Today I received my invitation to sign up for Reinvigorate, an up and coming web analytics solution that has been well received from many beta testers in the blogosphere. Now it’s my turn to become one of them.

I received an email with a special URL that brought me to a unique registration page. At the registration page I had to give the usual information for any analytics site: username, password, email, URL, site name, you get the idea. After completing that form I was brought to the accounts page where you can view all of your accounts, add a new site or group, or view/edit your details. Every site you are tracking is listed at the bottom and you have the option to view reports, edit preferences, delete or as in this case install the tracking code.

There are three installation options: standard, WordPress and Drupal (standard can be used for WordPress or Drupal if preferred). I chose the Wordpress option which involved downloading a plugin, uploaidng to /wp-content/plugins, activating from the plugins section of the admin panel, and configuring a custom tracking string within the plugin settings. For those who have installed Akismet, the process is very similar.

Once we finish implementing the tracking code we are good to go and you can begin viewing reports (obviously you need to wait for data to start coming in). One thing I did notice — and this is not official just through my observations — is that tracking seems to be real-time. In the course of taking some screen shots I saw the numbers start to crawl up slowly; so that is a huge plus. Here is the main reports screen:

I haven’t included screen shots of other sections yet as there wasn’t really any data to work with after two minutes of having this thing installed. However, metrics you can view on other tabs are as follows:

Traffic - Hourly, Daily, Monthly, Yearly, Hourly Distributions
Visitor Detail - Browsers, Platform, Screen, User-Agen, Timezone, Geolocation, Language & Region, .NET
Session - Visitors, Activity, Detailed Activity, Active Pages, Visit Duration, Visit Duration (Page), Visit Depth
Site & Path - Popular Paths, Popular Pages, Entry Pages, Exit Pages
Search & Referrer - Referrers, Top Referrers, Referred Visitors, Referred Pages, Referred Searches, Keywords

Anything ground-breaking or revolutionary at first peek, not exactly. But certainly at the front of the pack with the others in terms of what metrics are offered — especially given the price (free). Where Reinvigorate really separates itself apart from the rest of the pack is with UI and usability. What good is a stats program if it cannot portray the numbers to the user in a format that is understandable and actionable.

I look forward to seeing the real power of Reinvigorate unfold as it collects more data moving forward. If you’re interested in exploring Reinvigorate for yourself you can apply for a beta testing account by going to their home page and clicking on the “Beta Registration” link (I would post the link but the form is only accessible via AJAX drop down). Cheers!

MacRumors is reporting that the iPhone may be available for purchase on June 20th. The article cites “a number of reader reports and a Google Groups message board” that claim an analyst on the CNBC show On The Money said they had been given a confirmed date of the 20th.

Actually, On the Money last night on CNBC, the telco Analyst said they had been given the confirmed date of the 20th. Not sure where this official release is, but they specifically said iPhone release date was finally released and it was to be the 20th.

Sounds like a lot of he said, she said, but with the iPhone any news is important. What does gives this story some credibility, however, is that Apple’s iPhone sales/support training runs from May 30th - June 20th. So perhaps we are in for a pleasant surprise.

The popular blog-tracking community MyBlogLog has just added tagging functionality into their suite of blog metrics. Now, when you are viewing a members profile or a community you have the option to label with tags. Hovering the mouse over the tags will reveal which users have tagged the profile or community with the tag you’re hovering over.

Tags are also clickable. When clicking a tag you are taken to a list of all the members or communities that have been labeled with that corresponding tag. Finally, when viewing the tag page that lists members/communities who have been tagged with that word, you can hover the mouse over items to see who tagged them.

This is a great move on the part of MBL. Often times I find myself limited in ways to reach out and connect with fellow bloggers, and this wil certainly facilitate that connection.

We hear horrible and tragic news on a daily basis from around the world, but still this one somehow manages to stick out from the rest. Today it was revealed that Vice President Dick Cheney has dispatched a senior aide around Washington, D.C. to meet with national security think tanks and other consultants to “help establish the policy and political pathway to bombing Iran.”

Yes, you read that right, Cheney is looking for a way to bomb Iran. What’s more, Cheney and President Bush appear to be at odds over this situation as Bush seems to be more willing to try Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s diplomatic approach. And get this, Cheney is planning to carry out the attacks even if Bush does not agree to it:

The Cheney aide, who has met with policy hands of the American Enterprise Institute along with other groups, “has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an ‘end run strategy’ around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument.”

