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MySpace Traffic

6
3 years ago
by Shawn in

I know Alexa data isn’t terribly accurate, but for sites under an Alexa rating of 500 *and* within the same market, it’s pretty accurate as far as relative traffic to sites you are comparing. That being said, how long do you think before they sell it or shut it down?

Their traffic is almost cut in half from a year ago (and still dropping)…

I’m An Uncle

19
3 years ago
by Shawn in

Hey look, my sister had a baby… I’m an uncle. :)

Override CSS

6
3 years ago
by Shawn in

So I found myself wanting to override a few items in a sitewide CSS file, but only for a single page… Rather than make entire new CSS elements, I figured there had to be a way to override the CSS file with a <style> clause within the page itself…

Sure enough, I finally figured it out… !important…

[code=css]

[/code]

!important can go at the end of any style attribute and it will override anything that isn’t “important”.

Rebooting…

3
3 years ago
by Shawn in

/sbin/reboot -q

Verizon Pisses Off Engineer

38
6 years ago
by Shawn in

This is what happens when you piss off a customer who happens to be an engineer. :)

Random Email #36

8
6 years ago
by Shawn in

A random email I just got… :)

What? I mean how hard is it to get on this site? Is this a whore site?
I just want to know why it’s in my computer history????
If my husband is really stupid enough to deal with this kind of….thing, (I’ll put it nicely), then so he can go for it. Where are these girl’s parents?
He is old and trying to be young. But these girls are young trying to be older.
Maybe it’s a perfect match.
He’s nothing to write home about in bed…but if you get paid, what the hell?

Oh my god!!! Someone’s wife found him looking at my blog. That marriage is over I guess. Sad… so sad.

Random Email #35

3
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Now I’m MySpace, Google *and* Visa…

can’t find out how much is left on my 2 visa gift cards.

Send me your gift card… I will buy stuff with it until I can’t buy anymore. I will then let you know how much I charged. That should be a pretty close number for you.

Drunk People

3
6 years ago
by Shawn in

You know what’s kind of annoying? 10,000 drunk people in one place. :)

Random Email #34

11
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Going through emails today…

i need help geting to my myspace.

People think I’m Google *and* MySpace now. :) Here’s a link for you… http://www.myspace.com/… is that helpful?

Random Email #33

8
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Another email (in it’s entirety) I received today…

I am a SEO

Well that’s neat. I am a person.

Random Email #32

10
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Another random email I just received…

I have closed my Google Adwords account 6 months ago and you guys are still taking money out of my account. I want it to stop now!!

I’m not Google dude. I didn’t take any money out of your credit card you opened your AdWords account with. Did you try contacting someone at Google by chance? If so, did they tell you to contact me for some reason? :)

The Cingular Comedy Hour

38
6 years ago
by Shawn in

So I called Cingular to double-check when my contract was up so I could switch my cell phone service to another carrier, and I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with this lady who couldn’t tell me anything about my account…

Her: I need your account password in order to do anything on your account.
Me: I didn’t set a password.
Her: Someone did.
Me: Well it wasn’t me.
Her: Do you want to try and guess it?
Me: Not really, but if you want to sit here all day with me, I guess we could go through every possible password in the universe.
Her: You can always request to have the password taken off the account.
Me: Okay, I’m making that request now.
Her: You need to write a letter with your account number and social security number on it and mail it in.
Me: Does it have to be notarized or something so you know it’s me?
Her: No.
Me: How about I just give you that info over the phone then?
Her: I can’t do that.
Me: Why not?
Her: Because you might not be you.
Me: But a letter proves it’s me?
Her: Hmmm, I guess not.
Me: So you can’t tell me anything about my account without this secret password, but I can make a payment?
Her: Right.
Me: What if I don’t want someone else to make a payment on my account?
Her: They would be able to.
Me: So you’re telling me I can get into my bank account by them verifying info about me, but not my cell phone?
Her: Yes.
Me: Well that’s dumb, don’t you think?
Her: Kind of, yes.
Me: At least we agree on that. What if I just want to cancel my service right now?
Her: You can’t cancel your service without the password.
Me: Okay, so the only way to stop my service if I don’t know this password is to just stop paying the bill?
Her: Well, your phone would be shut off for non-payment, but you still would be billed your monthly charges going forward.
Me: For how long?
Her: Forever.
Me: Hahaha… so I can’t cancel my service, I can’t see anything on my account or anything else because someone put a password lock on my account?
Her: Right.
Me: That’s kind of funny… {looking on website at the same time} Okay, I found a place on your website where I can log into my account with my secret password, so I guess I’ll write a script that just tries every possible password.
Her: Well if you get the wrong one 4 times, it will lock your whole account and you will have to call to get it unlocked.
Me: Well I guess I’ll try that… thanks.

