Problems with Blogger and Site Meter

I have had a very frustrating morning. For much of the morning I have been unable to access any of my blogs. They just won't load. It appears that there has been a problem with Site Meter, my main stats package, that carries across to blogger.

With much reluctance, I have removed Site Meter for the present from this blog. I am hoping that Site Meter can fix the problem. In the meantime, my other blogs will continue to fail to load.

Postscript

The problem is still there and across the blogosphere. Neil, who uses Firefox, said that he could see the blogs. Looking at the comments on the Google blogs, there does appear to be some linkage to IE. It is IE that is failing to load.

Google itself has not commented. However, it is clear that Site Meter is looking at at least a minor commercial disaster since blogspot bloggers are now removing the Site Meter code in droves (I did so too on this blog as a test).

I cannot access the Site Meter site itself to find out what is wrong since that site too causes IE to abort. Blog comments suggest that Site Meter is unmanned at weekends. If so, that is a real problem for them because they may not realise until Monday that they have a bit of a crisis on their hands.

A little later

A google search on "site meter blogger problems" shows a growing avalanche. See Blog Herald as an example. I am only guessing, but Site Meter has probably had many thousand bloggers remove the code by now. It's not doing Microsoft any good either.

Checking google blog search, there have been 20 posts in the last 30 minutes telling people to remove their Site Meter code!

Next Morning

Well, everything seems to be working again, so don't have to to take the code of my other sites. It will be interesting to find out just what happened.

Blog Performance June/July 2007

Visitor numbers on my various blogs to end July follow. I missed end June, so the aggregates include two months' traffic. The totals exclude my own visits.

From my viewpoint, the most significant thing is the decline in traffic since my posting became irregular. This holds for both searches and return visitors.

• Personal Reflections - 34,737, end May 31,143
• Managing the Professional Services Firm - 16,758, end May 15,451
• New England, Australia - 14,547, end May 13,275
• Regional Living Australia - 9,618, end May 8,750
• Management Perspectives - 5,613, end May 5,282
• New England's History - 1,934, end May 1,583
  History of Australian and New Zealand Thought (joint), 1,114, end May 971
• Belshaw sans words - 126, end May 68
• Total - 84,447, end May 76,523, up 7,924.

Looking at patterns, total visitor numbers averaged 3,962 per month over June and July as compared to 4,296 in May, 4, 536 in April, 4,294 in March, 3,710 in February, 3,656 in January, 2,844 in December, 3,612 in November.

Total page views in July were 9,185 (provisional) as compared to 10,635 June, 10,846 May, 11,058 in April, 10,969 in March, 9,456 in February, 9,485 in January, 7,447 in December, November 9,239.

Page views are not directly comparable to visitor numbers because they include my own visits, but again you can see the decline.

I then contrast this with Neil's performance. Sigh!

Seriously, after a period when visitor numbers expressed in monthly terms passed 6,000 for weeks at a stretch, the current decline needs to be addressed. Still, blogging continues to meet my needs.

The just completed conference presentation came from blogging; I now have one part completed book plus two longish papers derived from blogging material; and there is the continuing friendship. To my mind, the last is the most important.

Helen returns

Photo: Helen, Vanessa and Elise relaxing at, I think, Versailles.

Well, Helen Maree is back from the European expedition and her dad is pleased.

We picked her up from the airport this morning.

The girls had a wonderful time, although they did try to pack to much in.

Upon return we gave her an Australian breakfast, she gave us presents (I scored a new tie (Milan) and shirt (Rome)), and then looked at some of the photos hooked up on the TV.

On a purely Australian issue, Helen took a tube of vegemite with her. Now she did use this herself, but she also tried it on various people along her trip, photos included. It appears that the great V remains an acquired taste!

For the benefit of international readers, you can find about vegemite here and here. It remains a uniuqely Australian (and Kiwi) taste.

Helen has now gone to bed for a nap. I have taken the day off, so can catch up on my blogging.

Qantas's oxygen bottles

The news that an exploding oxygen bottle had caused the fuselage damage to Longreach, the Qantas jumbo jet, caught my attention.

I have flown on this particular jet. Further, it is named after the town that marked the first ever starting point for a Qantas flight.

