Rickety

Mostly about Utah

How to not NoFollow

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U Comment I FollowThe NoFollow attribute

When you comment on a blog and leave your own blog address you will get a backlink that search engines will pick up that will help you to increase your ranking. However, many blogs use the NoFollow attribute to make search engines ignore your backlink. They do this by including code like this:

href="http://www.rickety.us" rel="nofollow"

You can see it in a blog’s comments by using your browser’s “View Page Source” command. Blogger and WordPress both have NoFollow turned on by default, as do many other blogging platforms. Some blogs delay removing the NoFollow by a measured number of hours and others require a certain number of comments. I call these type of blogs restricted DoFollow.

Removing NoFollow

When I used to remove NoFollow from my WordPress blog I used the DoFollow plugin by Denis de Bernardy. I no longer remove the NoFollow attribute. This is purely an effort to reduce the number of plugins I use. Note that links placed in the body of the comment will still be NoFollow but the website listing typed into the website box will be DoFollow. Of course there is really no DoFollow attribute but if the NoFollow attribute is removed, the link is automatically followed.

Detecting NoFollow

The way I prefer to detect NoFollow is to use the Firefox SearchStatus plugin. Once loaded, when you go to comment you will see links that are NoFollow in a pink box. Very useful.

Finding DoFollow

There are a number of DoFollow directories that list DoFollow blogs. The problem is that restricted DoFollow blogs are mixed in with the the good unrestricted blogs. In some directories there are even some NoFollow blogs that slip through. Now that gets really annoying. So for a time I kept my own directories. With the SearchStatus plugin, when I came across DoFollow blogs, as I read the comments I would add them to my directory. Just surfing by a blog’s homepage that has Recent Comments displayed, Stylish will display the true colors of a commenter’s link.

A more direct approach is to use Google Image Search for “U Comment I Follow” (with the quotes). You might even want to make sure that the same text is displayed in your alt tag when you choose a DoFollow image for your blog.

Update

I have discontinued using the dofollow plugin to reduce the number of plugins I use.

What Rick Needs

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Using Google search for amusement

Searching for What Rick Needs

Here is something I found amusing. I saw it on Titania’s blog a few days ago. The idea is to search on Google with your name first and then needs, for example Rick needs. I tried using Rickety needs but the results were nonsensical. Here are the first ten Rick needs that Google listed when I searched on Wednesday:

  1. Rick needs a massage.
  2. Rick Needs YOU!
  3. To run a strong race Rick needs our help, including financial help.
  4. Rick needs to be cloned.
  5. Rick needs bail money.
  6. The only weight Rick needs to be trying to deal is to see if NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, Atkins, Slim fast and Weight Watchers will let him be the spokesperson for his next rap album.
  7. Rick needs to borrow your engine hoist.
  8. Rick‘s cool but he needs to open up more.
  9. Rick needs to tag the load instead of letting the guy wire tag it for him.
  10. What Rick needs now: partnerships with ad agencies that want to deliver big, beautiful graphics to their clients.

Amalgamating What Rick Needs

Now try and connect the ideas of all ten results together in one sentence. I have numbered the part of the sentence that matches the search results. For example, in the sentence below to pay is the essence of search result number 3, including financial help.

Cool (8) Rick needs you (2) to pay (3) for his massage (1) with bail money (5) to help him lose weight (6) so he doesn’t need an engine hoist (7) to lift him but he really should tag himself (9) before he is cloned (4) or produces any graphics (10).

If you try it yourself, share your results in the comments.

Results may vary by location and could be skewed by personalization based on your web history. Results may not amuse and are not insured by the FDIC. No animals were harmed during computations and all-electric search engines were employed to protect the environment.

Estimates are not Deadlines

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The deadline at Andersonville

Project Deadline

Last year I worked on a software project that was suddenly elevated in importance. I was asked how long would it be before it was finished. I casually responded, “About two weeks if I can get the rickety development hardware to work.” This very rough estimate became a deadline almost immediately and caused a great deal of pressure to come my way. Part of the problem was random hardware errors that caused grief for my software. Eventually another programmer was drafted in to help with the software and two engineers tracked down the source of the hardware errors. During this fiasco I pondered the difference between an estimate and a deadline and how they became closely married together.

