It's been a busy week. I'm a little ashamed to say that I've neglected the blog. it's good to be back.
My trip to Dundee for the HEA Web 2.0 Day took three perhaps four days out of my work schedule; which has not been helped by it being half term. I had a good time North of the border and met several researchers working in my field who were interested in our work. It was good to be able to compare notes and experiences. My talk was surprisingly well received which leads me to think that I should work harder.
During the last month the hit counter has shown some interesting trends. I'm getting more and more visitors in search of information about deleting Facebook, a surprising number of hits in search of Facebook porn while the endless search for "gradatim ferociter" continues. Additionally the number of visitors visiting more than one page On a Hill has increased significantly. It's also worth noting that one visitor arrived On the Hill from Afganistan, via a microwave link; it seems that even in Kabul worries about Facebook led one Googler to The Hill!
The high spot of the week just has to be the arrival of my Macbook Pro.
I've spent far too much of the day loading Leopard, Microsoft Office:Mac and Firefox. Transferring information and data between two machines has led to me to consider the problems created by reading blog feeds on two computers. Much as I love sage (for Firefox) it may be that Google Reader will become my feed reader of necessity.
The problem now is what's to be done with my Macbook ............
Decisions, decisions!
Showing posts with label curiosity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label curiosity. Show all posts
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
On Spam, Google, Curt Bonk and Flying Fish
It's been said that I spend too much time on the Net, so to save time I've been trying out Google Alerts.
To be honest the responses I get for this query are fairly mundane and repetitive but on October 12th. I was intrigued to notice a message which included the following text.
The speaker was Curt Bonk from Indianna University, the talk took place on January 15th at the University of Glamorgan, Treforest and he blogged about it on January 20th.. The talk was memorable; the speaker threw me a stuffed fish, and the blog made for interesting reading.
Why then, should it appear in a Google alert ten months after the event?
Following the provided link I found myself reading Curt's blog entry again, but this time on an anonymous blog, made of pieces cut and pasted from the net; 23 random articles, copied without reference their original source.
Examination of the page reveals that each article has been tampered with and links to commercial sites added.
It's spam!
The problem here is that I nearly fell for it.
The spam came courtesy of Google.
Google Alerts sent me the link.
Reader beware!
PS. (added 17.10.07)
My most recent Google alert message arrived yesterday informing me that this post existed!
If I were to adjust the settings on my alerts it would be interesting to explore how long it takes for an alert to be sent.
I'm just curious.
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include: * monitoring a developing news story * keeping current on a competitor or industry * getting the latest on a celebrity or event * keeping tabs on your favorite sports teamsI have a few alerts running, one of which is for the "University of Glamorgan".
To be honest the responses I get for this query are fairly mundane and repetitive but on October 12th. I was intrigued to notice a message which included the following text.
UK E-Learning Reflections: UK leads the way or does it?What caught my eye in this instance, is that I was there, I heard the presentation and after the event read the speaker's blog and therefore recognised the posting. (It's true I spend oo much time on the Net)
Monday the 15th was spent in Wales with a presentation to teachers of the future of ICT and schools at the University of Glamorgan ......
The speaker was Curt Bonk from Indianna University, the talk took place on January 15th at the University of Glamorgan, Treforest and he blogged about it on January 20th.. The talk was memorable; the speaker threw me a stuffed fish, and the blog made for interesting reading.
Why then, should it appear in a Google alert ten months after the event?
Following the provided link I found myself reading Curt's blog entry again, but this time on an anonymous blog, made of pieces cut and pasted from the net; 23 random articles, copied without reference their original source.
Examination of the page reveals that each article has been tampered with and links to commercial sites added.
It's spam!
The problem here is that I nearly fell for it.
The spam came courtesy of Google.
Google Alerts sent me the link.
Reader beware!
PS. (added 17.10.07)
My most recent Google alert message arrived yesterday informing me that this post existed!
