Posts written by Piers H Palmer
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Why it's all in the bounce
Posted by Piers H Palmer on April 08, 2008 at 04:59 PM
Google Analytics rocks! I could spend hours/days/weeks sniffing about the statistical minutiae that Google Analytics serves up. Three users from X visited my site last week and each spent Y minutes on landingpage Z having been referred there by using the search term Z – amazing but probably not that useful.
If there is one metric you should look at, check out the bounce rate, the ‘I came, I puked, I left’ metric as so lucidly explained by Avinash Kaushik – check out the video presentation.
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Virtual bleed
Posted by Piers H Palmer on February 27, 2008 at 03:29 PM
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one to suffer from a condition that appears to be affecting my general perception of reality; a condition akin to one of the super-mutants in ‘Heroes’ slowly becoming aware of their latent powers.
Increasingly spending up to 12 hours a day interacting with software over a 20 year period is finally coming to a head as my virtual capabilities begin to bleed through to that other ‘hinterland’ of reality – meatspace (or as any flesh-jock may short-sightedly call it, the real world’).
This brave new world beckons and I’m ready to jump in.
I guess it started out with the familiar pattern of applying the celebrated shortcut CNTRL-Z (undo). Whilst working in Photoshop, I would try something out, not like it, undo and try again, repeating this pattern until I was satisfied. This would often mean hundreds of ‘undoes’ an hour, thousands over a week and millions over a number of years. This alchemical ability to ‘juggle the forms of everyday life’ with no consequence has begun to bleed through to the ‘real world’. I drop a pen, a synaptic neuron fires a CNTRL-Z event and my pen is expected to instantaneously appear back in my hand. A rosy apple in the fruit bowl shines attractively and a CNTRL-X event is fired. My car keys have moved from where I carefully placed them this morning, a search event activates.
‘Static’ objects glint, offering hidden interfaces and occult geometries of interaction. My dirty dinner plate almost reveals the ‘re-format’ button and the page corners of my magazine quiver in anticipation of auto-curl. A true convergence is happening and I can’t wait.
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Kyan Vs Computer Strategies Bowling Challenge
Posted by Piers H Palmer on January 25, 2008 at 02:44 PM
A challenge was made, a date set and geeks rallied.
Lifting the trophy aloft, it was remarked at how similar it looked to a bowling pin; fortunately not one of the dazed’n’confused staff had reported any missing. Two close games, the second only won by 7 points left Kyan the winner on this occassion. Special mention should go to Steven ‘Rocketman’ Thompson whose genuine loathing for bowling pins meant that not only did he get the top score but also managed to upset the ‘magic’ bowling robot so much that a ‘tek’ was required to fix our lane.
Highlights:
Paul taking out his own ankle with a ball
Laurent coming second last
Phil wondering how may pins in ten-pin bowling
Stevie T’s top speed of 24mphThanks to all at Computer Strategies, especially Tony for organising and sourcing the prices.