September 29, 2005

I’m excited about this one.

For Immediate Release
For more information, a review copy, cover art, or an interview with
the author, contact:
Kathryn Barrett (707) 827-7094 or kathrynb@oreilly.com

Optimize Your Online Business Through Data Analysis
O’Reilly Releases “Web Site Measurement Hacks”

Sebastopol, CA–Most companies measure their web activity because they
want to know how well their marketing and advertising budget is being
spent. It just makes sense. You wouldn’t want your doctor to recommend a
treatment for you after just glancing at you, or your mechanic to tinker
with your car based on his gut feeling.  As Eric T. Peterson observes in
his new guide for beginning to intermediate analytics users, “Web Site
Measurement Hacks” (O’Reilly, US $24.95), “Our entire world is run using
data collected from the environment around us. Why would you think your
web site is any different?”

Until recently, many regarded web measurement as a murky subject loaded
with confusing and ambiguous terminology, that was often considered the
domain of data-loving geeks. But great strides have been made in the field
of web measurement in the last few years resulting in applications that
are easier to understand and use.

“In 2005, web measurement applications are as important to the Internet
business framework as web servers and commerce engines,” says Peterson.
“Few serious businesses spend money online without having a tool in place
to measure the effect of that expenditure, providing data for critical
analysis of the question, ‘Was that money well spent?’”

Peterson also points out that there are plenty of sources for purely
technical information about web data–how to parse logfiles, optimize
server performance, and write cool JavaScript. “Unfortunately, it is
usually the ‘why,’ not the ‘how,’ that leaves businesses hanging,” he
explains. “Web data collection is a simple practice, as is parsing the
data into relatively meaningful buckets. The hard part is the
analysis–figuring out what data is important and what it means relative
to the business problem at hand.”

“Web Site Measurement Hacks” is designed to help readers learn how to gain
insight into how people use their web sites: it offers bits and bytes of
information that can be used to better explore, understand, and unearth
information about how people interact with sites. “There are scripts and
technical tricks,” says Peterson, “but the essence of hacking in this
context is analysis. This compendium of interesting ideas, built upon a
foundation of relevant and important information about how the Web is
measured, is designed to turn you into a sophisticated web data analyst
(or at least push you in the right direction).”

The book comprises 100 hacks written by some of the best and brightest
minds in web measurement today. Among the wide range of topics in the
book, there are hacks to show readers how to:

-Get up to speed on what’s needed to build an effective measurement
 program
-Implement a measurement solution that will help them learn about visitors
 while respecting their privacy
-Quantify the effectiveness of banner ads, email campaigns, paid search,
 affiliate programs, and RSS feeds
-Use technographic data to guide design decisions
-Enhance a retail site’s effectiveness by improving the shopping and
 checkout process and identifying valuable customer segments

Above all, “Web Site Measurement Hacks” will help readers better
understand how to get the full value from their investment in web
measurement technology and make better marketing decisions. It was written
for anyone involved in the process of designing web sites or the marketing
and support of products, service, and content through those sites. “We
cover all four major business models: retail, advertising, marketing, and
customer support,” says Peterson. “IT staff will benefit from our hacks on
technographics just as much as marketers will benefit from our hacks on
marketing measurement, or merchandisers from our entire chapter on retail
measurement hacks.” The book is a must-read for anyone charged with
improving or maintaining a web site.

Additional Resources:

Several sample hacks, including, “Best Practices for Web Measurement,”
“Measure Content Syndicated via RSS,” and “Use Key Performance
Indicators,” are available online at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/webmeasurehks/chapter/index.html

For more information about the book, including table of contents, index,
author bio, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/webmeasurehks/index.html

For a cover graphic in JPEG format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596009887.jpg

Web Site Measurement Hacks
Eric T. Peterson
ISBN: 0-596-00988-7, 405 pages, $24.95 US, $34.95 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, CA 95472

About O’Reilly
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http://www.oreilly.com

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O’Reilly is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. All other
trademarks are property of their respective owners. 

I read Sartre’s plays in French class in high school, and loved them. I’m going to pass on the unedifying spectacle of the actual person:

Unwittingly or not, Sartre set the stage for trouble. In 1929, when he and Beauvoir began their affair, he proposed that each would have “contingent” relationships, meaning they would sleep with others, and that they would be completely “transparent,” meaning they would tell each other everything.