If I were to adjust the settings on my alerts it would be interesting to explore how long it takes for an alert to be sent.
I'm just curious.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
On Danah, Facebook and Wales.
Danah at apophenia has written an excellent blog essay, (a rough work in progress paper) which she has called "Viewing American Class Divisions through Facebook and MySpace."
Its an excellent read, far better than many of the press articles describing its contents.
Regular readers of Danah's blog are I think aware of the way she works. She finds her own observations "disconcerting". It is interesting to note how many of those who commented on her thoughts, choose to criticise her rather than her observations which suggest that
Here are a set of notes made by a blogger who heard Danah speak at Harvard.
The blog provides a good example of how a blog can be used to present notes taken at a lecture, seminar or tutorial.
Out of curiosity I've explored Facebook this morning and looked at the regional and college statistics for Wales. These figures are correct as of today.
The WALES network has 65,952 members.
In hierarchical order the college networks (in Wales) have the following numbers of members.
Cardiff, 15,104
Swansea, 6,447
Aber, 5,995
Bangor, 4,145
Uni Glam, 2,243
UW Institute Cardiff, 1,653
UW Newport, 716
Swansea IHE, 481
Lampeter, 469
Trinity, 333
RW College of Music and Drama, 332
NEWI, 356
A total of 38,274 facebook memberships.
(How many students are there in Wales?)
(How old are these networks?)
To make sense of these figures, some statistical work will be required to show the number of facebook memberships as a percentage of the student population of each of the colleges, as we are not really comparing like with like here. (I suspect that Cardiff on Facebook includes the College of Medicine.)
I wonder if I can find similar figures for Bebo or MySpace?
Its an excellent read, far better than many of the press articles describing its contents.
Regular readers of Danah's blog are I think aware of the way she works. She finds her own observations "disconcerting". It is interesting to note how many of those who commented on her thoughts, choose to criticise her rather than her observations which suggest that
"Hegemonic American teens (i.e. middle/upper class, college bound teens from upwards mobile or well off families) are all on or switching to Facebook. Marginalized teens, teens from poorer or less educated backgrounds, subculturally-identified teens, and other non-hegemonic teens continue to be drawn to MySpace. A class division has emerged and it is playing out in the aesthetics, the kinds of advertising, and the policy decisions being made."I need time to think about her observations as I'm not certain how her theories might translate to the UK, or to Wales. I'm not convinced that the urge to Facebook or MySpace is as central to UK student life as it is in America, but it is growing. In the last week I've noticed several relatively prominent Welsh bloggers writing about the use of Facebook by politicians (locally and nationally) and by journalists seeking copy.
Here are a set of notes made by a blogger who heard Danah speak at Harvard.
The blog provides a good example of how a blog can be used to present notes taken at a lecture, seminar or tutorial.
Out of curiosity I've explored Facebook this morning and looked at the regional and college statistics for Wales. These figures are correct as of today.
The WALES network has 65,952 members.
In hierarchical order the college networks (in Wales) have the following numbers of members.
Cardiff, 15,104
Swansea, 6,447
Aber, 5,995
Bangor, 4,145
Uni Glam, 2,243
UW Institute Cardiff, 1,653
UW Newport, 716
Swansea IHE, 481
Lampeter, 469
Trinity, 333
RW College of Music and Drama, 332
NEWI, 356
A total of 38,274 facebook memberships.
(How many students are there in Wales?)
(How old are these networks?)
To make sense of these figures, some statistical work will be required to show the number of facebook memberships as a percentage of the student population of each of the colleges, as we are not really comparing like with like here. (I suspect that Cardiff on Facebook includes the College of Medicine.)
I wonder if I can find similar figures for Bebo or MySpace?
Monday, April 02, 2007
Swim the Atlantic
I first read about this journey on kottke and then on Boing Boing.
If you ask Google maps for directions from Cardiff to New York, Google does its magic calculates the route, draws a map and prepares driving instructions.
