web-goddess

Category: Meta

  • RDF on Reddit

    Holy crap, RoaldDahlFans.com got linked on Reddit! That was a fun traffic spike. I hope they liked the site.

  • Roald Dahl Fans.com rebirth

    So you guys remember the Dahl site I built years and years ago, right? Well, it’s mostly just sat there for a long time now. It seemed to be useful to kids and teachers, and the site more than pays for itself through the Google ads. So I just left it up. Well, a nice young man named Michael Mander contacted me a while ago about a Dahl-themed Facebook page that he runs. We emailed back and forth, and recently I asked him to officially assist me in running RDF. I was a little worried at first – I put so much work into this site for so long, I didn’t want to share it with anyone. But what’s the point of leaving it there slowly mouldering? So Michael is on board, and it’s completely reinvigorating me. I’ve started doing some of the long-planned admin tasks that I never found time to do before. Michael has started pulling together information to fill in gaps in my content. So if you enjoyed the site back in the day, I think you’re going to enjoy it again going forward!

  • Boudicca: Back from the dead!

    As you may recall – or not – my iMac G5 “Boudicca” died just over a year ago. She was one of the very first unibody iMacs, and she was nothing but trouble from the start. (The one I’m talking about was actually a replacement for the original one that self-destructed within six months of purchase.) When she died the last time, we were given a ridiculous quote from the Apple Store to have her fixed. The logic board was riddled with blown and leaking capacitors. She was out of warranty, out of AppleCare, and out of luck. I found out that there had been a Repair Extension Program for this specific issue – and my serial number was even covered! – but alas, it had expired in December 2008 (about two months before mine died). I bought a new laptop and set her aside, hoping that maybe she’d be worth some money on eBay. One of my resolutions for the New Year was to deal with the issue, so I started calling Apple repair shops to see if they were interested in her for parts. Nobody was interested. In desperation, I tweeted that she was for sale if anybody wanted her. A friend-of-a-friend (who happens to work in Apple tech support) wrote back, suggesting that I call Apple Support again. He said that he still regularly saw machines come in with my issue, and that several of them had been granted “exceptions” to the Repair Program and fixed free-of-charge. It seemed too good to be true. I called up the number and spent half an hour talking to a nice guy, who eventually transferred me up to the manager. They put me on hold for a bit… then the magic words: “You’re approved!” He put it into the system and I took the machine to NextByte the next day. They told me there’d probably be some wait before they could get to it, but I didn’t care. Hey, at this point it’s a free computer, right? Six weeks later, I finally called Nextbyte to see what the heck was happening… and was told that my machine had been fixed for weeks. They just had never called me! (Idiots.) This morning we picked her up. I deliberately didn’t plug her in before heading to the Guild AGM, knowing that if she was still broken I’d just stress about it all day. So when I finally got home tonight, I plugged her in and hit the power button. BONGGGGGG! Success. I was up and running on the network within minutes. It’s so nice to have a desktop machine again! And now DeskCam will actually be from my actual desk again! So huge, huge thank yous to Stu for advising me how to fix it up. I owe him one!

  • Bait & Switch

    Remember our discussion about blog advertising last year? I just got a doozy today. I was contacted by [company that shall remain nameless] this afternoon with an offer of a couple free tickets to see Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The email straight up says: “[w]e would like to offer you two free tickets to the movie screening.” Hey, fun, right? I like Kevin Smith movies. I’d be willing to blog about it. So I wrote back to claim the tickets… only to be told that instead, I’d have to register with their blog advertising service and submit a contest entry to possibly win them. Uh, what? I went from feeling like a special, hand-picked “blog personality” to being just another googled email address. I wrote back saying that I didn’t appreciate being spammed. The sad thing is, when I checked out their service I actually recognized a few of the blogs I read regularly. I was actually thinking about signing up. I also forwarded the request to my boss, with a note that this type of non-traditional advertising might be what we need for some of the mobile projects we have coming up. Instead, I had to send him correction ten minutes later saying that I was wrong, that this company definitely Doesn’t Get It. How disappointing.

  • web-goddess is eight!

    Web-goddess is now officially eight-years-old. Good grief. Have I really been doing it that long? Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time on Facebook, and it’s been weird to see how many of my high school and college classmates have kids now. I guess – for better or worse – this blog is my baby. This is what I have to show for the past eight years. Each anniversary has become sort of a special point of reflection for me, when I can look back over the highlights of the past twelve months. As usual, I’ve compiled some fun statistics to celebrate. (Previously: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003.)

    So goodbye to 2008! I just had a look over last year’s resolutions, and I did pretty well at keeping them! I ran regularly through most of the year and completed my first half-marathon (along with a second and several other races). I took swimming lessons and learned to do a proper stroke. I got a new job back in I.T. that paid better than the knitting shop. I was more organised both at work and at home. Not too bad!

    Okay then, what’s for 2009? I’d like to keep up my running and improve my half-marathon time, with a goal towards running a full marathon in 2010. Towards that end, I need to drop about 10kg. I’d like to take a few more steps down the path towards becoming a full-time Business Analyst. I’d like to win a blue ribbon at the Easter Show. I’d like to do some volunteer work. Here’s to a great year, everybody!

  • Planet MM

    Very sneaky! I noticed this site popping up in my referrers the other day. It looks like a public page somebody has set up to track a couple blogs. “Hmm,” I thought. “MM are the initials of my new company.” So I started looking at the other sites that were listed… and at least one of them is another employee. Looks like somebody over at Mobile Messenger has set up an employee blog portal!

  • Now we are seven.

    This website is now seven-years-old. Wow, that really crept up on me! I remembered late in December that the anniversary was coming up, but somehow it slipped my mind over the holidays. It wasn’t until I saw M-H’s blog birthday post this morning (Hey, we’re twins!) that I realised the big day had arrived. So, just as I’ve done the past few years (2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003), I’ve compiled some fun statistics to celebrate 2007…

    There are a few interesting trends there. Many of the top 10 commenters are new to the list, and most of them are bloggers themselves. Actually, most of them are people that I’ve met in real life. And while the majority are female, I still had several male commenters not far below them. Also, it seems that the longer I do this, the more the focus of the site seems to change and evolve. I don’t have that many “ZOMG! LOOK AT THIS COOL INTERNET THINGY!” posts anymore. There’s a lot more about my life, my family, and my interests. I spend more time on external sites (like Ravelry and Ask Metafilter). I can’t wait to see what 2008 has in store…

  • China hates me.

    Dude, the Commies hate web-goddess! My site is blocked in China.

  • Comment Spam

    The comment spammers are driving me nuts today. I may have to escalate the war. Possible options include forcing you to use a Captcha (which somewhat annoys me when I have to do it on other people’s sites) or requiring commenters to formally register (which REALLY annoys me and I never do it on other people’s sites). Any other ideas? Would either of those strategies keep you from commenting here?

    Afterthought: Hmm, what about putting a time limit on how often you can comment? Would, say, an enforced one-minute wait between comments suck too much? Might even cut down on some of the double posts, I guess…

  • Happy Blog Birthday to Me…

    As of today, I’ve been blogging as web-goddess for six years. SIX YEARS! It blows my mind. And just as I’ve done the past few years (2006, 2005, 2004, 2003), I’ve pulled together some statistics to celebrate and reflect…

    Thanks to all of you who stop by, and especially to those of you who comment and e-mail. It’s especially nice that so many of you have become friends in real life. May we all have an interesting 2007!