Deadline Origins

It was brought to my attention by Mirriam-Webster that the first meaning of deadline is “a line drawn within or around a prison that a prisoner passes at the risk of being shot.” It was a real line, drawn in the dirt in Civil War camps. The prisoners were told that if they crossed the line they were dead. It was soon called the dead line. The term was then applied to other situations with strict boundaries. Newspaper editors started to set deadlines and other writers began to use the term. Deadlines are now essential not just for reporters and other writers but in every kind of activity.

Software Development Deadlines

When an estimate morphs into a deadline the effectiveness of the software development declines and puts excessive pressure on developers, making their lives miserable. Working more hours does not necessarily result in more production and applying pressure to workers is not the optimum way to motivate. A deadline is often an arbitrary date set by someone who is not familiar with the project.

A good software team should already consist of motivated people. People cannot be pressured to think. Clear thinking does not come this way. Likewise forcing people to work harder results in short term productivity gains at the expense of quality which has to be corrected later. Working overtime to meet a deadline can cause staff burnout and does nothing to improve inefficient processes. Excessive overtime disrupts personal lives and causes employees to run errands on work time.

Refining Estimates

Updating estimates should be a normal part of the process and encouraged by management. Refining is a better word because it implies a normal process of improving on the initial estimate. Estimates will take into account what is to be done and at what rate and allowance made for requirements added or subtracted. Risks can be identified and accounted for.

Reality should never be at the mercy of wishful thinking. If on my project, estimation as a continuous process of refinement was the norm much of my grief (and management’s) would have been avoided.

Postscript

I did indeed finish my project though it took longer than two weeks. I was compensated with the equivalent time off for the hours of overtime I worked. Probably my biggest lesson learned is to pad my estimates until such time as Estimate and Deadline get a divorce. Well my friend that is all, I have a deadline to meet.

About the Photo: This is Andersonville, one of the most notorious southern prisoner of war prisons in the Civil war. This is in the inside of the complex. There was the wall (the logs in the background) and the fence, which was called the deadline. Soldiers had orders to shoot anyone who crossed the line. Photo Credit: upturnedface

Americans for American Energy Act

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Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power plant, on Lake Erie
Rob Bishop is the representative of the district in which I live. I have reproduced here a simplified list of his energy act, H.R. 6384, which has already been co-sponsored by more than two dozen other lawmakers and runs some 215 pages long. The 12 steps to greater and less rickety energy independence are to:

1. Increase the supply of natural gas.
2. Development of American oil resources.
3. Develop oil shale.
4. Utilize America’s coal supply.
5. Increase the use of nuclear power.
6. Invest in renewable resources.
7. Promote greater energy efficiency and conservation.
8. Increase America’s gasoline refining capacity.
9. Adopt regulatory relief and tax reform.
10. Improve America’s transmission and energy infrastructure systems.
11. Restore our energy workforce.
12. Develop new energy technologies.

I can simplify the list even more. This is what I think we should do in order of priority:

1. Replace oil and natural gas electrical generation with coal.
2. Replace oil furnaces with natural gas. Heavily promote natural gas and electric vehicles.
3. Greatly expand nuclear power generation of electricity.
4. Invest heavily in solar power.

What is your take on all of this? What would be your priorities? Your comments are welcome.

Blog Makeover

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Yesterday I made the switch from my old blog to a new location and a new theme. I took the blog out of www.rickety.us and exported my posts to a new database. To redirect I wrote the following code in the index.php:

<?php
header( 'Location: http://www.rickety.us' ) ;
?>

Of course I began to alter the theme immediately. I made 24 new banners and used the rotator script to randomly change the banner. If you refresh the page the banner will often change. Once I have seven more banners I can change to displaying a different banner for every day of the month. I can do this by changing the code from:

mt_srand((double)microtime()*1000000); // seed for PHP < 4.2
$rand = mt_rand(0, $i); // $i was incremented as we went along
header('Location: '.$folder.$files[$rand]); // Voila!

to this:

// A different banner for each day. Make sure you have 31 banners.
$when=getdate(date("U"));
header('Location: '.$folder.$files[$when[mday]]); // Yeah!

