Firetop

Robots.txt Doesn’t Support Regular Expression

matt — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:13:17 +0000

Having recently discovered a client using supposed ‘regular expression’ (wildcard matching) in their robots.txt file to meet my SEO recommendations on duplicate file exclusion, I simply had to put something down in writing about this. It seems Google is advising webmasters via Google tools to use wildcard matching with asterisks to exclude files by URL variable e.g Disallow: *ref=68*. Whilst a very nice method for excluding files easily from Google (and MSN it seems) this is still not an accepted method under official robots.txt protocol and will still leave a webmaster with problems on other search engines. (more…)

The Alpha Course: Investigating Christianity

matt — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:33:05 +0000

This evening I am at a lose end because last week saw the final session of the Alpha course I’ve been attending for ten weeks. Alpha is, in the words of the Alpha website, ‘an opportunity for anyone to explore the Christian faith in a relaxed setting over ten thought-provoking weekly sessions, with a day or weekend away’. Possibly the first thought to cross your mind about now is ‘Why did you do the Alpha course?’ and there a couple of answers to that. The first is that I wanted to make a qualified decision about whether of not to have my baby daughter Christened, and that in turn lead me to question the depth of my own basic Christian faith which has been waning over the past ten years. (more…)

Google Lively - More Sex Chat Rooms

matt — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:37:28 +0000

Call me cynical but when Google releases a piece of software that only operates on a PC they don’t really have any serious expectations of large scale take-up - they hate to add value to Microsoft offerings. Google’s virtual world ‘Lively’ smacks of being one of those projects developed by their internal developers in their ‘own 20%’ part of the working day - put out to the public as more of a PR stunt than anything else. Being hailed in reviews as Google’s effort to enter the virtual territory of Linden Labs’ Second Life I thought it might impress me. But despite the fact that it is a lot easier to get started and customise your personal avatar, there’s really not much to do with it in a room the size of a virtual school hall. (more…)

Wimbledon Tennis Championships 2008

matt — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:38:43 +0000

Since my last trip to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in 2006 the old street queuing system has been replaced with a new staggered queuing system at Wimbledon Park Golf Club. This means that if you get the bus from Wimbledon station (£3.50 return) you’re in for quite a walk away from the ground again before you can even find the end of the queue. The reason behind this change, other than improved road safety, is that all the overnight tent dwellers seeking the limited court tickets have been moved to Wimbledon Park Golf Club. Clearly they need to be first in the queue, so everybody else has to go and queue up behind them before being led in waves down through the golf course, through security and over the road bridge to the kiosks. (more…)

Eurovision Song Contest Predictions 2008

matt — Sat, 24 May 2008 12:28:49 +0000

I’ve left my annual Eurovision posting a little late this year but better late than never… I’ve watched all of the song entries in short via youtube and my personal favourites include Germany and Denmark. There are some typically mad Eurovision entries which include a Spanish Elvis/Jimmy Hill, Latvian pirates on ecstacy and a Bosnia & Herzegovina entry which wouldn’t look out of place at the village pantomime. However, when did an entry’s insanity ever mean it didn’t win Eurovision? When did liking decent songs ever give them a head start? To that end I’ve ordered my 2008 top ten based on whether I think they might actually win Eurovision. (more…)

‘Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability’ Day

matt — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:36:26 +0000

This year I decided it was about time I attended Usability Week, a week of presentations from the Nielsen Norman Group focusing on website design and usability. A whole week would have certainly been overkill for me so I picked the most relevant day (today) – ‘Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability’. I’ve read one of Jakob Nielsen’s books before and receive his regular usability email alerts so I knew what to expect. By lunchtime I realised that the day could just have easily been entitled ‘People are more fundamentally stupid than you could possibly imagine’. Definitely the best day I’ve spent out of the office in quite a few years gaining new knowledge and insight. (more…)

Free page-turning software for digital editions

matt — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:19:22 +0000

This week I’ve discovered a nice cheap solution for hosting a one-off digital edition of a magazine / brochure. By digital edition, I mean an application which lets you browse a magazine online and turn the pages - as if it was there in paper in front of you. I came across a company called Yudu and was guided by their online salesman Ray (via live chat app) to their rather lovely FREE offering www.yudufreedom.com. I’ve seen a few different ‘page-turning software’ offerings over the years and this free solution seems to offer all the same features as better known paid-for solutions like Zinio. They even reassure you that there really are no catches, just thoroughly lovely people making their commercial technology free for one-offs. (more…)

Butchers? Think Frank, Pat and Terry

matt — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:41:01 +0000

Made an interesting discovery this week, people aren’t using Google to search for butchers in quite the way one might imagine. Whilst ‘butcher’ is the number one single keyword (as you’d expect), the top butcher based phrases include ‘Butcher’s Bay’, ‘Frank Butcher’, ‘Pat Butcher’ and…. no not ‘Ricky’ but… former England footballer ‘Terry… Butcher’. This is probably quite a good indicator of the demographics of Google, hip young video gamers looking for assistance in The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, TV soap obsessed Eastenders fans searching for the dearly departed Mike Reid or his former on-screen wife Pat (and her many online rumours). (more…)

Web 2.0 Forecasting for Business Publishers

matt — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:31:59 +0000

Last week I attended the E-Publishing Innovation Forum in London and was a little surprised to find that one or two speakers were still presenting Web 2.0 solutions such as article commenting, ‘twittering’ and peer to peer networking as the must-have for all web publishers. I use the word ‘surprised’ because it is my firm belief that this is not the case; we shouldn’t all stop focusing on a yet to be exhausted Web 1.0 by getting overly excited about some modern web applications which really DO NOT fit all publishing scenarios – especially those in many B2B sectors. (more…)

Cancel the TV Licence, Go Online-Only!

matt — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:04:08 +0000

This week we’ve begun an interesting experiment in my house; the television has been sold, replaced with an LCD HD monitor and a PC laptop. Everything that we watch is now downloaded via 8mb broadband using the BBC iPlayer or commercial offerings such as Channel 4’s on Demand service. Without any means of watching ‘live TV programmes’ from the BBC we no longer need a TV license… so we’re cancelling it. From what I’ve read this won’t go down too well with TV licensing but is perfectly legal, it seems they may wish to inspect our home but I’m quite open to that eventuality if and when it occurs. The BBC are not apparently expecting to see droves of people cancelling their TV licenses, in most cases they’re probably correct, but in an age where mass media is replaced with personalised services we’re definitely jumping on the cheaper, advertising free, optimimal viewing experience. (more…)