Google Webinar on Web Analytics

Google webinar on web analytics-

recommended for anyone with anything to do with the WWW

From

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2011/11/webinar-reaching-your-goals-with.html

 

Webinar: Reaching Your Goals with Analytics

 

 

Is your website performing as well as it could be? Do you want to get more out of your digital marketing campaigns, including AdWords and other digital media? Do you feel like you have gaps in your current Google Analytics setup?

We’ve heard from many of our users who want to go deeper into their Analytics — with so much data, it can be hard to know where to look first. If you’d like to move beyond standard “pageview” metrics and visitor statistics, then please join us next Thursday:

Webinar: Reaching Your Goals with Analytics
Date: Thursday, December 1
Time: 11am PST / 2pm EST
Sign up here!

During the webinar, we’ll cover:

  • Key questions to ask for richer insights from your data
  • How to define “success” (for websites, visitors, or campaigns)
  • How to set up and use Goals
  • How to set up and use Ecommerce (for websites with a shopping cart)
  • How to link AdWords to your Google Analytics account

Whatever your online business model — shopping, lead-generation, or pure content — these tools will deliver actionable insights into your buying cycle.

This webinar will be led by Joe Larkin, a technical specialist on the Google Analytics team, and it’s designed for intermediate users of Google Analytics. If you’re comfortable with the basics, but you’d like to do more with your data, then we hope you’ll join us next week!

What are you thankful for?

I am thankful for-1) God and Jesus Christ and Rama and Allah and Buddha and their priests and intermediaries and everybody taking care of me. or atleast trying hard to take care of me.2) Earth my planet for nourishing me despite me polluting her, her fresh air and her delicious fruit and marvellous wine and hearty bread.

3) Fellow Human Beings for being nice to me when they feel curt, for displaying civilized manners, and working together in a vast invisible web of commerce, trade and exchange to meet our needs.

4) Scientists and Engineers who create wonderful technology by spending hours , months , years of their lives and giving it up for free on the Internet.

5) Powerful people who take time to mentor unknown wild cards, and young people to rejuvenate with new exciting ideas.

6) people who appreciate my poetry and people who appreciate my technology. and people who criticize only in the intention of me striving to create something better.

Continue reading “What are you thankful for?”

Webinar: Using R within Oracle #rstats

Webinar: Using R within Oracle — Nov 30, noon EST

==========================================
Oracle now supports the R open source statistical programming language. Come to this webinar to learn more about using R within an Oracle environment.

— URL for TechCast: https://stbeehive.oracle.com/bconf/confDetails?confID=334B:3BF0:owch:38893C00F42F38A1E0404498C8A6612B0004075AECF7&guest=true&confKey=608880
— Web Conference ID: 303397
— Web Conference Key: 608880
— Dialup:             1-866-682-4770      , ID 5548204, passcode 1234

After a steady rise in the past few years, in 2010 the open source data mining software R overtook other tools to become the tool used by more data miners (43%) than any other (http://www.rexeranalytics.com/Data-Miner-Survey-Results-2010.html).

Several analytic tool vendors have added R-integration to their software. However, Oracle is the largest company to throw their weight behind R. On October 3, Oracle unveiled their integration of R: Oracle R Enterprise (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/features/features-oracle-r-enterprise-498732.html) as part of their Oracle Big Data Appliance announcement (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/512001).

Oracle R Enterprise allows users to perform statistical analysis with advanced visualization on data stored in Oracle Database. Oracle R Enterprise enables scalable R solutions, while facilitating production deployment of R scripts and Hadoop based solutions, as well as integration of R results with Oracle BI Publisher and OBIEE dashboards.

This TechCast introduces the various Oracle R Enterprise components and features, along with R script demonstrations that interface with Oracle Database.

TechCast presenter: Mark Hornick, Senior Manager, Oracle Advanced Analytics Development.
This TechCast is part of the ongoing TechCasts series coordinated by Oracle BIWA: The BI, Warehousing and Analytics SIG (http://www.oracleBIWA.org).

Preview- Google Cloud SQL

From –http://code.google.com/apis/sql/

What is Google Cloud SQL?

Google Cloud SQL is web service that allows you to create, configure, and use relational databases with your App Engine applications. It is a fully-managed service that maintains, manages, and administers your databases, allowing you to focus on your applications and services.

By offering the capabilities of a MySQL database, the service enables you to easily move your data, applications, and services into and out of the cloud. This allows for high data portability and helps in faster time-to-market because you can quickly leverage your existing database (using JDBC and/or DB-API) in your App Engine application.

