Monthly Archives: July 2008

The damn cough

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Antibiotics got I asked the pharmacist what he would recommend for the cough I had. After I declined ‘Glycerin, honey and lemon’ (I really dislike the taste of honey. It’s one of those tastes – like grapefruit – that I can just about tolerate if I absolutely have to) he pointed to another bottle. Covonia Bronchial Balsam. Just the name conjures up an apothecary, bubbling substances, something dark and gloopy. It was also in a tall brown glass bottle which helped the image. Back home it said to take 2 5ml spoonfuls. Lacking a 5ml measuring spoon I took a dessert spoon and had 2 of those instead. Ever eaten (sucked) a Fisherman’s Friend? (and if you remember Julian Clary when you read that we both watched the same shows) (Fanny the wonderdog?). My grandparents used to give me half a one sometimes with the advice that it “was very strong”. Of course a full one now is the same as a half one back then what with sweets getting smaller these days. I blame the metric system. Anyway, imagine getting several packets of FF, grinding them to a powder then mixing them with boiling water to dissolve. That approaches the oral assault that 2 spoonfuls of Bronchial Balsam produce. “Do not breathe out near naked flames” should be a warning. But hey it sure as hell works. I was actually cough-free for some time and while the second (and third) doses were no less powerful they were welcome because I knew the effect was worth it. I’ll need to go to a different chemist to get another bottle though seeing as I’m using this one a little quick….

Awake coughing

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It’s 03:12 and I’d much prefer to be asleep. But the chest infection has given me a cough and the cough prevents me getting to sleep. I start antibiotics tomorrow and all I have in the house are menthol Strepsils. I dislike menthol but I can’t be choosy right now. But it does taste horrible so it must be good for me.

The bit I never understood about coughs was the medicine. The cough originates in the trachea but anything swallowed goes through the oesophagus – so how does a cough syrup / lozenge help? It’s not like they can pack enough punch to suppress an irritation. Maybe it’s placebo and the additional oral activity? Steam I do get and adding things to the hot water is helpful.

Still, I can check out HD upgrade replacements for the PS3 and find out just why on earth installing another OS on that machine could be useful.

Go aloe?

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Need to check on what the latest advice for a healing tattoo is. I used cocoa butter before and also just a light moisturiser on another but there could be something else? My left arm is being completed (or the next stage done depending on what happens after).

Back in a nutshell

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J has a cold. P has an ear infection in both. D has one ear infection. I have a chest infection. The holiday was good once they finishing rebuilding the part near us and we had made a complaint about this. A guy who assaulted someone in my care on holiday responded positively when I walked across a crowded entertainment area (where a lot of people knew what had happened) and told him I was pressing charges (which I didn’t but it had the required effect of tearful apologies and because I’d left to start packing and he only had J and the kids to tell he couldn’t be totally sure of what I would do. I did not go out of my way to tell him – suspense was everything.) Browsing over SSH was much quicker than I thought. Hotel Orquidea was excellent (even with the building) and the transfer help we got was excellent – so lots of positives for the rep and entertainment team at the hotel (another post on this soon). My love affair with expresso has been rekindled. And I think it was only around 500 pictures taken. I’m hoping the overall quality is up though and I got some really nice portraits of the girls too using the f1.8
And D’s boyfriend who had been looking after the house just got himself dumped for having the party (or more) here resulting in some breakage, some stealing and one livid me.

Going flying

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Backups being done, machine login passwords being set, Zen filled with music + videos and holiday reading includes Louis Theroux, Jeremy Clarkson, Terry Pratchett and Richard Dawkins. I miss reading, I should make time to read more. I should make time to do a lot of things though – just like everyone else wants to do more but those days just aren’t long enough to squeeze it all in. And off to Hotel Orquidea in Gran Canaria we are about to go.

I dislike fakes.

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Going away next week and I wanted to put some films on the PSP. The 1gb card will hold 2 but I wanted some more. I figured 4gb would be a good size for the photo backup backup when there. Into Ebay, search for 4gb pro duo, find heaps listed. Pick a user with good feedback and buy one. The card was cheap but the page on ebay said all the right things.
It arrived this morning and it’s a fake. Google ‘magicgate unknown’ and everything you find applied to the card. My fault for buying cheap? Maybe. The seller’s fault for lying? Oh yes. I checked his page today, took a screenshot. There is no ambiguity in the language – it’s a 4gb Sony card being sold. Unsurprisingly this really pissed me off. The reported size is 4gb but I have yet to try and fill the card. Fakes live for a very short time so data will be lost. So I’ve been sold a fake through ebay using paypal and the web page shows the seller really isn’t a good one. What to do?

I could leave negative feedback
I could open a dispute at ebay.
I could report the fraud to paypal and ebay.
At most I get my money back, I don’t know what happens to the seller.
I could make a deal with the seller.
Or I could make a deal with the seller then not keep my side of the bargain.

I’ve made my choice, but what would you do?

A big free clue for Google

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If you have a paid link on your blog Google will throw you out of their results.
If you have any links hidden on your blog the same happens.
If your site has been compromised and links inserted the same happens again.
If you are seen as harming Google they punish you. That’s fair enough because it’s their business but what it should be doing is looking after people whose work is being stolen. And it’s not just stolen it enriches the thief and also Google. Is there therefore an incentive to do what I’m going to describe? probably not…
The point here is that Google can tell a lot about your site.

Like many bloggers I can spot a splog in less than 10 seconds. The common features:
- Every entry has “wrote an interesting post” “read the rest of the post here” “..talked today about”
- Most entries are uncategorised
- There is an absence of comments
- The theme is one from a selected range no doubt sold for the “SEO friendliness”
- The posting frequency will be high and fairly regular
- There is no easily obtained webhost information (so no ToS, AUP, DMCA addresses)
- ads. And more often than not contextual ones which means Adsense.
- there are more clues but scoring more than half the above means you are looking at content theft.

Now if I can join those dots why can’t Google? Why can’t the other search engines? After all if the big advertisers don’t care about content theft why should the other guys? Why is it not possible to suspend those accounts that meet most of the above? Why can’t you grab the publisher id and suspend automatically? Why can’t the above raise some flags and a single abuse complaint ensure it is seen faster? I really do find it amazing that a company which can bring us so much good cannot add up what a splog looks like without being told.
And the bonus is that your blog search would be cleaned up – which pleases everyone.

Matt Cutts wants an idea of something to do – there you go.