Allow me to talk geek for a second. Tonight I had a spare moment and decided to upgrade my blogging component, MyBlog, to the latest version. The only thing is that I failed to back up my custom style sheet...which is why the colors and images may seem a bit "blue in the face".

I find this frustrating for a few reasons. 1.) I should have known better. When I work on files I tend to spend more time saving than I do actually editing (except that I edited this CSS sheet online without keeping a physical backup on my computer). 2.) I don't have the time to mess around fixing it. Which is why it may stay this way for a while. I have tweaked a few functionality issues just to keep the site up and running and comments accessible.

On the list of things to fix:

1. The CSS issues now apparent on the blog entries and comments.
2. Try to regain my assigned categories and tags from past posts.
3. RSS feed length issues.  Please update your feeds to this link.

On the list of things to try:

1. Automating Technorati pings (needs to worked through with site host).
2. Better integration with video sources other than YouTube.
3. Choosing one stat tracker and sticking with it (I currently use three services: Woopra, Mint and Google Analytics).
4. Decreasing loading times for site pages while also adding better accessibility for mobile devices.
5. And who knows what else!

So some time ago (about 5 yrs or so), when I began blogging, there was a new stat tracking software that was new and holy that I sported. Now that I'm back into blogging after a year or two break I've gone back to my roots and had myself a mint.

I've tried Google Analytics and don't really like that it only updates once every 24 hours and it isn't very customizable. I have also tried my hosting provider's stats engine and I don't like it's lack of user interface and it's a complete pain to check stats and referrals.

Sorry for the small fonts in the image above. I run a screen resolution of 1680x1050...thus making the details hard to see. You can see a live demo at Designologue.com. Resize your browser window...notice this glory as it unfolds. Watch it update stats in real time. No additional plug-ins have been installed. This is the straight up default install...but still powerful.

Mint is a sweet stat tracking program. The API is documented and is available to third-party programmers, which in turn means that some pretty sweet pepper, kind of like plug-ins, has been produced...including the Twitter interface shown in the right panel above.

I like numbers, and even moreso, I like knowing what you like to read and/or are interested in. The only kicker is that you have to have a hosted site with access to a SQL database to run this software...but it works great with Joomla!...thus, I'm happy. And the install only took 10 minutes. Anyone else with me? What stat tracking program/software do you use?

Amazing talent...

Undecided about a lot of things. Like, how best to use my "spare" time. Tonight I sat down to dink around this site a bit more. And, well, I find myself overly frustrated not being able to use the "built in" video embedding plug-in that came with MyBlog, the blogging software I decided to pay for. I mean, what good is a blogging platform that won't allow you to embed video files from YouTube, Revver, or Google Videos? I mean, seriously...c'mon.

And then it dawned on me. I'm a complete idiot...and I'll tell you why... Joomla!, the content management system I use on this site, is completely open source. One thing that means is that it is completely free. Free to you. Free to me. I didn't have to pay a dime, and that is a great thing seeing as I already dropped money on the hosting and domain names for my wife and I. But, the reason I am an idiot is that I paid for the blogging platform...and its commenting system...when I really didn't need MyBlog to start with. Most of the functionality is already built into Joomla!...and I feel it kind of defeats the purpose if you buy software to run on a free operating system...especially if it doesn't perform like you'd like it to.

So, anyways, I'm undecided about where to go from here. I'm sure you (all 4 of you that check this site ;-) ) will be pretty upset not having my funky, obscure YouTube videos to rot your mind for the time being (sarcasm abounds).... Have a great night.