My blog archives have been ugly for a long time. :-(
If the old narchives.php script is still up, take a peek at what my archives used to look like. Useful but ugly and slow because it’s uncachable.
So I just installed Smart Archives. To make it work, I also had to install Exec-PHP. I was a bit reluctant because enabling PHP in posts could be a security hole but… eh, it’ll be fine, right?
Now, my archives are all pretty-like. I insist on a straightforward appearing archive. None of that javascript fancyness because then you can’t use the Find function of your browser to locate posts. And you can’t easily scroll around, getting an overview.
My second article for The Panther originally published November 2003 Click Here
by Lee C Sonko
I’m so happy to have this new column in The Panther. It’s called “Click Here” in reference to that ubiquitous call to action that you see everywhere when surfing on the internet. Each month, I’ll be telling you about some of the most important things everyone should know about when using computers. Some of the topics will include: keeping bad people out of your computer, having fun on the computer, stopping annoying advertising, and lots more. For my first article, I’ll address a problem that many of my friends have had. Messenger Spam. And here we go! Continue reading ‘Click Here November 2003: Messenger Spam’ »
I have temporarily removed the post I made on February 29th titled “gowithabc.com is likely a scam”. I have been communicating with the president of the company, Jim Tracy and it so far seems that my impression was founded on the inappropriate actions of just one employee.
I will keep you, dear reader informed as to the outcome of our discussion.
This could have been done better. I mean, the placebo effect DOES work. Trouble is… (via ABCNews)
… the investigation revealed that Airborne’s clinical trial was conducted by just two people in the absence of a clinic or scientists.
They are settling a lawsuit for $23 million. Monies to be distributed for those stupid enough to that believe this is a preventative and cure for colds.
Now the following took 3 seconds of investigative reporting. Look at the image I snapped of their website today. It says “The famous original formula – created by a school teacher – contains 17 herbs and nutrients…”
The ingredients list:
8 “herbal extract proprietary blend”
2 “amino acids”
8 “other ingredients” are sorbital, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, orange flavor, mineral oil, acesulfame potasium, sucralose.
If I’ve got my math right, only one of those “other ingredients” isn’t a “nutrient”. Do you think it’s the mineral oil or the orange flavor? Yeah, right.
In 1989 I was a DJ at WMFO, Tufts radio station. I found a cart (image via) in the music library called “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island”. I fell in love with it.
Last year, I came to mentioning the song to a guy in a tiki bar in Alameda (I was there with some friends from my Improv class) because the song had been floating around in my brain. Amazingly, he said that he knew the guy who made the song and he lived nearby. (small world, eh?).
I really should look him up. Here it is, Stairway to Gilligan’s Island by Roger and the Goosebumps:
I’ve noticed that Google Ads sometimes serves up ads into my blog that I think are offensive (and bizarre). I’m trying to get rid of them by putting them in my “competitive ad filter” in Google Adsense. We’ll see how it goes. (grumble grumble)
I also just started using Google Adsense section targeting. I now put my post content inside these tags. Google should now be able to parse my posts easier.
<!– google_ad_section_start –>
My content blah blah blah.
<!– google_ad_section_end –>
Update 3-5-08
Ah ha. I figured out why my site has started seeing lots of penis related Google Ads. The title of the photo on my peni[nospam]s patch page is peni[nospam]s-patch.jpg. My site is apparently the most popular image site on the internet related to peni[nospam]s patches. You’ll notice that the second most popular “peni[nospam]s-patch” photo is the photo I use in the upper right corner of my blog header. Apparently, the two photos had their google-juice comingled (eiw!). And while I enjoy being a being a peni[nospam]s patch magnate, I think I’ll change the name of that file so all my Google ads aren’t so…. patchy.
Update 3-13-08: Over the last 7 days, the hit count for the peni[nospam]s patch image has fallen from 230/day to less than 25/day.
This was my first article for The Panther, published October 2003. It’s pretty boring stuff, but a start to my writing. This didn’t have the “Click Here” title yet.
Protect Your Computer
By Lee C. Sonko
Every few months there is another front-page news article about a computer virus that has cost untold damages to people, companies, and the machines they work on. The truth is, the internet is a dangerous place. People are always trying to break into other people’s computers. Some of these break-ins are disgruntled employees bent on sabotage, some are kids seeing how much of a ruckus they can raise, and some are modern cat burglars trying to steal people’s credit cards. In any case, everyone here in the Valley wants to distance ourselves as much as possible from these shenanigans. Continue reading ‘Click Here October 2003: Protect Your Computer’ »
I’m using the Permalink Redirect plugin by Scott Yang so that old links still work; they do a 301 redirect to the new page. It’ll take months for the search engines to notice fully and years until I can remove the old permalink structure but I’m happy with it.