fingerprint (or maybe a retinal scan!?!), driving licence and passport numbers.
Apparently, it won't be compulsory to carry these cards, but as the article says:
Critics of the scheme are worried that the dangers of identity theft will be much greater because of the nature of the information stored on the cards and that they will become compulsory by default because stores and banks could insist on them as proof of identity.Nice that our Government are continuing to focus on spying on us. Small steps, small steps - maybe the world of 1984 is almost upon us, if it's not already here.
posted by Stuart 4:00 PM
Monday, May 26, 2003
WOLVES HAVE DONE IT!!!!!!!!!
AT LAST! After 19 years, we've finally achieved promotion to the Land of Milk and Honey (formerly known as the FA Barclaycard Premiership )! I'm so happy, I could hug a Baggies fan (although I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't thank me considering their last season!)
Well done to Mark Kennedy, Nathan Blake and Kenny Miller - the £15-20 million or so we get for promotion SHOULD hopefully ease our £35 million long-term debt!
posted by Stuart 4:30 PM
Sunday, May 25, 2003
Debunking the 9/11 Conspiracy nutters
An article from the Canadian Maritime Provinces Independent Media Centre by Gerard Holmgren, looking at the myths surrounding the September 11th 2001 World Trade Centre incident, and how easily the theories can be refuted
posted by Stuart 6:41 PM
Eurovision Update
...And, as predicted, the UK actually received 0 (ZERO) votes from our fellow Europeans. I suppose the combination of a not particularly memorable song, slightly off-key presentation, oh, and that little thing about siding with the world's playground bully (the US) in Iraq, probably affected our chances
Not only that, but my other prediction was also successful, as Turkey were the winners!!
Usually, the country finishing in last place is relegated, missing the following year's competition, but as the UK is a major contributor to the European Broadcast Union, we are exempt from this procedure. Any fans of the Brazilian football championship would probably be familiar with this type of outcome:
Another interesting point about the Brazilian Championship is the irregular (and sometimes unclear) criteria of relegation and promotion. Sometimes, especially when a so-called "big" team is relegated, the organizers decide to change the rules and include the "relegated" team in the following year's competition. The most unusual cases in this regard occurred in 1992, when 12 teams were promoted from the second division, and in 1993, when eight teams were relegatedNOTE TO SELF: Eurovision - Iraq - Brazilian football in 3 moves... not bad!!!!
posted by Stuart 12:52 AM
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Tradition Dictates....
Yes, it's THAT time of year again for us Europeans - it's The Eurovision Song Contest!!
For my family, it's always been a tradition to gather round the TV to watch this remarkable, annual 'musical' (generally, in the loosest sense of the word) event. We all sit around with a few drinks, analysing the various contestants, arguing over two things:
- which one we like the best, and
- which one we think will win
Of course, most of the fun occurs once the music is over and the rather political voting occurs - generally neighbouring countries vote for each other, except in the case of Great Britain, where only the occasional country votes for us, and, after the Iraqi conflict, we may find ourselves with hardly any votes (yes, it's THAT political!)
Predictions for a win: specifically, I've no idea, in all likelihood it will probably be one of the Baltic states (they have a lot of neighbours!!! :)
posted by Stuart 6:37 PM
Potential Late Addition to the third Matrix movie...
Silicon.com's Weekly Roundup Newsletter posts the following 'advisory' to Microsoft:
"with the third Matrix film due for release later this year, the film makers might yet be persuaded to include a scene showing Trinity using Windows to connect to a printer without having to reinstall the damn drivers four times"One thing that amused me about the original Matrix movie, is the role of Agent Smith, played by Hugo Weaving. Weaving also took the role of Douglas Jardine in the 1984 mini-series, Bodyline, a role not completely dissimilar to that of Agent Smith!
Jardine became possibly the most hated man in Australia after he took an England cricket team there in 1932 in order to win back The Ashes. Jardine's team utilised a new fielding tactic named 'Leg Theory', that soon came to be referred to as 'Bodyline'.
