Author: kiusau

Life is full of surprises. Still, you can quit at anytime, if you have grown weary of their outcome. For, after all, survival is but a first step; it is a primitive instinct that does not distinguish us, humans, from other animals. Accordingly, if it is all that you can achieve in life, do not be surprised that others treat you like an ordinary animal. Alas, if it is all there is left, and you have grown weary, it is good justification to depart. Before you go, however, look deep inside and determine if you are not the cause of your own demise. For, in the end, society owes you nothing, and even your parents are likely to forsake you, if you have not been grateful. Have you said thanks for all that you have received, and have you given in return for all that you have taken? John F. Kennedy once stated "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country". Obviously, he was not thinking of taxes, but the help that he would require to become an effective president. Little that is great can be achieved alone. Then too, it takes great leaders to motivate society and move it forward in a manner that will pave the way to a better tomorrow. The world is in need of good leaders. Maybe you are one of them in disguise. Indeed, no one owes you a living, but if people see you struggling they are apt to lend a hand. Just do not be afraid to reach out. And, do not quit, if nothing is given in return. For, many people simply do not care, and you must not let them get you down. You have a right to your own life and the pursuit of your own happiness, so do not be afraid to claim what is yours. Just do not take what belongs to others, if it not without their permission or obtained in fair competition. And, cry out when you have been cheated, but only if there is something to be gained from your cries, for few people like a cry-baby. Be judicious, strategic, and select your battles wisely. Do not waste your time with trivial injustices, for we all make errors, and we are all, therefore, subject to the injustice of others. It is the very thought of exercising my freedom of last resort that keeps me alive, for it is the comfort that I can put an end to my suffering at any time that allows me to endure enormous pain. It is what gives me the courage to fight for what is right without fear of losing. It is a powerful freedom that you should never surrender! Just do not make pain your goal, or you will surely finish a loser. Then too, never place pleasure over goodness and know to distinguish between the two. In liberty, Roddy

Grammar Captive’s !st Word Cloud!

I am happy to announce that Grammar Captive has successfully implemented its first word cloud.  Now, visitors, sponsors, and Grammar Captive can discover, at a glance, visitor tastes and interests based upon their local search activity.

Grammar Captive’s Word Cloud combines the data retrieved by Matomo from Grammar Captive’s custom local search engines with Chien Guan Tin’s 1,200 line code-byte called wordcloud2.js into a nifty display of visitor tastes and interests and the assets that Grammar Captive makes available to meet those tastes.

Open to the Grammar Captive mainpage and look for the menu-option Word Cloud in the navigation bar under the heading Visitor Profile.  And, don’t forget to click!

In addition, Grammar Captive has provided a temporary fix for the alignment problem of the middle panel for those with medium-size viewports.

Have a great weekend, if you do not hear from me again before!

And, think autumn!

Roddy

Eureka!

After nearly two full days of hunting, I have found a Matomo method that can be used to recover the search words submitted by visitors when they employ Grammar Captive’s three custom search engines for newsletters, podcasts, and Q&A.  I will not claim that a word cloud is just around the corner, but it is surely up ahead.

Roddy

Added New Tracking Report for Internal Search Engines

It is now possible to observe visitor behavior for use of  the Newsletter, Podcast, and Q&A search engines.  There are three tracking categories including Custom Search / Newsletter, Custom Search / Podcast, and Custom Search / Q&A.  There are two different kinds of click events for each category including Open Search and Reopen Search.  Open Search refers to an initial search, ReOpen Search refers to a second search within the same category after having left the category and then returned to the initial category of search.

The new behavior patterns are reported under Selected Categories in the Your Profile / Event Profiles menu option on the Grammar Captive mainpage.

This tracking is useful, because one,  it shows whether visitors are taking advantage of the Grammar Captive search engines; and two, it shows something about the way they are using the search engines to discover what they want.

Coming up is a word cloud to show for what visitors are actually looking, and eventually what Grammar Captive should be providing.

Roddy

Le captif de la grammaire anglaise en français

The first edition of the Seven Gates weekly newsletter is now available in French!  Look for the word français under the menu title Regular Updates / … / Archives in the navigation bar on the Grammar Captive mainpage.  A first edition in German is just around the corner.  And, one in Arabic is likely soon to be.

Making the first edition available in one’s own language will help relieve the overwhelming flood of English with which new visitors are confronted when they first arrive at the Grammar Captive website.  The first edition is  what visitors first receive when they subscribe to the Seven Gates newsletter.

Also, a Disclaimer and Invitation to explore have been added to the Introduction section in the navigation bar.

This is how one can spend one’s time while waiting for one’s new IP address and nameservers to propagate.

Roddy

Server Upgrade Complete!

Grammar Captive is proud to announce that its server upgrade is nearly complete.  For the moment, the best evidence of the upgrade is performance.  The loading time of Grammar Captive pages has been greatly reduced.

Of course, this is merely the beginning of the new technical frontier  that is now open.   It has been a long time in coming, but we are now one very important giant step closer to a fall launch.

Roddy

Gate Seven Is Now Working!

After some minor code adjustments Gate Seven visitor behavior is now being properly tracked and reported.  The data residue from the confusion that existed before the adjustments has not yet been removed though and must await Grammar Captive’s server upgrade that is just around the corner.  Within days Grammar Captive will be operating in a scalable cloud environment with streaming — a great place to be for a start-up company with many future unknowns.

Although the move has yet to be consummated a new venue for Grammar Captive has been found, and the rude interruption that has prevented further podcast development will soon be brought to an end just in time for fall production.

In the meantime, more tracking and reporting can be expected in the several weeks ahead.  One important new concept to which you might look forward is something called goal tracking!

Have a great weekend, if you do not hear from me again before!

Roddy

New Category Under Visitor Profile

Grammar Captive is now tracking the behavior of the Seven Gates splash panel — Grammar Captive’s semi-dynamic, gallery-like introduction to the Grammar Captive project and website.

By way of preview, you are welcome to click on the menu option Splash Panel listed under the subheading Visitor Profile in the navigation bar on the Grammar Captive mainpage.

For the moment visitor behavior is only reported for Gate One and its associated slides.  Information for all of the gates will soon be listed in a more consolidated and more easily readable format.

From a developmental point of view this is Grammar Captive’s first segmented bulk request. In short, with one HTTP request Grammar Captive is now able to limit the amount of information that it obtains before it is reported.  This will not only speed up future reporting, but it will allow even greater precision in what is actually reported.

This is an important step forward.

Roddy