Tech questions

1. Does anybody else find Trackback as lame as I do? I added it to the site before I knew quite how it worked � or doesn't. For the uninitiated, it's advertised as linking a specific post to posts on other sites that have linked to that post � sort of like the Comments feature, en remote. Except the other person has to come and tell you (well, not in person, but they may as well) that they've linked to you. Which involves a whole lot of elaborate cutting-and-pasting, attaching their permalink to yours. I can't be bothered, and I can see that few other people are any more so disposed. It ought to be possible to automate the process. There are services (Technorati, The Truth Laid Bear, plus any number of hit-counters) that will tell you who's linking to your page, using computers (imagine!) to track links automatically. And if you look up the list they maintain for you, you often find links to specific posts. So why can't someone figure out a way to attach those links to the target posts themselves, as I had thought Trackback was supposed to do? 2. My Google site-search doesn't seem to work. I've gone to the trouble of posting all my back columns (magazine pieces and so on to follow), more than a million words' worth. They're catalogued by publication, year and title (almost finished!) here, but for most purposes it would be easier to look up key words: "Shawinigan Chretien abuse taxpayers," that sort of thing. It works beautifully for Brad DeLong's website. Not for me it doesn't: the bloody thing won't search any further than my home page. It won't even search the blog archives. I've had it on the page for more than a week, and nada. Any ideas? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?