smart computer use?

I’ve been using the Wordpress stats plugin for approximately 2 days, so this commentary may be a bit premature. I like it. So far Wordpress.com stats is good.

FireStats?

I used to use the FireStats plugin for Wordpress. At least, as a stat tracking plugin, FireStats was my stat tracker of choice. It was nice. It made my database huge after a while though.

Granted, there is a satellite version of FireStats, but I never have used it. I probably would alleviate the hosted stats taking up a large part of these database issue.

Wordpress.com Stats hosted on Wordpress.com

I like the fact that the Wordpress.com Stats plugin hosts it’s data on Wordpress.com. It really helps take some server load off your server. And it gives you stats right on your Wordpress site dashboard. Good stuff mainerd.

Google Analytics?

I like Google Analytics. It’s very easy to install on a Wordpress site. Easy installation is due to the fact that nearly every single Wordpress template has a footer include to easy install the Google Analytics tracking code into.

I consider Google Analytics to be the backbone of my web site stat tracking endeavors. Stuff like Wordpress.com stats simply allows me to see stats realtime, on the fly, on a day-to-day basis if needed.

If I wasn’t using Google Analytics, I’d probably consider using FireStats Satellite hosted feature to run that stats system in my Wordpress sites.

Blocking the traffic I create on my own site

I like the ability to easily block the traffic that I create on my own sites. With a newer site, my development traffic always overshadows the actual traffic of the site.

I have been using the filters available in Google Analytics to block the my traffic to my web sites. I wanted to be able to do the same with my Wordpress.com Stats.

After a little bit of investigating, I found that the Wordpress.com Stats plugin does not show any stats that I create if I am logged into my web sites. That is pretty cool, and pretty easy to deal with.

So, for Google Analytics I’ll need to remember to keep my filtering IP addresses updated. For Wordpress.com Stats I just need to remain logged in to my web sites. Easy enough.

Yeah.

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Earlier today I was working on some quick updates for this site. I wanted to add a tag cloud. I do think that sometimes tag clouds are tacky, but I wanted to try it and I think it’ll help users understand this site faster and find content on this site faster. Ease of use is top priority.

I found that the tag cloud is easy to implement on the code side. So easy, in fact, that I might argue it’s easier than dragging and dropping a widget in the admin side of the web site.

Here it is:

<?php wp_tag_cloud(''); ?>

That’s all there is to it.

I found these options to be suitable:

<?php wp_tag_cloud('smallest=7&largest=25&number=50'); ?>

These options set the smallest font size to 7, the largest font size to 25 and the number of tags to show to be 50. Pretty easy.

There are also some more comprehensive explanations of the tag cloud code available.

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I have to admit, as much as I like the huge overhauls on the admin side of Wordpress 2.5, I really need to just get comfortable with the changes.

Interface changes cause mixed feelings

As any computer use knows, when your interface for whatever program you like changes, it takes some getting used to.

I like all the new changes in Wordpress 2.5. It’s great stuff. But, at the same time, it’s different, and I gotta concentrate a bit harder when putting new content on my Wordpress driven web sites. Just today I started to feel pretty comfortable with the Wordpress 2.5 admin layout changes, but it’s taken a week to get that comfortable.

Examples of what I’m ranting about

For one, on the admin side, when making a new post, the Categories section is now just below the post. I can’t even drag-drop it to the right side where I used to have it. On several occasions I have simply forgotten to put my new post in any categories. After an hour, or a day, I notice that I hadn’t assigned the post to a category and need to hop into the admin to make the category assignment. Oh well. I’ll get used to it.

I am really liking the built-in tags, built-in galleries, and the now better built-in media handling. I no longer need a third party plugin to easily add YouTube videos, for example. I like it. At the same time, I still kinda miss the ease of use of Viper’s Video Quicktags, but my plugin still works so it is there and available if I need it.

Speaking of which, with Wordpress 2.5, I was able to update the Viper’s Video Quicktags plugin using the simple built-in plugin updater. Nice!

All in all, Wordpress 2.5 is a nice remix and upgrade

Wordpress just took a huge leap forward with these new admin updates. That’s GREAT! At the same time, it’s gonna take some time to get comfortable with it. But I’m fine with that.

It’s great to be a computer user, eh?

That’s just part of being a computer user. Always having to jump over a learning curve to reap the benefits of the latest and greatest things to use on your computer. Yeah!

Edit: Lol. I posted this without assigning any tags or categories, and just noticed when reviewing the post on the site. Hehe. Good stuff. I gotta remember to scroll down instead of looking to the right when adding new content to my Wordpress sites now.

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I always like it when I’m using software and I see a little humor mixed in with honesty. A great example of this would be a small line of text I just saw in the new 2.5 version of Wordpress regarding having to manually update your site for daylight savings time.

I like this type of approach from developers of software. It shows that they recognize this issue, they explain what to expect from the current version of the software, and they humble themselves in the eyes of the users all in one shot. It even got me to chuckle a bit.

Good stuff.

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This might just be my overreacting, but I think the thought is valid.

It seems that at certain times I am just a slave to my computer software needing to update itself. Between using 3 different computers on a somewhat daily basis there is sometimes more time spent getting distracted by prompts for updates. And when stuff prompts me to update it, it’s always at an inconvenient time as far as my computer use goes.

Windows XP pretty much is always prompting for some sort of update. I get prompted by the Java runtime engine to update frequently. Wordpress screams to be updated from right underneath the main options menu, but not very frequently. Firefox releases an update. Thunderbird prompts to download latest update.

AVG anti-virus at least updates itself. Sometimes it throws a prompt up that actually sits and tells me it’s gonna count down from 30 before it gets out of my way. Why not 5 seconds? That’d be much more reasonable.

And then I move onto the next machine and pretty much go through all the similar update motions at other random intervals.

There’s all of that bothersome stuff.

And then Propellerheads goes and releases version 4 of Reason. So I actually go through the entire process of ordering, paying for, and receiving in the mail a Reason 4 upgrade.

It’s probably going to be worth my time to actually pay attention to this matter and disable a bunch of the auto update processes. Life will once again resume without updating madness.

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