Iwein says

‘Razzle Dazzle‘ or ‘Dazzle Painting’ was a tactic used in World War 1 to confuse U-boats.

Camouflage at sea simply doesn’t work, because the backdrop is ever changing. Instead, dazzle painting breaks up the ships lines and thus makes it harder for the U-boats to determine the ships course.

Torpedos were fired ahead of the ships because they are moving targets. The trick was in timing the position of the ship and the torpedo to coincide with each other.

Clever bit of lateral thinking that, derived from cubism, the artistic fashion of the time.

I received a letter today from ilscorp. They offer:

DOMAIN NAME SUBMISSION TO 20 MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES
EIGHT KEYWORD / PHRASE LISTINGS
QUARTERLY SEARCH ENGINE POSITION AND RANKING REPORTS

All for a price of £47.50 annually.

Apart from the style of the letter (presented as a bill, but stating that it is not a bill), they are lying.

In fact, they are not actually lying. They don’t actually state what their services will achieve. Not very much would be my guess.

Google suggests in it’s information for webmasters

Submission is not necessary and does not guarantee inclusion in our index.

I wonder what they mean by 8 keyword / phrase listings. I’m intrigued what information they will present in their reports.

Most of all, I wonder how many people will fall for it.

If you want to optimize your site, there is no substitute for good content. There are no shortcuts, as Roger Johannson describes in his basics of search engine optimisation.

Beware of certain techniques advocated by certain search engine optimisation consultants!

And devilish it started. It was bucketing it down. So much so that we even considered giving up on the whole stupid idea. For even without the rain cycling 60 miles across Dartmoor taking in as many of the steepest hills (2,220 metres of climbing) as possible is a arguably not for sane people. I loved it.

As so often happens, once we were committed, it actually stopped raining, and it turned out to be a very nice day indeed. The hills were steep and plentiful, and good fun (often described accurately at the bottom by a sign saying ‘20%’). The vistas were amazing, autumn is a beautiful time of year.

We thought the routesheet could have been summarized much further. There are basically four categories of direction:

1. straight on and climb up hill
2. go left and climb up hill
3. go right and climb up hill
4. straight on and climb up series of hills

The route could then be described by a series of numbers.

Punctures were plentiful. Carrying a spare tyre is once and for all confirmed as a Good Idea. I needed it. Carrying spare tubes that are not punctured already is also a Good Idea. I would hereby like to say sorry to the ladies we were trying to help by offering my Pre-Holed™ spare tube. Tip of the day: make sure your tube is not punctured before sticking it in the tyre and on the wheel. Or even better, before you take it on a ride as a spare.

There was a bit of a breeze. The low point of the ride was definitely between the second and third control. Only 13 miles, but on the high moor (direction from second control: “Go left, climb up series of hills to high moor”, leaves little room for imagination), and into the wind. That wind they forecasted as gale force.

The food at the controls was spot on: cake at the first, soup and baps at the second, and a veritable cyclists menu at the third. Beans on toast, ricepudding with apricot, and a pie made us forget about the wind very quickly. A coffee got the banter going again.

Organisers thank you, and see you next year. If you want to do it, enter early because it is a popular event.

It’s been a long time since Jakob Nielsen has written one of his Alertboxes that I found mildly interesting and/or applied to me.

He’s done it though, writing about weblog usability. Even though what he writes is nothing new, it’s a good list of things to consider before starting a blog.

The Exmouth Exodus is very similar to the Dunwich Dynamo, only it’s not as far to travel from the Bristol area until you actually start cycling.

I still haven’t said what it is though…

It’s a free to enter, semi-organised ride from Bristol to Exmouth. You can just turn up on the night and ride. We leave at 9pm and arrive, erm, sometime in the morning. It’s about 100 miles, as we write this the final route is not decided.

I got this email from Fasthosts:

Watch the visits to your site dramatically increase by gaining higher search engine rankings for free, with our all new ‘Fasthosts powered’ programme.

Give your website the additional credibility and professionalism that goes with hosting with the UK’s largest, most established web hosting company.

The ‘Fasthosts powered’ programme is a way to increase your website’s exposure through higher search engine rankings and an opportunity to feature on fasthosts.co.uk.

[…]

By linking to fasthosts.co.uk, which is a known “authoritative site”, your search engine ranking will increase as you will be seen as a knowledgeable website in your own right.

To join this prestigious programme go to http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/powered

No, Fasthosts, that’s a lie. By linking to a site, you’ll boost that site’s search engine ranking, not your own. You can boost your search engine ranking by getting people to link to you. As far as I know, linking to an “authoritative website” (I wonder what they mean by that) will not do anything for you.

Of course there are other hosting companies who have a scheme that looks similar on the surface. Like Dreamhost for instance, the company I host with. The only difference being that when I link to them, I gain something too.

Their scheme is a rewards programme. If you click on my link to Dreamhost, then that click is identified as coming from my site. Should you decide to host with Dreamhost too, then Dreamhost rewards me for referring you to them by giving me a percentage of anything you spend with them. They get a new customer and a little boost for their search engine ranking, I get a little money. That’s a nice deal, and everybody’s up front about it.

The Fasthosts deal on the other hand, is not a nice deal. It’s a win-loose situation. They win - increased sales and search engine ranking - and you loose - you don’t get anything in return.

I did something truly amazing the other week: I donated blood. For the first time. It was easy, didn’t hurt and the biscuits were nice. I had a nice warm feeling of having done something Good afterwards.

They give you a different colour donor card according to the number of times you donate. Well, I’m going for the purple one. That’s 100 times. It’ll probably take me over 25 years, I hope I get there.

I think it’s the social responsibility of anybody who can give to do so. So go on, go and donate blood too if you can. If you ever need blood yourself, you won’t have to feel guilty about not having done your bit.