To test this I added seven more geese banners and that is why when I switch from daily banners to random banners you will more often get geese on a refresh.

This new theme is fluid and handles widgets better than the old theme. A link to where I got it from is in the footer. Tell me what you think of the new theme. Do you like it better than the old one?

Missionary Reunion

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Since starting my blog I set a goal to post once a day. That is a big goal for me. Naturally one wonders if anyone is reading the posts. The blog is aimed at documenting our family’s events so a poll of family members should give some indication of the level of readership. Not much activity there I found out but of course they already know about the events — they were in them.

I was happy to find out that my blog was helpful in some way this week. Follow this email narrative to see how it happened. I have changed the name of the person contacting me and the names of the people he was trying to find. Otherwise the account is verbatim.
_______________

Rick,

Not sure if you can help me. I was searching on line for some people I had met during my mission years and years ago who I now believe are in the Richmond area — Spanish speaking ward. I ran across your blog with references to that ward. If by any chance you have any ties or knowledge of the people in that ward let me know.

Thanks, Tom
_______________

Tom,

My son Paul who served a mission there asks what are their names?

Rick
_______________

Rick,

The names would be Lance and Lucy Martinez. I don’t know Lance but do know Lucy although it’s been 25 years. They would be about 60 years old right now. I served a mission in 1981 in San Francisco and that’s where I met Lucy. She is from Costa Rica. At the time her family housed the missionaries. Subsequently she married Lance whom I have never met. I heard that they were in that area now and I am trying to make contact with them. My son is currently serving a mission in Costa Rica. Anyway, if your son has any contact with that ward I would appreciate his help in tracking them down. How long ago was your son in that area?

Thanks, Tom
_______________

Tom,

He was there in 2004. He will be home later, I will ask him. I don’t think he has any contacts there but may remember a name from when he was on his mission. Any way let me ask him when he returns.

Rick
_______________

Tom,

Paul seems to think that he knows them. He had to leave again but he will see if he can find their phone numbers when he gets back. Don’t get too hopeful in case he is mistaken.

Rick
_______________

Rick,

I am already hopeful.

Thanks, Tom
_______________

Tom,

Looks like I will be asleep before he gets home so I will have to try for tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

Rick
_______________

Rick,

No problem. I can wait another day.

Tom
_______________

Tom,

Here is their address:  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Here is a link in Google Maps:  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Phone:  XXX-XXX-XXXX (we don’t know if the area code is correct).

Hope this helps. Let me know how it turns out.

Rick
_______________

Rick,

Thanks. I was able to call Lucy and talk to her this evening.

Tom
_______________

Wiki Tables

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Semantic MediaWiki

Consider this sortable wiki table. What is the easiest way to create it and maintain it? Here is how I do it:

  1. Use a spreadsheet such as Excel, OpenOffice Calc, or Google Docs to compile the data. I like to use Google Docs so that if needed I can share the spreadsheet online. A spreadsheet is simpler to use than a wiki table, duplicates cells easier, and totals columns. Where there are blank cells, use a non-breaking space (&nbsp) to maintain table integrity.
  2. When the spreadsheet is finished, export the data as csv. In Google Docs the csv data appears in another tab in my Firefox browser.
  3. Select all the csv data and paste it into the window of a CSV Converter. In the Convert Special Characters section select Do not convert (table contains code). Click on the Convert to MediaWiki! button.
  4. Copy the wiki table to your wiki edit page. Add in your wikitable sortable, cellspacing, border, and background color, etc. Don’t forget to add the sortbottom class before the totals row.
  5. When updating your article, put the changes in your spreadsheet and convert as before but do not replace the wiki table header. You will have to re-type the sortbottom class as this is replaced each time. If someone else updates the wiki table directly, don’t forget to update your spreadsheet.

With a large wiki table of membership records, by updating in a spreadsheet the totals are calculated for you which makes for easier going than to update the wiki table directly.