Put simply, the goal of this tactic was to have the bowler deliver a short pitched bouncing ball on a line on or outside the leg stump. On the leg side there would be almost the entire fielding team, and thus the only option for scoring was to hit the ball to the leg side where there was quite a good chance of being caught if you got the shot even slightly wrong. Added to this, the English bowling attack contained two extremely good bowlers - Harold Larwood and Bill Voce - with Larwood being able to bowl at 90mph. As you can imagine, this ever-so-slightly dangerous tactic unnerved the Aussies a little!
Anyway, I find the Weaving connection between these two characters quite amusing:
"Mr.....Anderson. I am.....not here to win friends......I am here....to win the Ashes. Do you hear that.......Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of.......inevitability."... and in future, when I watch The Matrix, I'll see Agent Smith a little differently...
posted by Stuart 3:36 PM
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Real World Cookie Update
Last week, Philips announced that they would ...include a "kill command" in it's [radio frequency identity] chips to allow the RFID tags to be disabled when they are no longer required.
Apparently, Metro Group, a German supermarket chain that have adopted the technology, have informed Associated Press that they will disable the tags after checkout
Phew, thank goodness for that! For a minute there I thought that we'd got REAL problems (although we might have if I've misunderstood the purpose of that "kill" command...)
posted by Stuart 12:29 AM
Monday, May 12, 2003
Common Characteristics of Facism
A fascinating article in which Laurence W. Britt defines common threads linking fascist regimes, considering Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia as his test subjects. An example from the list reads:
Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism. From the prominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins, the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the regime itself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always obvious. Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity were common themes in expressing this nationalism. It was usually coupled with a suspicion of things foreign that often bordered on xenophobia.I think that Mark B & Blade probably summed it up pretty well here, in their pleasant little ditty from 2001:
You don't see the signs because you're blind
You're running out of time, I'm losing my mind, it's a crimeMind you, they may not have been referring to the subject of fascist symbols (... I'm a savage and my Weapon's grammar, you're the nail, I'm the hammer...)
posted by Stuart 6:05 PM
SEO Update
Let's just try that again...
Scooterway at MSN:
- scooters walsall - #3
- scooters west midlands - #2
- malaguti scooters uk - #8
- aprilia scooters uk - #7
- go-peds uk - #15
Scooterway at Google:
- scooters walsall - #2 (whoops! THIS page is number 1!!)
- scooters west midlands - #1
- malaguti scooters uk - results p3 (whoops2! SubRosa Blog's #5!)
- aprilia scooters uk - results p5 (Noooo! I should NOT be #8! It's Scooterway that sell aprilia scooters!!!)
- go-peds uk - results p5 LOOK! I don't know ANYTHING about Go-Peds - Scooterway do! If you want to buy Go-Peds in the UK, why not go there!! (Is that TOO obvious!?!?! ;)
agentBase at MSN:
- sales agents uk - #1
- commission sales agents - #1 (#1 with agent too!)
- sales agent opportunities - #3 (still behind their previous, slightly spammy version! ;)
...and finally, Google:
- sales agents uk - #2
- commission sales agents - #11 (#4 for commission sales agent)
- sales agent opportunities - #5
Generally, I think they're doing pretty well - I think the principles that I've attempted to follow here (useful content, displayed in an identical way to both Search Engines and human browsers, cleaning up the page code as much as possible, utilising basic html tags for layout (header tags for headers!), and providing alternate <noframes> content without packing it full of heavy, ungrammatical, <meta keyword...> - derived crap, etc.) have proven to be the way to go!
Thanks for all the useful SEO info to:
- 1stSearchRanking.com (great newsletter!)
- Axandra (a little obsessed with selling their products, but still some good info in the newsletter)
- Search Engine Guide
- The incredibly useful Search Engine Watch
- The Tagline Newsletter
- ...And finally, last (and probably most importantly, with no offence to the folks above!): Jill Whalen's superb High Rankings newsletter. I cannot recommend this highly enough - if you want to find out how to carry out your own search engine optimisation, or maybe you'd just like to find out a little more about this so-called 'mysterious black art', then just get yourself over to this site!
Apologies if this seems slightly obsessive regarding search engine results - you do find yourself wondering (constantly, sometimes!) just how your SEO 'magic' (!) is progressing...
posted by Stuart 1:53 PM
