Dungeonmaster's AD&D Resources @ Amazon.com

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Another Mid-Course Correction

Not blogging here much lately. I've been too busy "burning" feeds and publishing to Squidoo.

My current #1 project is to create a browsable "mall" that facilitates various searches at Amazon.com the initial beta is being hosted on a subdomain belonging to bellsouth.net:

http://216.77.188.45/a/c/access2/

The original URL bellsouth provided was:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/a/c/access2/

Google sitemaps wouldn't accept this URL, insisting on:

http://www.bellsouthpwp.net/a/c/access2/

Alexa couldn't send me e-mail to my bellsouth.net e-mail about the "different" bellsouthpwp domain, so it became:

http://personal.bellsouth.net/a/c/access2/

Quite by accident, I discovered it could also be:

http://personalpages.bellsouth.net/a/c/access2/

Given that there are 5 distinct alii for these pages, how can I overlook linking to:
http://216.77.188.45/a/c/access2/sitemap.xml

http://bellsouthpwp.net/a/c/access2/sitemap.xml

http://www.bellsouthpwp.net/a/c/access2/sitemap.xml

http://personal.bellsouth.net/a/c/access2/sitemap.xml

http://personalpages.bellsouth.net/a/c/access2/sitemap.xml

My Squidoo Feeds

I've been foodling with Squidoo -- a great new Web 2.0 resource lately, and haven't posted anything here.

My "cubistic" Lensmaster's page

Some feed links:

(More Soon)

Social Bookmarks II

Egad! My discovery of Social bookmarking has sent me into an every-increasing spiral of website promotion. Here is an explanatory video.

My Public Bookmarks:

• Back Flip
• Blink Bits
• BlogMarks
• Blinklist
• del.icio.us
• de.lirio.us
• digg
• Feed Me Links (via Feedburner)
• Furl
• Gravee
• igooi
• kinja
• lilisto
• Linkagogo
• Linkroll
• Ma.gnolia.com (via Feedburner)
• Netvouz
• Raw Sugar
• reddit
• Scuttle
• Simpy
• Spurl
• Wists (via Feedburner)
• Wink

Squidoo

As I was poking around in the realm of social bookmarks, I came upon an odd little site called Squidoo. It is basically a blog-space provider with an interesting business model.

Participants (Squidoo calls them "Lensmasters" and their modular meta-pages "lenses") post articles on any topic that interests them. The pages are monetized using Google AdSense ads, Amazon associate links, and a number of other revenue-producing programs. This money goes to Squidoo, who returns half of it to the lensmasters based on the performance of their links.

So why give half your commissions to Squidoo? After all, free blog-space isn't hard to come by. It's a fair question, and one I can't answer definitively.

Consider this before you reject the idea: You're not giving up anything but the time it takes you to turn some of your favorite bookmarks into "lenses." If your page generates some revenue fine. If not, there's no guarantee that people who bought something from Squidoo otherwise would have bought it from you. Actually that is extremely unlikely.

On the other hand, Squidoo's search-engine clout, built-in community traffic, diversity of revenue-streams, easy page creation and so on might well make it twice as easy to make a sale, which is a fair trade.

The company is a start-up, having begun recording sales for commission today. As such there are certain risks involved, but Squidoo is worth a look, if only for the education involved. Check out their home page, their FAQ, and their status blog. Then if you want to give it a try, sign up. (using this link could make you an extra $5.00)

Update: I'm getting a lot of traffic from my "Lens" My Lensmasters' Amazon "Top Ten" Lists. It's hard to tell if it's Squidoo users or Amazon associates, but so far it's just *A LOT* of "lookie Lou" traffic.

Social Bookmarks

Are blogs replacing regular websites? Not really. There will always be a need for well-designed web sites that have a different organization and function than the typical (or extremely atypical) blog. However, it's pretty obvious that blogging is here to stay, and webmasters will either adapt to this trend or lose market share.

This revelation came to me when I stumbled upon a site that helps bloggers add a little javascript snippet that invites visitors to Social Bookmark their pages. Social bookmarking, it seems, is the generic term for services like Del.icio.us that allow users to save their bookmarks / favorites online, then create a human-rated, searchable database from the links.

