The saga continues…

Now a different Googlebot has hit the site (66.249.65.40 = [ crawl-66-249-65-40.googlebot.com ]) in addition to Googlebot 239 (the original and continuing attacker).  Apparently Googlebot 239 wasn't good enough, so they send in Googlebot 40 to add to the pain.

I don't know what Google's problem is, but I have a few ideas.

(1) A complete disregard for problems they create.

(2) A lack of interest in responding to users in a timely manner.

(3) A belief that the problem is always with the user.

(4) A lack of any sense of urgency when dealing with problems they create.

(5) A corporate mentality that any cost to someone else is not their problem, even if they're generating the cost.

(6) The belief that, if you ignore the problem long enough, it will go away.

(7) The sense that their IPO was so successful that they're above reproach.

Shall I go on?

Well, Googlebot 40 and Googlebot 239 are, so why shouldn't I?

(8) A disinterest in customer service (or an interest in customer disservice).

(9) Projecting the problem onto the user is the best approach to problem management.

(10) The ten tenets of Google's business culture don't actually apply to Google, but they do apply to everyone else.

More than three days into this fiasco watching Googlebot 239 do whatever it is it's doing on my site leaves me to ponder whether anyone within Google actually cares, anyone who can make things happen, anyone who will actually listen and respond to problems like this.

Do you think they'll offer to pay me back for the bandwidth they took from me and that I will now have to pay for — above and beyond what I already pay for since they pushed me way over the edge?  Do you think Google will try to determine what's wrong with their bot and fix it?  Do you think Google will ever really be customer-service oriented instead of ignoring problems and people for days at a time in the hopes they'll just go away?

Your guess is as good as mine.

By the way, Googlebot 40 disappeared, but Googlebot 239 is still goin' strong.

I figure I might as well keep updating the site with information regarding Google's continuing theft of my bandwidth and apparent lack of interest in customer service.

Two hours after I spoke with someone at the corporate office, Googlebot continued hammering the site and stealing my bandwidth.

As I was monitoring it and getting ready to call back, I get an e-mail response to the several e-mails I sent over the last three days that starts with this: "Thank you for your note. We are sorry you have had trouble contacting us."

If you've been in the technology industry at all or have spoken to a customer service rep with any company, you'll know that's called projection — make it sound like the customer has a problem rather than the company that's failing to perform or react in a timely manner.

Excuse me?  I had what problem?  Oh, the problem with you people not responding is somehow my fault?

I don't think so.  I've not had any problems contacting people at Google.  I've had problems getting Google to fulfill its first tenet as noted on its site here: "focus on the user and all else will follow."

I'm the fucking user!

The e-mail goes on to say, "We've made some changes recently that should have reduced the load on your servers."

These people don't know the difference between decrease and increase.

So I respond back to the e-mail with the log files that show Google's activity on my site for February — a log file that shows it hit the site nearly 68,000 times in the last five days and continues to hit the site even now.

I wait and watch, hoping to see it drop off of the server.  Then it does.

I was ecstatic.  Sadly, that joy would soon turn to sorry and deepening anger.

Within only a few minutes, the same Googlebot showed up again and, again, began indexing the same pages over and over and over again.

I promptly sent another e-mail pointing that out, then waited and watched.

After some amount of time (by then I was losing track), I called them back and got some other executive assistant on the phone.

No, of course I can't let you speak to anyone.  Sorry, that's not going to happen.  Just e-mail me the info and I'll take care of it.

Sounds familiar, huh?  Well, you can't get around a well-trained executive assistant, so I sent the info again.

I don't expect anything different to happen at this point, but it never hurts to hope.  If nothing else I might get a cease and desist letter for these posts!

By the way, Googlebot is still on the site right now.

Google (66.249.66.239 [ crawl-66-249-66-239.googlebot.com ]) has been slamming my site for the last five days.  I reported this to them via e-mail on Sunday (2/20) using an e-mail address they provided on their web site.  I got an immediate response saying they wouldn't respond to any e-mail sent to that address and that I needed to use a web-based form on their site.

So I went to the site and tried to submit the information, but at least one version of the form doesn't work.  I sent another e-mail to several different addresses hoping to get someone's attention and to let them know their form didn't work and the site still said to send an e-mail.

Over the course of the next few days (still happening today, by the way), I've repeatedly submitted the info via their site and sent them e-mails asking them to fix the problem.

