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Archive for May, 2007

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HTML 5, WTF?

Thursday, May 10th, 2007

I thought that XHTML was supposed to be the end of HTML, and the beginning of XHTML. Apparently, I was wrong.

I got a Newsletter today from SitePoint, as I usually do, and it was all about HTML 5. Yep that’s right, HTML 5. I thought the HTML line was dead, and the main focus was on XHTML (2). But, nope.

An HTML Working Group was created that anyone can join and add their opinions in the development of (X)HTML. This group is currently focused on the development of HTML 5.

I mean really, is HTML 5 really that necessary? It’ll just be something else for Browsers to support, and if we’re pushing to get something implemented into all Browsers, it should be XHTML. The way to do that is to prove to all the Browser developers that XHTML is a serious thing and is the real deal. The only way to that is to continue working on it.

I’m usually one to make Standard-compliant things (to a certain works-or-breaks point). But I won’t be using HTML 5. I’ll stick with XHTML 1.x, for now, thanks you. Besides, they don’t plan on being done with the HTML 5 recommendation until 2010.

Posted in Programming, Rants | No Comments »

Automattic/WordPress.Com Stats

Monday, May 7th, 2007

A plugin, for WordPress, has been released to harness the power of Automattic‘s Statistics’ “Engine” for non-WordPress.Com hosted Blogs. It’s called AutomatticĀ Stats.

This plugin is super simple to use, just upload it to /wp-content/plugins/, activate it and enter your WordPress.Com API Key.

Yes, you do need a WordPress.Com account, since you need an API key, but it’s still good.

It will then add a Menu under “Dashboard” and clicking it will send you to your WordPress.Com Dashboard, where you will be presented with your Blog’s Stats.

I’ve actually always been a fan of how Automattic displays their Statistics, and now I can see my own Blog’s Stats in the super-simple-to-read format. This will complement other Stats programs I use. Especially since these Stats are displayed as line graphs, much simpler to quickly read than Google Analytics. Google Analytics Stats are good too, and much more detailed, but Automattic Stats are more meant for a quick and easy way to see how your Blogs doing, I think. šŸ˜› I still like Google Analytics, but you need a little bit more time to go through it. This plugin will be useful for when I want the quick-n-dirty stats.

At least now I’ll have a couple of different ways/places to see my Blog’s stats. I’ll also be able to compare the results between them, to reach a more accurate idea of Traffic and such.

Posted in Blogging, News | No Comments »

How’s Forbidden Land Twisted PageGetter?

Sunday, May 6th, 2007

Oh, that’s right, you won’t be able to read this post, since you’re banned! Anywho…

I recently noticed that a Bot, that identifies itself as “Twisted PageGetter”, has been crawlingĀ this blogĀ (more specifically, my Feed) quite frequently. Last month it madeĀ about 10Ā 932 hits, and this month (as of May 6, 2007 at about 2AM) aboutĀ 1883 times. That’s some serious crawling. I’ve yet to find any information on what exactly this Bot does, and what it crawls for. So, I decided to Block it, and send it a nice 403 Forbidden Error. Not that it uses much bandwidth (didn’t even use 1MB last month). I have lots of Bandwidth anyways. No, I banned it because it’s throwing off my Stats. Plus it’s not useful and doesn’t seem to be doing anything good.

If you’re wondering, its User-Agent is “Twisted PageGetter” and its IP Address is “207.0.19.182”. If you want to block it, you can put this code in your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "Twisted PageGetter" [NC] 
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [F,L]

That’ll give it a 403 Forbidden Error when it tries to access your site. Hopefully it’ll “get the message”, and stop crawling your site.

Hopefully “Twisted PageGetter” will be gone from my Blog now… šŸ˜›

Update [May 6, 2007]: Twisted PageGetter tried to crawl my Feed again today. You know what it got? A big fat 403 Forbidden Error! Ha!

Twisted PageGetter Blocked

Posted in Blogging, Miscellaneous, Rants | 7 Comments »

Video: Spiders on Drugs

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

My Science teacher showed this Video to the class today. Which is sorta weird, because of some of the language used in the Video (not that we haven’t heard it before šŸ˜› ). It’s actually a pretty funny Video.


Now that one Spider, creating a hammock, now that’s “the life” for a Spider. šŸ˜›

Posted in Videos | No Comments »

ReviewMe Accepted Me!

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

That’s right, I got accepted into the ReviewMe service. Probably because of my new PageRank, or maybe my Alexa rank, or maybe my Technorati rank, or who knows.

ReviewMe is a service where people can order up a review on your site and, if you choose to accept it, you’d then go and write up a Review on the Site they want reviewed. Then, after 30 days, ReviewMe will confirm that the Review is still up, and you’ll get 50% of the price of the Review added to your account. The other 50% however, is kept by ReviewMe…

ReviewMe automatically generates the price for a Review each month. The price is, mostly, based on Rankings.

So, if you’d like to get reviewed on MattsBlog.Ca, click here.Ā This BlogĀ has a PageRank of 4 and has public Statistics available here.

Get Reviewed on This Blog for $30 USD.

Update: My site is no longer a part of ReviewMe, I never will (and never have) post paid-review posts on my blog.

Posted in Updates | No Comments »

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