Human-rated databases aren't new, The Open Directory Project, being the most obvious example, but they have always had limitations. They attempt to impose a top-down organization on what is inherently a grassroots process. They are slow, arbitrary, laborious, and rely on volunteers who recieve little or no reward for their labors.

By contrast, social bookmarking immediately rewards users (they can access their bookmarks online) is easy to use, and generally relies upon market forces to validate links rather than arbitrary rules administered by an authoritarian editing process. I'm not one of those free-market ideologues who thinks government regulation is the root of all evil, but I happen to think the Internet is an excellent example of free-market thinking gone right.

Before the introduction of the World Wide Web, the Internet was a very limited and expensive conduit for a few ARPA/DARPA and NSF net computers to swap e-mails and files. By opening the Internet to commercial content, the network infrastructure was monetized, and its growth has been vigorous ever since.

Ironically, the ODP and most other human-mediated directories prohibit "commercial content" such as personal web-sites that have a few affiliate links to defray their direct expenses. They are glad to list university, government, and corporate sites that are far from "non-commercial" in the sense that they promote, advertise, dispense, or otherwise facilitate activities that are extremely lucrative, provided they lack a direct link between the website and the flow of cash from their users.

Given that the pool of potential editors for these directories consists primarily of small-time webmasters who want a little recognition for their sites and are immediately rejected, it's small wonder that these projects are as pathetically limited as they are. Does anybody actually use them for web-searches?

My impression is that people put up commercial-content-free sites, get them listed, and then monetize them secure in the knowledge that no one will ever know if they are listed by ODP.

Podcasts

Google popped up with a link to some high-bandwidth Mars photos today, ensuring a sluggish day for internet users everywhere. Of course, this is a mere drop in the bandwidth bucket compared to NASA's self-aggrandizing NASAcast. Those arrogant [expletives]!

For a seemingly positive viewpoint on this latest fiscal atrocity see: Mars Orbiter Makes Port. This article is about podcasting.

Basically, podcasts are audio/video feeds using essentially the same technology as regular feeds, but with huge files. Thus illiterates can hog bandwidth, too. I don't have time for this now, but a cursory examination reveals a whole community of DJ wannabes streaming crap nobody listens to out to gee-whiz technolgy buffs for them to delete from their iPods. Just for good measure, we learned that MickeySoft has their own non-standard

On a related note RSS Specifications has some interesting thoughts on the RSS/atom dichotomy.

If you really must delve into this evil technology, Podcating News seems like a good place to start. Juice seems to be the most popular podcast client, although more clients are available. Of course you can check the article that "launched" this tirade -- NASA Podcast Help

Pod casting isn't going away just because I'm convinced it's a stupid waste of bandwidth. It will probably thrive. Maybe there is a way to use it for good instead of evil. I need some coffee.

RSS & atom

As I mentioned in a previous post, spiders (e.g. googlebot) crawl blogs differently than "regular" webpages. I didn't go into much detail, because I didn't actually know much about the process. Later I began fumbling around with Google Sitemaps which resulted in temporarily being blacklisted as a splog. (Incidentally, Blogspot corrected the problem promptly, much to my surprise.)

After using some online sitemap generators, which weren't entirely satisfactory, I stumbled onto Johannes Mueller's excellent GSiteCrawler. Whenever that program uploads a new sitemap, it pings Google Sitemaps, alerting them that new content is available. Aha! This two-way communication is the essence of web feed technology.

Suppose you have your own spider, dutifully traversing the web day in and day out. Obviously, you could cut down on the bandwidth it would require if it didn't have to crawl every page, but just the pages which had changed. Googlebot is perfectly capable of traversing a site, but employs its own algorithm to decide whether or not to re-index a particular page, thus driving webmasters insane.

Sitemaps don't really change this, but properly used, they give googlebot a "heads up" as to what contnet is new. New content is preferred over old content by some secret amount, so frequently updating sitemaps is the key to their successful use. If you don't have enough room for sitemaps, similar benefits can be had simply by including (properly maintained) "date" metatags for each page.

