Blog in Isolation

There is a radiant darkness upon us

Posts

trumpet blowing

Doug Burns posts a typically honest article about the art of self-promotion and the issue of references. Personally, I think Doug’s blog is itself an excellent tribute to his technical competence, his ability to communicate and share information as well as offering an insight into his personality.

I must confess that my manager’s Inbox is not overflowing with glowing testimonials from colleagues and customers, let alone unsolicited ones. I used to reassure myself that this was because IT managers are exceptionally busy people with (justifiably) high expectations when paying for expensive consultants. Nowadays I just put it down to my lack of technical ability.

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software upgrades

Drupal gets an upgrade to 4.7.4 via the Bluehost Fantastico auto-installer.

The Wiki gets converted to MediaWiki simply because it is a lot easier on the eye. This software requires PHP5 and I was originally on a server running PHP4. However I read that Bluehost does also support PHP5. I just asked politely and got moved to a different server. No fuss. No questions. Technical support just did it. Quickly and efficiently.

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the only search engine in town

John Chow notes the vast majority of traffic to his blog from search engines comes from Google. I see a similar pattern for this humble blog with over 95% of search engine traffic arriving from Google despite the fact that the blog has been indexed by the major players.

Although I use Firefox (where the default search engine is Google) and I hardly ever use any other search engine, I was surprised that the number of visitors from Yahoo was a paltry 2%. I also thought more people using Internet Explorer would get directed from MSN/Live as the breakdown of browsers visiting this blog is split evenly between Firefox and Internet Explorer.

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out of the office

Many thanks for your lovely, thought provoking email.

Unfortunately, I am currently on annual leave (although I couldn’t resist the temptation to check my work email when the wife wasn’t looking tonight).

I will reply to your email on my return on Monday 30 October.

Well, actually I won’t. If it was sent to a mailing list, I will probably skip it but may dig it out from the archives in a few months when I am onsite desperately looking for a solution to the identical problem.

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things that surprise you

I am slowly trying to fully assimilate and comprehend these facts:

  1. Google is now worth more then IBM
  2. IBM invest a lot of resources in SecondLife while I am still resistant to IM.
  3. Manchester United placed posters of Liverpool’s past successes in the visitors section at Old Trafford. Rumour has it the pictures were only black and white but were still stolen after Liverpool’s recent 2-0 defeat.
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celebrity watch

Yesterday, my son took part in a junior tennis tournament. As I watched the competitive matches in progress, there was a lot of fist pumping, grunts, muttered expletives, muted swearing, loud groans and self flagellation. And that was just the parents. Most of the kids were just enjoying the tennis.

I often wonder how many of these parents were living out their dreams through their offspring. Both of my children have already achieved more in competitive sport than I ever did so I am immensely proud of them and just try to support them in everything they do - win, lose or draw.

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custom Oracle search engine

Google Co-op is a customisable Google search engine and I just created a personalised, custom search for Oracle that scours AskTom, Jonathan Lewis’ site and www.oracle.com (including TechNet).

This targetted search is useful and will undoubtedly save me time. However, I was unable to get any results from ‘tahiti.oracle.com’ (Oracle documentation set) which is normally my first port of call. Also, I assume Metalink is similarly off limits (account required).

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new dawn fades

‘A change of speed, a change of style A change of scene, with no regrets '

I simply couldn’t take any more so I reluctantly handed in my resignation yesterday. I have moved my blog to another cheap hosting provider, Bluehost. If this ends in tears, then I swear I am reverting to hosted WordPress. As Steve Redgrave once said ‘If you ever see me signing up with another cheap hosting provider, shoot me !’

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