Crimson Crux

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted an update here (no thanks to my recent bout with asthma). I should really stock up on emergency blog posts!

Anyway, for those out of the loop, the second Philippine search engine optimization contest, nicknamed “Ituloy AngSulong” concluded last Friday, February 23. While we lost steam in the last month or so (almost nil link-building), our team (Ia, J Angelo) still managed to grab three minor prizes (with equally minor cash), namely:

• #9 in Yahoo! for our Vox entry
• Google Bonus Prize (#11) for our Go-Ogle! Philippines entry
• Google Bonus Prize (#39) for our Vox entry

Our performance is a far cry from our Isulong SEOPH experience, where we placed a strong fifth. Again, almost zero link-building in the last month or so (the time when most SEOs would’ve been playing their aces) killed us. The beauty of too much work! Hehe.

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The pics and the title say it all.

Some of you might have encountered these before. I was introduced to these pests through comment spam, which unfortunately wasn’t blocked by Wordpress’ Akismet. Luckily I’ve always enabled comment moderation for all my blogs. Curiously, only my main site has received this kind of spam.

Had similar experiences, anyone?

Update: I’ve found a similar post with the same title by David Kirk, and he thinks this has something to do with PR and SEO.

I’m feeling a bit unwell today (which is becoming more and more frequent), but I just snuck in to blog that I’m now writing at Mobile Exchange Philippines. In my first post, I take a look back at the stylish but aging Nokia 7610.

An excerpt:

So, how does the 7610 stand up to other phones after a year? Is it still worth buying today?

The quick answer — probably no, but it also depends on your taste. Capability-wise, it’s still a great phone for its current price, but you might be better off with low-end 3G units that are near the 7610’s price tag.

Head over to Mobile Exchange to read the entire post.

Want to glean the latest views and news from some of the best CS minds in the Philippines? (Or at the very least, peek into what makes the brains of these guys tick?) Then visit the newly launched UP DCS Blog Network, an aggregator for the blog posts of the students, faculty, and alumni of the University of the Philippines Department of Computer Science.

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I think my year is off to a bad start, with regard to clearing my backlog for everything — books, web projects, lit works, even cleaning the house (the glory of being an only child with no mom). Two salient queues I have right now consist of 1) my blog posts, and 2) my magazines.

First, I have at least 35 outstanding blog drafts, 19 of which are for this blog alone! The stillborn remnants of would-be posts are scattered among my desktop Stickies, text files, cellphone notes, and my “mol-eh-skin-ah“. Oh, and don’t remind me about my 60+ remaining problogging assignments for the month.

Second, I’ve got five magazines left to devour — three Dragon issues, a single Dungeon, and a single Communications of the ACM. These mags are supposed to be a break from all the carpal tunnel syndrome-inducing blogging, but more and more reading them has become a task. (Especially with the ACM mag — computer science stuff!)

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It’s quite refreshing to see computer science blog posts like this that discuss sorting algorithms. In a time when many blogs churn out rehash after rehash of news items (or worse are simply splogs), an original, lengthy, and “deep and dirty” analysis of the shell sort algorithm is a treat to the mind.

The blog entry, titled Shellsort Optimization Project was written by a good friend of mine and former UP DCS coursemate. (I’m not sure if he wants his name to be divulged, as his own blog is written under his nickname.) He’s an intelligent fellow, and it shows through his post.

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First off, let me greet the blogosphere a happy New Year! I hope you and your loved ones will have a prosperous and safe 2007.

Last December 29, I officially became a two-year old blogger (quite young, eh?). Due to a fit of madness, I was able to plough through a slew of blogs (my own, group, and professional) and count my entries since December 29, 2004. I arrived at 1055 blog posts, excluding this one.

Of course, blogging is much more than publishing posts. Blogging is about building friendships, bridging gaps across differing opinions (even if it sounds too idealistic), trying to find your own identity (from writing style to personal discipline and everything in between), and showing the world what you can offer, just to name a few.

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A week after overhauling the design of this blog, I’m raising the curtains on my latest web project — Aircraft Models Crux, the place where I document my newfound addiction passion for miniature model aircraft.

As a child, I’ve always been intrigued by how airplanes work, how their sleek bodies slice through the winds, how they soar above the grudgery of the human mess below. Yep, the kid who’s afraid of heights is actually amazed by these cloud-conquerors.

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I’ve said goodbye to the ol’ reliable Kubrick Wordpress theme, and embraced this sleek-looking Jim Feist theme. I didn’t want a total overhaul of the blog — I wanted to stick to a simple layout that’s still based on red-and-white.

One of my priorities was to pick a theme that can easily accomodate Google Adsense advertisements. The Jim Feist WP theme was a good choice, though we (see below) still had to tweak the width of the main entries column and the sidebar.

I’d like to extend my deep gratitude to Ia for helping me with my CSS troubles; she’s also the one who customized the new blog header. If you have the time, drop by her post on Gravatar’s outage and suckage, you’ll enjoy it.

As if I’m not already swamped by my existing blogs and sites (see Corsarify, the web page not the laptop), I’ve joined a new groupblog — K33G, where geeks discuss anything from the arts and philosophy to science and math. Well, at least that’s the plan!

This sums it up better:

geek perspectives inverted. ranting, raving, and rambling on a plethora of geeky topics.

I’ll admit that I still don’t know some of the people in K33G, but having Mia, Ia, and Garro there assures me that I am in good company. Anyway, do drop by K33G @ keeg.likhain.net if you have the time!

“K33G” sounds cool, doesn’t it? It better be…I suggested it to the group, hehe. Not bragging, just happy. Um.