Examination of the map reveals a thin blue line stretching across the Atlantic.
The written guidance suggests that travellers "swim the Atlantic", starting at Le Havre and ending at Long Wharf, New York.
Someone at Google obviously has a wonderful sense of humour.
I've explored a little and have discovered that this magical advice is offered for routes starting in most of Northern Europe, it works from Moscow but not from Baghdad!
According to Google the journey would involve 4095 miles of travel with 3,462 miles of swimming; a journey that would take about 29 days 13 hours of travelling.
In 1998 when Benoit Lecomte swam the Atlantic without the benefit of Google his epic swim from Cape Cod to Quiberon in France took 72 days.
Lecomte competed his swim, which is more than can be said for Jon S. von Tetzchener CEO of Opera software who set out in 2005 to swim the Atlantic in response to the success of Opera 8.
If you ask Google maps for directions from Cardiff to New York, Google does its magic calculates the route, draws a map and prepares driving instructions.
Examination of the map reveals a thin blue line stretching across the Atlantic.
The written guidance suggests that travellers "swim the Atlantic", starting at Le Havre and ending at Long Wharf, New York.
Someone at Google obviously has a wonderful sense of humour.
I've explored a little and have discovered that this magical advice is offered for routes starting in most of Northern Europe, it works from Moscow but not from Baghdad!
According to Google the journey would involve 4095 miles of travel with 3,462 miles of swimming; a journey that would take about 29 days 13 hours of travelling.
In 1998 when Benoit Lecomte swam the Atlantic without the benefit of Google his epic swim from Cape Cod to Quiberon in France took 72 days.
Lecomte competed his swim, which is more than can be said for Jon S. von Tetzchener CEO of Opera software who set out in 2005 to swim the Atlantic in response to the success of Opera 8.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Searching the Web
CrossEngine is a web based search platform.
It brings together nearly two hundred search engines in one place, offering quick access to them all from one spot. Its quicker to access multiple searches here than it is to find a favourite search engine in the search bar in FireFox, it is easier to bounce around between engines and compare searches. There's a nice crisp interface , a search box, a list of engines or tabs leading to types of search. The simple effective functionality of this site could shorten searching time.
But all is not what it seems.
Comments on lifehacker suggest that searches in CrossEngine are different and so they are.
I tried searching for Treforest on Google through Crossengine and on Google in a stand alone window.
Both searches give me about 141,ooo results, Google direct in 0.12 seconds, CrossEngine in 0.11 seconds. The results are similar but different. They come up in a different order.
Using the CrossEngine link the Wikipedia entry for Treforest is second, using Google it appears in sixth place.
Conversely the reverse happens using Yahoo. Yahoo in a stand alone window offers about 54,900 results in 0.21 seconds, Yahoo through CrossEngine offers 54,000 results in 0.36 seconds, but the first 10 results are displayed in the same order!
Don't take my word for it.
Try it with your own search.
Does the same happen for you?
Why is that?
CrossEngine may not be going in my favourites list until I discover what going on.
If only I knew more about searching!
It brings together nearly two hundred search engines in one place, offering quick access to them all from one spot. Its quicker to access multiple searches here than it is to find a favourite search engine in the search bar in FireFox, it is easier to bounce around between engines and compare searches. There's a nice crisp interface , a search box, a list of engines or tabs leading to types of search. The simple effective functionality of this site could shorten searching time.
But all is not what it seems.
Comments on lifehacker suggest that searches in CrossEngine are different and so they are.
I tried searching for Treforest on Google through Crossengine and on Google in a stand alone window.
Both searches give me about 141,ooo results, Google direct in 0.12 seconds, CrossEngine in 0.11 seconds. The results are similar but different. They come up in a different order.
Using the CrossEngine link the Wikipedia entry for Treforest is second, using Google it appears in sixth place.
