January 31, 2006
attack of the 800-pound gorillas
Here's another strange blog artefact. I've mentioned before how odd searches bring people to this site. One of the popular search terms has been tiananmen, which leads searchers to a brief note commemorating the 1989 massacre. It consistently gets 300 or so hits per month, while other top search terms average 20.
When Google started censoring searches from China, though, that number exploded. Traffic to the site has tripled in the past few days, with 5000 searches for tiananmen landing on that bit of a page. Apparently, tiananmen square was used as the most obvious query Google is blocking.
The strangest part of all this is that I can't even find that page in the Google search results. Think of what the traffic might be if it showed up on the first page...
November 04, 2005
set phasers on frappe
I'm undecided. Do I like this enough to add it to the sidebar?
Basically, it's a Google map of where we are, and you can add yourself to it. What do you think?
June 30, 2005
new Tech section
Attention, RSS feeders! There's a new tech section on the site with its own RSS feed. (Site visitors may have already noticed the new link at the top.)
I've been exploring a lot of new technologies lately, and I wanted to write about them without flooding the main site with esoteric techno-commentaries. Readers, take a look. Authors, let me know if you'd like me to add it to your admin interface.
June 01, 2005
evdb
I recently accepted a position at EVDB, a start-up which is building an events database. It's a deceptively simple concept with far-reaching applications and more than its share of challenges; that translates to "lots of interesting work to do" and makes it a good fit for me.
Now, if I could just decide on a calendar to include in the sidebar here as a test. Any ideas?
May 24, 2005
all quiet on the western front
Not dead, just getting back from a visit to our nation's capital. Will post a few tidbits soon. This gives you time to read Deb's post below or catch up on your Fafblog.
February 24, 2005
looking for a good time
I was just looking through the usage statistics for this site, and once again the most popular search phrases are hilarious:
I swear I'm not making this up. People actually come here specifically to find these things. Oh, to peer into the complex mind of a Global Spin reader...
January 29, 2005
Gray Matters
I just accidentally found a new blog that I really liked called Gray Matters. It's a bit more Christian-oriented than the blogs I normally go to, but I have to love this guy as he describes his utter frustration of being told not to quote Deepok Chopra at his Bible study group ("He's not Christian, is he?") and eventually leaving that church. Smart stuff from an interesting perspective.
September 16, 2004
Linkies: Carfree Cities
As a guy who spends 3 hours a day schlepping to work and back, I'm interested in anything that makes transit faster or more convenient. According to J.H. Crawford's wonderful book Carfree Cities, designing cities around people instead of cars doesn't just reduce the time we spend getting from point A to point B, it improves quality of life.
Like the book, the site is a great mix of human-scale observations and engineering ideas. Crawford has a way of blending photos, designs, and description to make it compelling reading. Be sure to check out the photo tour of Venice at the very least.
September 15, 2004
Linkies: Fafblog!
I'm reading Fafblog! Are you reading Fafblog? No? Look closer. There! You were reading Fafblog all along.
[This is part of a new series showcasing the sidebar links. I know I'm repeating myself, but isn't it better than ranting about the elections? -Ed.]
August 20, 2004
We're winning the spam war
...against blog spam, at least. Thanks to MT-Blacklist and diligent spam-swatting by our authors, this site has sucessfully repelled thousands of attempts to hijack comments pages. Good job!
Now if I could just get something that effective for my e-mail...
June 02, 2004
Spam success
Just a quick update on the War Against Spam: The new blocking software seems to be doing a good job. Only one spam comment got through, and it was quickly eradicated once I updated the list of messages to block. The logs show a few others that were blocked without requiring any intervention from me. Yay!
May 04, 2004
A site in motion (new)
This site has moved to a new host. If you're reading this, you're on the new site. Welcome!
You may notice some oddness over the next few days as the Internet catches up with our slight change. Please bear with us!
April 05, 2004
OK, the real answer to blog spam
I'm not really shutting down the blog, but spam has become a minor nuisance. Luckily, the folks at Movable Type have been working on a solution, which will be rolled out with the next major release of the software.
The solution is a registration service called TypeKey that lets you register a username for use when posting comments to any Movable Type blog. The first time you post a comment at Global Spin I'll approve you, and after that your comments will appear on the site as soon as you post them. Unapproved comments will never show up on the site, so hopefully that will discourage blog spammers by taking away the benefit of spam.
The next version of Movable Type is still in alpha testing, so it may be a while before TypeKey is set up here. In the interim, keep notifying me of spam as it occurs. Thanks!
April 01, 2004
Closing up shop
[Oh, well. It's hard to play a joke on people who don't read the blog regularly. :) I'll keep the post up in case you're curious. ~c]
Due to the recent (incessant) spate of blog spam, I've decided to call it quits. I'm going to remove Movable Type from the Global Spin site and go back to a static front page, updated whenever I get a chance. The change should take effect by the end of the day, as soon as I get the kinks worked out of the new home page.
It's been a great experiment, and I thank you all for contributing. It's too bad that a few bad apples can spoil all our fun.
Sorry,
~chris
January 30, 2004
Fiddling while...
I've been futzing with the page layout again. Please let me know if my changes have caused anything hideous to appear.
October 31, 2003
The changing face of bloggery
I'm fiddling with the templates to make the site more palatable to Passepartout (my Sidekick). Hopefully this will be the next step toward swapping out the Global Spin homepage for something more bloggy.
If you see anything amiss with the blog page, let me know and I'll fix it.
~c
July 30, 2003
A test
This is Chris; I'm adding Deana to the system so she can fill in some of these long, boring gaps with fun things.