Monkey Boy

What is 15 furlongs in French ells?

You are probably thinking the Monkey Boy has finally lost it...given the title of this post...and if you know the answer, 2200 ells, then you are already playing the game so stop reading.

So you're still here.....I am posting about the Google Da Vinci Code quest. I am playing and learning some amazing stuff (no not what an ell is but rather that typing 15 furlongs in French ells into Google search actually produces a result.) Now there is no way I can win the competition as I do not live in one of the qualifying countries but it is fun to do and gives a tour of some of Google's less known features.

You get a new question everyday - but if you enter now you'll have to ketchup catch-up - there are 24 questions in total and the competition ends on 12 May.....so if you like puzzles sign up.

Licensed to Flash

  Licensed to Flash 
  Originally uploaded by MBoy68.

I know this is a piss poor excuse for a post.....but there are a lot of fun toys on flickr....it's not just about uploading photos.....

I found this badgemaker over at fd's Flickr Toys.

You may wonder who the photograph is...weeellll Monkey Boy is kinda getting tired of being cute and furry....(it's way to hot)....so this is a new character I will be introducing to the site as soon as I get my A into gear and create a new layout.

Googlism

I rediscovered Googlism today. It's a site where you enter your name and query Google to find out what the Internet really thinks about you. So I punched in MonkeyBoy.

Top of the list was:
         MonkeyBoy is acting like a cock 
some notables from further down are:
         MonkeyBoy is the scientist on board the ship
         MonkeyBoy is too tired to write about himself
         MonkeyBoy is always drunk and talks gibberish about multiple sex and single beds
         MonkeyBoy is apparently a trained percussionist and assassin
         (Oh yes I can wield a lethal tambourine)

But my favourite is a toss-up between
         MonkeyBoy is better than a pet or
         MonkeyBoy is soooo cute

Go there and try it...what does the Internet think of your nom de plume?

Who's ya Daddy?

Google.....

Google are in the process of rolling out new web search infrastructure world wide, the code name of which is Bigdaddy...you know the guy who can spank Big Brother (mmmhhhh plenty of hidden meaning here given Google's recent tussles with authority...they collaborated with the Chinese Government but have refused the US...interesting......).

Just a bit of background: The Google search engine runs at a number of different data centers around the world when you query Google one of these data centres will respond and give you an answer. These data centres have pretty names like 64.233.183.104 

Now 3 of these data centers 66.249.93.104, 64.233.179.104 and 216.239.51.104 have already moved to the new system. Look don't go there expecting WOW, it is exactly the same old boring Googlish. They have, however, been some major changes under the hood relating to spam filtering, removal of duplicate urls and indexing other types of media. In other words making our life better...or so you would think...WELL IT HASN'T.

Try search for monkeyboy (yes one word) on Google old (friendly Google I like to call it) I appeared at the bottom of page 1 but on Google new (...grrrrr...) I have been kicked to the top of page two. And what entry kicked my off...it was the F...ing Funny F...ing Steve "nohair" Ballmer F...ing Video Thing...It's a conspiracy I say...or maybe he has a better SEO publicist than me.

Here's a link that will show you how your keyword searches compare on friendly Google to Bigbastard Google....GoogleDance.

And here's the horses mouth...as in straight from the horse's mouth...Matt Cutts...he works at Google so he should know.

BTW SEO means Search Engine Optimisation...yeah guys make money out of getting you Top Of The Pops on googly searches. Boy they must be rubbing their hands together with the thought of all this shakeup.

Lonely Finger

I have just been reading my daily dose of yellow llama and inadvertently followed a link to lonely finger. This is just a warning...if you are feeling a little low or out of sorts or have sensitive hands DO NOT...I repeat DO NOT visit the lonely finger.

YouTube

I hadn't heard of YouTube until it popped onto Technorati's top searches earlier today. If you have heard of it then STOP READING. If you haven't then here goes....

You know flickr the picture sharing service by Yahoo well YouTube is just flickr for videos instead of photos. It is a web service where you sign up for a free account, upload your videos and view other member's videos online. Remember the Numa Numa video, well YouTube has a lot of Numa Numa wannabees on it.

Why is YouTube Top of the Technorati Pops at the moment...well it is rumored that someone is about to buy them...their traffic is greater than flickr's or maybe just generally interest is picking up but when I went to the site it was down and displaying this picture...kinda amusing anyway.

Microsano

Anybody know Spanish? Microsano is the top keyword search on Technorati at the moment but returns nothing meaningful on google...at least not meaningful to a non Spanish speaker like myself. Apparently it forms part of a competition run by a Spanish organization to push a new keyword on google. Whoever gets to the top of the search result of “Microsano” by March will be rewarded. I don’t speak Spanish. I can’t find the organizations site. I have only seen this post. Does anyone have anymore information?

Update - HazRuido is the site of the organization running the competition.
Update - is this a Microsano?
Update - The picture of the car is the property of Javi Vicente (he manipulated the number plate to read Microsano. View his page translated. Unfortunately the literal translation only makes the blog a little more understandable to me than if it is left in Spanish.

Final Word - Okay...I get it. It's not a car, it's not an animal and you can't eat it. I think Juan explains it the best.

So while Microsano actually has nothing to do with me it has been an interesting ride and has generated an unusual amount of traffic to my site...8 visits instead of the usual 3..........................

Hot Message

This posts for the boy...and only boys with broadband.

Have you ever dreamed about having your name spelled out by sexy women in red lingerie...well surf on over to Lynx Alphabet Girls and type a message. I wish I'd found this site earlier. I could have sent it to all my mates as a cheap Christmas present.

Anyway I swear as I was typing in the second chapter of War and Piece the brunette winked at me.

retrievr

I found this seriously cool web service today. To paraphrase the site "retrievr is an experimental service which lets you search and explore in a selection of flickr images by drawing a rough sketch".

You have to play around with it and sometimes the results are a not what you'd expect but when it get's it right. Wow!!!!!! Look at my sample (I drew the crappy tree) and the results it returned.

If you have a few spare minutes go and play around with it. This sort of searching could revolutionise the way we use the web. Now this is what I call a real Web 2.0 application.

Zeitgeist 2005

Want to know what was big in 2005, what made the news, what grabbed our interest, who we wanted to hear about? Well visit Google 2005 Year End  Zeitgeist....I wonder if anyone can actually say that word?

Google's analysis of the 2005 search queries make for interesting reading. I'm just a little surprised that MonkeyBoy didn't appear more often.