Diary of a Network Geek

Well, everyone else seems to be talking about it this week.

No, really, it feels like everywhere I turn someone’s talking about how MoveableType is going to an Opensource version and how important that is. Now, for those of you not familiar with MoveableType, it was the first really good blogging software that was freely available. Before that, bloggers basically had to write their own HTML pages and upload them one at a time. When I first had this blog, that’s how I did it and let me tell you, it sure was a tedious proceedure to suffer through for a little search engine marketing!
In any case, it wasn’t the easiest software to use or customize, but, frankly, it was the only thing going, so pretty much everyone who had a serious blog used it. Then, blogging started to get popular and a lot of other people started making blogging software and Blogger showed up, among others, to make it easier for anyone who wanted to rant about their unfair life to set up a blog. I stuck with MoveableType because I had invested so much time and trouble into getting it just right. I even kept up with the upgrades, right up until they started wanting to charge for what had been free. And change the license agreement in ways that made me very, very uncomfortable. So, I started hunting around for a replacement.
That’s when I found WordPress. Opensource, free, easy to install and configure. It was everything I wanted in blogging software. And, it was easier to write plugins for, to boot! Well, I wasn’t alone in my migration to WordPress. Lots and lots of former MoveableType folks, as well as new bloggers, moved to WordPress. They’ve always been free, had great community support, and there don’t seem to be any plans to change.

But, still, it’s nice that the new version of MoveableType will include an Opensource version. I think it’s interesting that they’re also including features that have been in WordPress for a version or two or three now, too. Kind of seems like they missed the boat on this one, doesn’t it? I wonder how many people will move back from WordPress to the new MoveableType? I doubt too many. Frankly, we’re spoiled now. I just couldn’t go back to the hassles of developing and customizing blogs on MoveableType after having it so easy on WordPress.

But, what do I know? I’ve only been blogging for seven years or more.

Wow, I guess I undervalued my skills to my divorce lawyer.

According to this article on AustralianIT, SEO salaries are really out the roof! I mean, sure, I did search engine optimization as a bit of fun while I was working a banckruptcy back in 2000, but I am highly ranked on Google. And, my lawyer was very pleased with the results I got him by re-optimizing his pages then getting him hooked up with a submission mill. A reasonably priced search engine submission service, that is.
Hmm, maybe, just for the fun of it, I should start a website from scratch and build it up in the search engines.  It might be a fun project.  I mean, I’ve kind of been thinking about redoing some of my web presence.  You know, consolidating websites that are related and getting rid of old, dead sites that I don’t really maintain any more.  That kind of thing.  And, I’ve been thinking about ways to sharpen my IT skills, or at least ways to keep my current skills sharp, so building a site from scratch, including fresh content, then making it a “number one” site might be just the thing.

Well, either way, it surprises me how something I do for fun can be big business.  Who knew?

Anybody want to buy land in Costa Rica?

So, the other day, I was talking with this guy from church about his impending divorce. It’ll be his second, so there wasn’t much I could tell him that he didn’t already know. And, since he lives in the River Oaks area, there’s going to be a whole lot more money involved than I’ll probably ever see in my lifetime. Again, not much advice I could give him, except, of course, to remind him why one hires a lawyer for these things. I just reminded him that he didn’t need to roll over simply because he was the man and, traditionally, the woman got the lion’s share of the communal property. They’d earned that money together, each contributing their part and he was entitled to his fair share. Besides, at the moment, she actually makes more money than him, so it’s not like he’d be hurting her financially at all. Mainly, though, I “advised” him to let the lawyers haggle it out when things got ugly about the money. Again, that is why one pays for a personal shark in the first place, right?

