UBB SpidersBy: Allen Ayres
Editor's Note: Micah is the developer of the original UBB Spider Modification one of the newest original modifications for ubb.classic. Since its release, it has spurred new growth and traffic in every site it has been installed on. It has also spurred new ubb development toward other forms of search engine optomization for the ubb (coming soon to a screen near you, possibly the one you're looking through right now 
).ubbdev :: Hello Micah
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
micah :: Hi Allen. Sure. Currently, I'm a 24 year old Ph.D. student in the philosophy of mind. I did my undergraduate work in computer science, spent a year working as a software developer for Verizon Communications, but wasn't much for the corporate world (this is a whole story in itself). So...I've always been interested in philosophy and it turns out that there are many overlaps between computer science (especially artificial intelligence) and the philosophy of mind. The big issue (hopefully I'm not butchering this) in the philosophy of mind is trying to situate the mind (consciousness, beliefs, goals, reasons etc.) in an otherwise physical world. If we were all zombies, then there wouldn't be much of an issue here. But the fact is that our minds seem quite wierd given what we know about everything else in the universe. Minds are anamolies, to a certain degree, and the philosophy of mind is an attempt to unravel the mystery. Artificial intelligence comes into play because as we try to simulate human intelligence, the really cool things about human (and other animal) intelligences become clear.
ubbdev :: Ack, my head hurts now!
When did you get involved in internet development?
micah :: I got started three or four years ago when I tried (tried being the key word!) to build a networked artificial life system, similar to Tierra, while utilizing distributed computing technologies. This was a horrible failure (though very informative), and seeing that it was being done on my spare time, has not been resurrected and probably never will.
ubbdev :: Interesting...
I've been using your UBB Spider Modification for a few weeks now with great success... what spurred you to write it?
micah :: Personal utility. I run a website for a professional society which has a UBB 6.3x forum. Just last year I got intrigued by content based SEO (search engine optimization) strategies. The idea, of course, is that rather than fool search engines by exploiting some temporary flaw in the indexing algorithms, to actually make yourself worthy of placing high in the search engine results. There are some checklists (having good page titles for example) but really, the most important aspect is having good content. Well, I found that it takes a lot of work to make good content, and I just don't have the time to do it as a full time graduate student. What were my options? It just so happened that we had a bunch of really smart guys hacking out debates in biology, physics, computer science, etc. on our bulletin board. But, for some reason, Google wasn't indexing this great content. So, I set out to find an easy, no-mess solution to getting this content indexed. That way, people who were looking for related topics would happen upon our discussion board.
ubbdev :: You are doing some great work with it, I like best that you don't have to modify any ubb files.
What are your future plans for it?
micah :: I really don't have a huge "vision" for the spider hack. I suppose that in the future (several years down the line) that either Google will find a way to handle the dynamic links in ubb.classic or else ubb.classic will become more Google friendly. In the meantime, I'll make minor updates to handle newer versions of ubb.classic. This is really just a hobby and one of many ways to help pay for grad school. There are a few areas where the spider modification could be improved, but they are time intensive issues and not extremely important, so I'm not really sure when they'll be addressed.
ubbdev :: Cool, I'm looking forward to any improvements you might get around to. Outside of ubb-related sites, what are your 3 favorite sites to visit?
micah :: When I have a little extra time, I check out:
IGNCube
http://www.igncube.com DrudgeReport
http://www.drudgereport.com WebmasterWorld
http://www.webmasterworld.com ubbdev :: Those are a few great ones. Can you tell us a bit about any personal sites you may run? What kind of goals do you have for them/it?
micah :: Yeah, well there is my personal site:
http://astro.temple.edu/~sparacio/
That site is primarily intended to give people a flavor for who I am, what I like to do, and the sort of papers that write.
Then there is a site for an organization called ISCID:
http://www.iscid.org ISCID is a professional society for scholars who think that there is more to the world than the mindless interaction of atoms, strings, fields and whatnot. I, for one, think that we lose a great deal of information about the world when we try to force fit all of our knowledge about biology or consciousness, for example, into a reductive account that amounts to nothing more than lots of interactions among the primitive physical particles at the foundation of the universe. Certainly we lose content, real content, as we reduce, and this professional society is for those of us who aren't convinced by the dominant scientific methodologies which require these very restrictive constraints on scientific and philosophic inquiry. We're trying to open up the discussion to include information, mental activity and even purpose as fundamental aspects of the universe.
ubbdev :: What other interests do you have outside of net development?
micah :: You've probably gotten a sense of this from my other (too long!) responses. I'm really interested in the philosophy of mind and the role of mental causes (as opposed to blind physical causes) in the universe. I love to read. My favorite authors are C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, Alvin Plantinga, David Chalmers and Shusako Endo. I also help manage a bookstore in Princeton, New Jersey where I live with my wife. Oh yeah, I teach an Intro. to Philosophy class.
ubbdev :: You stay very busy
What do you do for fun?
micah :: This is probably a bit eccentric but I like to spend a lot of time near running water (streams and rivers and waterfalls) and far away from asphalt/concrete. I like to take walks along the Princeton Canal, kayak, canoe, etc. I love to ski, play raquetball. My GameCube has been getting a lot of activity lately too: Zelda, Sega Soccer Slam, NHL 2003 (Unfortunately, I'm a loyal Nintendo fan, and always get stuck with the system that has too few games...though I will get Mario Kart Double Dash!! pretty soon). I also enjoy listening to modern rock...my favorite bands are Pearl Jam (who I finally saw in concert this past July), Radiohead, Chevelle, Pedro the Lion, Poor Old Lu, and the forthcoming Fire Theft (previously Sunny Day Real Estate).
ubbdev :: Just a
bit ecclectic too
Future plans?
micah :: Ultimately, I'd like to be a philosophy professor. I guess I just can't handle the heat of having a real job;-) Plus I love talking to people about questions like the following: "Why is there *something* rather than *nothing*?" Any takers?
ubbdev :: Not me, me 'ead is spinnin already
Thank you for your time Micah, and good luck in the future
micah :: Thanks Allen, glad to do it.
