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Added on 4 Jul 2013. Last read 1 minute ago.

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This feed currently contains the following newsitems (total count 1035):

    • Keep the parliamentary term as it is
      • Rumblings about extending our three-year parliamentary term to four surface from time to time. I don’t think we should change a thing, more so in the era of coalition governments under MMP. And it shouldn’t matter which side of the fence you sit. The length of the term should be inversely proportional to the power [...] Read More... from Keep the parliamentary term as it is

    • SEO scams, and two outfits to avoid
      • Recent events have reiterated how a lot of the SEO profession—I’d say almost all of it, except for a tiny sliver of people who really know what they are doing—is a crock. The good news is you can confirm which ones are the crooks by seeing who had posted lies about me. Usually they write [...] Read More... from SEO scams, and two outfits to avoid

    • Autocade turns 16
      • The latest model on Autocade: the second-generation Ssangyong Rexton, now the KG Rexton. Last week, Autocade hit its 16th anniversary, and how different this one looks from the last. Now there’s a print counterpart, and some very nice readers have offered their reviews, too. We’re nearing 5,000 models on there, and the last several [...] Read More... from Autocade turns 16

    • Heritage
      • I’m not sure why the history page about my ancestor, 甄舜河 (Gin Sun Hall), has disappeared from the family association’s page, but for others who are descended from him, here’s his pic from the Internet Archive. He lived in the late 13th century. Also from the Archive was this extract from a 1997 publication [...] Read More... from Heritage

    • The crunch time media face is nothing new
      • Talking Points Memo showed the amounts programmatic advertising brought in to them over the last eight years. (The above graphic is from their card preview on Mastodon.) I’ve never been convinced of programmatic since no one in the ad business could ever explain it in plain language. I say just figure out what’s on [...] Read More... from The crunch time media face is nothing new

    • The three parties that did right among a whole lot of fraud
      • This whole Semrush-created junk about me being a Google SEO expert has one silver lining: if anyone has posted about it falsely, they are a fraud, and you know never to hire them. There are only a few people who have got it right: Shahid Jafar Khan in Pakistan (who removed his piece immediately upon [...] Read More... from The three parties that did right among a whole lot of fraud

    • A rejected PSA for the de-Googling community on Reddit
      • Pity, this was just removed from the De-Google subreddit. Oh well, you try to do a public duty as a netizen … Here it is, as I’m not about to let it go to waste—I was hoping to share the love a bit more so legitimate websites had the full story. We all probably know [...] Read More... from A rejected PSA for the de-Googling community on Reddit

    • Additional endorsements for the Autocade Yearbook 2024
      • To get one endorsement from the brilliant and unequalled Giles Chapman is wonderful. To get two is amazing. Been so enjoying Jack Yan’s first Autocade Yearbook 2024, an annual in the grand style, with lots of thoughtful deep-reads about new and classic cars. Fascinating for being a tangible print book with digital roots. Check [...] Read More... from Additional endorsements for the Autocade Yearbook 2024

    • Who pioneered phone food ordering and delivery?
      • Not that any search engine will find this, but according to the BBC’s The Secret Genius of Modern Life (episode 2), the inventor of the phone orders for food was the Kin-Chu Café at 137 South Brand Boulevard, Glendale, Calif., in 1922 (another link here). ‘Special Delivery Service 11 A. M. to 1 A. M.—Phone [...] Read More... from Who pioneered phone food ordering and delivery?

