In 2009 I was working on a number of Drupal, Joomla!, and WordPress sites simultaneously, when Webreference.com asked me if I wanted to write a CMS column for them. I always forget how much work columns are, trying to find something new to talk about each month, and after five columns I decided that actually building websites was a whole lot easier than writing about it.

The columns are still up on the site though, and though time has passed, I found them still to be pretty much dead on.

• CMS: A Look Back and The Way Ahead
• Kicking the Tires on Your Next CMS
• Theming Your CMS Without Tearing Your Hair Out
• Ern’s Summer Grab Bag: ThemeWars, A New Joomla, and The Case of …
• Social Networking with Drupal

Who is RARE Conservation?

RARE Conservation is a conservation group that works from the local level up rather than from the national or enterprise level down. Though Rare’s effort is directed at community-based change, rather than attempting to work directly with communities, Rare offers local individuals educational opportunities and supports their efforts to increase local awareness and engagement with ecological issues through “Pride Campaigns,” which use applied social science solutions to address conservation issues. Continue reading →

Google Analytics Certification

First Steps

• Updated: Introduction to Google Analytics: What you’ll learn | Watch presentation
  
  What I learned that I didn’t know. The GA code embedded in each page sends a javascript request for an invisible gif to the google servers, and uses a “first party cookie” which is a cookie served up from the site you’re currently browsing, rather than a “third party” site that’s linked to the page you’re on, such as an advertiser. As such, first party cookies are much less likely to be blocked. Google offers a lot of data anonymity, keeping even it’s own analysts from accessing data without the client’s permission. I’m sure they mean that…but I’m taking it with a grain of salt. Google allows such skepticism, letting you elect “do not share my Google Analytics data,” though this keeps Google from adding the anonomized site’s data into other sites data to provide benchmarking.
• Interface Navigation: What you’ll learn | Watch presentation Shows how to select an account from one of several and work with profiles for each account. The Report Interface and Dashboard sections are pretty well known, but users may not know that reports can be added or deleted from them, which is handy. Data exports are pretty much a no brainer, but I’d never thought to send them by email on regular schedule, also handy. It’s in developing reports that we move beyond the casual user, allowing data on eCommerce, ROI and other non-obvious metrics.
• Updated: Installing the Google Analytics Tracking Code: What you’ll learn | Watch presentation The insertion of tracking code is straightforward for anyone who has added code to a webpage, but the promise of later material to deal with multiple domains and subdomains whet’s my appetite for what comes later.

Interpreting Reports

• Guidelines: What you’ll learn | Watch presentation
• Pageviews, Visits, and Visitors: What you’ll learn | Watch presentation
• Time Metrics: What you’ll learn | Watch presentation
• Traffic Sources: What you’ll learn | Watch presentation
• Content Reports: What you’ll learn | Watch presentation

Links / References

• Google Analytics Certification Home
• Conversion University

All the accepted Heinlein Juveniles...except "Between Planets" which I seem to be missing.

Robert Anson Heinlein stormed the bookshelves of the Baby Boomer generation during the Golden Age of SF…which is to say about the time they were twelve years old. Having won the battle for their hearts and minds, he’s had little trouble occupying the territory and making inroads on successive generations over more than fifty years since the last (Have Space Suit Will Travel), was published. It’s still a powerful statement for a reviewer to liken a new YA author to Heinlein, promising a fast moving tale in which the main character leaves their familial homeworld to make a place amid the challenges of the greater galaxy of adults. As a story-type, it offers a voyage of high adventure, and in science fiction, one author blazed the trail to the stars: Robert Anson Heinlein. Continue reading →

Note: i’ll finish this post up tomorrow, but i just wanted to ge it online for folks to comment on the soup.

Cooler weather, rainy days, and warm, hearty soups. Early autumn is one of my favorite times of year. I hadn’t made a barley soup since last winter’s Beef Barley (#9) which came out pretty well, and recently I’ve had a hankering for a chicken barley soup.

Chicken, Barley Soup with Mushrooms

• 1 tbs butter
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 cup onions diced
• 8 oz baby bella mushrooms – halved and sliced
• 1 cup celery – diced

Heat the butter and oil in a medium suzed souppot while you are cutting thenonions, garlic, and mushrooms. Add each tot the potbas theybare cut. Cook ouvr medium high heat for five to seven minutes, stirring frequently to keep them from burning. Ideally the mushrooms should brown a bit.

By the way, this gices off the greatest aroma you can imagine.

Add in the celery and carrots