Conversely the reverse happens using Yahoo. Yahoo in a stand alone window offers about 54,900 results in 0.21 seconds, Yahoo through CrossEngine offers 54,000 results in 0.36 seconds, but the first 10 results are displayed in the same order!
Don't take my word for it.
Try it with your own search.
Does the same happen for you?
Why is that?
CrossEngine may not be going in my favourites list until I discover what going on.
If only I knew more about searching!
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Who Is Reading This?
Curiously the number of visitors to On a Hill continues to rise; the number of comments is rising but only just!
There are discussions taking place relating comments elsewhere.
Some bloggers allow them, some don't.
My limited observations tell me that far more blogs are read than are commented on (the one percent rule). I rarely leave comments on the many blogs that I visit but I learn much by reading them.
Interestingly when I make the effort to leave a comment on someone else's blog, my visitor statistics show me that they nearly always come and check my blog.
Eric Schmidt CEO of Google met some Republican governors in the USA last year, a meeting, reported in the New York Times. During the meeting :-
"Mr. Schmidt said that by by Google’s calculation, a new blog is being created every second of every day. He said that Google now estimates that the average blog is read by one person."
Is that true?
If that is true why oh why do Technorati spend so much time counting and indexing them?
There are discussions taking place relating comments elsewhere.
Some bloggers allow them, some don't.
My limited observations tell me that far more blogs are read than are commented on (the one percent rule). I rarely leave comments on the many blogs that I visit but I learn much by reading them.
Interestingly when I make the effort to leave a comment on someone else's blog, my visitor statistics show me that they nearly always come and check my blog.
Eric Schmidt CEO of Google met some Republican governors in the USA last year, a meeting, reported in the New York Times. During the meeting :-
"Mr. Schmidt said that by by Google’s calculation, a new blog is being created every second of every day. He said that Google now estimates that the average blog is read by one person."
Is that true?
If that is true why oh why do Technorati spend so much time counting and indexing them?
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Curiosity or Vanity?
This blog exists at the fringe of cyberspace. Few explorers stumble across this particular hill and never leave a calling card. No comments are left but I still write.
I have no need for anyone to read my thoughts, in fact, I am content that hardly anyone does.
I suspect that my reluctance to write here stems from a worry that you might read it.
I find writing about my research for an audience difficult.
I don't want to share my thoughts just yet!
When I first started this blog I wanted to know who was here, so I installed a counter. The counter showed me that the blog was visited, that readers spent a little time, but never left a comment. Thats fine. I know they were here.
Now that intend to spend more time writing here I've installed Google Analytics. Far more detail than I need, but curiousity is a strange thing. It is interesting that the analysis presumes that I am selling something or that I want to sell something.
I'm not selling and I don't want to.
What I am doing is learning and that can't be bought or sold. If you were here, and left without leaving a comment at least I'll see your footprints and I'll learn a little about you.
I'd like to know who you are, where you are, and how you arrived here.
What the Google Analytics can't tell me is why you were here and whether you learnt anything here, only you can do that.
Just curiousity.
I have no need for anyone to read my thoughts, in fact, I am content that hardly anyone does.
I suspect that my reluctance to write here stems from a worry that you might read it.
I find writing about my research for an audience difficult.
I don't want to share my thoughts just yet!
When I first started this blog I wanted to know who was here, so I installed a counter. The counter showed me that the blog was visited, that readers spent a little time, but never left a comment. Thats fine. I know they were here.
Now that intend to spend more time writing here I've installed Google Analytics. Far more detail than I need, but curiousity is a strange thing. It is interesting that the analysis presumes that I am selling something or that I want to sell something.
I'm not selling and I don't want to.
What I am doing is learning and that can't be bought or sold. If you were here, and left without leaving a comment at least I'll see your footprints and I'll learn a little about you.
I'd like to know who you are, where you are, and how you arrived here.
What the Google Analytics can't tell me is why you were here and whether you learnt anything here, only you can do that.
Just curiousity.
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