The Presurfer Is 12 Years Old Today

The Presurfer is 12 years old today. User experience site FatDUX once calculated the length of an Internet year. The result was that 1 Internet year is like 4.7 years in real life. Which means the Presurfer would be 56 years and 3 months old if the site was a person. Which also means that in two years time this blog will be older than I am. You do the math.

Just two words: THANK YOU. You made this possible because without you the Presurfer would be nowhere. So, thank you for your loyalty. And one of my favorite blogs, Everlasting Blort, happens to be 12 years old today too. Please pay them a visit because without them, the Presurfer wouldn't be here at all.

My Twitter Account Got Hacked

Yesterday my Twitter account got hacked (probably by a bot) and has been sending spam DM (Direct Messages) to some of my followers. The message said lol u didnt se them taping u and linked to a dubious Facebook page.

I have taken the necessary measurements. I changed my password and revoked access to all of my apps. My account should now be secure but if you receive something from my Twitter and and you notice something unusual, please let me know.

Google Knows Everything, Even My Birthday

When I update this site I have to sign in with Google to use Blogger's content management system. When I wanted to look up something using the Dutch version of Google's search engine, I saw something that surprised me. You may have experienced it before but for me it was the first time.

This is what I saw. A bunch of birthday cakes and the message in Dutch 'Van harte gefeliciteerd, Gerard!' Which means 'Congratulations, Gerard!' I usually don't mention my birthday on this site but that's what today is, my birthday. Oh, and the number of candles and stars on the cakes, they don't really tell the truth.

Thanks Again

I would like to thank all of you again for the good wishes while I was in hospital for surgery. I am absolutely moved that so many people I have never met in person are willing to take the time to wish me well.

Like I said yesterday, I am overwhelmed by the many reactions, not just on this site but also via e-mail. I received over 80 e-mails of people wishing me well and although I would like to thank all of you personally, I do have to take it easy for the next couple of days. Instead, I thank all of you here in this post. I also like to thank Kat from Pets Lady who offered to write some post and links (not related to her site) while I was recuperating.

Back Home From The Hospital

I'm back home from the hospital. The operation took place yesterday around noon and because there are no complications and I'm feeling fine, they sent me home this afternoon. I'm still a little weak and I do have some pain but that's normal after they cut four holes in my belly.

I'm overwhelmed by the number of reactions. For the past hour I've been reading all of them and I still have to take a look at all the e-mails I received. I deeply appreciate your kind words. I never expected this. Thank you so very much!

Blogging will commence tomorrow.

No Posting For The Next Couple Of Days

Dear readers. There will be no posting here for the next couple of days.
I have to go to the hospital for inflammation of my gallbladder. The bladder will be surgically removed this afternoon. If everything goes well, I may be back to posting on Friday. Thanks for your patience.

update: This comes from the hospital computer. I probably won't be back to posting Friday because the operation didn't go through today. Too busy at the hospital and lots of emergencies. The operation will take place tomorrow morning which means I probably have to stay until Saturday. See you then.

Spam Comments

This weblog receives a lot of nonsensical spam comments every day. I'm sure yours does too. Fortunately my content managing system catches most of it but every now and then one of them slips through. I am always amazed at the nonsense inside these messages.

'Greetings I Am So Excited I Found Your Welbog' (not a typo) is a tumblr blog that catches these spam comments and shows them to you for your delight.

(via b3ta)

Restyling

You've already noticed The Presurfer looks a little bit different. The 'greenish' look is gone and I have gone back to a more conventional color style. The logo had to be adjusted to the new style and that has been done by 'Phos....' who did the original logo. He also made the new favicon.

Happy New Year

Thanks to all Presurfer readers for making it another amazing year. I also like to thank those of you who help me out every now and then by sending links. You know who you are. May the New Year bring you and your loved ones love, happiness, serenity, success, and good health.

Merry Christmas

Be Featured In Oddee's First Book

You know what a Photobomb is, don't you? And wouldn't you like to walk into any book store in the world and point out YOUR photo in a book! Now's your chance. Oddee, an entertainment blog on oddities, has secured their first book deal and are putting together a fun book about Photobombs.

And they want your help. If you have your own hilarious photobombs lying around, send them to Oddee for a chance to be included in the book. They also give you a photo credit so you can see your name in print too. How cool is that? You must own these pictures and be willing to give Oddee permission to print them in the book.

Find out more about the Oddee book project and also some examples of the types of Photobombs they're looking for.