Google has now consumed all of my server's monthly bandwidth (more than 5 times my normal usage) and is still running strong — reading the same pages over and over and over again (the logs clearly indicate it's hitting the same few pages repeatedly).  This is now day five of this fiasco — three days since I started contacting them — and I have yet to hear anything from them or to have the problem resolved.

I finally decided to call their corporate office.  That's not much better.  There's no receptionist, there's no live support people, and the only way to get someone on the phone is if you know their name or extension or want to talk to someone in sales.  I used their site to locate an executive and dialed in his name.  He wasn't available (anyone surprised?), but I was able to get his assistant on the phone.

Finally a real person who listened and offered to help.

She asked that I send her the information I'd been submitting and she would try to get it to the right person.

We'll see how that goes.  In the meantime, Google has consumed (in five days) more than 2 GB of bandwidth and continues to slurp it down as of this moment.  The bot has read pages from my site 68,772 times already in this month alone — most of which have happened in the last five days.

If Google is such a cool company, why in the hell don't they respond to problem reports?  Why don't they care when they're costing me money?  Why don't they try to solve the issue that was reported three days ago and every day since?

Sorry, but that's just bad business and bad netizenship.  Stop stealing my bandwidth (which is what they're doing) and play nicely with the other kids in the sandbox.  Failing that, close down your business and get lost.

Although the time that has passed since Derek's death in September of last year has helped with the sorrow and anger, it has not entirely diminished the emotional impact of his passing.  Today is a perfect example.

Today Derek would be 38.  It's his birthday.

Last year at this time Jenny and I were celebrating his birthday at the hospital.  His condition was quite serious but had started improving — something that was happening constantly (his health, at that point, was a constant roller coaster ride of improvements followed by declines followed by improvements followed by declines; the declines always outmaneuvered the improvements, so it literally was one step forward and two steps back).

As was normally the case, it was looking very promising that Derek would get out of the hospital at this time last year.  That actually happened only two months later on April 30, but it wouldn't last long as his health would fail again and he would be back in the hospital by June.  That was the last time he was out of the hospital as he had begun the final stages of the disease and was starting the decline that would lead to his death on September 7, 2004.

I woke this morning with mixed emotions about the day.  Having celebrated it with him for the last eight years, I'm left with a somewhat empty feeling today, that something is amiss, that something is left undone.

I need him to be here so I can wish him a happy birthday.  I need him to be here so I can once again try to make him feel better.  I need him here so it can be a good day for him.  I need him here so I can tell him how so very much that I miss him.  I need him here so I can know that life isn't a horrible, selfish, evil thing that steals away loved ones and causes much pain and anger and sorrow.

I miss my friend.

I've cried already this morning, something I've not done in many weeks with regards to Derek.  I cried while writing this post.  I will undoubtedly cry again before this day ends.

As I said, he would have been 38.  He was too young to lose the fight, too young to spend so much of his last two years trying to survive a disease that was ravaging his body and eventually his mind.  He was too young to die, too young to sacrifice so much, just too young.

Happy birthday, Derek.  I still miss you.

UPN announced earlier this month that they were canceling Star Trek: Enterprise due to poor ratings.  No surprises there.

I’ve been an avid Star Trek fan since I was quote young, an obsession I can thank Mom for.  I loved the original series, The Next Generation and Voyager — and even enjoyed some episodes and story arcs in Deep Space Nine (although I never liked the series as a whole).  When Enterprise premiered, I of course found myself sitting and watching it with the expectation that it would be another seven-year run.

Much to my dismay, the series sucked.  It’s too drab (aren’t there other colors in the future besides blue and gray?).  The stories have been terribly boring.  The characters are flat and uninteresting.  The ship design is a cheap knock-off of the Akira class starship we saw in Star Trek: First Contact (simply flip the Akira over and you have the Enterprise knock-off).  The writing was horrific.  Shall I go on?

Despite attempts to save the series with pathetic season-long story arcs, cameos by Star Trek alumni such as Brent Spiner, and some advancements in technology, Enterprise was doomed from the beginning because the same tired people were in charge (hear that, Rick Berman?).

Having ruined the movie franchise for the Next Generation cast (every one of those movies should have been an episode instead), the so-called creative minds behind Star Trek had used up all of their creative talents over the last 18 years and should never have been trusted with a new series.

Although I tried to it, I just couldn’t.  A few episodes here and there were all I could take before I had to, for the first time ever, turn my back on the latest Star Trek series.

