Monthly Archives: September 2010

Targeting the Long Tail of Search

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Lately, I’ve been using this blog to post about simple things that don’t have any useful (or at least clear) results in Google.  This include tips and tricks on platforms like WordPress and Magento, or some straightforward advice for beginners in PHP, MySQL, or whatever tool I’m using at the time of writing.

If I’m stumped on something for awhile, and eventually discover a solution, I’ll post it.  If I find a partial or unclear solution on the web, I’ll try to include a better answer here.

The point is, I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel.  The goal is to offer up something that is hopefully unique and helpful to each visitor that lands here.  As a result, this blog isn’t really readable in serial format (using RSS, for instance).

Despite focusing on the long tail of search, my number one most visited blog post is still the Edible Flying Spaghetti Monster.  Go figure.

Code Quarterly magazine coming soon

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Code Quarterly is a programming magazine that’s currently under development with a first issue expected soon. According to their website, they are planning to focus on technical explanations, code walk throughs, interviews with notable programmers, “think pieces”, computer history, and relevant book reviews.  The editor is Peter Seibel, author of the books Coders at Work and Practical Common Lisp.  Mr. Seibel is also updating a blog to keep interested parties abreast of the magazine’s status.

To kick things off, Code Quarterly is hosting a Code Challenge that focuses on code readability (among other things) and offers the chance to hone your software design skills.  While I suspect that some extraordinary coders will be throwing their hats in the ring, I’m personally taking this as an opportunity to put my own feeble mind to use on some heavier programming than I’ve done in recent years.  Please join in the fun!

I begin my own journey by returning to the dusty Lex and Yacc book I haven’t cracked in nearly 10 years.  N.B. Using lexer generators and parser generators may violate the rules of the competition; I don’t know.