Signed up for Google Analytics

Everyone and their brother is talking about the new Google service – Google Analytics. Basically, this is a smart way of getting website statistics. Instead of installing and configuring a local web log analyzer, you just sign up for the Analytics, insert some JavaScript code into your website and have the best stats ever made ready for you. Or not.

Google Analytics is called the biggests failer release by many. Things didn’t work as they were supposed to. Instead of fast and dynamic stats, people wait in queue for their statistics. Lots of bugs and lots of misbehaviors. I signed up myself and I had to wait for alsmost 12 hours for the site to be accepted. And now I have to wait for another 12 hours (or so I am promised) to get the first reports.

For me the idea of having stats done by Google is a pleasant one. If I think Google can do one thing right that wold be data aggregation. The paranoids all around us make lots of noise about privacy concerns and Big Brother is watching you conspiracies. Well, I simply don’t care.

Those of you who do care and want to avoid being tracked by Google can easily do so. All you need to do is block your browser from doing HTTP requests to “www.google-analytics.com”. Read this good article on the subject.

Maybe aliens aren’t that bad afterall

I’ve just realized that neither Olga, nor I did anything to protect Maxim from aliens. Nothing. Nada. None. Some parents that I consider a good example, use tin foil all over the place.

I put tin foil in Leta’s windows when she turned four months old to keep the aliens out. Something kept waking her up every two hours and I figured it was either the ambient light or the aliens, and I knew that tin foil would take care of both. During the winter it also kept out the snow elves so I never took it down.

Thinking about why we didn’t protect Maxim from aliens, I came to the conclusion that neither Olga, nor I are paranoid enough. While there is plenty of evidence that aliens are evil, I still have my doubts.

Just maybe aliens are good. And just maybe they understand the tough job of parenting. And just maybe they use their rays on children’s brains to modify their behavioral patterns. And just maybe protecting kids from those rays might make the parenting job a bit harder.

We made the thirty second journey through the parking lot to the store without any birds entering her radar and falling thirty feet to their death. But the moment we set foot in the store her body went limp with anger and like a fresh fish just pulled out of a lake she almost slipped her way out of the stroller. I tried holding her but she turned herself upside down and I almost dropped her on her head. At one point I was holding her body sideways, her armpits in my left hand, her feet in my right hand, and she was trying so violently to free herself that I looked like I was being electrocuted.

It’s been eight and the half month of Maxim’s alien unprotected life. I don’t think that he went unnoticed in their council. So they have probably affected his brains with their rays. But nothing bad came out of it yet. So I’m willing to take my chances.

Daily del.icio.us bookmarks

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2005-11-02

12 minutes

They say that your unpatched Microsoft Windows machine will live for only 12 minutes on the net before getting 0wned. Now, a lot of people are saying a lot of different things about Windows security, but I tend to agree to this particular one. I’ve seen it plenty of times at work. In fact, we now have a requirement for all colocated clients to fully patch their servers before connecting to our backbone.

Slashdot has a story. And a dup.

Upgraded to WordPress 1.5.1.3

I have finally upgraded to this blog to WordPress 1.5.1.3. A couple of security issues with XML RPC are fixed by this release. I was a bit slow, since the fixes were released for over a week now, but not to worry – my PHP installation already had all the fixes for XML RPC installed.

Slashdot is running a story on the issue. One of the comments shows an easy way of upgrading PEAR that not everyone might be familiar with:

pear clear-cache
pear upgrade XML_RPC