{trying random passwords until my account is locked and call customer service back and get a different guy}

Me: Hey man, I need to get my account unlocked because I’m trying to hack my account since I don’t know what the password is and I failed too many times.
Him: {looking at my account} Your password is the last 4 digits of your social security number. Probably someone entering your account into our system added it by accident. I’ll just take the password off your account.
Me: Sweet thanks. By the way, when does my contract expire?
Him: The 20th of this month.
Me: Thanks, bye.

The first person I talked to was funny to talk to, but could have saved a lot of time if I got the other guy first. :)

Google Christmas Present

136
6 years ago
by Shawn in

I received my first Christmas card this year… and it was from Google. It’s a digital photo frame… pretty cool if you ask me.

Comes with a mini USB cable, power cord, batteries, and an international power adapter. The international power adapter will really come in handy for some other stuff. :)

According to the instructions, it’s a 960×240 screen and supports JPG images, MP3, WMA or WAV audio files and AVI movies. It also has a SD card reader for extra memory.

Flying Through Mountain

3
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Uhm, this is rather ballsy I must say…

Random Email #31

0
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Another random email I just received…

This is a happy day today! I am leaving my line of work for the last twenty five years.

No idea who this guy is, but hoooorrraaayyyy!!!! Happy days are finally here!!!!

Old Lady Dominates Dick In Mercedes

8
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Hahaha… this is so funny… :)

Random Email #30

0
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Another random email I got…

i am a sculpturer working with hardwood.I am looking for fob.

That’s cool you are a sculptor… unfortunately you haven’t found fob, just fab. :)

Piracy For Sale

2
6 years ago
by Shawn in

I know this is just one of those stupid examples where a company (eBay in this case) buys every keyword in Google Adwords that they can come up with, but it’s still kind of funny… :)

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-sandbox/?url=piracy

The Naughts

9
6 years ago
by Shawn in

You know how people reference decades? Like, “I like 80′s music.” or “The 60′s was great.”, etc… I’ve been wondering how people are going to reference this decade in the future… “That’s so 0′s.”??

I think it’s going to be naughts. Although now I’m wondering what the next decade is going to be, the teens?

Never Forget Your Anniversary

6
6 years ago
by Shawn in

This would be good for anyone that ever forgot their anniversary… :)

24 hours before your special day, the Hot Spot™ on the interior surface of your Remember Ring™ will warm to 120º F for approximately 10 seconds, and continue to warm up every hour, on the hour, all day long!

http://www.alaskajewelry.com/remember-rings-never-forget-anniversary-p-2040.html

Dyson Vacuum

11
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Here’s a marketing tip for everyone trying to sell something… be likable. I just had to buy a vacuum, and I ended up spending $500 (I can only assume it’s over-priced) on a new Dyson vacuum for the sole reason is that Dyson guy on the commercials seems like a nice guy. :)

Hopefully it works well too.

It’s My God Damn Birthday!

54
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Today is a glorious event… It is the anniversary of the day that I was brought forth into this world to entertain you with my random musings.

September 1st, 1975 is when I was born. That means my parents were doing the naughty deed on New Years Eve.

More importantly, I have 2 friends in real life and both of them are too cheap to buy me a card (it’s really a sad life I lead to be honest). So what I want for my birthday is for people reading my blog to write “Happy Birthday Shawn” on something and take a picture of it with themselves and post it. Bonuses will be awarded if it’s a tattoo, if you are a hot girl or if you are a big fat dude.

Also, I will commit seppuku if I get none.

Update

Okay, I just realized that New Years was 8 months before, not 9. Oh well… whatever. Doing the naughty deed around Thanksgiving I guess.

I’m Free, I’m Free!

2
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Okay not really, but I did get out of my home for the first time since Thursday today (because of my surgery). It was also the first day I was able to shave and take a shower.

It still hurts to do much beyond laying in bed/on couch though.

My Guts Hurt

2
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Don’t know what else to say about it… that’s it.

I Have A Wikipedia Entry

7
6 years ago
by Shawn in

I forgot that my mom mentioned a few weeks ago that I have a Wikipedia entry (you know how parents are, always searching for this kids or something).

Obviously it was spawned from the Wired Magazine article, but it still would be interesting to know who started it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Hogan

Search Engine Strategies, San Jose

20
6 years ago
by Shawn in

This was the first time I ever went to a SES show and it was quite a bit bigger than I thought they were. Attendance was probably ~5,000 people or so. The really interesting thing though is all the parties… enough parties that you end up missing half the show because you are sleeping until noon every day. hah

The first day I was there (Monday), I attended 5 (yep, 5) “gatherings” (the Yahoo party -> Pepperjam party/sushi -> Ask.com party -> some bar after Ask.com’s party shut down -> Joe’s suite after the bars were shut down). Tuesday was the Google Dance (a pretty amazing event in itself) at the Googleplex.

