Certain things I am aware of, certain things I guess I wasn’t after reading this SEO checklist for Google.
There are “over 100 SEO factors” that Google uses to rank pages in the Google search results (SERPs). What are the search engine optimization rules?
Linking to bad neighbourhoods, over optimising your site, poison words, keyword dilution… its all here, and if you’re into SEO for your site or blog its worth the read.
RoadDeaths.ie (yes, now at a .ie domain, as well as its previous incarnation at RoadDeaths.net) has had its death toll figures reach the 200 mark. If you’re still unaware of the site, it is being run by friend and colleague John Butler and provides a great Google Maps mashup crash locations as the accidents happen. While work continues on publishing details from the beginning of this year, one quick glance and the map will tell you that its not going to be a pretty picture by the time we hit December 31st.
One Irish blog is certain to cause a wake up call to the Irish government and driving public this year.
A few years back (talking 1998/99) I was running a movie website (no longer hosted) which had managed to get itself mentioned in a few national papers and US magazines, got a nice bit of sponsorship (and several free DVDs a month) and attention, then one day I get an email from a guy in Australia asking could he have a link on my site, to his new site that focused around the same topic.
“Sure”, I said, I’ll just go have a look at the site.
Low and behold I was looking at my own website. The styles, the structure, the links and sections, logos I’d created, all with his name tagged under the end of them. Needless to say I flipped. Forget flattery. My first case of a pirated website.
Then I come across this resource this morning, Pirated-Sites.com.
I’ve been publishing some of my photographic work to deviantART in bits and pieces over the last two years and the forum system there has a nice area set aside for reporting ripped artwork (where I’ve also had one of my photo pieces ripped and published without permission). Pirated-Sites takes that to the next level, providing an archive and forum resource of sites that have been ripped from a design point of view.
If its your thing, or you’ve ever been involved in a case of having your site completely ripped off, then check it out. Funny what people come up with…
Have you transferred money to the US in the last 5 years?
Does your bank use the Swift system for financial transactions and money transfers?
Does your government know EVERYTHING they’re supposed to know?
I think that if you find you answered yes to the first two questions, with a no for the third, that its quite possible your bank account has been screened by the CIA. There’s one for you! (Via DRI)
Bit of a mad past two days workwise but its time to get back to brass tacks on the blog. Kilkenny Music going 2.0? Not another Web 2.0 novelty…. Its just time to launch the second iteration of KKM, which I’ve begun to implement following a few weeks of hard planning. Those podcasts are finally closer as well 😉
What started out as a one man project rather quickly grew to a two man project and is currently running with three people now involved. Not bad turn around for kicking off last October. It is planned, at least, to have KKM2.0 live and online in time for, if not before our one-year anniversary, the site having launched private on September 18th, with a public launch on October 8th last.
The interface as a whole is getting a major face lift, out with the greys that currently grace the screen and in with some more powerful, vibrant colours; there’s a more indepth service for artists; full syndication of all gigs and events, straight to your inbox; wiki resource for those interested in music technology, covering techniques, tips etc; full podcast access and streaming audio from all the bands involved. For something thats working extremely well at local level, its time to start looking at bringing it a little further afield.
The podcast plans are finally nailed down as well, again, three of us going to be involved in an initial monthly distro. I’ve already entered into talks with getting them carried on local radio.
Speaking of local radio, we’ll be taking over the airwaves this coming Tuesday night, going out on air for the hour between 8pm and 9pm discussing a lot about KKM, what goes on behind the scenes, before delving into resources for bands, a look at online resources and technologies, the local music scene and more.
Busy few days gone and a serious amount of them ahead!
Oh what a video….
Now if only it was real….. (via)
Interesting one for developers this…
The CodePlex site will be a venue for Microsoft to provide programmers with tools available under its Shared Source licenses. These licenses allow people to view the source code of products, the software giant said.
The site, which had been in beta testing, is meant to foster more interaction between Microsoft and programmers with technical information and software, it added.
Should be another good step in Microsoft embracing open source software and development styles. As soon as they release Microsoft Office as an open source application, I’m sold.
