When Google released Google Analytics, they allowed webmasters to use near-enterprise level analytics for free. However, there are a lot of things you need to tinker with in order to get some of the data you need from it.

1. Tracking clicks on links. Every time you put a link to anything external or a download on a page, make sure you add onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(’/link/linkname’); “. Always know where your visitors went.
2. Tracking user groups. If you’re sending people to a landing page, and you want to know where they go from there, segment them by using onLoad=”javascript:pageTracker._setVar(’Segment/Subgroup’);”. This will help you know what different groups are doing, and split-test user behaviour.
3. Tracking full referred URLs. You’ll often get visits from forums or blogs that append their URLs. That’s not much use to you, so to make sure you know where people actually came from, set up a filter with the following settings:
   • Name: Full Referrers
   • Type: Custom filter - Advanced
   • Field A -> Extract A: Referral > (.*)
   • Field B -> Extract B: -
   • Output To -> Constructor: User-defined > $A$1
4. Exclude internal visits. Add a new filter, with the “Exclude all traffic from an IP address” setting. Then add your own IP address, and repeat for

So let’s see what I have running in my household (which consists of me, myself and I):

• OpenSUSE 11 on the laptop
• Windows XP and 2000 on the Dell
• Windows NT 4 Server on the other Dell which is a glorified NAS (Network Attached Storage) box
• Mac OS X 10.4 on the eMac
• Mac OS 9.2 on the iMac

A balanced lot I think. The top two get the most use in general. The time has come however to take the jump and start plugging away with Windows Vista.

I have never bought a new computer in my life. Unless you count the Commodore 64 in 1990 which technically wasn’t bought by me but my parents. But it was new. Since then I have had a hotch potch of second hand stuff, not that this has bothered me. I have also built plenty of new PCs all faster than what I had at the time (Pentium IIs, then IIIs, then Athlon XPs, Pentium D’s etc.) but never a new computer for myself.

That has now changed as I have bought an Acer M1640 Core 2 Duo system that worked out somewhat cheaper than building it myself, brand new. I’m actually quite looking forward to