The goal of Cheney’s plan is to coerce Iran into striking first, at either U.S. forces in the region or at Israel, so that the U.S. could reply with brute force — recall that the U.S. Navy has recently been built up in the Persian Gulf. His plan is said to involve Israel (and possibly the U.S.) mounting a bombing campaign against Iran’s nuclear facilities. In which case Iran would respond militarily and Cheney would get his way. The result for us, humanity, would of course be catastrophic in every sense of the word.

I have a number of issues with this. First, the world already views America as an imperialist aggressor given the two concurrent — and horribly mismanaged — wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Comparisons to the Roman Empire and to the Nazis have begun to circulate — the German people let Hitler do what he wanted and by the time they realized how much of a madman he was it was too late — and starting another war would do nothing but exacerbate the situation. Second, Dick Cheney himself is responsible for the Iranian nuclear issue as he sold nuclear materials to Iran during the 1970s. Sounds familiar to us supporting the Afghans in the 1980s and them turning against us. See a pattern developing here when Cheney gets involved in the Middle East. And finally, since when does Cheney have the authority to not only bypass Congress’ approval to start a war, but to also subvert the president in the process. This is a crime of the highest level and Cheney should be impeached!

Whether you believe it or not, the sad reality is that America has begun it’s decline as a glorious, prosperous and respected country, and we are quickly loosing superpower status. Not for a failing economy, or for a natural and unavoidable reason, but because of the neo-conservative greed that has overtaken this country. And what’s worse, that fact that nobody is willing to stand up to them — even though the Democrats now control the House and the Senate.

Bush, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft; these are not the men to worry about. Dick Cheney is the single biggest threat to the security of the U.S. and global civilization.

Croner, a human resources company, is reporting that more than a third of UK bloggers are at risk of getting fired for posting derogatory information about their boss, colleagues or workplace in general. In the study, 39% of 2,000 people admitted to keeping a blog or diary in which they make hurtful comments.

“If there is a negative impact on the organisation’s corporate image which is so serious that it breaches the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, the employee could be dismissed for gross misconduct.”

The study concludes by stating that bloggers should consider the impact of everything they post, as gross misconduct is an offense that is surely to lead to getting fired.

Well duh. This clearly isn’t rocket science and it probably wasn’t worth wasting the money required to finance this study. Anyone who writes about their employer in a negative manner has got to know that they are subject to the ramifications of their actions. Blogs are public space on the Internet where anyone can go. Thus, to badmouth your boss on your blog is essentially the same as doing it directly to his or her face. And we all know what would happen if we did that.

A little common sense goes a long way. Perhaps a bit of light reading would be beneficial for some…

New rules from the Internet Society of China, a group comprised of large Chinese Internet companies, will require bloggers to register their blogs with their real names and identification cards. Additionally, the group encourages bloggers to use their real names when blogging. According to the ISC:

The code is aimed at “limiting and preventing unhealthy and illegal content on the Web,” the document said. It said some people use blogs to “disseminate objectionable content, seriously disrupting social order and the public interest and polluting the online network environment.”

That quote from the group should be re-written to read “limiting and preventing freedom of expression and ideas,” because that’s all China is trying to do here. You do recall the Chinese university dean that was fired for blogging his thoughts, don’t you? Clearly China is only concerned with maintaining communist order through censorship.

This is just another in the series of countless examples of Internet censorship around the globe, particularly toward bloggers. We should all be so grateful that we are still able to speak our minds when we blog, and that we don’t have to be worried about being thrown in jail for badmouthing the government.

A few days ago I wrote about how porn star Barbie Cummings performed sexual favors for a Tennessee State Trooper to get out of getting illegal drug charges. The story was submitted to Digg (along with a million others of the same subject matter) and I received a decent amount of traffic from it. No biggie.

What amazes me, however, is the amount of traffic I’m still getting from that post. Not from it getting a lot of Diggs or being viewed in upcoming stories, but rather from people searching Digg.com for the porn star’s name.

That is just one screen shot from today showing how many Diggers are searching for Barbie. I have countless pages full of searches for “Barbie,” “Barbie Cummings,” “Cummings,” “Barbie Cummings and state trooper,” etc. — you get the idea.

Diggers love Barbie!

Last month I wrote about a Dutchman who re-created Noah’s Ark as a sign of his compassion for the literal truth of the Bible. Now Noah’s Ark is being rebuilt again, but by someone completely different — environmental activists — and for an altogether different cause: global warming.

Historically speaking, Noah’s Ark was built to save humanity and the animal kingdom from the flooding of Earth — a punishment for humanity’s sins. Today, the ark is being rebuilt to serve as a warning to mankind to act now to bring a halt to global warming.

