digivation.net | Ideas. With Sauce. » Asides

Gone to Carolina in my Mind

Michael Chappell — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:33:18 +0000

And physically. Or I could go with my alternate title “North Carolina, Come on and Raise Up”. Either way, James Taylor and Petey Pablo have something in common, and I am headed to the Tar Heel State. Not to see any Tarheels though, actually, to see the marriage of a Wolfpack (a wolfpack of one?) and a Blue Devil, the latter of which being my sister. So I will be unable to post for a few days, but do not despair, I’m sure my colleague has plenty in store for you. I plan to take some photos during the course of this journey (which I will be making with my two younger brothers) and upon my return will share some choice ones with you as well as relate few tales of the adventure.

If you are interested, check out their Wedding Page.

Almost Done

Matthew Smith — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:47:09 +0000

Senior Design presentation at 1pm. Then I’m done (for a few days).

I can’t wait.

reinvigorate me

Matthew Smith — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:11:16 +0000

For a while I’ve been using Google Analytics to keep abreast of my site statistics. I recently discovered (and registered with) reinvigorate. First, second, and third impression? I like it a lot! I’ll elaborate later.

Where in the World is Matthew?

Matthew Smith — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:22:53 +0000

Sorry for the long absence – I’m trying to get about a million things in order, in addition to adding a few things to the site. Hang tight! I’ll be back, I promise.

Senior Design

Matthew Smith — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 04:31:24 +0000

I’m neck-deep in senior design and not happy about it. At the moment, my group is hard at work on our Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and it is due on Monday. I’ll attempt to muster the strength to post all my long-overdue items sometime after that.

Google Reader Overhaul

Matthew Smith — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:07:25 +0000

If you havn’t tried Google Reader yet, I recommend giving it a spin. It’s been my RSS viewer of choice for some time now, due to its simple interface and the fact that I didn’t have to signup for another service (its one of Google’s many web apps). Recently, Google Reader has been updated with many new features that make staying on top of the latest updates a breeze. Recommended!

Twelve Year Old Boycotts BPI

Matthew Smith — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:59:12 +0000

The world needs more determined artists like young Amy Thomas. Miss Thomas is protesting against the British Phonographic Industry, the British version of our very own RIAA. The reason? The BPI has decided not to include her latest single in their charts because because of her stance on file sharing! Bravo! Success in the digital age will come to people like Amy who explore new ways of doing things, not organizations like the RIAA and the MPAA who are trying their best to slow technological advances and maintain a grip on their outdated model.

Amy’s upcoming kid’s single, Just Smile, should be out shortly. [link - via here and here]

Great Rebuttal to “Liquid Bombs on a Plane”

Matthew Smith — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 15:04:26 +0000

Just ran across this excellent rebuttal to all the media baloney about these most recent terrorists. A highly recommended article!

This Whole Terror Thing is Getting Ridiculous

Matthew Smith — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 14:37:10 +0000

Ok, so now we call people terrorists and arrest them for buying a bunch of cell phones. Oh, and then talk about becoming more invasive of personal privacy [via]. Sheesh, what is the world coming too? Seeing as how terrorism is intended to create terror, and we’re becoming more paranoid every day… well – who’s winning this one [also related]?

I would like to know a few things; first, whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty?” Second, how would the situation have ended if the van was driven by a few nice non-Arab folk? I think I see those fundamental American rights flying out that window over there. I’m ready for something new, cause I’m getting tired of this.

Update: As surmised, they have been declared innocent.

Update 2 (8.18.06): Ok, now its just silly. Check out this!

Update: Search Engine Rankings

Matthew Smith — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 13:38:07 +0000

Since the initial post, I have been keeping an eye the on results of the Google searches and have noticed a few changes. The search of main interest (for the overall site) is for Matthew Smith, as this is the most common way for friends to find the site. After a few re-indexings, digivation.net now ranks as result forty, quite an impressive improvement over the original page seven listing. Now such thoughts as “Can I become the coveted #1 result” are being entertained, but at the moment this is only wishful thinking, as I am but one lonely Matthew in a ocean of Smiths.

On another, possibly related note, I have suddenly seen an increase in the amount of attempted comment spam and content scraping. I am not exactly sure what to attribute this to, but it does serve as a sort of “ego-booster,” in a twisted way. On the bright side, the scrapes do link back to this site, so I’m getting a little bit of link love – maybe this also helps my rankings.

Whatever the reasons and results, the ensuing trends and the never ending quest for a better search ranking is quite an interesting study, and one that I will be following. As I notice other surprising tidbits, I’ll be sure and post them up.