RSS and atom (remember them?) are two competing file specifications for this type of two-way communication, commonly referred to as web syndication. Presently the "standards" are under nearly constant revision, similar to the "browser wars" of a few years ago that made it practically impossible to use javascript. This site's web-feed is: http://wholeed.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Blogs Blogs Blogs

Googlebot can't seem to figure out what blog is about, so it's loading the pages up with "How to do a blog" AdSense ads. Swell.

Very well then, herewith is a short list of free blogspace providers:

• Bloglines
• MySpace
• Blog City
• Blog Easy
• Weblogs.us (WordPress)
• Skaffe
• Xanga
• we::blog
• Pitas.com
• News Is Free
• Live Journal
• Free Open Diary
• Easy Journal
• Diary Land
• Blogo Monster
• Blog Thing (Word Press 1.5)
• Smeego

The Robots Exclusion Protocol

Well-behaved 'bots comply with Robots Exclusion Protocol, which allows webmasters to specify pages or whole directories (Windows users read folders) that should not be crawled or indexed.

Most webmasters are moving heaven and earth to be included in various search-engines, so the default behavior -- "index, follow" -- is correct. Search-engines, on the other hand usually have very restrictive robots.txt files.

In part, this is to reduce the incredible traffic that would be generated by all the myriad search-engines crawling each other's sites. Another, probably more compelling reason is that a search-engine's database is its stock in trade, and most are very proprietary about sharing them with others

A sampling of robots.txt files from several prominent sites is instructive for those wishing to "tweak" their own robots.txt files:

• MSN Search
• Google
• Alexa
• A9
• ODP
• Altavista
• Free Find
• AOL Search
• Scrub The Web
• Blogger
• Bloglines (Ask.com)

In the course of compiling this list we learned that Teoma was recently acquired by Ask (Formerly "Ask Jeeves"). Now if somebody would only buy Yahoo! ...

Pop-Culture-Palooza

After about a month of twiddling, it has become obvious that a Blog needs to be promoted like any other site for Google AdSense to make any money. Therefore, I've started what I hope will be an immensely popular Blog pandering to the least common denominator in the internet search universe, and called it Pop-Culture-Palooza. (Yes, I'm sure "Palooza" is sooo '80s, but that's the inside joke.)

This site, which is public of course, and indexed won't be promoted much, being more or less a "what's new" vehicle for other sites. Much like the old "Radio Free Huntsville" page, it may or may not "get off the ground." Generally, I wind up trying to put out fires and update links a lot more than I do chronicling the same.

It also has occurred to me that my ongoing battles with googlebot would be more appropriate for a SEO service, in which case they'd be "trade secrets." For now, at least, I'm going to "save them for the book." Those canny enough to "read between the lines" may still find my ineffectual struggles amusing

As always Read!

Technology Recycling

The problem of "e-waste" is an underreported side-effect of the technological revolution. As much as we all love our electronic gizmos, they often contain large amounts of heavy metals and other toxic materials that can't be simply tossed into a landfill.

Reuse and recycling is the most practical solution. Often the need, whether real or imagined, of businesses and government entities to have the most up-to-date technology leads them to jettison perfectly serviceable computers, networking equipment, and other electronic instruments.

Because most consumers are unaware of this resource, or have been brainwashed into demanding new equipment, there are mountains of second-tier electronics in working condition available for pennies on the dollar. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon (well, actually I sought them out pretty actively) a recycling company in the Huntsville, AL area.

Huntsville was a sleepy little burg until the federal government started pouring money into the missile industry after World War II. One of the primary beneficiaries of this largess was the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal. The arsenal and its associated defense contractors produce an atypically large volume of electronic "scrap" every year.

Enter The Technology Recycling Center (9540-B Madison Blvd, Madison, AL 35785. Tel 256-464-7985) Proprietor Tom Stephens disposes of tons of the best tax-funded cast-off at a live auction the third Saturday of each month. While there might not be enough bargains to warrant travelling long distances to this little gold-mine, there are almost certainly similar resources in your area.