J-Walk Blog Closes Doors

Last Friday, one of my favorite blogs closed its doors after nine years. The J-Walk Blog, maintained by John Walkenbach, also known as 'Mr. Spreadsheet', author of computer books primarily dealing with Microsoft Office Excel, has been providing us with many interesting links. The Presurfer and the J-Walk Blog have exchanged many links over the course of those nine years.

John always said that when it was no longer fun, he'd end it. Some time ago he realized that he was getting kind of bored with it. So he did what he felt he had to do. He ended the blog. He's not lost for his fans though. You can follow John on his Google+ page. Thanks John for nine years of entertainment.

The Presurfer Is 11 Years Old Today

The Presurfer is 11 years old today. And you, dear readers, made the past 11 years a delight. Thank you so much!

Don't forget to visit one of my favorite blogs. Without the people behind Everlasting Blort, Kevin and Julie, there would be no Presurfer today. As a coincidence, Everlasting Blort started on the same day as I did and they're also celebrating their 11 year anniversary.

Is Your Blog Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

Do you write like Shakespeare or Britney Spears? This test evaluates your blog's language and tells you what grade reading level it falls into using the Flesch-Kincaid test. The Presurfer's reading level is College! Is Your Blog Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

I'm A NeatoShop Affiliate

As of today I'm a NeatoShop affiliate, as you can see in the right column of this blog. The NeatoShop is the online store for Neatorama, one of the largest and most popular websites worldwide with nearly 3 million monthly visitors. The Presurfer has been cooperating with Neatorama via link exchanges and some great give-aways. And we will be having more of those in the future.

Since - through these give-aways - I was linking to the NeatoShop anyway, I've become a NeatoShop affiliate. Because that way I can do something back for the generous free presents that Neatorama is giving away to readers of The Presurfer. And of course, I can earn some extra income, which, being a poor pensioner, is always welcome. :) So, next time you buy something from the NeatoShop, you can do yourself and me a favor by going there via this link.

The Presurfer And Environmental Graffiti

Starting this week, you'll find something new in the right column of this site. The Presurfer and Environmental Graffiti have decided to work together in bringing you the 'best of the week' of both blogs.

Each week I'll send some of the Presurfer's best posts to Environmental Graffiti and they'll send their best posts to me. Posts on Environmental Graffiti are concentrated around nature, outdoor, travel, art and design, anthropology and history, science, environmental news, technology, and lifestyle. Being the quality site that Environmental Graffiti is, I'm looking forward to working with them.

A Note From Your Editor

Lately I've received several emails of Presurfer readers who told me they were concerned about the links and pictures on the right-hand side. They found them offensive and not up to the standard they were used to. They said the links sometimes pointed to sites with questionable content. Although these links got me as much as 50,000 visitors last year, I decided to look into this matter.

Although I'm not offended by these links myself, I can understand the worries of some of my readers. Especially since this is a site for all ages. The opinion of my readers is important. I'm having a lot of fun 'making' The Presurfer. But I don't do it just for myself. The recognition of people who take the time to read The Presurfer is much more important.

And I have to agree, more and more the links did indeed point to questionable content. Therefore, I have decided to remove these links and pictures.

Blogger Maintenance

Google's Blogger, the platform where this site is hosted and updated, was down since yesterday morning. For a short while they were up again and I was able to publish some posts.

But something went wrong and Blogger has rolled back the maintenance release from last night and as a result, posts and comments from all users made yesterday have been removed. They are working hard to return Blogger to normal and restore my posts and comments.

Here's news from Blogger:

Here's what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger's behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages.

Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that's why you haven’t been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we're in the progress of restoring.

Update: In the meantime I seem to be able to post again but my posts from yesterday have not yet returned. I'll wait until that happens before posting new articles.

Update: Thursday posts are back again although I think some comments are missing. See you tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

Top 10 Referrers To The Presurfer In 2010

In 2010, The Presurfer welcomed 2,841,988 visitors. Search engines were responsible for 29% of those visitors. But most of you came here via your bookmarks. The site was referred to 55,571 times, which means an average of 152 times a day.

Top 10 Referrers To The Presurfer In 2010:

1. 2leep
2. Terra
3. Neatorama
4. Nothing To Do With Arbroath
5. Bits & Pieces
6. Facebook
7. Stumbleupon
8. Twitter
9. Sribol
10.Monitor

Happy New Year

I want to thank all Presurfer readers for making it another amazing year. I also like to thank those of you who help me out every now and then by sending links. You know who you are.

May the New Year bring you love, happiness, serenity, success, and good health.