Here is where you can get an invite to the beta only Google Cloud SQL

Sign up for Limited Preview

Google Cloud SQL is available to a limited number of users. To sign up for the service:

  1. Visit the Google APIs Console. The console opens the All services pane.
  2. Find the SQL Service line in the Services table and click Request access…
  3. Fill out the enrollment form.
  4. Our team will review your enrollment information and respond by email to the address associated with your Google Account.
  5. Follow the link in the email to view the Terms of Service. Please read these carefully before accepting.
  6. Sign up for the google-cloud-sql-announce group to receive important announcements and product news. (NOTE- Members: 384)
and after all that violence and double talk, a walk in the clouds with SQL.
1. There are three kinds of instances in the beta view
2. Wait for the Instance to be created note- the Design of the Interface uptil now is much better than Amazon’s.  
Note you need to have an appspot application from Google Apps and can choose between the Python and Java versions. Quite clearly there is a play for other languages too. I think GO is also supported.
3. You can import your data from your Google Storage bucket
4. I am not that hot at coding or maybe the interface was too pretty. Anyways- the log tells me that import of the text file has failed from Google Storage to Google Cloud SQL 
5. Incidentally the Google Cloud Storage interface is also much better than the Amazon GUI for transferring data- Note I was using the classical statistical dataset Boston Housing Data as the test case. 
6. The SQL prompt is the weakest part of the design process of the Interphase. There is no Query builder and the SELECT FROM WHERE prompt is slightly amusing/ insulting . I mean guys either throw in a fully fledged GUI for query builder similar to the MYSQL Workbench , than create a pretty white command prompt.
7. You can also export your data back to your Google Storage bucket 
These are early days, and I am trying to see if there is a play for some cloud kind of ODBC action between R, Prediction API , and the cloud SQL… so try it out yourself at http://code.google.com/apis/sql/ and see if there is any juice you can build  here.

Anonymous Hacker

Digital salmon swimming alone upstream
Sacrificing sleep for bits of some dream
Patiently stalking impatient trolls
Denying web crawlers omnipotent stroll
Digitally Dividing and conquering
Masquerading charlatans of new age ball
Sheep like server waits for hacking hammer to fall

Amazing nights but boring days
Lord forgive us our digital merry ways
Going back to the day job in the morn
Keeping up appearances to earn bread and daily corn

Masking emotions daily outrage
Waging lonesome wars of rage
we are small but proud
forced sometimes kneel and crawl
hacker cracker phisher phracker
wont you be my friend after it all

by –
Ajay Ohri
Happy Guy Fawkes Day-
V

 

Google Plus Hangouts gets Enterprise Level Upgrade

Check out the new Google Plus Hangout with Extras

http://www.google.com/support/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1289346&ctx=go&hl=en

About Hangouts with Extras

Hangouts with Extras is a simple and easy way to connect and collaborate with your colleagues in real time. With Hangouts with Extras you can:

Connect with multiple people simultaneously: With group video chat and web conferencing you can connect with multiple people around the world at the same time.

Share your screen: Ever look at something that you couldn’t quite put into words? Well, with screen sharing you give other people the ability to view what’s on your computer screen. You can choose an open window screen on your computer and give everyone in your meeting the ability to look at it. Learn More

Collaborate in real time: You can meet, share notes, and even work on documents at the same time.Learn More

For enterprises- you can throw out your video conferencing software and collaboration tools and get a new mobile app for free.

Small drawbacks in the Google Plus- lack of integration with Youtube (it is one way integration from youtube to hangouts but not the other way round fixed), lack of a whiteboard  for sketches- (like again a shortcut to a google doc 🙂 ) or even bundling the record from your web cam to record your desktop.

Ultimately enterprises want to know how they can use this stuff for e-learning modules or webcasts.

—————–END—————————-

Alternative uses-

Check out NY Met Museum with Friends (thanks to Google Art Project)

Play Linkin Park Playlist (100 videos) with Friends btw. great graphic redesign of Youtube icons!! Now if we could only convince the Google Docs to get more integrated with Open Office or LibreOffice templates

or even set up a DJ table session using Google Hangouts. with Extras of course.

But as it stands it may be good to go for webcasts !!

 

Google Cloud SQL

Another xing bang API from the boyz in Mountain View. (entry by invite only) But it is free and you can test your stuff on a MySQL db =10 GB

Database as a service ? (Maybe)— while Amazon was building fires (and Fire)

—————————————————————–

https://code.google.com/apis/sql/index.html

What is Google Cloud SQL?

Google Cloud SQL is a web service that provides a highly available, fully-managed, hosted SQL storage solution for your App Engine applications.

What are the benefits of using Google Cloud SQL?

You can access a familiar, highly available SQL database from your App Engine applications, without having to worry about provisioning, management, and integration with other Google services.

How much does Google Cloud SQL cost?

We will not be billing for this service in 2011. We will give you at least 30 days’ advance notice before we begin billing in the future. Other services such as Google App Engine, Google Cloud Storage etc. that you use with Google Cloud SQL may have their own payment terms, and you need to pay for them. Please consult their documentation for details.

Currently you are limited to the three instance sizes. What if I need to store more data or need better performance?

In the Limited Preview period, we only have three sizes available. If you have specific needs, we would like to hear from you on our google-cloud-sqldiscussion board.

When is Google Cloud SQL be out of Limited Preview?

We are working hard to make the service generally available.We don’t have a firm date that we can announce right now.

Do you support all the features of MySQL?