Pentium II and Pentium III computers, are currently very availble, being not quite up to the task of running Microsoft's latest (XP) bloatware. But they are more than adequate for Windows 9x or screamingly fast for *NIX (See: Linux Ecology How-to)

Sitemaps

Wikipedia says of XML:

"Its syntax is fairly verbose and partially redundant. This can hurt human readability and application efficiency, and yields higher storage costs. It can also make XML difficult to apply in cases where bandwidth is limited..."

Not especially encouraging for a 10 Mb subdomain site. Still, the Google Sitemaps (Beta) seems to have its heart in the right place, offering an opportunity to straighten out the mess googlebot seems to get itself into.

After giving Sitemaps a thorough trial, I've decided that the main advantage of the program is the additional statistics that it makes available. Unfortunately, these are not available on subdomains. What little advantage they might have conferred weren't worth the effort and drivespace they consumed.

It seems that googlebot is perfectly capable of traversing a site. The apparent problem stems from Google's secret ranking algorithm, which deems a lot of pages unworthy of listing, especially pages that are in deeply-nested directories. So much for the supposed advantages of using keywords as directory names! Foo.

New Intel iMacs

I should have seen it coming. Well actually I did, but I didn't expect it so soon. With the introduction of the OS X operating system, Apple effectively bridged the software gap. One of the drawbacks of MacIntosh systems has always been the lack of available software relative to the "Wintel" architecture.

OS X is an Apple proprietary GUI running on the Darwin BSD microkernel. As such, it runs a whole host of Open Source software. If you're used to paying for Windows software every six months, let me explain: That's fully-functional often industry-leading applications and utilities at the low, low, bargain price of ... well, they're free.

Apple has been involved with the OpenDarwin Project since the beginning, and everybody knew there was also a Darwin '386 kernel and an i386 interoperability group. "Obviously", Apple would have the inside track on developing the first Intel iMacs. They're a little pricier than I had hoped, but I'm sure they'll come down after the "early adopter" rush. Heck, they're not even shipping yet!

If you're not familiar with Open Source, you really must read Eric Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Search Engine Challenge

Which search engine gives the most relevant results? It's hard to say. Each search engine and its related spider is constantly updated in an effort to gain a competitive advantage.

With each crawl, the search database changes. Sometimes for the better, other times not so much. I couldn't tell you what each search will retrieve over the life of this page, but it might be kind of interesting to give an equivalent search to different engines, and see what comes up.

Now, without further ado (or comment) -- four searches for you to compare:

For more on search engines see Google Hacks (O'Reilly)

Natural Cures You Should Know About

Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About by Kevin Trudeau is a publishing phenomenon. Too bad it isn't a better book. Largely a come-on for Trudeau's website, the book contains little real information and none that isn't readily available elsewhere.

While portraying himself as "a journalist," Trudeau is in fact a very effective marketeer, which is the essence of numerous FTC complaints against his "allegedly" deceptive infomercials. One thing is clear, he has struck a responsive chord with the American public's distrust of giant pharmaceutical companies.

If you're into the conspiracy aspects of this story, you'd do better to read:

• The Truth About the Drug Companies (Random House)
• On The Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health (Oxford University Press)
• Inside the FDA: The Business and Politics Behind the Drugs We Take and the Food We Eat (Wiley)

On the other hand, if you or a loved one is in need of alternative or holistic medicine, we recommend that you start with something by Dr. Andrew Weil, who is well-respected in both "mainstream" and holistic (or "integrative") medicine. Or you could opt for a reference on herbal remedies.

If you really want Trudeau's book, that's O.K. -- We'll even sell it to you. The thing is we'd rather that you got better value for your money.

The Chronicles of Narnia

Andrew Adamson's 2005 release of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe now in theaters has created quite a stir. I'm getting hits on related Amazon associate links despite the lack of directly-related material on my main sites. (See What's the Buzz?)

The author, C.S. Lewis is better known in some circles for his work in medieval literature and Christian apologetics. (See The Collected Works of C.S. Lewis ) However, his seven-volume children's work The Chronicles of Narnia is the most widely known.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the first of these stories (although not chronologically) in which the young protagonists -- Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy --discover the multiverse and the enchanting world of Narnia through Digby's magical wardrobe.

