Month: October 2005

The EFF is letting us know that the US Government (your government, not mine) has secretly collaborated with printer manufacturers to embed a unique tracking code in every document coming from your colour printer. [here]
Via: Travis Smith

Looks like the folks at MSN Search have decided to block the GrabPERF measurements of the standard search term.
Oh well, doesn’t bother me. I never really considered them a viable contender for any search title. “Too little, too late” is my personal opinion on the MSN Search experience.
Also, it was the slowest of the Big Three.
Average Performance — Oct 1-19, 2005

MEASUREMENT        AVERAGE  NUMBER
---------------  ---------  ------
Google - Search  0.3524125   18891
Yahoo - Search   0.6395253   18849
MSN - Search     0.7182230   18876

Looking forward to see if anyone from MSN notices…or cares.

UPDATE: MSN Search appears to have fixed their problem. the measurement is now re-instated.
Would sure like to know what happened here.

Technorati: MSN Search, Search, GrabPERF
IceRocket: MSN Search, Search, GrabPERF

Seems there is an unannounced little issue sending mail from Comcast to Hotmail. [here]
I use a Web mail program; guess the twits at comcast think that everyone should be.

Technorati: hotmail, comcast, foobar
IceRocket: hotmail, comcast, foobar

The update on my Gutter Helmet posts (1 and 2) is that there is no update.
We received a phone call from a local Gutter Helmet rep about 2 weeks ago. He spoke to Samantha who, outlined some of our concerns and issues. I then called and left him a message last week, re-iterating these same concerns, and noting that there was still a leak between the new roof and the new gutters which needed to be fixed by flashing.
Nothing. No response. Silence.
I know it’s Gutter Helmet’s busy season. I know this because the number of hits to my previous posts are increasing.
Maybe some customers are experiencing better installations; I hope so. All I can do is continue to recount my experience to you.

Technorati: Gutter Helmet, gutters, contractors, customer service
IceRocket: Gutter Helmet, gutters, contractors, customer service

Ok, for the average viewer a 0.25 second improvement doesn’t look like much.

CLICK IMAGE

However, this is extrememly deceptive. The searches were using the the bare minimum terms necessary.

http://www.feedster.com/search.php?q=[SEARCH TERM]

This stopped working correctly last night. Effectively, it looks like Feedster’s Date Search is broken. How did I figure this out? Well, the size of the results page went from 30,000+ bytes to 15,000+ bytes. This is always a clue that either:

1. The server has started using a compression technology
2. The page being returned is not the one you expect

I have switched the measurements back to Relevance Searches; these are less important to blog searches (more like old-school search engines). This will keep Feedster on an even par with everyone else, it will have to stay this way until Feedster fixes their Date Search.
The new search is:

http://www.feedster.com/search.php?q=[SEARCH TERM]&sort=relevance

I would love to hear from the Feedster team when they have fixed this issue.

UPDATE: Scott Johnson and Jeff Kletsky from Feedster dropped by. The relevance search is back up and running, and the measurement has been updated accordingly.

