Learning Accelerates Itself - GA & this new venture.

I don't yet know what my audience feels about this podcast...but I'm glad I instituted Google Analytics on day 1 of the podcast, as I can begin to see traffic patterns. From reviewing GA this evening, I can see:

I've had, in the past ten days these raw stats:
- 92 pageviews;
- 61 unique views;
- 52.08% bounce rate
- 68 pageviews of the root (or index) level
- from 3 to 8 pageviews of non-root pages
- a peak amount of 14 visits on Monday, October 14th.

-- from this (specifically the 68 views of the main page) I can see that when I post URL's on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace I should probably give the specific blog URL rather than the main page URL. Also, what accounts for the 14 visitors on Monday? I think alot of that could be due to an e-mail I sent to colleagues at work about the Williamsburg podcast from the just-past weekend.

Fun stuff (does this mean much?):
Browser & OS - % of visitors:
- IE on Windows - 45.8%
- Safari on Mac - 39.6%
- Firefox on Mac - 8.3%
- Firefox on Windows - 6.25%

My main concern: how can I tell how much of this is from me checking my blog site, or from me editing the blog, and then "viewing" the results? Any of it? I'll have to cross-check my browser, OS, ISP and screen-resolution (all data that GA tracks) and try to weed out the effect of my own visits.

So...learning about analyzing stats on a website. What does this do? It allows one to see how the web industry is gauging itself, how it might be doing various things to optimize it's collective or individual presence on the web, and how a business might spring up from the need to interpret these Delphic wisps of vapor for the general business user who may be missing some very important statistics about his or her company's impact via their web presence.

More later as I learn it. :-)

..Alex.

Minute Tech 013: What is a Table?

This morning brings you Minute Tech's first wine recommendations, a discussion of the types of tables that you can put numbers into rather than plates onto, and two Google search recommendations.

- Beaujolais Villages and Orange Muscat;
- What is a Table?
- Nassim Taleb & Avinash Kaushik.

Go to my iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

..Alex.

Minute Tech 012: What is Page Setup in Excel?

Today's 'cast has stretched beyond my desire of 3 to 5 minutes to 00:11:22 - my apologies on that...but the subject demands care in explanation. :-)

- Timeline of learning;
- What is Page Setup in Excel?
- Why the apparent simplicity of podcast topics?

Go to my iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

..Alex.

Minute Tech 011: What is the Data Menu?

Apple shocked to the upside...and life goes on. When using Excel, sometimes the Data menu will get you out of binds most quickly...unless you're just trying to format for print output, which we'll cover in a future episode. And I came across an excellent Fast Company article this morning:

- Apple disappoints only short sellers;
- What is the Data menu?
- Search Google for “Alex Frankel Magic Shop”.

Go to my iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

..Alex.

Minute Tech 010: What is stock?

Apple's 3rd quarter earnings release is after the NASDAQ market close today, so several pertinent topics for this mornings Minute Tech podcast:

- Apple, Inc. earnings release 4 pm EST;
- What is stock?
- My intro to social media sites.

Go to my iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

..Alex.

Minute Tech 009: What is Colonial Williamsburg?

There is not surprisingly far more about a well-reconstructed educational historic site such as Colonial Williamsburg than one short podcast can introduce you to...but please take a few minutes to see what this wee corner of America's history can do for you, through:

- the emergence of tea in European (and American) society;
- What is Colonial Williamsburg?
- printing pamphlets - the original podcast.

How can we push ourselves forward in thinking about technology without thinking about how our forebears conceived their levels of technology? I find it fascinating to look back at these times of hardship...and how easy they made life appear.

Go to my iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

..alex.

Minute Tech 008: What is a dinosaur?

What is a dinosaur? Is it a terrible lizard, or someone still using a casette-based Sony Walkman?

The original use of the name for terrible lizard probably refers to the idea that humans couldn't bear to think about co-existing with such animals on today's Earth. Of course, those people haven't seen Dinotopia, have they? :-)

The topics for episode 8 are:

- Apple’s iWork ’08 is out and being used;
- What is a dinosaur?
- Give a kid a microphone, & historic Williamsburg, Va.

The podcast was delayed a day due to a family trip to Williamsburg, Va, a town where even the buildings are essentially re-enacters. Many of the houses may be original, but the larger buildings are all re-built versions of those that were susceptible to fireplace-derived structure fires. There's one good thing to be said for modern gas furnaces...and eventually, solar or fuelcell home power & heat.

Go to my iWeb page to subscribe or listen to this podcast: Minute Tech.

..alex.