geofffox

Is someone in an alternate universe? From Friday's NY Times:

"In a new round of cost-cutting, National Public Radio said it would lay off 13 employees, eliminate contributions to employee retirement accounts for the rest of fiscal 2009 and impose five days of furloughs for all employees before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30."

No one--not even NPR can monetize their audience to pay for programming. Programs like "All Things Considered" and "Prairie Home Companion" are dependent on an expensive infrastructure and staff.

I work in 'old media' and the problem for businesses and employees alike is an eyeball on the Internet is worth less money than an eyeball on TV or ears on radio. As we move people to our websites we do so at our own peril. We can afford to produce less for an Internet than TV viewer.

I am no Rupert Murdoch fan, but he put it best when he pointed out ad space on the Internet is unlimited. Therefore there will always be downward pressure on advertising rates.

In the short term this isn't a big deal for end users. In the long run people will realize much of the news and entertainment programming we all enjoy (not all and not necessarily the best) will no longer be produced.

My last computer class was in high school--1968. I have owned a personal computer for over 30 years now. Alas, most of my contemporaries have let the leading edge pass them by. I won't allow that to happen to me.

Perfect landing. And he was lucky the river was so empty. There are often large oil barges moving slowly or moored in the center of the river.

I have worked until 11:35 PM for the last 20+ years--but it suits me and I enjoy my time awake while my family sleeps. I have always been nocturnal and most productive after dark. Most night's I'm in bed between 4-5 AM. I usually tell people I live on Hawaiian time. I'm in Connecticut.

Good grief I feel your pain! I had the same thing happen to me.

Some hacker inserted a single randomly named php and new .htaccess file in every directory on my Movable Type blog - www.geofffox.com. We’re talking thousands of directories.

The .htaccess file was amazingly clever. It sprung into action on 404 errors, and only from search engine referrers. I originally thought it was Google’s problem, because I couldn’t make the pages appear by typing them in.

By the time I’d begun the cleanup, Google thought I had over 330,000 pages (actually around 16k) on my site. My most cited keywords had to do with porn and game cracks.

The hack left all .html files in a single directory. My real pages are all php, making it easier to eliminate the scourge from search engines. It took a long time.

Since cleaning up my act in January, my traffic is down by 2/3! MSN Live is referring more traffic my way than Google. I am still a PR4, but with little to show for that. That’s one reason I’ve cited my site on this comment and hope it’s not ‘nofollowed’ out. I’m hoping for some Google love.

My biggest complaint is, Google is not answerable to anyone. You can fill out forms, and beg (and I begged), but Google will neither tell you what you did wrong or how to rehabilitate yourself. I had to find those out on my own.

They have gone beyond a simple search engine. If you’re not on Google, you don’t exist!

Vaguely off topic - but this is a screencast savvy group. Does anyone recognize the software being used for this screencast? Note the real time insertion of a webcam.

http://www.accuweather.com/mt-news-blogs.asp?blog=meteomadne...