For lack of anything intelligent to say right now…

Step Right Up
Tom Waits
from Small Change
Step right up
step right up
step right up
Everyone’s a winner, bargains galore
That’s right, you too can be the proud owner
Of the quality goes in before the name goes on
One-tenth of a dollar
one-tenth of a dollar
we got service after sales
You need perfume? we got perfume
how ’bout an engagement ring?
Something for the little lady
something for the little lady
Something for the little lady, hmm
Three for a dollar
We got a year-end clearance, we got a white sale
And a smoke-damaged furniture
you can drive it away today
Act now, act now
and receive as our gift, our gift to you
They come in all colors, one size fits all
No muss, no fuss, no spills
you’re tired of kitchen drudgery
Everything must go
going out of business
going out of business
Going out of business sale
Fifty percent off original retail price
skip the middle man
Don’t settle for less
How do we do it?
how do we do it?
volume, volume, turn up the volume
Now you’ve heard it advertised, don’t hesitate
Don’t be caught with your drawers down
Don’t be caught with your drawers down
You can step right up, step right up
That’s right, it filets, it chops
It dices, slices, never stops
lasts a lifetime, mows your lawn
And it mows your lawn
and it picks up the kids from school
It gets rid of unwanted facial hair
it gets rid of embarrassing age spots
It delivers a pizza
and it lengthens, and it strengthens
And it finds that slipper that’s been at large
under the chaise longe for several weeks
And it plays a mean Rhythm Master
It makes excuses for unwanted lipstick on your collar
And it’s only a dollar, step right up
it’s only a dollar, step right up
‘Cause it forges your signature.
If not completely satisfied
mail back unused portion of product
For complete refund of price of purchase
Step right up
Please allow thirty days for delivery
don’t be fooled by cheap imitations
You can live in it, live in it
laugh in it, love in it
Swim in it, sleep in it
Live in it, swim in it
laugh in it, love in it
Removes embarrassing stains from contour sheets
that’s right
And it entertains visiting relatives
it turns a sandwich into a banquet
Tired of being the life of the party?
Change your shorts
change your life
change your life
Change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy
get rid of your wife
And it walks your dog, and it doubles on sax
Doubles on sax, you can jump back Jack
see you later alligator
See you later alligator
And it steals your car
It gets rid of your gambling debts, it quits smoking
It’s a friend, and it’s a companion
And it’s the only product you will ever need
Follow these easy assembly instructions
it never needs ironing
Well it takes weights off hips, bust
thighs, chin, midriff
Gives you dandruff, and it finds you a job
it is a job
And it strips the phone company free
take ten for five exchange
And it gives you denture breath
And you know it’s a friend, and it’s a companion
And it gets rid of your traveler’s checks
It’s new, it’s improved, it’s old-fashioned
Well it takes care of business
never needs winding
Never needs winding
never needs winding
Gets rid of blackheads, the heartbreak of psoriasis
Christ, you don’t know the meaning of heartbreak, buddy
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon
‘Cause it’s effective, it’s defective
it creates household odors
It disinfects, it sanitizes for your protection
It gives you an erection
it wins the election
Why put up with painful corns any longer?
It’s a redeemable coupon, no obligation
no salesman will visit your home
We got a jackpot, jackpot, jackpot
prizes, prizes, prizes, all work guaranteed
How do we do it
how do we do it
how do we do it
how do we do it
We need your business
we’re going out of business
We’ll give you the business
Get on the business
end of our going-out-of-business sale
Receive our free brochure, free brochure
Read the easy-to-follow assembly instructions
batteries not included
Send before midnight tomorrow, terms available
Step right up
step right up
step right up
You got it buddy: the large print giveth
and the small print taketh away
Step right up
you can step right up
you can step right up
C’mon step right up
(Get away from me kid, you bother me…)
Step right up, step right up, step right up
c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon
Step right up
you can step right up
c’mon and step right up
C’mon and step right up

I have permanently blacklisted all of people making comments from blogspot.com — it appears that Google’s little nightmare is getting worse.
Thankfully b2evolution makes that easy. I hate to think about what the the other blogging platforms will have to go through to make this happen.
PS: This is in response to Chris Pirillo’s well-timed rant on this topic. [here]

Last night, I upgraded the Local Network GrabPERF measurement Agent to the WWW-Curl-3.02 PERL module. I will be doing the same thing on the Gomez Agent tomorrow morning, once I bring it back up from it’s power-outage induced slumber.

Ok, this is a little weird.
First, go look at this page.
What’s weird in this data is the difference that you can see between the one-word and the two-word searches.
I was asked to look into this by someone at one of the Blog Search Engines (who shall remain anonymous), under the suspicion that there would be some difference in the performance of these these two-searches.
I want to watch this for a while before I publish the next Search Index results. What I am seeing here is that there could be a methodological issue in the search. Be interesting to see how these react to three word searches.
If any of the folks from the search engines want to chat about this, drop a comment in the usual place.