Doing Things Wrong

Changed the Font

Because the font is so important. This is actually the default font for the WordPress back-end, I got to like it. It's a little more crisp than the default sans.

I also started seeing an odd trend in the web stats, so I did what I said I wasn't interested in, and started tracking referrers. That was remarkably easy to do, just a modification of what I had already done. The hard part was working out all the WordPress integration in the first place, and also when to bypass it. After that, it's just a matter of copy-paste-edit, which is how most programming is done.

Tracking internet referrers is problematic - it depends on the visiting browser actually supplying that information, and many don't. It is also blocked by most firewalls. Additionally, 99% of your referrers are going to be Gargle, and I don't need to record that, I really just want to see what else there is.

Of course, now the thing I wanted to study has stopped. That's life.

In other news, the bot counter is just rocketing skyward. I guess we really do live in The Matrix.

Interesting Aside:

The http 'referer' header field is actually a misspelling.

From Wikipedia:

The misspelling of referrer originated in the original proposal by computer scientist Phillip Hallam-Baker to incorporate the field into the HTTP specification. The misspelling was set in stone by the time of its incorporation into the Request for Comments standards document RFC 1945; document co-author Roy Fielding has remarked that neither "referrer" nor the misspelling "referer" were recognized by the standard Unix spell checker of the period. "Referer" has since become a widely used spelling in the industry when discussing HTTP referrers; usage of the misspelling is not universal, though, as the correct spelling "referrer" is used in some web specifications such as the Document Object Model.

Update:

After filtering out Gargle, my referrer effort is collecting literally nothing.

Update:

Incredible. Somebody actually used Bing.

I really like the new font, especially on a phone or tablet.


This is a pack of Duracells I found in my dad's closet. The 'use by' date is January 2002, you can see it right there. Yet, there is not a speck of white mange on them. They have not leaked after over twenty years! These batteries were made in the USA. Modern Duracells are made in China, and are pretty much guaranteed to leak in 20 weeks, if not 20 days. The whole point of alkaline batteries once upon a time was that they didn't leak like acid batteries. You paid extra for that.

Printed from luthierylabs.com