I mostly just went to SES to meet people in person, and I did just that (the only industry person I’d ever met before this was Shoemoney). Anyway, I ended up meeting up with Jenstar, Barry Schwartz, Danny Sullivan, Shoemoney (again), Dax, Aaron Wall, Rand Fishkin, Ben Pfeiffer, Dave, Brett Tabke, Dave Naylor, Christoph, Alessandra, Pepperjam guys, Martin, Marcus (his metal business card ended up getting me searched at the airport), as well as lots of Google employees (Matt Cutts, Vanessa Fox, Adam Lasnik, etc.) Also, sorry for everyone I didn’t mention… there were just too many to mention everyone, I still love you though! :) (one of the people I met in that list is a lie of course)

I was so tired after SES, that I got on the plane home and fell asleep before they even pushed off the gate, and didn’t wake up even for take off. I fell asleep when we were on the ground, and woke up about 2 minutes before landing. For some idiotic reason I’m still awake right now though.

Update

I guess I’m not going to bed tonight… considering it’s now 4:51 am. Augh!

I’m An Indian

44
6 years ago
by Shawn in

I actually was born on an Indian reservation (which is true BTW), but that’s not the kind of Indian I’m talking about. Today I decided to try out being something other than an American. Today, I’m an Indian. I don’t speak Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati or any of the other dialects over in India, but whatever… I’ll dress like an Indian (it’s a start).

Okay, in truth there was a webmaster meet for Digital Point users in New Delhi, India on June 17th, 2006, and they sent me some traditional Indian pajamas. :) So check it out, I’m an Indian now (at least I can sleep like one).

Note: I wrote this Sunday night, but wanted to mess around with WordPress’ future publish date function. I’m actually at SES, San Jose right now (assuming my plane didn’t crash. If my plane *did* crash, well then I’m probably the first person ever to write a blog entry from the dead. :) ).

Random Email #27

6
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Here’s an email I just got…

I realy like your athletes foot. I taste like fooky

I don’t even know what to comment about that, other than, “Bahahahaha!”

Dude, It’s Hot!

9
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Living in San Diego has me completely spoiled as far as weather/temperature goes… It’s always like 65-80° any day of the year.

Except for today… it’s f’ing hot outside right now (see graphic on the right).

I checked the temp where my mom lives, and it’s 112° there. Yikes!

There’s some poor sucker outside on the street in pants and a black shirt twirling a sign on the corner all day. What a sucky job that has to be right now. :)

David Hasselhoff

12
6 years ago
by Shawn in

What happened to Michael Knight? David Hasslehoff was much cooler back in the day I think. :)

Then:

Now:

Random Email #26

3
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Here’s an email I just received (in it’s entirety)…

I live in an apt bldg. in Dutchess Co, NY. I had bats in my apt 6/12/06. Landlord CLAIMS that extrminator was at my apt on 6/21/06 to check and found no holes/areas where bats could enter bldg. I was home that day; saw no one, Ehrlich Pest Control said they were not here. I do not believe my landlord b/c they are ignorning my requests for a copy of the Ehrlich report. How can I verify of Ehrlich was indeed to my specific apt anytime between 6/12 and now & their findings? Freedom of Informtion Act? Can’t spend a lot of time/$ on this, but want info.

I am the great and all knowing Shawn… unfortunately my crystal ball is in the shop right now, and I can’t give you the answer. Nor do I know who you are.

New Chair

3
6 years ago
by Shawn in

The chair that I broke was finally replaced today (had to have it shipped). I ended up getting the *exact* same chair because it’s really comfortable. I guess $69.99 for a chair you use for 12 years isn’t *too* bad. :)

Wow, I’m Fat

15
6 years ago
by Shawn in

I (almost) fell out of my chair yesterday because I’m such a fat ass that my chair broke. It didn’t just “break” either. The four welds held just fine, just the steel itself wasn’t strong enough to hold me, so the steel was ripped out where the welds were holding it together.

Oh well, it was 11 years old, but I loved that chair. It’s much harder to sit in it now because you have to keep your balance. Maybe I should get a new one…

Random Email #25

5
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Another random email…

ple make me a member of orkut

One thing that is really nice about this email (and the last one), is that people have started to say “please” (partially anyway) when asking me to do their bidding of odd tasks. Unfortunately I don’t own Google (not even any stock), I don’t work at Google and I don’t even know anyone that works at Google. So I can’t get you an Orkut account. I hear Orkut is kind of lame anyway, and is mostly just Brazilian users conversing on Portuguese anyway (really).

Update

Wait a minute, I thought about this a little bit… aren’t most of the super-hot models coming out of Brazil lately? Maybe this guy is on to something…


Speaking of that, does anyone else think it’s odd that they all seem to have fraternal twin sisters? She does (Alessandra Ambrosio) and so does Giesele Bundchen (Giesele’s sister is better looking than she is too).

Good genes down there… :)

Random Email #24

1
6 years ago
by Shawn in

Here’s an email I just got…

Please provide the LINE OF SUCCESSION to real property of a deceased who died without leaving a Will. Two sons – one deceased; one living.

I’m not really sure why anyone would mistake me for an estate lawyer, but uhm… apparently word is out that I moonlight as legal counsel. :) I would guess the deceased son probably isn’t really high up on the line of succession… but that’s just a guess.

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