Google Analytics over SSL on Spreadshirt

Spreadshirt only allows Google Analytics tracking if you fetch the tracking script from Google using SSL. Here's the URL to use:

https://ssl.google-analytics.com/urchin.js

AAARGH

I've got a problem with my Space Victory rails app.

This discussion post contains a solution in the reply.

The problem is, it doesn't seem to work. Also, I'm not getting the log message on the "first, working" page load that the others are. Also my codebase is massive and I'm not sure if includes outside classes are used in some of the plug-ins I'm using.

This is super frustrating!!!!!!!1!!!

Safari joy

Lol, I just made Space Victory work with Safari. It wasn't that bad.

Next up, Internet Explorer.

To Blog or Not To Blog?

As with any blog I have ever started, I'm once again left wondering if I should have started at all.

I purchased MacJournal for traditional no-audience journaling. Or, you could call it, post-humous blogging as journals of deceased persons are often peeked into by those left behind and, in case of famous people, even published as books for the curious public.

I guess I'm more of a communal, message board person than a blogger type - I believe things being said are often more important than who happens to be saying them. Not that people aren't important :).

Another thing that relates to blogging, I've seen a lot of people experimenting with their privacy here on the information highway, but I haven't really found out why I should jump the no-privacy bandwagon. Of course there are degrees of exposing yourself available in services such as LiveJournal, but dunno.

Oh well. I just helped a dj friend set up his blog
at djanonymous.fi - and started thinking if I should do a similar thing. But I already have my site for mixes and the message board there for posting tracks or whatever. I guess what's really new is the ease of sharing any track or mix as you get hold of it, via zShare or similar sites. It's a cool world nowadays.

Studies LOL

I just noticed that I had completely forgotten about one course I was supposed to do this semester - Database Design!

The course finished more than a month ago. Too bad, because this topic is interesting. Maybe I'll dive into the books and just take the exam for it at a later time.

Here's the description of the course contents, just in case someone is interested (which I have strong doubts about):
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/sippu/tisu/course06.html

Goal Derived Design

Aww s@#t. I feel like a course failing... and to add insult to the injury, it is the only really interesting course of this whole semester.

What's this course about then? Goal-derived user interface design (GDD), a hugely promising pen-and-paper method for designing software user interfaces. Other hot topic at the course are user interface design patterns, something that, from my view, feels perhaps even more interesting and applicable than design pattern thinking applied to software architecture does.

GDD, in short, means that UI specialist formulates various user goals and designs a paper prototype of the optimal user interface by means of an iterative process where the developing prototype is tested against and refactored to support a growing collection of supported goal-based tasks. The testing is done by the designer by repeatedly simulating optimal use of the prototype by an imaginary user. Design is complete when all goal-based use cases are supported to the best of the designer's ability.

GDD's strength lies in finding the right features to implement and optimising the efficacy of the user interface. Learnability issues are not addressed, and must be fixed using other methods such as cognitive walkthrough by an expert or usability reviews with end users.

If you want to take a peek at GDD and the GUIDe software process that utilises it, the best english-speaking introduction I have manged to found has to be Sari A. Laakso's paper Ensuring quality of the user interface with the GUIDe project model.

Impulse-buying some Rails hosting.

I just purchased a two year hosting plan from Bluehost.com for Space Victory.

Apart from that, I have two or three other Rails projects coming up: Lifesaver Records web store, online gallery Flyermania.org and perhaps mixoftheweek.com (which is now published using Python script to generate static html and manually FTP'd over to the server) coz I want to offer a Chinese translation of mixoftheweek.com. :D

Let's hope the Bluehost doesn't turn out to be shabby. At least on paper it looks good!