Now as it happened, on one of his forays into Sydney Gordon Smith captured in a photo those infamous oxygen cylinders waiting to be loaded onto a plane.

You can see from their size just how they might do serious damage in the event of an explosion.

Barbara Martin and the War of 1812

Back in October 2007 in Alternative Histories - the War of 1812 I briefly discussed the war of 1812, really 1812-1815, between the US, the settlements in what was to become Canada and the Empire. Before going on, a quote from Thomas Jefferson in a letter to a colleague:

The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent.

Jefferson could be forgiven his view.

The British Empire was engaged in a fight to the death with Napoleon. There were only 300,000 or so settlers in what is now Canada as compared to 8 million people in the US. Further, many of those settlers were French who had little reason to love the British.

Still, Jefferson was a little in error. The war saw US humiliation. Had the authorities in London had the will, the US could have ended split in two.

I mention this because Barbara Martin has a rather nice post describing the start of the war and setting it in a local historical context.

Postscript

Barbara has now put up her second post in the series and a good read it is too.

Postscript 2

I thought that I might provide a full list of Barbara's posts to this point for those who are interested:

• 27 July 2008, MY TOWN MONDAY - Isaac Brock (War of 1812) Part 1
• 3 August 2008, My Town Monday - Isaac Brock (War of 1812) - The Battle of Detroit - Part 2
• 10 August 2008, My Town Monday - War of 1812 (Canada) - USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere
• 17 August 2008, Isaac Brock's War Club
• 18 August 2008, My Town Monday - Isaac Brock before the Battle of Queenston Heights (War of 1812-Canada) Part 3
• 19 August 2008, Landscape of Upper Canada, Michigan Territory and Michilimakinack (War of 1812)

Magnetic Island in transit - updating a few blog posts

My plane does not leave Townsville for several hours, so I am waiting on here on Magnetic Island, taking the time to catch up on a little blogging. The computer is in fact in the resort's lobby, giving me a view of water and the ferry terminal (photo).

I have been out of touch with the world, so I have little idea as to what has been happening beyond snippets picked up on the TV news. Really a good thing, because the break has given me a chance to catch up, including time for a stocktake on the things that I have had on my list to write about. Its become quite a long list, so I have been doing a bit of pruning.

The FICPI (Australian Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys) Conference itself has given me a fair bit to mull over.

In preparing my conference presentation I went back over past blog posts on corporatisation, using one long blog post I had written triggered by the float of Slater & Gordon, Corporatisation, Corporate Structures and the Law - The Case For, as a base for a new paper. Once I have written this up, I can make it available as a stand-alone paper.

Some of the presentations at the conference not only gave me material for new posts, but also caused me to shift some of my views. Not a dramatic change, more a shift at the margins.

Mmm! Looking at the time, I am going to have to move. But first, a few of my more recent posts on other blogs:

• Common Management Problems - micro-management looks at a common management problem
• Corporatisation, Keddies and professional ethics provides links to stories about the ethical and professional problems raised by the Keddies case in NSW
• Partnerships - Problems with Multidisciplinary Workings provides an entry point to discussion about multidisciplinary practice
• University of New England's Mary White College celebrates 50 years talks, as the title says, about this College's 50th anniversary
• If things aren't wrong, don't try to fix them is a short post making an obvious point
• Visiting Canberra - Introduction is the entry point for a series of posts about our recent trip to Canberra

Magnetic Island Meanderings

Have you noticed how time seems to change depending on what you are doing?

This time last week I was driving from Armidale to Tamworth in the midst of another workshop round. Then I still had workshops in front of me in Tamworth, Sydney and Newcastle before flying to Queensland for a conference. In the midst of all the travel and training, the pre-workshop world had become vague and misty.

Getting to Queensland was a bit of a battle. Before leaving I had to prepare my presentation, managing to squeeze this into late night cracks. Then leaving for Sydney airport at 5.30 to catch my flight it was cold and damp, while I felt crabby and distinctly spaced-out.

The conference itself was being held on Magnetic Island. Getting there involved a two hour flight to Townsville, then a 25 minute ferry journey. Finally I arrived at the Peppers resort where the conference was to be held.