I bid farewell to a very bad show that never should have made it on the air.  If Paramount ever wants to try it again, start by getting new people involved instead of the same ol’ schmucks who saw to the demise of the Next Generation movie franchise and burned out their creative talents many years ago.

Although they got a birthday treat, some new toys and plenty of lovin’, I forgot to post something about Grendel’s and Loki’s birthdays on February 15th.

Lucky for me The Boys don’t visit my site very often and hadn’t realized that I was remiss in posting their public birthday wishes on time.

In the spirit of engendering good feline-human relations, here’s wishing them a happy birthday, belated though it might be.

Want to know the real reason that you can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse?

You cannot post “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and “Thou shalt not lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians.  It creates a hostile work environment.

Kako was a very good girl at the vet today.  She went in for her annual exam and vaccinations.

The vet said she’s doing quite well for a middle-aged cat.  That "middle-aged" remark elicited a few hisses and growls from her as she’s quite sensitive about her age and doesn’t believe that six-and-a-half years old is middle-aged at all (even for a cat).  As if trying to intentionally make her angry, he also added that she might have an extra pound or so while specifically pointing out her slightly adipose tummy.  This too incurred a wee bit of her wrath with another hiss and growl since even she knows that the prescription diet they’re on specifically due to her urinary tract problems (see this and this) is high in fat content and often causes felines to carry a small amount of extra weight.

Outside of her reaction to his cold-hearted verbal abuse, she was a very well-behaved girl.  She got all of her shots, physical exam and nails clipped, then she was sent on her way.

Since Kako was on her best lady-like behavior for the doctor, I think she more than deserves a treat today.

When I first picked up a copy of Prey by Michael Crichton I was in the airport with Jenny heading to Derek's hometown due to his rapid decline in health.  I tend to read when I fly and, in this particular case, needed a wee bit of literary stimulation to keep my mind off of the reason we were traveling.

I read the synopsis of Prey and was immediately intrigued.  Nanotechnology is a budding scientific pursuit that even today is becoming a reality.  Crichton often provides a very real scientific background for his fictional works (this is part of what lends credence to his writing — there is real science mixed in with the fiction).  Knowing that even if the book was bad I would learn something, I purchased a copy and read it.

Despite the locomotive start to the story (the first 50 pages or so really grabbed my attention), I slowly became disappointed in it and, by the end, found that it was far less enjoyable than I expected from the author of Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain.

The scientific aspects of the story are phenomenally high-scaled, so don't pick this one up if you want a light read.  Crichton adeptly integrates very new and real science into the story about nanotechnology going astray.  His description of the nano-manufacturing apparatus is quite interesting.  The explanation of nano-evolution is even more intriguing as it poses questions I believe we should be asking about this technology.  As I had hoped, Crichton even provides a bibliography of reference material that he used to develop the scientific aspects of the story (which gave me lots of really nerdy follow-up material to digest).

I found it terribly sad, though, that he allowed the plot of the story to devolve so quickly.  The characters suddenly became frightened flocking targets with little realism in their interactions.  Too many questions are left unanswered at the end of the book, leaving the reader wondering if they only purchased part of the story.  The last-minute attempt to wrap up the loose ends with what amounts to a two-page excuse seems to be a last-ditch effort to pardon the story itself — a rushed closure seemingly spun from Crichton's lost interest in the material.

Another aspect of my disappointment came from the eerie similarity between Prey and the nanotechnology-related material in Decipher by Stel Pavlou.  Decipher, released some two years prior to Prey, includes a story arch regarding nanoparticles that can mimic humans, eat flesh and which ultimately become a formidable foe.  That the entire premise of Prey.  I realize that Decipher is a far more complex story and that the nanotechnology aspects are only one of its many parts, but Prey seems terribly similar.

The misuse of nanotechnology is a frightening prospect, one which Crichton failed to fully realize in this story.  It wasn't disturbing enough.  The realism got lost in his zeal to tell a story — any story.  Suspension of disbelief became impossible as the nanobots began to demonstrate abilities that were laughably unbelievable, including perfect human emulation that even a spouse could not recognize during intimate encounters.

Crichton's minimalist approach to what should have been a fantastically disturbing story is disappointing at best.  I expected a synthetic version of The Andromeda Strain to unfold.

The book is worth reading just for the science, but don't expect much more than that (you can get the full science by skipping the story and going directly to the bibliography).

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq.  Why don't we just give them ours?  It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years and we're not using it anymore.