The new ark is being built on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, where according to the Bible Noah’s Ark came to a rest after the flood waters had subsided. The project is set to be completed by the end of this month in order to coincide with a summit taking place in Germany next month where global warming will be high on the agenda.

“This is directed mainly at the politicians of this earth, to world leaders who are primarily responsible for the climate catastrophe which is taking place and for the solution,” said Wolfgang Sadik, campaign leader for Greenpeace, which is behind the project. “The aim is to put on Mount Ararat a memorial, a warning sign that also gives hope, to shake up the world and to say that if we don’t react now it is too late.”

Now this is the type of action that people need to be taking when trying to make a stand on an issue. Depending on the amount of coverage it gets on various media channels around the world, this has the potential to make a real impact on people, because it strikes directly into the heart of billions of Christians, Jews, and Muslims around the world. If this can’t act as a catalyst in getting the peoples of the world to unite and combat global warming I really don’t know what can…

TechCrunch is confirming that Google will be acquiring FeedBurner for $100 million. I first read rumors of a possible deal last week but refrained from posting for fear of being proven wrong later. Now, however, the deal has been confirmed and is in the closing stages.

According to TechCrunch, “the deal is all cash and mostly upfront … the founders will be locked in for a couple of years.” The deal — which is now under a binding contract — is set to close in 2 - 3 weeks.

I think this is fantastic news. I’ve been casually discussing with some bloggers the prospect of having our FeedBurner statistics integrated within our Google Analytics accounts, and everyone I spoken to about it has been very excited. Congratulations to the founders of FeedBurner, $100 million is certainly not chump change.

As men, we often get intimidated when we see a beautiful woman in the room. Worse even is when we see that beautiful woman with a guy who doesn’t deserve to be with her. In most cases we would jump to the quick stereotype of her being a gold digger, saying that she’s only with him for his money. But it goes beyond that. Even if you have money, there are certain characteristics you need to exhibit if you want to land that girl of your dreams.

Here now, I present to you the 7 C’s to landing a beautiful woman:

1) Confidence
We start off with this one because it is one of the most crucial. A man needs to be exhibit a sense of confidence in the way he carries himself. Beautiful women need men who know how to feel comfortable in all situations. She is often the center of attention wherever she goes, and she needs someone who can hold his own (think Albert at the party with Allegra in the movie Hitch). Be careful not to be overly confident to the point of cockiness, that is one of the quickest ways to drive her away.

2) Cleanliness
Take a shower, put on some deodorant, get a haircut and ace the 5 o’clock shadow. If you want an attractive woman you need to make yourself presentable.

3) Charisma
Be interesting and unique, someone that other people want to be around (recall how Alfie keeps women hanging on his every word). Beautiful women meet tons of people every day, and pathetic guys drooling all over them are certainly in no short supply. You need to separate yourself from the rest of the pack — do something that will leave a positive, lasting first impression so that she won’t soon forget you.

4) Charity
Be giving to others. Despite the common stereotype, a beautiful woman really doesn’t want to date a jerk. Be the guy who is thoughtful and genuine to everyone. Women notice how you treat other women, so position yourself as the sweetheart guy (think Bill Bellamy dancing with the ugly girl in How To Be A Player).

5) Communication
This one may be blatantly obvious but it’s easy to under appreciate. Bottom line: you need to be able to talk to her. If you walk up to engage her in conversation and your body is suddenly overcome by rigamortis what use will she have for you? Absolutely none. So turn off the computer, stop threatening 12-year-olds on Xbox live, get out of the basement and learn how to initiate and maintain a discussion with a member of the opposite sex. Ask her how she is and how her day was. Showing a genuine interest in her will get you a long way.

6) Chivalry
Sorry guys, but chivalry is not dead. Women like Beyonce may be independent, but they still enjoy being treated like a lady. Open doors, hold elevators, pull out seats when sitting at a table. Chivalristic acts of this nature will show a beautiful woman how great of a catch you are, and will make her more inclined to choose you from the bunch.

7) Career
Although most women are not gold diggers, they all need that sense of security and stability. You don’t need the pockets of Larry or Sergey, but you do need to have a job with enough income to pay the bills — no, employment at the BK Lounge does not satisfy this requirement. No beautiful woman wants to be the breadwinner while you’re at home playing WoW all day. Have some ambition and drive to succeed, laziness is nothing but unappealing to beautiful women.

I hope these seven points have provided you with something of substance that you can take away and apply to your own lives. Please feel free to contribute any additional C’s that could help our fellow men in their quest for beautiful women.