The Chris Phelan Chronicle

Searching for images of Chris Phelan in Google Image Search

I have been trying to get my image to be searchable in Google Image but have been having trouble getting my photo to show up in their results.
There are  a number of images that show up, including the VW Bug of some other Chris Phelan out there in Cyberspace. I found a couple of images of me that turn up. One is from an interview I did for Japan Today about 5 years ago. The other is from an event that I spoke at about 6 years ago. It is amazing that these two photos are still out there in the wild but my more recent photos are not. I have not been able to find any photos that I have put on this blog. I named one of the photos chris_phelan.jpg to help the search engines find it. I also uploaded a photo to my Flicker account which is also named chris_phelan.jpg I figure blogging about the subject might help get some of my photos noticed by Google Image and others. I think the world is in dire need of a recent photo of me, Chris Phelan.

Search Engines and Privacy

The US government has requested that several major search engines turn over records of their customers searches. The request is a part of the Bush Administrations initiative to root out child pornographers on the Internet. Yahoo and Microsoft have already caved to the request although both companies stress that they handed over no data about individual customers.

Google has told the government that they will not hand over their search records and I think this is the right course of action. The bottom line is that the government has no right to request these records without a real justification. Just because we all know that there are child pornographers on the Internet does not mean that the government should be able to go through data about what people have searched for. The government has a long history of abusing our rights and I for one do not want to see any search engines handing over search data without a real and compelling reason. Besides, there is no reason to believe the government has any of the security precuasions in place that you need when handling data, or that they have the ability to properly interpret what they find. Would it really be a surprize if the Bush Administration skewed the data to justify wire tapping individuals? WMD all over again.

I won't be using any search engine that is not a forceful defender of our right to privacy. Sorry Yahoo and Microsoft, I won't be needing your services anymore.

Vanten Habanero

One of our employees brought some habanero seeds back from Texas last year. We planted and grew a couple of fine pepper plants in the office.

The Vanten Nengajou

Happy New Year!

Every year businesses and people in Japan send out New Years greeting cards called Nengajou. This year is the year of the dog so most nengajou will have some kind of picture of a dog on them. The Vanten nengajou has a Digital Signage theme so no dog!