A variety of Christian and Biblical themes are explored throughout the stories, without any heavy-handed sermonizing to detract from the chaming storyline. The characters are well-developed and beilievable within the context of a world of talking animals, dwarves, and mythical creatures. The Chronicles of Narnia is a great follow-up for children who have suddenly developed an interest in reading thanks to the Harry Potter craze

Support Our Troops

When I was in the Navy (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) we were all chomping at the bit to go to Afghanistan. There was no Taliban and nobody had heard of Osama bin Laden. The aggressors were the Soviets.

Unfortunately, President Reagan's CIA outsourced the job to the Mujahadeen ("holy warriors"), pouring billions into arming and training the very troops that would later bite the hand that earlier had fed them.

Secrecy isn't good for democracy, and sticking a yellow ribbon on your car doesn't do anything for troops half a world away. What troops really want is contact from the home front. "Care packages" with toiletries, sweat socks, food items, books, or whatever are nice, but it is even better to give a little of your time and actually write.

The typical servicemember is young, a little brainwashed, and committed to their mission and chain of command. So even though I'm absolutely convinced that Bush is a liar, Cheney is a thief, and Rumsfeld is a ghoul -- it never comes up in correspondence. It's "off topic" and not constructive.

Better topics include appreciation for their sacrifice, the weather (mostly bad), the hope that they can come home soon, and so on. Think of what you would say to a homesick kid at summer camp, and you won't go too far wrong. If you don't personally know anyone serving in the mideast, you can "adopt" a unit at anysoldier.com

Another thing about typical enlisted personnel is that they often signed up at least partly for the education benefits. We've been promoting the DANTES Subject Standardized Tests for years. Our free service (unlike many "me too" sites), is supported only by a small commission from Amazon.com in the event someone chooses to buy a book from us.

Marilu Henner Fetish Spreads!

I have a certain weakness for redheads, especially when they are as smart, funny, and articulate as Marilu Henner. So naturally, when my ongoing struggle to have Google properly index my online bookstore led me to her website, I was smitten.

I've been a fan since the old "Taxi" days, but I look (and feel) a lot older now than I did then. Marilu doesn't. Something about her vegetarian lifestyle certainly agrees with her!

As long as I'm plugging ensemble productions, the hilarious 1992 Noises Off has reached the kind of bargain-bin pricing that usually precedes unavailble "collectable" status. I don't know why this relatively unknown film never reached a wider audience, it's priceless!

Alito Hearings Begin

The Senate Judiciary Committee wiil begin confirmation hearings on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito at high noon tomorrow. The pundits predict that he will be confirmed, but in reality let's hope it depends on what happens in the hearings.

Neither party will admit to a "litmus test" on the issue of reproductive rights, but that is the "hot button" issue with many voters. Why deal with substantive issues when you can portray your opposition as baby-killers? Roe v. Wade is an important decision, especially to those who can remember the back-alley abortions that took place prior to it, but there is a lot more than that at stake.

Bush is running the most secretive and overreaching administration in the last fifty years (or more) and that didn't begin on 9/11. Can we afford to have a Supreme Court that is inclined to rubber-stamp executive excesses like torturing prisoners, illegal wiretapping, exposing CIA operatives' identities, and of course altering intelligence assesments to make a case for an ill-advised vendetta against Saddam Hussein?

Alito is the darling of Pat Robertson and other professional "Christian" demagogues, primarily for his sexist attitude on Roe v. Wade, but the real sticking point when it comes to his confirmation -- the one that will appeal not only to Democrats, but to Republicans seeking re-election -- is that he is yet another Bush crony loyal not to the country or the constitution but to one very flawed and increasingly unpopular individual.

Cloaking Part II: Googlebombing

Google states in their Blog: "We don't condone the practice of googlebombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we're also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up."

Ironically, the disclaimer is in an article describing exactly how to create a link to http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html with the anchor text "Failure" or "Miserable Failure." I remember a similar prank where Googling "Weapons of Mass Destruction" led to a parody of the Microsoft "Not Found" page. I always wondered how they did that.

