Google Webmaster Tools

This will be of no interest to my former readership, but whatever.

So I was having a problem with Google Webmaster Tools, where it wouldn't verify the file uploaded to the web server as it was complaining that the 404 error on the server was returning a 200 status code. These are all HTTP errors.

After a lot of looking around, and very little good information (hence this post). There were two useful suggestions, they may not both be required, but it is now working.

The first was to find the page in IIS (I'm using 6), and go to Properties -> Custom Headers and to add the following pair:

Custom Header Name: HTTP Status Code
Custom Header Value: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found

This didn't seem to resolve the problem, even after stopping and starting the website.

So more searching, and found the suggestion for adding additional ASP to the redirection page (which is an ASP page, correctly referenced with relative to root notation /404.asp).

So added the following code to the top of the page:


<%
response.Status = "404 Not Found"
%>

After another stopping and starting of the website (might not have been required), Google correctly was able to verify the file, and no longer complained about the 200 status message.

Hopefully this saves someone else a bunch of time.

Not quite as good as mine...

I don't think it's nearly as good as my segment, but for fairness:

http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-globalbc-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=mikemccardellmedium&maven_referralObject=7963940d-f194-4ef0-85fe-f1ff46e7ed41

Around the World?

Okay, so the FedEx package still isn't here yet, but it's been to Portland 4 times now, with a stop in Toledo each time. For those of you who are wondering the two cities are 3,150 kms (1958 mi) apart*. So thus far, our package has traveled the following:

Atlanta -> Portland 3,492 kms (2170 mi)
Portland -> Toledo 3,150 kms (1958 mi)
Toledo -> Portland 3,150 kms (1958 mi)
Portland -> Toledo 3,150 kms (1958 mi)
Toledo -> Portland 3,150 kms (1958 mi)
Portland -> Toledo 3,150 kms (1958 mi)
Toledo -> Portland 3,150 kms (1958 mi)

Or a total of: 22,392 kms (13918 mi) as the crow flies, while the distance between the origin and the eventual [fingers crossed] deliverly point is only 3,592 kms (2232 mi).

The package has travelled 6.2 times farther than it needed to. It has also travelled more than HALF WAY around the earth, given that the circumference of the earth at the equator is 40,075.16 kms (24,901.55 mi). For anyone who's really curious, it's thus far travelled the equivalent of ~55.86% of the earth's circumference. CRAZY.

Oh, and it's now taken over a month to get here...

* according to http://www.geobytes.com/CityDistanceTool.htm

Toledo, OH

For those of you playing along at home, the winner is Toledo, OH. Although apparently it is now en-route to Richmond... anyone actually want to bet against Portland?

Episode 2...

Episode 2 for those of you who are interested...

Abandoned...

Not like I really update this thing often enough that I should really complain, but I feel a little abandoned, all the people that I actually know who used to have blogs, well they still have them. But they either don't update them anymore or they moved to LiveJournal... and well, I like it here on the wide world of the internet. But it's lonely out here... do you want to be my friend?

Premiere

Some hot girls on YouTube talking about, well who cares ;-)



We'll see if a post here makes any difference to their hit tracking on YouTube... currently the video has 166 views...

Geometric patterns...

Anyone want to guess what comes next in this pattern?

????????
Feb 5, 2008 9:56 AM, Departed FedEx location, PORTLAND, OR
Feb 4, 2008 9:01 PM, Arrived at FedEx location, PORTLAND, OR
Jan 31, 2008 7:57 AM, Departed FedEx location, TOLEDO, OH
Jan 30, 2008 3:55 PM, Arrived at FedEx location, TOLEDO, OH
Jan 26, 2008 9:19 AM, Departed FedEx location, PORTLAND, OR
Jan 25, 2008 4:52 PM, Arrived at FedEx location, PORTLAND, OR
Jan 23, 2008 8:04 AM, Departed FedEx location, TOLEDO, OH
Jan 22, 2008 9:23 PM, Arrived at FedEx location, TOLEDO, OH
Jan 20, 2008 11:45 PM, In transit, GROVE CITY, OH
Jan 19, 2008 2:32 AM, Departed FedEx location, PORTLAND, OR
Jan 18, 2008 5:37 AM, Arrived at FedEx location, PORTLAND, OR
Jan 16, 2008 6:52 AM, Departed FedEx location, LENEXA, KS,
5:33 AM, Arrived at FedEx location, LENEXA, KS
Jan 15, 2008 6:42 AM, Arrived at FedEx location, ELLENWOOD, GA
Jan 14, 2008 4:17 PM, Package data transmitted to FedEx, ATLANTA, GA


That's right, I've got a package that's been enjoying the scenery between Portland and Toledo... Apparantly there was some sort of scanning error... we'll see where it ends up next, who knows it might even come and visit me...

About the numb3rs

It's been a day of numbers, I took the Test the Nation test, but ended up having a bit of an MSN conversation while I was doing it... so I'll use that as my excuse for not having a better score. I got a 46/60, respectable I suppose, but I would have liked to do better. Go ahead test yourself. Okay, now for some other numbers:

4 the of loads of laundry I did
32 oz of Dr. Pepper
100 GUTS discs arrived from California
23.2 % of body fat according to our new scale
10% the amount I've been challenged to lower it by
92% average shooting percentage in Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition
72mm UV filter on my 28-235 mm zoom lens
2 episodes of Chuck on tomorrow

Okay, that's enough diversion for now...

So domestic, not demonic...

According to the system this is post 666... not that I'd been otherwise paying attention, just happened to notice. Today was pretty domestic at least so far. Went out to look at TVs, got to see a smatering of movies: Spiderman 3, Transformers, Ratatoie, Superman Returns and Batman Begins... oh and we saw some nice TVs too ;-)

Bought a toaster oven and some new garbage cans, otherwise pretty unremarkable, right now it's just between periods in the hockey game, that the Canucks should totally be winning about a billion to nothing, but that's not the score, so hopefully they'll fix that in the third.

Missed one!

Well, even though I missed yesterday, you have to admit that the volume of posts here has dramatically increased this week... whether that is a good thin is entirely up to your descretion.

So in the news, I donated blood yesterday, first time in a while, but I still bleed fast. My Disc Golf basket arrived, but I haven't had a chance to assemble it and try it out yet, probably this weekend... Karin made a nice tortellini dinner last night, it was yummy. I didn't say any of this stuff was particularly interesting, but really I'm obviously just trying to come up with things to type about, partly to get things going again, and partly as a motivating activity to get me dealing with things in a more timely manner again.

Lately it's been entirely too easy to leave things for another day, which means they take way longer than they should... So this is helping practice getting things done... or is it part of the problem?

Where's my Emmy!?!??!?!

So guess who was on TV today? That's right, me! Big CBC star, at least the 4th time I've been on the network... been a bit of a dry spell lately though. Take a wild guess what I might have been talking about?

Okay, it was Disc Golf, enjoy: http://www.cbc.ca/livingvancouver/?page=segment&sid=5960

89 Updates!!!

So I'm doing some work on Karin's computer which happens to involve installing Windows XP on a new hard drive, longer story than I want to tell, but the first run of Windows Update identified 89 updates that needed to be applied... you know just a few.