Anyway, he was talking about investing in real estate in Central America. Specifically, in Costa Rica. Now, a lot of times when guys start in with this kind of thing, I figure it’s somebody trying to impress me, but not with him. Something about the matter-of-fact way he talks about some of this stuff and his plans for developing some of the land and making a resort just ring too true for me to feel like there’s a scam or an ulterior motive. I’ve been wrong before, of course, but, these days, I’m a fairly hardened, bitter cynic and I tend to trust my instincts when it comes to people. Sadly, when I suspect something untoward, I’m rarely wrong.
But, he knows what I do for a living and for fun. He knows, for instance, that I’ve done web design work for my divorce lawyer. And, as a check was on the way, I mentioned that again this weekend when I saw him. Also, it turns out that when you Google Houston Divorce Lawyer, my lawyer already shows up on the second page of hits. Considering that he didn’t show up in the first 20+ pages of hits before I revamped his website, I’d say we’re doing pretty well. A little more time and he’ll be on that Holy Grail of search engine optimization, the first page of Google results.
In any case, I was joking with him, the guy from church, not the lawyer, about how I was in that very unique position of actually making money back from my divorce lawyer. But, it wasn’t long before he was asking about domain names and websites and optimization. And, yes, I found myself volunteering to do a simple website for him and optimize it for the search engines. And, of course, advise him about how to find an URL submission service that would keep his ranking good and high.

And that’s when he jokingly offered to trade me a hectare of land in Costa Rica for doing a website from scratch and optimizing it for the search engines. At least, I think he was joking. I mean, he was sort of laughing about it, but… But, it would be a pretty damn good deal and I’m thinking about calling him to see if he was serious or not. Because, I’ve been looking around at it a little bit and $750 worth of land now could very quickly and easily be over $75,000 some time in the next five years.

And, I was getting ready to tell him I’d do it for nothing.

So, does anyone know about real estate investing in Costa Rica?

Look, kids, it’s been a brutal week for your Uncle Jim, so we need us some fun.
I won’t go into the gorey details, but it seems like anything that didn’t go wrong in my life this week either went wrong in someone else’s life I know or is about to go wrong, so it’s just been a long, damn week. But, today is Friday. The weekend is almost here and you can start your fun early with some of these links.
I dipped into my collection of weird links, and boy have got some doosies, to bring you a little Friday Fun.
First, there’s an old favorite, Spamusement. This guy draws very funny cartoons based on spam that we’ve all gotten one time or another. It’s silly, goofy and always makes me chuckle.
Then, there’s this wild casemod by, well, by someone in Japan, I guess since the entire page is in Japanese. It’s a PC sphere and looks cool. I think there’s instructions for making it, or buying it, somewhere on this page. Good luck figuring out which and where!
Next, we have something to make the sinners repent: The Bible Prophecy Page! Yes, now you, too, can bring the rantings of Bible Prophecy fringe groups to the conveniece of your own home via the Internet. What will they think of next!?!
And, for those of you who are homeless wanderers, or just on vactaion and away from you computers, here’s the Cyber Cafe Search Engine. It’ll help you find your next Internet fix away from home. Of course, if you’re looking for a place to check e-mail because you don’t have a computer then you’ll have to find that first spot on your own…

Well, whatever, these were just four semi-random links I grabbed out of my mess o’ weird sites. What the heck, kids, it’s Friday and Uncle Jim says “Click the links!”

