Category Archives: Interweb

Bing Bong

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Intrigued by the variation in search results from Google and Bing/DuckDuckGo I created a very specific page about the building of the breakwater at Rhos on Sea in 1983.

Sure enough searching for some combination of those words with Google my page will be at, or near, the top. Take that UK Gov!

Screenshot of Google search results showing duncanmoran.net as first result above gov.uk site

Alas Bing does not find it at all. Even after jumping through the BingSiteAuth.xml hoops.

Copilot offered to help:

Screenshot of conversation with Bing's Copilot asking for images from Duncan Moran which Copilot fails to find.

Perhaps a more general enquiry:

Screenshot of conversation with Copilot asking if Duncan Moran has a web site which Copilot is unable to locate.

It is called Duncan Moran dot Net. It should not be that hard to find. Perhaps if I was on LinkedIn….

As Molly White recently quipped we are witnessing what many of us think about as “the web” rotting right in front of our eyes. 😞

The web of nonsense

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As the developers and techy people continue to drive everyone else from the web and into the welcoming arms of the social media silos so they can have the web all to themselves – because they are so special/precious; let us take a look at some of their quality work.

Now the Torso Electronics T-1 is an actual thing. And it is fair to say that my ever expanding, increasingly saggy, aged torso could do with some improvement but this is just silly….

One can barely imagine the excitement and sense of satisfaction that was generated by the creation of this slidey uppy button thingy…

ADD TO BAG it shouts. It could have said ‘Add to my bag’ but no that would be taking things too far. But who has a bag large enough to contain a sofa? Alas there is nothing to actually put into your bag as it will take two or three weeks to deliver your purchase. You are only ordering it.

Ho-hum.

Jettisoning Jetpack

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So farewell Jetpack. I subscribed from the early days when you offered some useful tools at a reasonable price. Over the years the price increased and the tools became less useful. So some of this blog will probably stop working. On departing you warn that I will no longer be able to use WordAds – whatever they are 🤷‍♂️.

I am sure it will be a great loss to both of us. Who does not enjoy websites littered with junk advertising? I know I do. But it is indicative of how the mercantile has subsumed the personal on the web these days. Having no need for an audience and no desire to build one I shall continue, regardless, with what interests/amuses/educates me.

Similarly I have closed my Bandcamp account. They seem to have become the type of people I try to avoid. I should also cancel my Apple Music subscription since they deemed Taylor Swift to be their artist of the year and their general uselessness…. but I have yet to find anything better and do not want to return to collecting records. It seems to be a service for people who neither like nor have any interest in music. In the days of yore if I ventured in to a record shop and was confronted by a Classical department filled with the non-classical titles available in Apple’s Classical app I would walk out as they clearly had no idea what they are doing. But on the other hand it does pass the Memphis Minnie test – if the record shop had something by Memphis Minnie that was easily findable it may be worth my time perusing their racks.

Similar artists to Edward Elgar???