After dropping my gear in my room I went down to the dining area. It was warm and sunny. I was sitting at an outdoor table in the shade, looking over a path to the small harbour with its boats. Just beyond a small range of olive green hills lay dappled in sun and shade. For the first time in weeks I started to relax, although I still had to finalise my presentation.

That was Friday. It is now a warm, sunny, Monday. The computer I am using is in the resort foyer, looking out to the ferry terminal. Behind me a group from the conference is getting ready to go on a snorkeling tour of the barrier reef. That hectic workshop world now seems remote. This is the real world even though it will finish tomorrow.

The Conference itself was the annual meeting of the Australian Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys or FICPI.

Legislative change is coming through that will allow Australian patents and trade marks firms to incorporate, something that has already happened in most other professions. So the conference was about the adoption of corporate forms. I was the keynote speaker at the session on corporate approaches, focusing on management and operational issues.

Never let it be said that patent attorneys are dull. They are not. I have had a great time.

In a response to my post on The new conservapedia - where I rank. And what does it all mean? Stephen said.

"So, you're in favour of teacher-led prayer in schools? I'm not quite sure what position you have - there's a double negative in there (what you've said is that you oppose the censorship of teacher-led prayer).

Censorship of teacher-lead prayer in classrooms and school sponsored events

Generally oppose."

I was careful about my words here.

I do not necessarily support teacher-led prayers in school. One of the problems that the public school system in Australia had to address was the deep sectarian divides between Roman Catholics and Protestants - this led to a secular school system that I support. On the other hand, the way that political correctness came to stop or at least limit things like nativity scenes or indeed discussions on religious expression made me very uncomfortable. I think that it is a question of balance.

In a comment on my post In Praise of Centrelink Mark Two Garrie wrote:

Jim : while at may have reduced queues, this online service is fraught with danger for the average " customer ". At some point in every customer's dealing with Centrelink, documents have been "lost" " deleted " or misplaced, at great inconvenience and often expense of the " customer". With an online entry, it will only take one keystroke to alter, delete or totally misrepresent a customer's details or information.

As we all know, the onus is on the customer to " get it right"; hence any mistakes will be allocated to the customer while Centrelink will remain blameless ( just as it is now). There was a recent flurry of activity when Centrelink announced that as of July, 2008, cross-referencing of customers Bank accounts would be conducted. My contact with my Bank indicates that NO such legislation is in place, and Banks would be legally obligated to advise their customers beforehand if any such action was requested. Is this just Centrelink's way of " conditioning " customers to expect it, so that when it happens no-one will react, inspite of it being another illegal activity ??

Perhaps, if you have a moment spare, you could peruse our website, in which we highlight the oft times demonic treatment of its customers by Centrelink. Actual stories here would have you questioning just HOW an Australian Govt. Agency could treat its clients with such abyssmal contempt. www.centreflunk.com.

This is NOT a website for the faint hearted .. no punches are pulled.

Garrie Cleveland

I have yet to check Garrie's site, but his comment does raise some important general issues.

One session at the Conference made me think of Bob Quiggin and the still incomplete discussion we had been having on Kondratiev cycles - Kondratiev cycles, innovation and over-regulation - a challenge from Bob Q.

Peter Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital, was presenting. I found his discussion of developments in the on-line world very interesting and picked up a number of ideas. The linkage with Bob lies in the question of the future impact of ICT. I suggested that the peak economic impact of the ICT had passed. Bob challenged this.

So when I have time, I will spell out a little of what Peter said and the implications for both sides of the discussion between Bob and I.

Well, it is now 9.30, so it's time to stop this post.

In Praise of Centrelink Mark Two

Since my last post on Sunday I have flown to Grafton that evening, delivered a full day workshop Monday and then driven to Armidale. Overnight there and then a drive to Tamworth for another workshop. Back to Sydney Tuesday night, today a full day metro workshop and then to Newcastle tomorrow for another workshop. Friday to Queensland for a conference.

In all, I am stuffed and had no intention of posting. Then I was provoked!

