Myself and Gav have a policy of not revealing much detail about the servers from which we get visits to this website. The info we receive isn’t really useful – or usually interesting – anyway. The logs will only identify very broadly the company or location of someone viewing the site. Stuff like “Department of Environment” and “Ireland” to give a top-of-the-head example, it never really refines by individual or even building, though that depends on how the server is named.
Oh, and if we are found via a link it’ll give us details of the link too, so we can see who’s referring to us. All that is done through the free version of Statcounter, so this ain’t nothing fancy or technical. It’s pretty much standard for most people with a website to get such information via logs.
Anyway, I was browsing the Statcounter account earlier, saw this and thought it quite amusing…
VISITOR ANALYSIS Referrer http://www.google.ie/search?q=%22ivor callely%22 the story.ie&num=50&hl=en&source=lnms&ei=kvDGTKWPEcu84AaD4oXpDw&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&ved=0CBkQ_AU Search Engine Phrase “ivor callely” the story.ie Search Engine Name Search Engine Host www.google.ie Host Name IP Address REDACTED BY MARK Country United States Region Ohio City Columbus ISP Dod Network Information Center Returning Visits 0 Visit Length 18 hours 51 mins 49 secs
The DoD Network Information Center in Columbus, Ohio is…
a combat support agency responsible for planning, developing, fielding, operating, and supporting command, control, communications, and information systems that serve the needs of the President, Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Combatant Commanders, and the other Department of Defense (DoD) Components under all conditions of peace and war.
… and they were googling “thestory.ie Ivor Callely” which brought them to this page. They then spent several hours on the site before exiting. They arrived again soon after, this time googling “site:thestory.ie Ivor Callely” which directs Google to provide results for only mentions of Ivor Callely, only on this website. A while later they left again…
Well, chums, there you have it; Ivor Callely’s story, an issue of US national security.
Don’t saw we didn’t warn ye’.
FOOTNOTE: In a shocking turn of events the person in DoD arrived back this morning at 11am after googling, ominously… wait for it… “Mark Coughlan”.
If I disappear after pressing publish on this post please tell my mommy I love her.
can I take your room if you’re found in the canal?
Probably somebody who used to live in Ireland, emigrated, and now works for the DoD.
Makes you wonder what would happen if absentee ballots were allowed in the country.
Something arising from Ivor’s (former) role in the OSCE?
Hahahaha.
Classic!
Tinfoil hats on… lads!
Would someone in the American Embassy logging on to the internet be routed through that server maybe?
Like the way employees of Intel, for example, based here in Ireland, look like they’re actually in the US when they’re browsing the internet in Leixlip?
Adrian,
For sure. That couch is still available FYI! You’ll have to make do with the mid-90s hip-hop on my iPod though. I’m all about the Kool Moe Dee ‘ Take her to a Doctor’. If you can live with that [and I am assasinated, as expected] it’s all yours.
DM, Amadan, Declan,
Could be any one of those things, I guess we’ll never know. Fun times, anyway…
Its Julian Assange and his near-genius hair q logging on from a couch deep in the Pentagon where no Swedies can touch him.
I have detected a port scan on my computer, about every minute, from 22.21.96.1 which is apparently the DOD Network Information Center in Columbus, Ohio. I have no idea why the DoD in the US is interested in myself, a Canadian citizen. Not sure if I should be worried, cover my head in tin foil or just ignore them. Suggestions??