In Celebration of the Winter Solstice

Today hosts the longest night of the year; it is also the day that I completed the restructuring of the Seven Gates newsletter’s data base.  Except for the assignment of a foreign key on one of the newly modified tables, things moved ahead fairly routinely.

The restructuring was the result of just one of the many new things learned during the four months spent developing the Grammar Captive Weekly Podcast host page.

We are one step closer toward integrating new issues of the newsletter with newly created podcasts.  When completed the Newsletter will become still another source of direct access to the newest podcast.

Roddy

End of the Year Metrics (Preliminary Report)

Slightly past the mid-month mark of December 15 Grammar Captive is proud to take note of the following:

The number of unsecured pages already viewed on December 17th beats the total number of pages viewed at the end of the month of September by 2%.  On September 30 Grammar Captive recorded 6,673 views for the month of September alone.  Only seventeen days into the month of December Grammar Captive has already recorded 6,811 views for the month of December.

The number of secure Grammar Captive pages viewed during the month of November was 1067.  As of today, Sunday, December 17, 2017, the number of pages viewed for the month of December has already reached 1,197 — a 12% increase, and there still remain a full two weeks of viewing!

If this is what traffic looks like without substance, Grammar Captive is very hopeful about what traffic will look like with substance.  Maybe, just maybe, fourteen months of effort is beginning to show promise.

It is the lot of the entrepreneur.  He takes a risk, works hard without pay, and hopes for the best.  Unlike government that creates new government jobs from private sector jobs that it destroys with taxation and the servicing of government debt, the entrepreneur creates new jobs derived from his own effort.  It is the entrepreneur that makes an economy grow — not government!

Roddy

Exhaustion and Delight

So inspired and exhausted by the recent technical achievements a long overdue break of sorts was taken.  And, in the spirit of Christmas it was decided to perform a little “tree decorating”.  What did this include?

  • A new addition to the Grammar Captive main page — namely, a section on the nudge.online business model.  It can be found under the heading Other in the Grammar Captive navigation bar.  If you ever had any doubts about what Grammar Captive is truly about, you will not want to miss this new section!
  • A complete overall of the section on Internet Security as previously announced.
  • Alphabetization of the list under Other in an effort to make it appear less haphazard.
  • Elimination of the use of the scope attribute in the CSS/HTML <style> element.  The entire element was replaced with a dynamically loaded CSS stylesheet.  This insures formatting consistency across browsers.
  • Grammar Captive has now been tested with Safari, Firefox, and Chrome.  Internet Explorer has always been a very large, other world for your host.

While returning to the heavy tech stuff this week will be devoted to integration of the Seven Gates newsletter and the Grammar Captive weekly podcasts.

Although an archive for the newsletters is already in place, there is no mechanism to access them methodically as one is now able to access the weekly podcasts.  This seemingly large task will be put off until after podcast production begins.  For, after all, only the truly dedicated will want to read stale news, and Grammar Captive is still not a proven success.  Furthermore, podcasts are far more easily distributed and will likely reach a far larger audience by the very nature of their medium and content.

Roddy

Secure and Unsecured Data Transmission

The problem of failing Javascript functionality when viewing Grammar Captive webpages using the https:// protocol has been resolved.  As a result, the section on Internet Security under the Other heading in the navigation bar on the Grammar Captive main page was completely overhauled.

An update to Grammar Captive’s legal promise is now pending, as well.  Technological advancement requires social adaptation.

Roddy

Integration Complete

The Grammar Captive Weekly Podcast host page that was previously called podcast_dev_copy.php has now been appropriately integrated into the Grammar Captive main page as podcast_hostpage.php.

In addition, not only can all Grammar Captive webpages now be accessed, viewed, and manipulated via the SSL protocol https://, but all files with .html extensions can now be treated as if they were PHP files with .php extensions.  This latter, seemingly small modification makes it possible for Grammar Captive to employ the PHP $_SESSION variable and cookies on every page as needed.  It opens a whole new world of web application functionality.

This said, it is now time to integrate Grammar Captive’s Seven Gates newsletter with the new podcast host page.  Economic reality insists  that podcast production begin as quickly as possible.  The new functionality must come later.

Roddy

Knowing When to Stop

An artist could spend his entire life painting one picture and die in poverty with little or no feedback about what he had actually accomplished.  Or, he can paint many pictures, share each with the world, and earn a living doing what he loves most — paint.  In effect, a successful artist knows when to stop and move on to his next painting.

And, so it is with Grammar Captive.  We are nearing the end of our second major painting and have begun the integration of the Grammar Captive Weekly Podcast page with the Grammar Captive main page.

Now, when you open to the main page, and click on the phrase Weekly Podcasts in the navigation bar, not only do you open to a brief description of the most recently produced podcast, but also to a link that takes you to the same, but more elaborated podcast on the Grammar Captive Weekly Podcast host page.  There you need only Click and Listen for a second time and the podcast is yours!

After a little more refurbishing of the podcast insert on the main page, the integration of Grammar Captive podcasts and the Seven Gates newsletter will begin.  Indeed, we are much closer to real podcast production than we have ever been before!  I am very excited.

Roddy

A Kept Promise

The additional eye-candy that holds the interest of users and pulls them ever closer to the substantive content of a webpage is now in place.

Try any of the avenues of approach listed in the last entry and click on either Click and Listen or Discover more … whichever is suitable given the user’s approach.  Hidden content now become visible and visible content can be easily hidden at the user’s will.  These function are especially useful to users who visit the Grammar Captive Weekly Podcast webpage via a smart-phone.

By next week, it is expected that the Grammar Captive Weekly Podcast webpage will be fully integrated into the Grammar Captive website.

Handwork and patience are becoming increasingly manifest.  Have a great weekend!

Roddy

A Leap, a Bound, and Many Tiny Jumps Forward

We are nearing the point where the Grammar Captive Weekly Podcast development page will be integrated into the Grammar Captive website as a completed functional component.  Recent major upgrades include:

  1. Installation of jPlayer — the jQuery widget with which users will be able to download and listen to Grammar Captive podcasts while on the Grammar Captive webpage.  For the moment you can only download music.  Try it, anyway!
  2. Installation of jsSocials — the jQuery widget with which users will be able to share easily Grammar Captive podcasts with their friends.
  3. Users can now access the same podcast from four different avenues of approach:
    1. A third-party podcast host page selected by Grammar Captive — e.g., iTunes, Stitcher, Libsyn, etc.
    2. Via a friend’s entry into the user’s mailbox or shared social media account.
    3. Under the Chronology subheading of the navigation bar that will include all podcasts ever produced by Grammar Captive.
    4. Under any of the direct selection options offered under the subheadings Concept, Form and Use, and Technique.
  4. And, all of the underlying PHP, MySQL, Javascript, HTML, and CSS structure and mechanics required to make these two widgets and several avenues of approach work smoothly within the Grammar Captive framework.

What is left is additional formatting and the direct selection of something other than a proxy podcast.

Simply do not forget to click wherever it says Click and Listen and make sure that you send a link to a friend!

It has been another great week at Grammar Captive!  I surely hope that yours has been equally productive.

Roddy