In Praise for Centrelink I commented on some of the new things that Centrelink is doing. Neil (Ninglun) responded with Personal Reflections: Praise for Centrelink. This led Benjamin Solah to comment:

I rather think Jim’s praise for Centrelink is a bit short sighted given thatn it doesn’t matter to most people if they can apply online or not when they don’t get their payment anyway, are harassed by Job Networks for jobs that cannot sustain them anyway, are asked to pay back money for Centrelinks mistake, staff are trained in how to breach clients but not how to refer them to assistance programs…

The list could go on. I think people’s hatred for Centrelink is very very reaching.

I know where Benjamin is coming from. However, I do feel obliged to add to my comments in Centrelink's defence.

Centrelink officials are there to deliver services and administer Government policy. When, as happened with the Howard Government, they get directives to do certain things, they respond. This is reinforced by the modern performance management techniques with their emphasis on the measurable. Change what is measured, and you change official performance.

Now my personal view is that some of the things that the Howard Government attempted to do via Centrelink was bad policy, while also being obscene in moral terms. I suspect that Benjamin and I might disagree on detail, but would still reach common ground as to thrust.

I was impressed about Centrelink's approach to e-services because there was a focus on making things easier for people, not just shifting processing load onto them.

Anybody who has been to Centrelink will remember the long lines until you reached reception. Who would want to repeat this? Frustrating, especially if you just have a routine processing matter.

To solve this, you give customers access so that they can alter details on line.

Not everybody has a computer, especially the poor. So you create self-service points at the front of the office. Here people can do their own thing. You also encourage people to use local libraries. And you enter into a deal with a not-for-profit to provide refurbished computers to Centrelink customers.

These computers come from firms such as Westpac as they upgrade. They are refurbished, new software added by Microsoft. This means that people can get a Pentium 4 with a full Office suite for $250. Demand has out-run supply, but thousands of computers are now being supplied around Australia.

Long lines still exist in some places. However, they have shrunk. Further, Centrelink sick days have also shrunk because staff no longer have to deal with so many frustrated customers.

In all this, the big demand area that has surprised Centrelink are the "elderly" such as Neil. Demand here has really pressed against Centrelink's ability to supply!

Christian Truths

I did not intend to post again today. I am flying out shortly, but I have been listening to the Pope celebrate mass.

Regardless of one's views on Christianity or any of its sub-divisions, the faith offers two great liberating truths.

The first, in the old words, is forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

There are two legs here.

One leg is forgiveness of our own weaknesses, faults and sins. This allows us to put our past aside, to try to do better. The second leg is to treat others in the same way.

The second great liberating truth is to treat thy neighbour as thyself. So as you judge, shall you be judged.

One can argue detail. For example, these two truths do not stop one arguing against injustice. Indeed, they almost require it.

In all, its not a bad basis for a faith.

The new conservapedia - where I rank. And what does it all mean?

Neil had a fascinating post on the Conservapedia, apparently a US conservative response to Wikipedia. This included an article, Liberal - Conservapedia, on what constitutes a liberal. I decided to rank myself! The links come from Neil's original post.

The article suggests that a liberal supports many of the following political positions and practices:

A government with large spending on social programs, and high taxes to support such programs.

I certainly support government spending on social problems. The question of what constitutes high taxation is a matter of judgement. However, in general I am not a supporter of high taxation.

Taxpayer-funded and/or legalized abortion

I have very mixed views in this area. As a statement of general principle, I am not opposed to medicare payments for abortions in appropriate circumstances, I am opposed to the universal criminalisation of abortion that used to apply.

Income redistribution, usually through progressive taxation

I support a mildly progressive tax structure as well as income redistribution to ensure that all Australians share in the benefits of growth.

Government-rationed and taxpayer-funded medical care, such as Universal Health Care

Support.

Taxpayer-funded public education

Support.

The denial of inherent gender differences

Depends on what is meant. Men and women are different. However, I oppose stereotypes and mandated roles.

Wanting men and women to have the same access to jobs in the military

Support. The only issue here should be capacity to perform.

Legalized same-sex marriage

Do not oppose.

Implimentation of affirmative action

I do have reservations about affirmative action programs. However, this depends on what is meant by the term.

Political correctness

Oppose.

Censorship of teacher-lead prayer in classrooms and school sponsored events

Generally oppose.

