The swag that keeps on giving

December 10th, 2007 Jason

When we got our badges at PubCon, we also got handed a decent little tote bag with a bunch of lit inside. I ended up needing to use the bag as my carryon for the flight back to London at the end of the week.

Well, of course, to those who were there, this is like having a big neon arrow above my head flashing “I WENT TO PUBCON!” Sitting in the airport I am approached by at least two different guys from the con who are on the same flight. Now if only I’d hadn’t given all my cards to Justine…

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How quick is Google?

December 8th, 2007 Jason

I was at Pubon’s “Tools of the Trade” session yesterday afternoon. I took some notes, but missed a URL that I found myself wanting to check out this evening.

Todd Malicoat (aka Stuntdubl) was speaking, and mentioned a bookmarklet he used which would give a listing of the sites associated with an IP block. Right, so, Google: “stuntdubl number of sites on IP”

Number two is a blog entry titled “Tools of the Trade,” which is the seoroundtable liveblog entry from the session. With a reference to the tool I’m after: seolog’s Reverse IP domain tool. Boom.

I know that Google has gotten really good in the last few months with basically “instant indexing,” but this is the first time I’ve really seen it in action. Nice. A little scary, but impressive and powerful as well.

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10 excuses to use when you don’t have a business card handy

December 4th, 2007 Jason

Day one at PubCon and I’m already feeling the full weight of not having cards ready before the trip. Sure, I can blame work for being slow about getting them processed - I’m sure they’ll be sitting on my desk when I get back - but it’s my bad for not having something to pass around, and it means the onus is fully on me to keep up with people I meet here.

Meanwhile, I’ve been practicing various reasons for not having one available:

  1. “Dang, I just dropped my last one in the box for the iPhone drawing.”
  2. “They’re in my luggage, which ended up in Las Vegas, New Mexico instead.”
  3. “The English don’t really do business cards; should we grab a pint?”
  4. “I think the TSA confiscated them, because I know I packed them.”
  5. “Dang, I just gave my last one to Matt Cutts/Michael Gray/Rand Fishkin.”
  6. “Can you believe it, I lost them all at the poker table last night.”
  7. “Y’know, I just got new ones, and they botched the contact info, so they’re really no good at all.”
  8. “Cards are so 20th century; would you like a DNA sample? I have a swab right here.”
  9. “I can bluetooth you a vcard, will that work?”
  10. “I just gave my entire box to Justine.”

Come to think of it, the bluetooth thing isn’t a bad idea…

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Vegas!

November 30th, 2007 Jason

Arrived. Not as tired as I will be, I’m sure. Traveling east-to-west always seems easier. PubCon doesn’t actually start until Tuesday, so I have a weekend to kill in Las Vegas. W00t. My mom arrives from California later tonight; she’s here until Sunday AM. My dad arrives from Phoenix tomorrow, and is here ’til Monday midday. I’m heading off the strip and out into the desert hills with both of them, which I’m sure is the only thing that will keep me from being me completely sick of Vegas before the work bit even starts.

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November wrapup

November 27th, 2007 Jason

Here’s hoping that everyone in the US had a fine, safe, and happy Thanksgiving holiday.

November has gone in a flash. Thanksgiving found us with 10 people around a not-quite-big-enough table, most of whom had absolutely zero sense of tradition surrounding the meal because they’re Brits. But it was tasty.

The UncleFromGermany is visiting, and it has been a crazy week of living London-style: six shows in 7 nights, taking Saturday off only for the making of the large meal. In order: The Country Wife at the Haymarket (totally fun), Billy Elliot (uncle’s choice), Parade at the Donmar (fantastic), a sneak preview of Kenneth Branagh’s film version of The Magic Flute (could have been so much better, could have been so much worse), the RSC’s King Lear (with Sir Ian McKellan, outstanding), and another version of The Magic Flute as done by a South African company tonight. Some would say this is why we moved here.

In more geeky news, I’ve spent some time this month trying to do a facebook app as a work-related experiment, with little success thus far. As in, I can’t get their basic ‘Hello world’ to work. I’m sure I’m doing something dumb. I hope to be making more progress on that as the week goes on.

I’ll be in Las Vegas next week for PubCon. For those of you who know me through other channels, this is a big search engine marketing thing. Assuming I can get out of bed in the morning, which assumes I’ll be getting to bed at all, there are definitely a number of good-looking sessions. I haven’t been to a conference like this in quite a while, and certainly not in this field, so it will be quite an experience, I’m sure. Not to mention…Vegas, baby!

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