    • Please help my friend Hasan and his family in Gaza
      • Something far, far more important than Google or Amazon—neither of which I particularly enjoy writing about, but do so only as a public service. Ditto with anything I’ve written about social media. My friend and typeface design colleague Hasan Abu Afash and his family have been displaced by the war in Gaza, and they are [...] Read More... from Please help my friend Hasan and his family in Gaza

    • My real expert opinion on Google, SEO, and the mess that’s to come (not the LLM junk)
      • Skry being right on the money: Still those web pages about me being a Google SEO expert or having an algorithm named for me are being indexed and prioritized by Google, all because Semrush hallucinated, told a bunch of people (in south Asia, predominantly) about the 8,100 references to it (I still don’t [...] Read More... from My real expert opinion on Google, SEO, and the mess that’s to come (not the LLM junk)

    • Signing up on Seller Central: another Amazon swindle
      • I thought I’d look at selling the Autocade Yearbook through Amazon, since people who visit the site are in the mood for shopping. Against all my instincts, I’d bite the bullet and make bloody Jeff even richer. But the whole sign-up process is a swindle. Here’s what I sent to them. Hello there: I [...] Read More... from Signing up on Seller Central: another Amazon swindle

    • Is Google hiding content critical of itself—while losing the spam battle?
      • For a while I enjoyed getting some of the hits from the unwary searching for my name in association with the misinformation that Semrush allegedly generated. After all, it’s my name, and I should enjoy the hits for Google SEO jackyan in order to set the record straight, rather than have the unscrupulous among SEO [...] Read More... from Is Google hiding content critical of itself—while losing the spam battle?

    • Semrush, LLMs (or “AIs”), and Google: a three-headed misinformation hydra?
      • It turns out that Semrush is responsible for the misinformation regarding my name. When Shahid Jafar first encountered the fake topic of a new Google algorithm named for me—and apparently created by me—he mentioned he had seen 8,000 references to it. I couldn’t, but it turns out—thanks to another blog post that has incorporated some [...] Read More... from Semrush, LLMs (or “AIs”), and Google: a three-headed misinformation hydra?

    • Check your security settings when putting a Mediawiki installation behind Cloudflare
      • Some great advice from Cybarbie on Mastodon about Cloudflare and my putting Autocade behind it: Sure enough, after following her advice, I saw the numbers improve after a 9,000-page-view day, to two consecutive days of 11,000. Visitor numbers have increased from c. 5,500 to 6,490 in a 24-hour period: This [...] Read More... from Check your security settings when putting a Mediawiki installation behind Cloudflare

    • A history of dealing with ad networks
      • Written in the feedback form to one ad network as we attempt to find someone to complement our work with H12 Media. Sums up a lot about the murky world of online advertising. It’s to a ‘Google Publishing Partner’, and we know Big Tech lies, but I’m keeping an open mind with this provider. Italics [...] Read More... from A history of dealing with ad networks

    • It would be nice to get my Amazon Associates money
      • This has been going on for between 10 and 20 years, and I think closer to the latter. Didn’t know Jeff was this hard up for cash. I didn’t record the dialogue last time, giving them the benefit of the doubt, but since I can’t trust the buggers, I will this time. Fed in to [...] Read More... from It would be nice to get my Amazon Associates money

    • A full day on Autocade with Cloudflare switched on
      • It appears that Cloudflare hasn’t affected Mediawiki’s stats (at least not hugely, from what I can tell). Overnight we had about 19,000 views, according to Mediawiki. Cloudflare, meanwhile, reports 5,420 visitors in that same time—three to four pages per visitor sounds acceptable. I realize Cloudflare might count search engine bots, too. I’ll have things [...] Read More... from A full day on Autocade with Cloudflare switched on

    • Google fails to downrank junk sites; Bing and Mojeek fare better
      • Understandably, I was bemused but then frustrated with the fake articles out there about the new Google algorithm update being created by me and named for me. (Even Perplexity has picked up this misinformation.) Of all those I found and reached out to, only one author—Shahid Jafar—had the decency to remove his article and apologize. [...] Read More... from Google fails to downrank junk sites; Bing and Mojeek fare better

    • Putting Autocade’s Mediawiki behind Cloudflare
      • This is not a bad problem to have, but it could get expensive: Therefore, today I made the decision to switch Autocade to Cloudflare. I had been warned by people who know far more about this than me that it will affect the statistics, so I’ll have to get over not being able [...] Read More... from Putting Autocade’s Mediawiki behind Cloudflare