Support of labor unions

I am in favour of trade unions.

Teaching “comprehensive” sex-ed programs instead of abstinence-only programs.[1]

I support more comprehensive sex-ed programs.

A “living Constitution” that is reinterpreted in a modern context, instead of how it was originally intended

I have mixed feelings in this area. Things change. A constitution should be a living document. However, I have some problems with some Australian High Court decisions on Federal powers because they go to far outside what I perceive to be the intent of the constitution.

Support for gun control

Support, although I thought that Mr Howard went to far after Port Arthur.

Government programs to rehabilitate criminals

Support.

Abolition of death penalty

Support.

Environmentalism[2]

My position here totally depends upon the definition used.

Disarmament treaties

Support.

Globalism

Generally support.

Opposition to an interventionalist American foreign policy [3]

I am cautious about interventionist foreign policies by any country. However, I think it important that the US continue to play an active role in global affairs.

Support of obscenity and pornography as a First Amendment right[4]

Very odd! Oppose.

Opposition to full private property rights[5]

As a general principle, I support property rights and oppose moves that take such rights away without full and fair compensation. However, I suspect that this is not the same as supporting "full property" rights.

Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine

Cannot really comment on this without investigation.

In 2005, it was reported by CBS News that liberals were the most likely supporters of the theory of evolution. Support for the theory of evolution which is a key component of atheistic ideologies in the Western World.

Dear me! I support the theory of evolution because it best seems to fit the evidence.

Opposition to domestic wire-tapping as authorized in the Patriot Act

Opposed.

Calling anyone they agree with a “professor” regardless of whether he earned that distinction based on a real peer review of his work (see, e.g., Richard Dawkins and Barack Obama).

How very odd. Not guilty.

Looking back over the list, I can see where they are coming from on some points. However, what Conservapedia does illustrate to my mind is the way that our thinking on social and political issues is conditioned, determined, by the society in which we live.

Australia is a different society to the US with very different traditions. US mental constructs cannot automatically be applied in Australia, nor can we apply Australian ones to the US.

I make this point in part because we all have a tendency to assume that our own views are right. We also interpret developments in other places through the frame set by those views. In doing so, we say things like "I agree with that" when we should be asking "what does it mean." This leads to nasty shocks when the reality of views and actions proves to be different from our expectations.

Take Senator Obama as a case in point. I have a degree of caution here because I feel that I do not properly understand what some of his words might mean in practice for Australia.

If I interpret the interface between his rhetoric and the dynamics of US politics correctly, then one possible outcome from his election might be a more inward looking and protectionist US. This is not in our interests because Australia as a small economy in global terms depends upon an open global trading system.

I am not arguing for or against Senator Obama here, simply using him as an example to illustrate my point.

Praise for Centrelink

Earlier in the week Neil (Ninglun) reported on a visit to Centrelink. Apparently, he was the first to apply for a pension on-line, at least at that office.

Now I find it hard to comprehend that Neil has gone for an old-age pension. He is older than me, but it still makes me feel ancient. So I am going to close my eyes and ignore his application as an inconvenient truth! However, his post does provide me with an opportunity to say something nice about Centrelink.

I have mentioned several times including my last post, Meeting old friends, Canberra airport chaos, that I have been running workshops around NSW. I did not mention, however, that the first part of the latest round of workshops involved a presentation from Centrelink staff on their e-services, something that they are trying to promote.

So far I have sat through presentations in Sydney, Orange and Queanbeyan. I have been impressed. I thought that I might say why.

For the benefit of my readers outside Australia, Centrelink is the Australian Government organisation concerned with the delivery of pensions and other social service benefits. Necessarily it is a very large, centralised, organisation combining central activities with a very large number of local offices.

Centrelink's job is not easy. A core challenge is to find ways of delivering services more efficiently while still improving customer service. Here e-services are central.

I am and remain sceptical about some e-services because so much of the apparent benefits come from pushing responsibility onto the client in order to achieve cost savings. We all have all seen this. But e-services also have a place because they can make service delivery so much more customer friendly. Centrelink is trying to achieve this.

On one side they are trying to improve the interface between Centrelink and other service providers such as community housing organisations. The aim here is to improve service delivery by those providers by giving them better access to Centrelink so that joint clients do not have to visit Centrelink offices.

