Luck of the irish

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Originally uploaded by mastasplinter2001.

I’m guessing Dylan’s St.Patty’s was less crazy than Mike Mann’s

Omniture acquires TouchClarity

I know this happened last month, but I’ve been slow to write about it.

Omniture acquires TouchClarity

The utopia of having your Content Management System integrated with your web analytics is slowly coming together. Imagine making your site more relevant by integrating your behavioral analysis with your CMS. I know some companies do it already but this is going to open up the possibilities to more companies.

Open Source Web Analytics

I have been thinking about this for some time, especially as I recently read Patricia Seybold’s “Outside Innovation”…but is there an open source web analytics solution out there? And if not, could something like that get started as a way to create a really flexible code and reporting engine? I know there are plenty of free options out there with Google Analytics being the biggest, but is there one that allows you to open it up and build more functions on top of it? Wouldn’t that be something that would be of huge benefit?

I love some of the things Omniture and other vendors can do, but because the code and reports are set up in proprietary fashion, they lack a certain flexibility in changing things or adding things that would be really useful. For example inside the applications, you have graphing and trending functions but nowhere as powerful as what you can do in Excel. Why not allow users to free-form create graphs within the tool? Or have more access to the raw data model to create even more relationships and corelations? Or conditional formating in dashboards within in the tool. Or have people contributing to create a javascript that could do even more?

Having a bunch of people all over the world working on the code would likely lead to new innovations and functionality that would really enhance what could be done in the space. Perhaps that is why some companies build their own from scratch (like Amazon) so they do have the control and flexibility.

Companies would emerge to just handle the services part of using an open-source tool and implementation of the open source code. But the reporting tool would be free. Could that work? Or have I had one too many Sierras celebrating the A on the Marketing exam?

Update to last week’s Grad School post

So just like my ACC and NCAA picks, I don’t know what I am talking about in regards to grad school either. You might remember last week that I thought I got an F on my marketing exam. Turns out I got an A. Friggin unbelievable. I think maybe cuz my mind isn’t really all that sharp these days that I can’t think clearly enough to realize I am not a completete idiot when I take these tests. I thought I did bad on a Stats test earlier this semester and got an A on that. Insomnia has a weird way of making you doubt yourself and doubt your decisions. Its good to know that a portion of my brain is still somewhat functioning when i go to task these exams even though I am not aware of it. I really thought I did poorly. In fact, I thought I didn’t even answer the last question. But when I saw it tonite, I had and it wasn’t that bad, not exactly what I would have written with more time, but not bad. The beat goes on…and remember, don’t ever listen to me as I don’t know what I am talking about.

The World according to Dylan

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Originally uploaded by mastasplinter2001.

Really tough day at the office. Its good to sit down and relax. Now where’s my pipe and slippers?

Ramblings for a Tuesday morning

well, took a Marketing exam last nite…and honestly that was my first ever F on an exam. I didn’t even get half way through it. Unreal. Not sure I’ve ever been than that angry before. When I got in the car I had to sit there for a few minutes cuz I was scared I was going to wreck otherwise. Not fun times. Really frustrating 3 hours and jumpstarted more insomnia last nite. This morning though I feel sort of cathartic as its over. Nothing I can do about it, except learn from my mistakes and move on. Now if I could just get my Dolorean working I could do something about it.

In other news…so it was a great ACC tourney over the weekend, and of course basically all my predictions were incorrect. As always…I don’t know what I am talking about. NC State played with a lot of guts, and they should be very proud of themselves. I found myself rooting for them vs UNC on Sunday. Brandon Costner for NCSU was basically unguardable all weekend and was robbed of the MVP.

And so the NCAA tourney begins, and productivity drops another notch not just in the South, but nationally. Everyone has a bracket. I might post my picks later tonite, so that you can pick opposite of me as I don’t know what I am talking about, see ACC tourney picks for a reminder. Also, App State is playing in the NIT.

What am I reading?

Just finished ‘The Road”…very sad story involving the acopalypse and a father-son’s struggle for survival. For some reason I kept thinking of me and Dylan the whole time. Interesting writing style, might check out other McCarthy books.

Started Michael Lewis’ “Blindside” last nite. He is an excellent sports writer that transcends the genre. He also wrote ‘Moneyball”.  A lot more cheery than “The Road”.

Also, have “Good to Great” in the queue.

In the movie department, “Babel”, “Layer Cake”, and “Borat” are all on my desk. Looking forward to Borat.

Got the new Neil Young live acoustic album this morning “Live at Massey”. Plan on listening to it a bunch today.

ok…that’s it for now.

Props to Bob Hazen

Kudos to my brother for making it to the big time of cable TV, not once, not twice, but three times in the last month.

Bob is a reporter for WDBO radio in Orlando and has been covering the Astronaut case, or as some call it, the Diapernaut case. He has appeared 3 times on Nancy Grace to give insight into the case, including the diaper. Really proud of him, and he cleaned up well (though we miss the hair). Someone needs to get him on TV full time, and back in Raleigh.

Here are the transcripts from the Nancy Grace Show (thanks to Hunter for finding these)

1st show

2nd show

3rd show

ACC Tourney begins – the South shuts down

Today begins an unofficial, official Southern holiday…the ACC basketball tournament. Productivity will suffer immensely for the next 4 days.

Up until last year the action didn’t really begin until Friday, but now the league has expanded and there are a million teams, so they play 4 games on Thursday now. I can remember as a kid in elementary and high school where the teacher would wheel in a TV and have the tourney on all day, which might explains why I suck at math. It was weird growing up here as I never developed an allegiance to either Duke, UNC, or NC State but had to deal with lunatic fanbases argue over who was better. I have always rooted for UVa, as I was born there and everyone in my family went there, except me…cuz again I sucked at math. and english.

In any case, just about everyone I know takes off that Friday to watch the games and hang out with friends, whether officially taking off the day or not. So I am doing likewise. I used to disguise it as a working holiday, but the laptop won’t even be on tomorrow, unless it is to pick up stats from the games.

SO it begins again today…and here are my picks. GaTech is my sleeper in this playing on a neutral court, if this was in North Carolina I’d have them lose first round to Wake.

Thursday games:

Flordia State over Clemson, Maryland over Miami, State over Duke,  GaTech over Wake

Friday:

UNC over Florida State, Maryland over BC, Virgina over State, GaTech over Virgina Tech

Saturday:

UNC barely over Maryland, GaTech over Virgina

Sunday:

UNC over GaTech

Avinash Kaushik is now the most sought after web analytics consultant on the market

Big news on Avinash’s blog “Next Stop, Wonderland”

Avinash is leaving Intuit to become the most sought after Web Analytics consultant in the galaxy. First gig, working with Google. Not a bad way to start off. Congrats to Avinash! All the best to you, please stay in touch after you take over the world of analytics.

Also, I will buying Avinash’s first book, I hope everybody else in the Web Analytics universe does the same. It can be purchased at Amazon: Here