Thoughts

WordPress Stats plugin has gone cuckoo

For over a month now, I have been unable to rely on the official WordPress Stats plugin. (I say official because the folks that made WordPress also made this plugin.) It, all of a sudden, started assigning all site visits to the same article, so that all of my stats became completely skewed. Let me explain it with a screenshot:

WordPress Stats has gone cuckoo

Instead of seeing the proper distribution of site visits by titles, which is what happened in the past, almost all of the site visits get assigned to a random post. I have no idea any more which titles get the most traffic for a given day. I know this is wrong because I’m also using Google Analytics. Here’s a screenshot of the 20 most popular titles for the past 30 days.

Google Analytics Content by Title

I like WordPress Stats because they aggregate the data almost instantly, whereas there’s a 3-4 hour delay with Google Analytics. Sometimes they even correct the data a day afterward (this happened to me recently) so you can’t rely on their figures until 24-36 hours after the fact [reference].

I stopped using WordPress Stats for a while, hoping the problem would somehow work itself out, but when I re-activated the plugin, all that happened is that it started assigning all site visits to a different random post. Whoopee…

If someone at WordPress reads this, please let me know if it’s something I’m doing wrong, or if it’s something that you’ve got to work out on your end. I posted about this problem in the WordPress forums, but I have yet to receive a reply there.

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Thoughts

Pitch black darkness

Last night, the power went out everywhere. Completely. I happen to be staying in a village in the province of Dobrogea, Romania at the moment, and just as I stepped out of the house to walk to my car, all the lights blinked out of existence. It was, as they say, a dark and stormy night, with nary a star in the sky, not to speak of the moon, which had probably been stuffed in thick sackcloth and kidnapped.

Do you want to know what things look like when you’re in the middle of a wide open field and everything goes pitch black? It looks something like this.

Pitch Black Darkness

It’s an eerie feeling, one that throws you for a loop, even if only for a few moments. I looked around, but there was nothing to see. I reached about me, and wasn’t sure where to reach for a wall or something to hold on to. Everything was black. Even the dogs went quiet. Then, someone in a house nearby stumbled over something and mumbled some sort of swear, then called out for a light from his wife. Others, elsewhere, called out to each other. Things came back to life, but it was still pitch black outside.

I pulled out my little spotlight, the same one I reviewed recently, and found my way to the car. I unlocked it, and the interior lights came on. I climbed in, sat down and turned on the engine. The dashboard lights came on, reassuringly. Then I realized something which sounds obvious to someone who doesn’t have to deal with a power failure, but is a downright epiphany when you’re in pitch black darkness: cars have standalone electrical systems; they do not depend on the grid for power; they make their own power. When the grid goes down, your car can still run, thanks to its battery and to the fuel that makes its alternator turn and charge that same battery. It’s an amazing system when you think about it. I don’t know what we’d do without it.

Shouldn’t homes have similar standalone electrical systems, just in case grids go down? Sure, we’ve made inroads with solar panels and wind turbines, and some homes do have batteries that charge up from the sun or the wind, but the overwhelming majority of homes in this world don’t have any sort of backup power. If the electricity goes down, they’re down as well.

We should really invest more into making each of our homes more self-sufficient. Each home ought to be able to function, at least for a period of time — say 4-8 hours — without grid power, in and of itself, from power stored in batteries or capacitors or in some other container of energy, so that people can carry on with their lives and at least have enough time to prepare for a prolonged power outage once the grid power goes out.

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Thoughts

Obama wants to increase airport security tax

Waiting to check in

We’re currently getting charged $2.50 per passenger to go through the security theater* at our airports. Now the Obama administration wants to increase this fee. Quoting from this article at the Economist:

“The Homeland Security portion of Obama’s proposed 2010 budget (PDF) includes a plan to raise the fees by an as-yet-undisclosed amount in 2012. The increase, the White House says, is needed because the current fee only funds about 36% of airport security costs.”

So let me get this straight: not only do we have to go through the inane, annoying and useless experience of getting scanned, uber-prodded and turned over every time we want to board a plane, but now we’ll have to pay more for that unsavory experience as well? Thanks a lot, Mr. Obama. I can see my vote went to a good cause.

As I said before, I think we should be doing away with the whole darned thing. What happened to accepting the risk and moving on? That’s how the United States was founded and built. It wasn’t built by wimps who wanted to make sure no letter openers or nail clippers got on the plane with them. Why zap us with X-rays, make us take off our shoes, put us through air blowers to sniff us (I’ve half a mind to fart when I go through those things just to see what happens), open up our luggage, and generally speaking stink up the whole flying experience when we don’t really need any of it?

It’s shocking to hear that, isn’t it? Truth of the matter is we wouldn’t really need any of it if security were done right, and if people had the courage to step up and disarm the terrorists when and if they dared do something on a plane. Since the general populace is a bunch of pansies who’d rather have big-brother government do everything for them, now we have to put up with cretinous security checks and starting next year, with increased fees for said security checks. Hooray for democracy, where the majority rules with a pudgy, slightly damp and sweaty fist, tired from holding the remote control too long.

