Geek With Opinions » General

Google Analytics and Spammers

Tony — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:36:29 +0000

I decided to try out Google Analytics over the weekend. My web host’s web stats leave something to be desired. Since Google already knows everything about me and my site already, I figure it was a safe things to do. With a WordPress blog, it is very easy to set up. Here are the steps.

Sign up for Google Analytics
Added a bit of JavaScript to footer.php
???
Profit!

It literally took five minutes to set up. Google Analytics has some very cool features. For example, it keeps track of return visitors vs new visitors. It is pretty neat.

Google Analytics comes with a free side effect! The stat tracking requires the client to have JavaScript execution enabled. What this means is that clients without JavaScript enabled do not get tracked. So if you have a lot of users that disabled JavaScript, this could be back. However there is a an upside, Spam bots do not run JavaScript! I know this because Google Analytics only tracked me for the first day that I had it installed. However during that same time frame I had ~20 spam comments caught. I am happy about this because I get a more accurate view of the visitors to the blog.

Tony.

Windows 7 Feature

Tony — Sat, 16 May 2009 14:59:34 +0000

So I was getting my oil changed today. While I waited I took advantage of the free WiFi. I had to download Adobe Reader because of the new install of Windows 7. Below is a screenshot of one of the new features of the task bar. It appears applications can change the button on the task bar. The screenshot is of the progress bar for a download in IE8. I think it is pretty cool and will be more useful than flashing that task bar buttons to get my attention.

Stack Overflow is programmer crack!

Tony — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:59:23 +0000

Stack Overflow is a Q&A wiki site for programmers. People can post questions, answer questions, and search for questions. Question and Answers get voted up or down based on what the community thinks of them. As people ask and answer questions, karma is gained. As karma is gained by a user they can do more on the site like editing, voting up, and voting down.

The site is fairly popular among developers. The 100,000 question was recently asked with many added everyday. The community looks to be pretty strong and oddly mature. I say oddly mature because it is the Internet after all.

Stack Overflow is programmer crack. I find myself setting at the questions page hitting refresh over and over again waiting for new questions to be asked. Its fun to see what roadblocks other programmers are stack at. It is also a good feeling to get voted up on question and/or answers on the site. The ultimate joy is when your question is accepted as the answer. It some how validates you as a programmer when one of your questions get marked as an answer or is up voted. Stack Overflow addicting nature is what keeps me coming back day after day to see what has been posted.

Stack Overflow is currently working out great for many people. Questions (depending on complexity) will have answers or suggestions shortly after posting because the community seems eager to help. And yes the answers are normally helpful in someway, shape, or form. In the end Stack Overflow comes highly recommended from this developer.

Tony.

Hello World!

Tony — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:57:29 +0000

using System;
class HelloWorld
{
    public static int Main(String[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
    }
}

Hello! Yes I am yet another person with yet another blog. I have gained much knowledge during my life as a professional geek and now I have an outlet to pass on my opinions and know how to anyone that is willing to read.

Now that I have typed a little about why I started this blog, I guess it is time tell a little about myself. I am Software Engineer with a BS in Computer Science. My wife, if asked, well say that I am a professional geek and she would be correct. I love technology, always have. I like to learn as much as I can. While my severe Dyslexia slows my learning a bit, it does not seem to affect my ability to be a developer. Because of the Dyslexia, don’t be surprised to misspellings or ramblings. The picture at the top of the site is my dog. The picture has become known as RawrDog. As proof to my geekyness, my dog’s name is nOOBert. Yes that is his name and yes that is how it is spelt. I am sure there will be some posts about him sooner or later.

My goal with Geek With Opinions is to be an outlet to share what I learn, my experiences and opinions. I also hope this will help with my English skills as English as taken a back seat to the other languages that I work with during my day to day life. C# has become my primary langue.

Hello and Welcome to my piece of the internet
Tony