Seems like a month or two ago a major algorithm update came out and a lot of peoples sites were hit by Google. Many were blaming anchor text over optimization, while defending blog networks such as ALN or BMR. I myself used some ALN outsourcing and didn’t see many penalties, though I did test it on a site using only one anchor and that site got completely deindexed.

Now, it looks like ALN and BMR among others were definitely not safe. Complete deindexing of these networks and 99% of the sites I tried it on suffered. It looks like overoptimization on anchor text was not the problem, though I still would shoot for a variety if you are outsourcing or building manually. Natural links obviously will come with a natural distribution of anchor text.

RIP ALN and BMR

this is a test post

Learned about the Orange Book, or the “Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria.” It’s the department of defense’s standard for basic security requirements. I need to write a big research paper in the next couple weeks, and this seems really interesting. I am going to look more into it, but this seems like a good choice for my paper.

Read a play on Robotics, written almost 100 years ago. It’s called Rossum’s Universal Robots, and I can definitely see it as the basis for a lot of science fiction media involving robots. The play deals with ethical issues surrounding the creation and use of robots, as well as some unforseen problems.

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/resources/RUR/

Taking a robotics class this semester that is sure to be awesome…the class got funding for a NAO robot, which is about $18k. We watched some videos of a bunch of them being taught how to play soccer. Not certain on what tasks we are going to try to teach it yet, but it should be a fun and challenging project.

Cool webcomic on the strength of passwords. I’ve always thought that pass phrases would be better than having complex passwords. The only thing I can think of that uses a pass phrase is when I send PGP emails. I think I have something like a 16 word pass phrase. Hard for computers (and people) to guess, and easy for me to remember.

Also makes me want to learn more cryptography. I took a grad-level class on it a year ago, but it was way over my head.

http://xkcd.com/936/

I am doing a research project this semester that will involve creating a web app that is a fully contained class. I am a big fan of learning online and I proposed that I will create an app that has all the information of an intro Computer Science class, such as the syllabus, lecture notes, homework, etc.

I also want to have a constant chat box where students can talk to each other at any times, as well as be present in case the teacher wants to hold a live online lecture. I am not sure if I will get to it but I also want to have a small instant compiler that will take code and show results right in the web browser(simple programs like “Hello World”).

I am planning on writing this entirely in Ruby On Rails, the framework is very interesting to me and it is being used by all the hot web app start-ups these days. I hope I can create something that I will be proud to have shown in my portfolio.

I learned the important of constantly running test cases for software development this summer. I took a class that required you to make a program that would parse checks, similar to what Chase and other banks are doing these days. The program needed to simulate the feature where you can take a picture of your check with your smart phone and have it deposited directly to your bank account, without needing to physically deposit the check.

For example, the project involved receiving a string like “Ninety dollars and 86 cents” and correctly parsing it to the amount 90.86 and returning the value. For each check you correctly parsed, you gained a commission of one cent, and for each incorrect value, you would be penalized 10 cents.

I wrote my program and uploaded it the google app engine and thought everything was good. There were no compiling errors, and like a fool, I thought that meant things would be A-OK. To my surprise the next time scores were posted I had received zero commissions (out of possible hundreds).

What happened was that my program incorrectly parsed values that had “cent” in the string. 90 dollars and 86 cents would be correctly returned as 90.86, but 90 dollars and 86 cent would consider everything as dollars and return 90+86 or 176.00. I hadn’t factored in things like misspellings or various formats of check strings.

Had I done some test driven development like many of my classmates did (using JUNIT and infinitest) I could have wrote hundreds of possible tests of various formats that the checks might come in, and rewrote my program until these all passed. However, I assumed that a compiling program meant a working program.

I’ve definitely learned my lesson and will always be writing and rewriting tests in addition to writing my source code.

It has been some time now since signing up for Google Plus. I admit it definitely did not live up to my expectations. I really thought there would be more people using it and I would be hearing more about it, but I still only have about 6 or 7 friends and the hype has died down. This week Facebook started pushing a new status update feature that is basically their take on G’s circles. Circles was the main selling point for me on Plus, and now it definitely looks like I will be staying with Facebook for the time being. I will keep my Plus account up, and I still think the future is uncertain. Things can change, but Zuck is doing a good job with his product. The more I learn about Zuckerberg, the more I think that as long as he is in charge, Facebook won’t be going the way of MySpace any time soon.

Signed up for Google + today thanks to an invite from my friend Paul, who will probably remain my only friend until the site gains more popularity.  I’m pretty impressed with +, it’s fast and uncluttered.  The circles idea is great and intuitive.  I know Facebook has lists you can sort your friends into, but I never once used them and I doubt many people know about them.  I expect Facebook to start pushing and making users more aware of this feature and improving functionality in order to compete with the circles.  But besides that, I don’t really see anything else that will have me switch to Google + for quite some time.  I feel like my profile is going to have my picture and some info uploaded but remain mostly untouched unless there is a mass exodus to +.  Facebook just has all my photos and friends that seem like a pain to re-add on a brand new site. I’m guessing that’s the same for many people, Google must be working on an “import pictures, friends etc” plugin of some sort.

Reasons + definitely has the potential to take over:

• The majority of Google’s products have taken control over their competitors, at least for people my age.  Almost everybody in college know uses gmail over other mail(unless it’s a university account), gchat over AIM, Google Docs over Word(essential in sharing for group products, or working at multiple PCs from home to library to class), and I see more and more people using Chrome each day.  Facebook became what it was due to college kids, and they could definitely give Google + the “buzz” it needs. (no pun intended)
• Obviously Google puts out high quality products and has some of the most talented programmers in the world.  If anybody can created something to directly compete with the technical functionality of Facebook it will be Google.  If + doesn’t take over, Facebook will remain king for a long time.
• + isn’t even officially launched but everybody is already talking about it.  Also, once you sign up you won’t be able to avoid it.  With the new black bar Google has, I am seeing my + notifications each time I check my mail, chat, or even use search.
• People always want something new and complain about services that they use only because it’s the only option.  Many people complain about Facebook, how it has changed over the years and a lot of features are unwanted.  It’s even become “cool” to claim that you aren’t on Facebook anymore.  This will definitely give people who want to jump ship “just because” their opportunity.