The Week That Was

Interesting week, in that this blog was referenced by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National News Watch, Mark Steyn's Website, The Alabama Deer Hunters website, and the website of Ricky and Bubba.

Traffic-wise, here's how they stack up:

The New York Time's Opinionator, for a post I wrote on James Lovelock's latest blast of climate change negativity. Result: Maximum 10 visits, maybe not even that.

The Wallstreet Journal (sorry, can't find the link), for an post I wrote on Mustaches of the 19th Century. Result: Maybe 10 visits.

The Alabama Deer' Hunter's website, for a post I wrote on the the new "Bigfoot" pictures. Result: Maybe 100 visits over the course of several days.

National News Watch, for my post on how the Post hid its own polling results. Result: Maybe 500 visits over two days, which is about average for this source. If he grabs one of your stories on the weekend, you might get a little less.

Steyn On-Line, for my post on what an prick Mark Steyn is and how MacCleans should fire his butt out the door. Result: about 1,000 visits. Guy's an asshole but apparently possesses a rudimentary sense of humor. Or maybe the devil knows his own.

Ricky and Bubba, two Alabama-based radio humorists, for my post on the new Bigfoot photos. Result, about 5,000 visits over the course of the week.

Note how, as you from the more to less "respected" source, the number of visits go up. And I would also note that, traffic-wise, the most popular material on this blog has always been about Bigfoot. Bigfoot and boobies.

Towards the end of the week, my other computer (my beloved laptop) picked up an incredibly nasty piece of malware called Ucleaner. I think I got it from a fake microsoft security patch that I foolishly downloaded.

Anyway, this sucker starts telling you all about the viruses and "illegal content" you've got on your computer, and suggests that you whip out your credit card and buy "universal cleaner" software. It hijacks your home page and redirects you to the Ucleaner site, which then tells you how many thousand pornographic files you've allegedly got on your PC. If you don't buy right away, it eventually replaces your desktop image with a big red "radioactive" symbol on a black background and a message that you really need to download privacy software.

So far, Symantic didn't do squat, Web Defender didn't do squat, and SuperAntiSpyware has managed to remove some but not all of it. It basically throws so many fake "security alerts" at you that it takes hours to do a scan in the first place, and the computer often freezes before they are finished. At the moment, I know more about the thing than my IT department, but if it isn't fixed by tomorrow it becomes their problem. Any tips on getting rid of this would be appreciated.

Otherwise not much blogging in the next couple of days. I've got an agent interested in reading one of my manuscripts, and it looks like I won't be able to work on it with the laptop in my favorite bar.