racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Here’s an interesting video supposedly of Bill Gates’ last day on Microsoft. This was shown during Bill’s keynote at the 2008 CES.

Why didn’t I think of that before?

Anyway, what brought me to this realization is a recent issue of a lawsuit threat because a blog ranks higher than a business site for a Google search. Search Engine Journal has the skinny.

An online shoe store owner is threatening to sue a blogger Dean Hunt (DeanHunt.com) unless the blogger ‘lowers his Google ranking” for a keyword phrase that the store owner feels he deserves.
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I have been running the site for over two years and we have been ranked very highly for the search term [edited].

On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I haev checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [edited], so I think it would be best all round if you remove your blog from google for this search term.

Please understand that we make our living from this, and you are just writing a blog that has nothing to do with [edited].

If you do not remove yourself from google for this search, then I will call them myself and have you removed.

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You have to understand Dean that an online business should be higher in Google than a blog.

Don’t forget that Google is a business as well, they obviously make more money from other businesses than they do from blogs, so it is in their interest that I am higher than you for certain searches.

I have also contacted my lawyer about this issue, so you should expect a letter in the post very soon.

Wow. That’s stupid, with a capital S! (That makes it Stupid, then.)

This is why I often advocate the use of blogs by businesses and companies. It helps with the image and helps boost search rankings, as well. “BLOG” standing for “better listings on Google” is very appropriate, don’t you think?

I dread the day the owners of racoma.com come knocking on my door demanding I de-optimize my blog for my surname. Or rather, I think I should look forward to that day. Maybe I can charge a gazillion bucks for racoma.net and racoma.com.ph.

Do check out the campaign site of a certain Eric J. Gunderson from Montana, who’s running for a seat in the US House of Representatives this year. <satire mode>I commend whoever developed and designed Mr. Gunerson’s site for the great concept and design</satire mode>. Remember, folks, this is 2006 we’re talking about here. According to the DIGG link, it’s the awesomest campaign site, ever!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you YOUR next congressman from Montana. All done with CSS positioning — but with vintage mid-90′s flavor and an authentic myspace aftertaste. Take note of the wicked LP-rip that loops on the homepage. I hope he wins!

Here’s a screencap:

It’s the 1990′s all over again. Heh!

I remember my old homepages (here and here, and old J Spot writeup here).

And who could forget my sister’s old homepage and high school class homepage?

Warning: looping MIDI alert!

Ah, the good old days!

Get Internet Explorer:

We discovered the web …

LOL!

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Tabbed Browsing

Screw that. It will only confuse basic users, so instead of making it an option, we just didn’t implement it at all. Oh wait… there goes our browser market share. Our next release will have tabs.
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I got a good laugh from this spoof site! At first I thought, how lame–they even copied getfirefox.com’s site design, but then I realized it’s a spoof site.

(via DIGG)

Check out the Powerbook Prank over at ZUG, and learn how to make an eBay scamming attempt backfire, with hilarious results!

MyNameIsJeff thought something was fishy about the email inquiry for his Powerbook on auction–it was a scam!  So he sends a “homemade Powerbook” instead (right) and declares a value of US$ 2,000. The scammer had to pay US$ 550 in taxes.  Sweet!