Sky By Mobile is almost here and looks like a right good service. You’re out and about on the town, caught on the train on the way home, stuck in traffic, sick in the hospital – whatever. Just hop on the mobile (3G service) or use the proposed text-message alternative to remote schedule a recording. Available in Ireland? Remains to be seen, with no absolute launch date but if you’ve already got Sky+ then you’ll be looking at a good free service from Sky.
Once you get around your 3G mobile charges that is 😉
I hit Flickr this afternoon as part of another job and noticed that their logo (pictured right) has gone from Flickr Beta to Flickr Gamma… Are we now moving out of the stage of beta web 2.0 services? Can we expect to see gMail Gamma? Or Gamma Mail as it might become known? Anyone aware of the recent change….?
Update / Answer : “Ages ago”. Cheers Robin 😉
Excellent in The Office, and I loved Extras, but Ricky Gervais has gone and set another record for himself for the most downloaded podcast ever – averaging over a half million downloads per episode – going at almost €1.50 a download.
His free weekly podcast landed a place in this year’s Guinness Book of World Records with an average of 261,670 downloads per episode.
But that figure rose to 541,329 by the time the first series of The Ricky Gervais Show ended in February.
Some man for one man is Ricky Gervais… (via)
As if the website isn’t bad enough at the moment since the upgrade… they’re doing it again….
From Saturday 24th of June at 17:30, to Monday 26th of June, o2.ie will be unavailable. You will be unable to access any part of the site during this time as we are upgrading our billing system. Please note as this is an upgrade to our billing system, Customer Care will also be unable to assist with any queries during this time. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.
I won’t be there myself, but ApacheCon hits Dublin next week, landing in the Burlington Hotel from 9AM next Wednesday (26th) through to Sunday (30th).
This outstanding event creates a unique platform for the Open Source community in Europe to come together to gain deep insight into techniques and methodologies critical to the advancement of Open Source technologies, and gain skills to optimize the power and versatility of Apache software. The event also provides a forum to discuss key issues facing the community and to hear about developments to come in 2006.
I’m gripped by World Cup fever, but you’ve got to hand it to Dell for their nice World Cup marketing. Any of you who subscribe to their newsletter will be aware this morning of their World Cup game… and if not, then you can pick it up here. Nice flash based application where the more free kicks you convert, the bigger your savings with Dell, giving you 20-30% off certain products, or the chance to win a few prizes for yourself. If you’ve a few minutes to spare in the office or at home it could be worth giving a crack. (Not an affiliate link by any means!)
Creative Commons licensing is about to get integrated into Microsoft Office thanks to a new addon for office Microsoft are releasing making Microsoft the first software vendor to embed a license-selection option inside its applications, something which could come in useful in terms of third-level education (I think anyway). In particular from my own view of writing and submitting papers through your college years where lectures might just happen to ask (as has happened in the past)…. “would you mind if I put that up on the website?”.
“We very much share a common belief that creators of works should be able to express their intentions with regard to subsequent use, and Creative Commons has created exciting ways to have works shared freely or have works reused by others,” said Tim Ruben, currently Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft.
After the arrival of a few extra bit today I’ve had a few people ask about my home setup… so here you go, in photographic detail. Apologies for cutting off the top of the photo…
And thats about it. Looks a lot smaller in the photo than it is up front!
Well… its not just for podcasting, but its going to cater for an awful lot of sound production (and all the KilkennyMusic.com gigs). Time to tuck in this evening and get to grips with this (Allen and Heath PA28) which will be used in house for audio production coupled with a PC based system using previously mentioned Augidy 2ZS Plantinum Pro sound card and a Mac Powerbook G4 running ProTools 6.7 with a Digidesign 002 rack…
Further to that I would like to publicly acknowledge recently allocated funding to myself from the Arts Council through the Arts Act Grant for 2006 while kindly paid for afore mentioned desk and this setup.
Now all I’ve got to do is get down to brass tacks with the hardware, develop the schedule and away we go. There has already been interest in producing a fortnightly and monthly production to be carried across the ShoutCast network and rebroadcast in the United States on radio. As the schedule and plan of attack unfold I’ll make a report here on how things are progressing.