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I’m not so much of an open source freakiod that to advocate its use, regardless of the implicit costs of consumption. Such costs can include, often:

• Needing to self-seek knowledge about updates
• Compiling software oneself
• The lack of a clearly defined resource/help center with some kind of pay-for-access model
• Dealing with the singular sort of people who are open source freakoids

So we need to recognize the drawbacks to open source software use. I hope I have summarized them quickly and reasonably.

THE PAYOFF

There are also numerous benefits to using FOSS, or Free and Open Source Software, projects — even if you’re not used to editing or compiling code, and/or don’t want to. And by the word “benefit”, I mean direct, actionable increases in likely productivity, as a result of using an open source project vs. proprietary software.

But, why do I claim these exist, and what benefits exactly do I mean?

In general, it’s fair to say of products either designed as open source, or those adapted into the open source community, that open source projects by intention allow for modification by individual users. This happens either (naturally) on the code level, or by creating internal APIs (I’m thinking of the WordPress API) / enabling modular development.

And also, moreover, these programs tend to enable users to make extensive configuration changes within a text file located somewhere within the directory structure or home directory which substantively change the behavior of the software itself; or, as more recently with Firefox, by employing a software architecture that allows for easily installable plugins that extend functionality.

Allowing users to more easily, sometimes massively change program functionality — in ways other than altering source — is a natural extension of the FOSS mentality, and is one of the primary benefits of FOSS to non-coders. And, the fact that open source freakoids love and like talk about projects on-line means that you’ll get extra documentation for free — many times, in fact, documentation that appertains either exactly, or very closely, to your situation.

I assure you, prospective FOSS user, that there exists a wide variety of quickly-searchable resources on the Internet dedicated to helping you. And, likely, these will be (a) written in language that is more like “human speak” and (b) more specifically related to your exact predicament than, say, the average proprietary-style technical manual can manage.

I guess you could describe this “reading” of the customer services model available to the open source community, vs. from proprietary software providers, as yet another anti-corporatist, and not-so-inventive application of the clue train manifesto to the world.

as it drones on about Preference options, Tabs, and default behaviors, blah blah.

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The project I’m working on was mostly inspired by some widget for blogger :<(. The idea is to pipe web analytics data out through a App Engine mashup, via RSS. With that in mind, hopefully I can crib code from a blog that also needs to generate RSS feeds.

I’m hoping to put the data retrieval (as described in the above article) on a cron job, format the data using a “for each … in” into XML (for the RSS feed). Each ‘XML page’ will then get shunted into a Datastore db entity. When visited, a url associated with that particular query’s XML will then serve up the full page.

So here’s the breakdown.

Python Components

Send out Google Analytics (GA) data via RSS.

1. Wirte a HTTP GET response handler that ‘just works’ to serve up a complete, ‘top’ pages recently viewd (for one top-level donaim, i.e. GA prof-id) RSS feed. Use this version for testing of initial PHP data display. Send pageview info in the description for each item.
2. (a) Use (1) to store feeds for multiple acounts, with multiple GA query options and store in database (with GA prof-id as key) (b) set this up as a chron job (not hard). To do this, make two changes: establish “cron.yaml” and write a script handler for calls to (app engine top uri)/cron/.
3. Handle urls using webapp (and not Django) and incorporate url into easy system for getting query results based upon arbitrary name (per query option in (2)) and, again, prof-id.
4. Rather than having single period of weeks (retrospective), query for past [2,4,8,16,32] and have that built into individual RSS feed’s url.
5. *[Way stretch] Create some kind of GUI That allows **an authenticated user** to submit his/her own 1+ profiles and queries.

PHP (on WP)

Display GA info with links to top pages, plus graphics.

1. Adapt code with objective of displaying data drawn from an RSS feed on site. Feed data is sorted on external server-side (at time of GA query) so no kind of real processing need take place.
2. PageTitle/pagview data is stripped into 2-tuples for sending through the Google Charts API.

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Some think sausage and mashed potato is best. I’m not one. This is the family recipe for kielbasa, kraut and potato — Alsatian-style, by way of Ireland.

1. Bake thick-skinned potatoes, then peel when cooled a bit. You could use a microwave, which cuts down the total cooking time by about 40 min.
2. Poke sausages with a knife to let escape fat, then boil for ten minutes. Cut into fingernail-width slices, and reserve. The more authentic the sausage, the better;  but, in a pinch, I’ve had success with “Hillshire Farm” product line.
3. Drain kraut and replace brine with the combination of sausage water and white wine. Then simmer kraut in rolling water for 10 minutes, adding four cloves and a bay leaf to get that cosmopolitan taste.

At the end, combine all the ingredients and plate while steaming. Myself, I definitely favor baking, rather than to microwave, the potatoes; because I prefer the evenness of the bake over a faster cooking time. Plus, I feel the baked potatoes end up peeling more easily, and remain whole more often (which is what I want).

Lastly, out of all the pre-made krauts, the best to use is the BA-TAMPTE brand. Currently, it’s available  in both plastic and in glass, and keeps nearly forever in the cold, nether-regions of your refrigerator.

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