Site News

10 Million Page loads in 2010 !

I finally got around to working up a few stats for Bits and Pieces for last year.  I was surprised to see a total of just over 10 million page loads.  A page load is defined as any time someone opens a page on a website.  Whether it’s a single post or a homepage with 10 posts on it.  When you change pages the page load count increases. 

2010 bp Stats
via StatCounter  Note: Google Analytics has the total number of page views at 9.7 million. 

People from 214 countries visited Bits & Pieces last year.  They’re ranked below from the highest number of visitors per country to the lowest number.

BP Reader Locations 2010
via Google Analytics

B&P Readers in the U.S. by state

2010 BP US readers

Thanks to each and every one of you for making that possible.

Modem troubles

FrustratedUserMy internet connection has been down for several hours.  Eleven days ago it was down for a few hours.  That was AT&T’s problem.  Luckily I had just barely enough knowledge to change the DSN number and got it back working after a few hours.

Today I had the same symptoms, the Internet and DSL lights on my modem went out.   The other lights were flashing off and on also.  After a couple of “conversations” with AT&T’s voice recognition system I became more and more frustrated.  Finally I uttered a couple of expletives when the computer generated voice suggested I go to att.com to search for a solution.  Something like “If I could go to att.com I wouldn’t be having this problem F***tard.”  Immediately I heard ring tone and I was connected to John.  After a brief conversation he told me my modem was shot. and I’d need to replace it.  I was reluctant to believe him because he didn’t do any line tests like they normally do. He said they could send me one or I could go out and purchase one.  Either way it would be about the same price since my warranty had expired.  So I buzzed over to Best Buy and picked up one exactly like the one I had…. Cha-Ching … $100 bucks.

With my bad back still bothering me and not wanting to crawl around under my desk, I just disconnected the wires from the old modem and plugged in the new one since they were the same.  Rebooted everything and still no internet.  I strung phone wire across the house and into another phone jack just to make sure the one I always used wasn’t defective.  Still nothing.   Another call to AT&T and they said the new modem was defective since the power light wouldn’t stop blinking (it’s supposed to be solid) and I should return it. 

So I thought I’d take the modem downstairs and try to hook it up to a different line.  I took the new power supply and Bingo.. I got a solid power light.  Turns out the old power supply was defective and the modem was OK.  So I reconnected everything like I had it.

So after about 4 hours of frustration we’re back in business…. I think.

We get spam

I get 200–300 spam comments every day, sometimes more.  I scan then very fast because once in a while a legitimate comment gets tossed into the spam folder.  They usually make generic comments about a post and include a link to the site  or cause they’re promoting.

I just thought this one was kind of funny.  It was on this post: Leslie Nielsen dead at 84

Spam dec

First Ever Big Ass Global Chat

BAGC logoThe First Ever Bits & Pieces Big Ass Global Chat chat is history.  We had about 20 people in all, a dozen or so at a time.  I got messages that a few people couldn’t get in.  Some were on webcam and some were just typing.  The chat lasted just under two hours.  All in all it seemed to work pretty well.    Gus and Trixie made appearances too, though they didn’t seem too impressed.

I think the main thing I took away form the event was that Miss Silver is a talker.  And that’s a good thing.  She kept the place active.

Thanks to all who participated.

BAGC1
Left to right:  Bitsy, P1t0, Miss Silver and Jonco

First Ever B&P Big Ass Global Chat on Saturday

The First Ever  B&P Big Ass Global Chat will take place this Saturday, December 11th at 9 AM Eastern Standard Time (US).  That’s 8 AM for me here in St. Louis.

After discussing with a few B&Pers we decided to try to see how many loyal readers we can gather together at one time in a global chatroom.  We ended up picking Saturday morning because it will be easier for those down under to be up very early on Sunday morning (their time) than a Monday morning.

A few time zone comparisons:  8 AM in St. Louis on Saturday is:

  • BAGC logoHawaii 4:00 AM
  • California 6:00 AM
  • New York 9:00 AM
  • Ireland 2:00 PM
  • Sweden 3:00 PM
  • Saudi Arabia 5:00 PM
  • India 7:30 PM
  • Thailand 9:00 PM
  • Hong Kong 10:00 PM
  • Japan 11:00 PM
  • Victoria Australia 1:00 AM (Sunday)
  • New Zealand  3:00 AM (Sunday)

The chatroom allows webcams so put on your pants and crank up your webcam.

To enter the chatroom click on the following link on Saturday morning….

http://tinychat.com/bitsandpieces

A couple of changes to B&P

I’ve made a couple of small changes to B&P in the last few days.  I’ve added a countdown timer to the left sidebar.  I can set it for any date in the future.  Right now it’s set for Christmas Day. 

I’ve also added a Top Commenters list which is also in the left sidebar.  It’s displaying the top 20 (number can be changed) commenters on B&P.  It resets each month.  20 might be too many, but I’ll leave it like that for a while.

If Bits & Pieces were a country….

From WebEmpires:

  • If Bits & Pieces were a country, it would be larger than Kiribati.  (NE of Australia in the Pacific Ocean)
  • B&P Population: 99,184
  • Population: 51% USA, 6% UK, 5% Mexico, 4% Canada & Italy, 3 & France and Germany, 2% India & Brazil
  • 1 in every 17,483 internet users visit Bits & Pieces  daily

Texas stadium

Note: I’m not sure how they come to these numbers.  My records indicate a daily count somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 pageviews.  But, I’ll take em.  I feel like a King!  Maybe we’ll have the next BABBQ there.

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Caption Contest Winners

We’ve given away all the prizes in the Caption Contest this week.  Congratulations to Scott O., DJ, MCW, CLH and Donna Brown.  Thanks to everyone who participated.  It was hard to decide who won.  Maybe next time we’ll let you guys decide. 

Thanks to the folks at Notifier2  for donating the prizes.

We need more prizes
If you have items we can use as prizes and you’d like a little publicity for your product or company let me know at jonco@bitsandpieces.us