On the other side, they are trying to assist clients to do things on-line so that they do not have to visit Centrelink offices.

One problem is that Centrelink clients tend to be the most disadvantaged members of the Australian community. It follows from this that many do not have access to basic things such as computers, while their knowledge of the on-line world is less. This is part of the digital divide that is adding another layer to social deprivation in the Australian community.

To overcome this, Centrelink has provided computers at its offices so that people can use them to print off things like income statements or to record changes in details without having to wait in line. Centrelink is also promoting other access points like local libraries, as well as charities that provide low-cost refurbished computing equipment.

I am sure that there is still scope to improve Centrelink services. My aim in this post is simply to give praise for improvements already made.

Meeting old friends, Canberra airport chaos

Today to Queanbeyan early for a workshop. This was to be held at the Letchworth Neighbourhood Centre. The Canberra taxi driver got lost. This is pretty normal. Queanbeyan has its own taxi service, so Canberra cabbies do not get a lot of traffic there except from Canberra airport.

Not a big group at the workshop, although attendees came from various parts of southern NSW. I do like running country training courses. They tend to be friendlier and a lot more fun. Because people have to travel they always start a little late, in this case people were held up by roadworks at Bungendore, but we still finished an hour early.

Any trainer will tell you that there is an enormous amount of satisfaction when people get what you are trying to put across.

This was one my second Queanbeyan workshop. Like any trainer, I distribute evaluation forms to try to gauge participant reaction. While the the previous forms were positive, you cannot really know results until later.

In this case, some of those were already putting into action the skills I was trying to install at the firts workshop. I felt a real sense of satisfaction.

In modern philosophy and jargon, we trainers are meant to call ourselves facilitators in the sense that we faciliate learning. I actually think that this is very silly.

In these workshops, I have to get across certain skills that I know and the participants don't. I am not facilitating. I am driving, controlling, performing, anything that will assist learning. If they cannot do what I want them to do at the end, then I have failed. This is a far more pro-active approach than that implied by the fairly wishy-washy facilitation concept.

Once I had bid them all goodbye and tidied up the room, I called a taxi for the airport. Now here I had an unexpected pleasure. My taxi driver was an older Polish bloke who had lived in Queanbeyan for many years.

By way of background here, I lived in Queanbeyan for fifteen years and was very active in community activities. But that was a long time ago. Now here I had some one who could bring me up to date on all the people I had known.

So we chatted and chatted.

We talked about the local police before the new police station and the huge increase in police numbers with their new professional approaches.

The past was not all good, we also spoke about the illegal casinos protected by the police, but there is actually something to be said for police who saw their role in broader terms than the current black-letter law approach.

I am reminded here of the country policeman who used to say to drunks up or down. Up meant home. Down meant the police station, a night in the cells, then a morning session chopping the policeman's wood. No one was ever booked!

We spoke about the various people who had made up Queanbeyan, one of Australia's first truly multinational communities. Poles, Ukranians, Serbs, Macedonians, Croats, Italians, Germans, Greeks.

This was a community of huge home gardens that provided a wide range of produce, some of which went into the production of illegal liquors. Political campaigning in Queanbeyan could be a liver threatening exercise!

Our arrival at the airport was far too soon from my viewpoint. I asked him for the fare. He blanked out the meter and said let's say $25. It should have been at least $10 more. We parted in great amity.

I was early anyway, but flights were in chaos. This had started with ice on the planes in the morning - I was late getting into Canberra - and then continued. So I got a beer and started reading Jasper Fforde's First Among Sequels. I had bought this earlier in the day because I thought youngest (Clare) would like it.

Then, blow me down, David Neyle appeared on his way to Adelaide.

In the past when I flew a lot I was sure to find someone I knew at any airport. This is no longer true. It's partly because I fly less, partly because the world has got bigger.

David is an expert trainer and one of my Ndarala colleagues, so we chatted. Then the woman who runs the Munjuwa Queanbeyan Aboriginal Corporation came up. We had met on a previous training course in Queanbeyan. She was seeing family off for the Northern Territory.

So I had a great time. I do love villages.