The Google post does help to clarify one point: Their Webmaster Guidelines say, "Don't send automated queries to Google." I've never been able to find an explanation of what they consider an "automated query", but apparently links like:
"http://www.google.com/search?q=miserable+failure"
are O.K.

More to the point (Cloaking, remember?) if you dig a little deeper, Google explains that you can prevent those who post comments to your Blog(s) from creating such Googlebomb links by adding "rel=nofollow" to your anchor tags. (Online Blogs do this via their settings, so you don't have to manually edit visitor posts.)

Who knew the "nofollow" part of the robot exclusion protocol could apply to a single link? Well, googlebot and a lot of other 'bots recognize the extension, so it "sort of" works.

You could for instance add the "rel=nofollow" to affiliate links to reduce the danger of being deemed a "thin affiliate" by googlebot. Of course that might "affect the integrity of [our] search results," but so does the intelligent use of keywords, or linking to on-topic resources, or any searchengine optimization whatever.

Congratulations Longhorns!

The big game is in the record books, and Vince Young has led Mack Brown's University of Texas Longhorns to victory. It was a great game, and a vindication of the much-maligned BCS system, which this year managed to pair up the only two undefeated conference winners in their annual championship. As a Big 12 fan, I couldn't be happier with the Texas win. It is also a perfect opportunity to grind my BCS axe without the appearance of "sour grapes."

College football wasn't organized to determine a national champion. Regional conferences were formed because athletic programs couldn't afford to travel long distances to games. Schedules were arranged to determine conference winners. With the advent of lucrative TV contracts, gigantic stadiums, and fans willing and able to spend a small fortune on tickets, there has been a role-reversal. The football team now supports the university -- at least in terms of revenue.

As college football grew in popularity, everybody wanted to get a piece of the pie. First the Rose Bowl (1902) and all the post-season bowls that followed. Then the AP got into the act with their silly "beauty contest" poll in 1936. Nobody took the idea of a bunch of sports writers voting on football ratings seriously, but it helped to sell papers. In 1992 the Bowl Coalition was formed, after figuring out a way to include the existing conferences, polls, and bowls while still carving out a slice for themselves.

In 1998, the Rose Bowl came on board, and the Bowl Coalition was renamed the Bowl Alliance. Next year there'll be one more game, after the four existing BCS bowls, which will "fix" the system which left the undefeated 2004 Auburn Tigers and Utah Utes out of the running, and just incidentally make a lot of money for the organizers. Now nobody will ever claim they "should have been number one" again, right? Dream on.

As long as teams play primarily within their own conferences, there will always be room for disagreement. Conferences just aren't equal nor do they retain the same relative strengths from year to year. Unless somebody figures out a way to include (i.e. pay off) the conferences to increase inter-conference scheduling in some sort of year-long tournament, the mythical national college football championship will remain elusive.

Of course, such a system would have its detractors, and arguments against it. Apparently the need to declare a national champion is based as much as anything else on the need for a point of reference for the disappointed majority of fans who will swear they were robbed. But that's just speculation. The 2006 Longhorns are the real deal, and they have the trophy to prove it!

"Christian" Values

It irritates me to no end to hear Karl Rove and his cronies pontificate about "Christian values" as if Christians were a homogenous bloc united in their opposition to biological science, religious pluralism, gay rights, and a host of other wedge issues concocted to appeal to their neo-conservative base.

Actually, the history of the chuch since the Protestant Reformation has been characterized by disagreement, schism, and pluralism. On the whole, this has been a healthy process. Nobody should be denied their religious freedom because of church or state-sponsored dogma.

Unfortunately, respect for the rights of others -- coupled with political correctness, and perhaps a bit of personal timidity -- has led to a sort of tacit approval of their opinions. There is no reciprocation on the part of the ignorant loud-mouthed snake-handling Bible-thumpers that presume to speak for us all.

I wish everyone would hear Davidson Loehr's sermon Living Under Fascisim and realize that passive opposition to the more abusive policies of the current administration is not nearly enough. Our very democratic institutions are under attack, and all that is required for their destruction is for people of good will to do nothing, and allow criminals like Rove to persuade the "undecided" centrists.