Okay, so a couple of odd things…
First, as you regular readers know, I’m a bit of a frustrated writer. I have tried all sorts of tricks to get myself writing again, outside the blog, that is. I’ve dug up writing exercises from years past. I tried being more “arty” in this blog. I even tried starting a blog just for my writing, though that devolved into something else alltogether. In fact, I tried everything short of just disciplining myself to sit and write. In any case, one of my many experiments was a blog written from a fictional character’s point of view. That didn’t work, so I tried reusing that blog for some other experiments. I called it, after the re-start, Journal of a Madman. Sadly, some one saw this, I assume via a search engine, and thought it was real. Apparently, it was this one entry that disturbed him most: Demon Voices. I just thought was odd and interesting. UPDATE: Please understand that this is a work of fiction. It was an exploration of what I thought insanity might look like from the inside. If I have disturbed anyone with this, I apologize. I have not heard voices of any kind, ever, nor have I ever been treated for or diagnosed with any kind of psychotic disorder.
Second, there was this Nonsequitur comic that Doc sent me. My head-shrink will love it. I, however, will neither confirm nor deny the veracity of this comic and its message.
Thirdly, I went to see my minister at Mercy Street. I did this in preparation for joining the church. Or, actually, moving my membership from the church I attended when I was a kid down here. Apparently, they keep you on the books forever, so all this time, I’ve been a member of a church I haven’t visited in almost 20 years. Go figure. But, that wasn’t the strange thing. The strange thing was how much I was like this minister. And, apparently, as I was talking about my ex-wife with him, explaining, in part, why I’d stayed away from church for so long, I said, “We mistook intensity for intimacy.” I kept waiting for him to use that in his sermon, but it never quite came out. In any case, this is the first step in my completeing number eight on my list of resolutions.
And, there was some other stuff, too, but I’m still figuring that out, so I probably won’t post about it just yet. (I will say, though, that it resulted in neither scars nor tattoos nor criminal charges. In case you were wondering.)

There’s a frightening, new people search engine in beta.
It’s called ZabaSearch, which is Greek for something. Frankly, I don’t care what it’s Greek for, but this thing rocks! I don’t know how long it will be free or in beta, but it’s frighteningly good. I always use certain people to search on as a test of the people searcher. Myself, of course, and a few old friends. And, yes, I have to admit it, an old girlfriend from college or two. But, here’s the thing. None of the other people finders have ever actually found some of these people. Until now.
So, now I’ve found an old flame. Someone that I would think about when relationships would get rocky. When I’d be sad and lonely, I’d find myself wondering what she was doing and who she was with. Now, I’ve found her. And, yes, I’m pretty sure it’s her because she has an unusual name and the address is in the general area where I heard from her last. How many “Gaylenes” can there be? Even in San Francisco?
So, I’ve found the girl I always thought of as “the one that got away”. Do I call her or not?

Since I’ve been “Googlespammed”…

I found this interesting. Apparently, if enough bloggers link to a particular website with certain words in the link, it can radically effect the way a search engine “sees” that page. This article on Wired News about John Kerry getting Googlebombed is a little old, but it sums the issue up nicely.
I guess that’s what’s next for me, right? This bottom-feeder that snaked my #1 Google search result is going to Googlebomb me for making his “job” harder. Oh, man, I can’t wait. Oh, God, what has the web come to?

Senator Hatch needs to be more careful before he mouths off.

First, he had unlicensed software on his site while he was spouting about how copyright holders should be allowed to “destroy” pirates’ computers. Then, he has an outdated link to a search engine that redirects to an “adult” site. (Details about both are in this article at Wired News.)

Now, my question is, do we want this Luddite making decisions about our technology? I don’t, that’s for sure. But, you know what, he is going to be. He’s already introduced bills about this stuff, which he really doesn’t seem to understand. Why? Why do we let him? Look, I’m as good a Republican as anyone else in the Party, but I do NOT want this guy making long-term intellectual property law. Remember this at election time, folks. Hmm, maybe it is time to vote Libertarian…..

What search terms get the best results?

My site is fairly well optimized for Google on the terms “CNE Resume“. It’s mainly what I do. My primary area of expertise is Novell Netware and I am a Certified Novell Engineer. But, that’s not all I do. I know a little Linux and, of course, the never escapable WindowsNT and Windows2000. I even have a little experience with WindowsXP, though it’s just the client side. So, while it makes sense that my resume is optimized for Novell products, I’d like to reposition myself to be more of a generalist Network Engineer.
Right now, I show up on the first page of a Google search for “network engineer resume houston“, but not for “network engineer resume“. I suppose I should be happy. After all, I don’t plan on leaving Houston anytime soon, but it just isn’t good enough for me. I need to be on that first page for “network engineer resume”. So, I’m going to work at it. I managed to get that top spot for “CNE Resume”, so I ought to be able to get it for “network engineer resume”, too!