So after Beauvoir slept with her 17-year-old student, Olga Kosakiewicz, Sartre tried to seduce Olga, too. When Olga rejected him, he seduced Olga’s sister, Wanda. When Beauvoir slept with another student, Bianca Bienenfeld, Sartre did. He also seduced Beauvoir’s former student, Nathalie Sorokine, with whom Beauvoir was sleeping. When Beauvoir had an affair with Claude Lanzmann, Sartre started one with Lanzmann’s sister, Evelyne.

They would all be a “family,” Sartre said.

Sometimes it worked, lovers and friends drinking, dining, swapping partners in the Montparnasse section of Paris. But there were also tears and jealousy. Sartre died in 1980, Beauvoir in 1986. The family is now divided into feuding camps. Sartre’s is led by Ms. Sartre, with whom he had a brief affair when she was 19 and he was 51. Beauvoir’s is headed by Ms. Beauvoir, w

ho describes her relationship to Beauvoir in “Tête-à-Tête” as “carnal but not sexual.”

What we expected: something about the Hogwarts Graveyard.  
Question: What was it like meeting JK, what was her advice like?
Alfonso: She [Rowling] said I should stay faithful to the spirit of the book not literal. That was entrusting me a lot of freedom. But freedom and responsibility is the same thing - I was like ‘oh gosh - am I being faithful to the spirit?’
The amazing thing with JK as a collaborator is she doesn’t stop you doing anything. The way she approaches it has nothing to do with ‘I like’ or ‘I dislike’ it’s ‘this makes sense’ or ‘it doesn’t make sense in this universe.’
I give you an example: There’s a scene where Malfoy wants to see Buckbeak being executed. It’s where Hermione punches him. And there’s a sundial. We thought we need something there. I said ‘Let’s put a graveyard there’.
She says: ‘No, you can’t have a graveyard there’. And I’m like, ‘Why?’ She says: ‘Oh because the graveyard is near this other wing of the castle and it’s going to play an important part in number six because such and such and such. (CBBC Newsround, 5/28/04,, http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_3758000/3758101.stm)
Kudos to the sharp-eyed guys at http://www.halfbloodprince.info for spotting this one, referenced in an interview with “Azkaban” director Alfonso Cuaron.
What we got:
I’m not sure I understand what JKR was talking about in this comment.  The first thing that comes to mind is The White Tomb where Dumbledore is buried.  

SouthBendTribune.com: Film will be reply to ‘Da Vinci Code’: “SOUTH BEND — NewGroup Media, a South Bend communications company, will produce a documentary based on Dan Brown’s best-selling novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’ for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

‘Jesus De-coded: Catholic Perspective on the ‘Da Vinci Code,’ ‘ scheduled to air nationally in April 2006 on NBC — just before release of the Ron Howard-directed studio film starring Tom Hanks — will look at the Roman Catholic Church’s position on issues raised in the novel.”

The South Bend dateline is a big ol’ clue where this film is coming from.

Ok, Mel Gibson’s not involved, either.

Michael Crichton, Novelist, Becomes Senate Witness - New York Times: “‘When I’m finished, I’m done,’ he said. Except when he’s not, which is the case with ‘State of Fear.’ But that may not be true for his next book, which is almost complete. ‘It’s extremely uncontroversial,’ he said, offering no details.”

Locals land on Forbes 400 list - The Boston Globe: “Salman Rushdie delivered an even better put-down in his talk at Tufts. The ”Satanic Verses’ scribe suggested that Dan Brown’s ”The Da Vinci Code’ would be an excellent candidate for ”the worst novel ever written.’”

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/proc_bio_content/abstracts/kubodera.html

The butler didn’t do it for Ask Jeeves - Computerworld: “‘By the way, Jeeves will disappear, and we will be called Ask or Ask.com,’ Diller said during the conference. ‘Not that I don’t like that butler. He’s actually a thinner butler now.’

Jeeves, created by British humorist P.G. Wodehouse, was slimmed down and given a tan last year, said Lisa Meakin, a London-based spokeswoman for Ask Jeeves. But surveys showed users tended to pigeonhole the search engine as ‘old-fashioned’ and appropriate only for question-based queries, Meakin said.

The company’s research has shown that use of the Jeeves character as the prominent symbol of the brand blinds people to recent changes and improvements in the search engine, the company said in a statement.”

Hate to break this to you, Barry, but if it comes to a choice between a world without Jeeves and Wooster, or a world without Ask.com, you’re going overboard in a hurry.