In general, Google Cloud SQL supports all the features of MySQL. The following are lists of all the unsupported features and notable differences that Google Cloud SQL has from MySQL.

Unsupported Features:

  • User defined functions
  • MySql replication

Unsupported MySQL statements:

  • LOAD DATA INFILE
  • SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE
  • SELECT ... INTO DUMPFILE
  • INSTALL PLUGIN .. SONAME ...
  • UNINSTALL PLUGIN
  • CREATE FUNCTION ... SONAME ...

Unsupported SQL Functions:

  • LOAD_FILE()

Notable Differences:

  • If you want to import databases with binary data into your Google Cloud SQL instance, you must use the --hex-blob option with mysqldump.Although this is not a required flag when you are using a local MySQL server instance and the MySQL command line, it is required if you want to import any databases with binary data into your Google Cloud SQL instance. For more information, see Importing Data.
How large a database can I use with Google Cloud SQL?
Currently, in this limited preview period, your database instance must be no larger than 10GB.
How can I be notified when there are any changes to Google Cloud SQL?
You can sign up for the sql-announcements forum where we post announcements and news about the Google Cloud SQL.
How can I cancel my Google Cloud SQL account?
To remove all data from your Google Cloud SQL account and disable the service:

  1. Delete all your data. You can remove your tables, databases, and indexes using the drop command. For more information, see SQL DROP statement.
  2. Deactivate the Google Cloud SQL by visiting the Services pane and clicking the On button next to Google Cloud SQL. The button changes from Onto Off.
How do I report a bug, request a feature, or ask a question?
You can report bugs and request a feature on our project page.You can ask a question in our discussion forum.

Getting Started

Can I use languages other than Java or Python?
Only Java and Python are supported for Google Cloud SQL.
Can I use Google Cloud SQL outside of Google App Engine?
The Limited Preview is primarily focused on giving Google App Engine customers the ability to use a familiar relational database environment. Currently, you cannot access Google Cloud SQL from outside Google App Engine.
What database engine are we using in the Google Cloud SQL?
MySql Version 5.1.59
Do I need to install a local version of MySQL to use the Development Server?
Yes.

Managing Your Instances

Do I need to use the Google APIs Console to use Google Cloud SQL?
Yes. For basic tasks like granting access control to applications, creating instances, and deleting instances, you need to use the Google APIs Console.
Can I import or export specific databases?
No, currently it is not possible to export specific databases. You can only export your entire instance.
Do I need a Google Cloud Storage account to import or export my instances?
Yes, you need to sign up for a Google Cloud Storage account or have access to a Google Cloud Storage account to import or export your instances. For more information, see Importing and Exporting Data.
If I delete my instance, can I reuse the instance name?
Yes, but not right away. The instance name is reserved for up to two months before it can be reused.

Tools & Resources

Can I use Django with Google Cloud SQL?
No, currently Google Cloud SQL is not compatible with Django.
What is the best tool to use for interacting with my instance?
There are a variety of tools available for Google Cloud SQL. For executing simple statements, you can use the SQL prompt. For executing more complicated tasks, you might want to use the command line tool. If you want to use a tool with a graphical interface, the SQuirrel SQL Client provides an interface you can use to interact with your instance.

Common Technical Questions

Should I use InnoDB for my tables?
Yes. InnoDB is the default storage engine in MySQL 5.5 and is also the recommended storage engine for Google Cloud SQL. If you do not need any features that require MyISAM, you should use InnoDB. You can convert your existing tables using the following SQL command, replacing tablename with the name of the table to convert:

ALTER tablename ENGINE = InnoDB;

If you have a mysqldump file where all your tables are in MyISAM format, you can convert them by piping the file through a sed script:

mysqldump --databases database_name [-u username -p  password] --hex-blob database_name | sed 's/ENGINE=MyISAM/ENGINE=InnoDB/g' > database_file.sql

Warning: You should not do this if your mysqldump file contains the mysql schema. Those files must remain in MyISAM.

Are there any size or QPS limits?
Yes, the following limits apply to Google Cloud SQL:

Resource Limits from External Requests Limits from Google App Engine
Queries Per Second (QPS) 5 QPS No limit
Maximum Request Size 16 MB
Maximum Response Size 16 MB

Google App Engine Limits

Google App Engine applications are also subject to additional Google App Engine quotas and limits. Requests from Google App Engine applications to Google Cloud SQL are subject to the following time limits:

  • All database requests must finish within the HTTP request timer, around 60 seconds.
  • Offline requests like cron tasks have a time limit of 10 minutes.
  • Backend requests to Google Cloud SQL have a time limit of 10 minutes.

App Engine-specific quotas and access limits are discussed on the Google App Engine Quotas page.

Should I use Google Cloud SQL with my non-High Replication App Engine application?
We recommend that you use Google Cloud SQL with High Replication App Engine applications. While you can use use Google Cloud SQL with applications that do not use high replication, doing so might impact performance.
Source-
https://code.google.com/apis/sql/faq.html#supportmysqlfeatures