    • Read all about the SEO algorithm that I developed for Google
      • I figured out why people have been searching for my name with Google and SEO, all thanks to a backlink from someone who didn’t know any better. Ironically, they’re going to get their wish for a link from here, but for reasons they didn’t expect. Thanks to “AI” or LLMs, there is an entire virtual [...] Read More... from Read all about the SEO algorithm that I developed for Google

    • Is Google stealing your voice for its virtual assistant? Meanwhile, Mktg Stinx
      • Here’s Google’s latest privacy gaffe, the latest in a long, long line where they pretend to not know it’s happening till they’re embarrassed into admitting that it is happening—and then the authorities will fine Google millions of dollars which they will make back in a few hours. Ibly writes in a post on the fediverse [...] Read More... from Is Google stealing your voice for its virtual assistant? Meanwhile, Mktg Stinx

    • Autocade reaches 35 million page views, the latest million in 41 days
      • Autocade hit the 35 million mark two days ago, in well under two months, buoyed by days of over 60,000 page views per day. I saw other jumps in the 20,000-a-day mark, even 50,000 on some other days. The last two days alone saw 43,000 page views, bringing today’s total to 7,402,333 since the server [...] Read More... from Autocade reaches 35 million page views, the latest million in 41 days

    • You never know where your interests will take you
      • A seven-year-old needs to figure this out: what would the Ford Escort Popular Plus be priced at if were assembled in Aotearoa? Amanda and I were chatting about prodigies. Some young people are amazing, doing uni classes at intermediate or high-school age, or playing piano like Mozart, and while not all of us have [...] Read More... from You never know where your interests will take you

    • Tech musings from a non-tech: search engines and the nightmare of AWS
      • A great quote from Penn Jillette in Cracked: Einstein comes up with this idea E = mc² — a profound, powerful, mind-blowing idea — and he has to work forever to make people understand that and to share that reality. Woodward and Bernstein are pretty sure the president of the United States committed crimes, and [...] Read More... from Tech musings from a non-tech: search engines and the nightmare of AWS

    • Robert Vanwey on who to boycott
      • It’s hard to find fault with Robert Vanwey’s ‘Who to Boycott’, subtitled ‘There are some in business who treat workers like property’. Note: for those who don’t like Substack, you might not wish to click through. But I gave my word to Rob I would link it because I was impressed by his thinking and [...] Read More... from Robert Vanwey on who to boycott

    • We need to serve the technology with the new pay-by-plate meters
      • We need to change our habits slightly with the new pay-by-plate meters in Wellington City, as I discovered. If I arrive in town for, say, two 90-minute meetings with, say, 15 minutes between them, what I might do after the first is to move my car. I might also put a bit of extra money [...] Read More... from We need to serve the technology with the new pay-by-plate meters

    • Why web pages are becoming homogenized
      • Dan York in Vermont referred to Mia Sato’s article in The Verge today, on how Google has driven the bland, same-again websites out there. It does lay the blame at netizens more, and fairly so here, given that the desperation behind SEO has led many to employ certain tricks in order to make a buck [...] Read More... from Why web pages are becoming homogenized

    • The curious case of Google’s SEO searchers
      • They may no longer be relevant, but most (all?) of our sites still have meta keyword tags. When we redevelop a site, we tend to take the header tags in full from the previous incarnation, so unlike the old joke about George Washington’s axe (‘This is the original. I’ve only had the handle and blade [...] Read More... from The curious case of Google’s SEO searchers

    • Little faith in Zapier and Blutonic
      • It’s a pity Zapier’s email systems don’t work because the people seem very nice. I signed up to the service in December, but eventually unsubscribed from all their emails by going to the email preferences’ page and selecting the appropriate option. It didn’t stop the emails from coming, so I wrote to them to advise [...] Read More... from Little faith in Zapier and Blutonic

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