As I might have mentioned before, I have a program running on the server that keeps track of hits on the web site.
It's not just a simple counter, as you might expect. It actually tells me what page you were on before you reached this one (if any), including what search terms brought you here from a search engine. You would be surprised the crazy things that people search for.
Anyway, I occasionally like to compile a list of the terms/topics that are most often routed to my site from the search engines. Here comes a list using the data from my October log files:
The DaVinci Code
I got the book The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown, from Audible and burned it to CD to listen to on one of my many Johnstown trips. For one reason or another, I searched for the book, and ended up finding a promotional site. I wrote a Linklog post about it, and ever since then, people have been funneling to my site on this search term.
A little more digging on Google returns better results than I do, like this newspaper article that talks about how Brown claims the data in the book is true. Yeah, ok.
For those of you who need to know about whether this book will be produced as a movie, you're in luck! IMDB reports that Ron Howard will direct the film, which is currently in production for release in 2005.
I'm not sure what you want to know about the DaVinci Code (which wasn't really a code at all, mind you), but you're probably not going to find it on my site. This search term has generated over 300 referral hits this month.
The Oregon Vortex
The Oregon Vortex is one of those strange places on Earth where the law of gravity doesn't seem to work like everywhere else. In truth, this is probably more due to optical illusion than anything else, but there are some who insist that there really is something to it. I'm sure it's an interesting phenomenon to behold, but since I live nowhere near Oregon, I couldn't say.
Maybe someday, I can get Bud to take a drive and get us all some pictures of the place, if they'll have it. Until then, be sure to catch the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw for video from the Vortex, or check out these other oddball roadside attractions.
How to Draw Manga Chibis
I wrote a couple of articles on Katy Coope's book, How to Draw Manga. I even included one of my Chibi heads. I suppose that I should continue drawing. I carry my pad around in my backpack, but it gets little use these days.
Anyway, I found Katy's personal site online, as well as her Deviant Art journal. I was surprised that she or Scholastic doesn't offer a companion website to her book. It would be helpful to ask questions. But don't despair! It seems that she's producing a new book, How to Draw More Manga. I can't give her credit for an original title, but I hope the content is as good as the last book.
Global Advantage
I'm not sure how much more I can say about this than I've already said. Global Discovery Vacations is the company that berta and I bought some kind of new-fangled vacation club membership through. I'm getting the impression as we roll along with it that it's not a scam, but I'm still not sure how well it works. As soon as we try it out, we'll let you know.
But there are some suspiscious circumstances surrounding the whole operation. I urge you to read some of my previous articles, specifically this one, before you attend any prize-winning meetings.
Carnivale Tarot Cards
I seem to be getting a lot of hits for Linklog entries these days, and I'm not sure why my hits are exclusive to that. Hmm.
Anyhow, perhaps you've seen the TV show Carnivale on HBO? If not, you should be, because it's pretty good. The opening sequence of the show uses tarot cards that animate and are pretty unusual. The deck itself is made from composites of classic paintings with black and white films from the 30's. Think Grapes of Wrath. All of this was assembled quite deftly by the folks at a52.
HBO was selling a cheap deck of tarot cards on their site that weren't even Rider-Waite cards. They were some kind of weird concoction. The limited edition cards are now fetching a pretty penny on eBay, probably because people are stupid enough to believe that they are anything like the cards used in the opening credits, which they are not.
Other Stuff
Mind you, these items didn't appear in small quantities, just in smaller quantitites than the first five. Therefore, they merit less of an explanation.
Uebimiau
Uebimiau is a web email client that runs in PHP. It's an easy way to get mail form a POP mail server via the web. It's one of the better clients I've been able to find out there, but it's a tad slow.
Walmart Digital Picture Printing
I was looking for a good place to do some digital picture printing. The local Wegman's does a pretty good job of it, and pretty fast, too. It only took 5 minutes to get three prints. But the Walmart photo center was 10 cents cheaper per print, and guaranteed an hour procesing time. So at 29 cents per print, we use Walmart a bit more often.
It's a shame, though, that I can't get my digital pictures to print at the local Walmart over the web. If they do offer this service, I can't get it to work. Oh, well.
Dark Profits
Does anyone else get this spam where they tell you that you've being charged $239 for hosting porn? Then they ask you for a credit card. Um, yeah, right. Anyway, the site they submit all of the data they collect to is this Dark Profits site. It doesn't seem to be up right now, but usually I think they sell Heroin and weapons-grade plutonium online. Quality outfit.