* Term coined by Bruce Schneier.

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How To

How to minimize your risk of prostate cancer

A long-time friend who does research into complementary and integrative medicine and is a wiz with statistics — his name is John Lewis — has just published an article entitled “Intake of Plant Foods and Associated Nutrients in Prostate Cancer Risk” where he, along with other researchers, found that your risk for prostate cancer becomes significantly lower if your diet consists mainly of vegetables, fruits and/or fruit juices.

On the other hand, if your diet has an increased amount of protein — or, interestingly enough, daily servings of grains — your risk for prostate cancer is increased. Another finding of his study ties into the racial/ethnic differences in the incidence of prostate cancer, which happens to be higher in African-Americans. The study shows a strong link between dietary intake and the risk of prostate cancer. Caucasian controls had significantly higher daily servings of vegetables and fruits and/or fruit juices compared to their African-American controls, and their incidence of prostate cancer was lower. Thankfully, the study found that those who changed their diets significantly to include more fruits and vegetables stood a better chance of surviving prostate cancer, regardless of race or ethnicity.

The lesson to be learned is simple: eat your fruits and vegetables if you want to keep away prostate cancer.

I should mention that he is also a CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) survivor. He was bedridden for over a year because of CFS. He cured himself by changing his diet to include only vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains, by exercising regularly, and through special intra-venous vitamin boosters — a treatment called chelation therapy.

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Lists

Gadget Monday – March 9, 2009

Here are this week’s seven cool gadgets. Did you see last week’s edition?

The new Mac Pro

Apple released an updated Mac Pro recently. The specs make it the most powerful Mac Pro ever — possibly the best desktop on the market — while the Apple design cinches the deal. It uses the new Intel Nehalem series quad-core processors. You can put two quad-core chips in the Mac Pro, each capable of speeds at up to 2.93GHz, and that gives you eight processors in all. It’ll take up to 32GB of RAM, and it comes with two fast graphics cards that each have a built-in Mini DisplayPort connector. There are finally more connectors on the front panel, which is something users have wanted for a long time.

Mac Pro (March 2009) - 3

Mac Pro (March 2009) - 1

Mac Pro (March 2009) - 2

Mac Pro (March 2009) - 4

Mac Pro (March 2009) - 5

Images used courtesy of Apple.

Toshiba TG01

Toshiba has released a touchscreen smartphone that is thinner than the iPhone, has a larger display, more memory, usable Bluetooth (not just for headsets) and a better camera. The specs are as follows:

  • 4.1 inch WVGA display (800 x 480 pixels)
  • 3.2 megapixel camera
  • Bluetooth
  • GSM and 3G HSDPA
  • WiFi
  • GPS and A-GPS
  • 1GHz mobile CPU
  • 512 MB RAM
  • Up to 32 GB of storage space via microSDHC card

Interestingly enough, the device uses Windows Mobile 6.1. I’d like to know how it stacks up with the iPhone in terms of ease of use and reliability. From my experience, previous versions of Windows Mobile were terrible, slow, and prone to crash or lock up. Perhaps Microsoft have managed to improve the OS — we’ll see.

Toshiba TG01 - 1

Toshiba TG01 - 2

Toshiba TG01 - 3

Toshiba TG01 - 4

[via LikeCool]

Calypso Chair

It’s a multi-purpose sofa designed for laptop users. The armrests fold inward and turn into laptop shelves, while the back rests can be folded and configured to face the same way, in the traditional sofa configuration, or in opposite directions, like a love seat. The back rests can even be folded down, turning the sofa into a coffee table. There’s storage space underneath the seats as well.

Calypso Chair - 2

Calypso Chair - 1

Calypso Chair - 3

[via The Design Blog]

Ecobank: desk, table and lectern

Another wonderfully designed multi-purpose furniture piece comes from Germany and was made by Marius Goetze. It can be turned over and used as a desk and chair piece, like the kind found in classrooms, or as a standalone table, or even as a lectern.

Ecobank - 1

Ecobank - 2

Ecobank - 3

Ecobank - 4

[via The Design Blog]

Bookshelf Lamp

Self-explanatory design: this lamp includes a built-in book shelf, eliminating clutter.

Book Shelf Lamp

[via LikeCool and Get Organized!]

Reader’s Nest

Another clever bookshelf design. This one mounts on the wall and resembles a bird’s nest. Instead of using a booksign, you place the book you’re reading upside down on its top. You can store more books in its base.

Reader's Nest

[via LikeCool and Wis Design]

Voice Draw

A Flash app from ZeFrank that lets you draw on the screen using your voice to move the brush. Change the pitch of your voice to change the direction of the brush.

Voice Draw

[via Look At This]

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