Removing SiteMeter

I'm finally getting around to removing the scourge that has been SiteMeter from this blog, as well as all of the other websites I currently administer.

To be fair, their service was great back when I first started using them in 2002 — unparalleled, almost — and it was even solid through 2008 and 2009.  (Why else would I have used them?)  But since about 2012, and increasingly more so since, their tracking scripts have been getting fairly routinely hijacked, which has often in turn hijacked the websites of those running it by redirecting visitors' browsers to who knows what.

At times, this has merely been a minor nuisance.  And grad school has kept me busy for a while.  However, over the last couple of days, this has become quite noticeable on a couple of my sites, and since I have a short lull in responsibilities right now, I'm nipping this in the bud.  It's about time.

I added Google Analytics tracking to most of my websites in December 2013, anyway, so it's not like it's been much work.

Randomness is 10!

This blog is now ten years old.  That's ancient in blog years.

15,000th hit at 03:36 ET

The 15,000th visitor to Randomness arrived on Sunday 12 May 2013 at 03:36 ET from Sweden!  Their ISP was TeliaSonera AB, they used a Mozilla browser on Windows, and they got here by searching google.se for images with the query "klocka med sugpropp", which is apparently Swedish for "clock with suction cup".  Cool!

14,000th hit at 14:06 ET

The day after turning seven, the 14,000th visitor to Randomness stopped by on Tuesday 15 May 2012 at 14:06 ET from right here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, using the Safari browser on Macintosh WinNT (if I can really be trusting these reports).  Looks like they got here from the homepage of timparenti.com, so it might be someone I know!  Hi!

13,000th hit at 10:15 ET

Randomness had its 13,000th visitor on Thursday 11 August 2011 at 10:15 ET from someone using AT&T WorldNet Services from around Towson, Maryland. This milestone came nine months to the day after the 12,000th hit.

They were using the Safari browser on Windows XP (an interesting combination) and seem to have landed directly on my 2008 musings on my last day as a teenager. For some reason, that remains one of my most frequently-read posts by far. Apparently, other people actually Google that kind of stuff before they turn 20, but not many people write about it. Fair enough, I suppose!

12,000th hit at 02:08 ET

Randomness received its 12,000th hit on Thursday 11 November 2010 at 02:08 ET from someone using Verizon Internet services based in Staten Island, New York.

I don't think I personally know anyone from that area, but I could always be wrong. But I have a hunch that I don't know this visitor. They were using Windows NT and Internet Explorer 8 (for shame!) and they appear to have come to my blog through the "Next Blog" feature which Blogger so helpfully puts on the top of every page. They were gone just about as quickly as they'd come, by much the same mechanism, too.

It seems they came from some Scotty McLuker's blog, and although I can't vouch for the content there, having only glanced at it, the stuff that's there now does seem at least somewhat interesting.

Okay. I've delved way too far into what was basically a random occurrence. Time to move on....

New Twitter widget

I've gotten rid of the old JavaScript Twitter updates in the sidebar in favor of the newer version of the official Twitter widget. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. It shows my retweets as well as my original tweets.
2. It polls periodically for new updates, so if you happen to be on my blog while I tweet, it'll pop right up!

Of course, the best way to get my Twitter updates is (and always has been) to just follow me on Twitter. You know, if you want to.

Randomness is 5!

I don't think I foresaw this site lasting for five years. But it has. Um... congratulations?

11,500th hit is... me.

Disappointing and lame, I know. But I haven't really considered the -500's to be milestones for a while, so I think it's okay.

So yes, at 22:05 ET on Sunday 25 April 2010, I wanted to find an old blog post (specifically, HCC in China: Day 6), and with that, Randomness earned it's 11,500th visit.

Whatever.

11,000th hit at 23:22 ET

Randomness received its 11,000th hit on Sunday 29 November 2009 at 23:22 ET, from a computer at the campus of Carnegie Mellon University. They arrived via Facebook.

Seeing that I don't have a terribly large number of Facebook contacts who are affiliated with CMU (five), I have a hunch of who it was. But they didn't leave a comment! Probably fair enough, because all the content here was stale at the time. Oh, well.

Also, I've been getting a few hits recently from New Zealand. I don't know why. So if you're in New Zealand and you happen to see this, let me know; I'd love to hear from you!