Author Archives: Timothy Kraft
Recognizing Paradigm Shifts Towards Maturity
Once getting an operation such as Web Analytics up and running, humming along, and then realizing it must all change because of a “paradigm shift” can be traumatic but in our business not unexpected. This blog examines one teachable moment in this writer’s experience, and he came to view these shifts as welcomed sign post on our path to web analytics maturity and reorganized his approach in response to move to the next level. Continue reading
Visits are a Wet Blanket
Beware How You Count Events! I am aware that a large segment of the HIPPO market advocate visit based metrics*, but honestly, one can get into trouble if he blindly adheres to “Visits are what count.” All I am saying is perhaps a little more thought should be taken in setting up and serializing events. Quick and non reflective solutions can truly lead to pain down the road. Continue reading
None Is Not An Option!
“None” is a telling symptom of a problem and “None is Not an Option” encapsulates an approach to diagnosing and resolving the problem. When reports are designed such that None is Not Option and “None” appears in a report, it becomes an important tool for diagnosing the problem. The resulting reports not only cover all user behaviors but with discipline allow the reports to address multiple questions and with extra diligence support multiple actions.
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Oracle Announces “A Cloud in a Box”
recently Oracle CEO Larry Ellison announced Oracle’s entry into the cloud-computing arena with Exalogic Elastic Cloud, that has been dubbed “Cloud in a Box”. Ironically the Cloud is supposed to eliminate the Box, so technically this is an oxymoron following current definitions and trends in Cloud Computing. So how can Oracle claim to have a cloud in a box? Continue reading
Breaking: Oops, Google Wave a Fail!
Has the Brain’s Plan Been Foiled? OK – So its not quite breaking news. It took awhile to recover from the shock. For the moment just play along. Google announced recently that they are suspending further development of Google Wave[i].
Just launched on Project Hosting at Google the loafwithjam project. LOAF stands for Live Object Application Framework and supports the Actor Model of Concurrency introduced in my last post. I have upload the documentation for codes that are similar to what have been in operation for web analytics collection and processing successfully for many years. Continue reading
Cloud Computing: Needs a New Programming Paradigm …
We have seen in a previous post how Map Reduce is analogous to how business and product managers plan and implement projects with Gantt Charts allowing a number of tasks to proceed independently in parallel and integrating their products at the end. A question from those outside of computer science might be: why has it taken this long to figure this out? In fact, if computers are so fast and capable, why don’t they figure the quickest, most parallel way of executing multiple tasks all by themselves? Continue reading
Cloud Computing From Upside Down
Google continues to snub their noses to conventional wisdom and build out their cloud their way. What is going on here? If anything history has taught us – don’t ignore the big brain in the corner. So we continue our irreverent look at Google as the Brain’s nefarious plan to take over the world continues. Continue reading
Cloud Computing: 3 Reasons Why Analytics Should Care
From my blog analytics, I can actually see the eyes rolling as my audience quickly skirts my Cloud Computing posts to go to the old stuff (back when I was funny). In some ways I understand the ambivalence but I will give you three reasons to reconsider that ambivalence. As you may be aware, I am not big with posts that give lists of simple answers that can be quickly absorbed and just as easily forgotten. In this case will make exception and try not to spin the topic into simplistic babble. Continue reading
Cloud Computing From Both Sides Now
This is an review of how cloud computing is defined today and what the pundits have to say about its future. Currently it is confined to IT and the ability to move enterprise functions into the cloud onto virtual servers that can be allocated to meet demand. But what is the effect beyond IT? Continue reading
Mind Before You Mine 