Real time Blog Stats with Woopra
Posted on July 29th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,766 views
There are now innumerable ways to collect stats for any type of web site. Bloggers tend to be fanatical about checking their stats to see what’s happening and competing with themselves to continually raise the bar.
Most stats packages take time to deliver the information. Google Analytics, for instance, takes 24 – 48 hours to update your web site’s stats.
Bloggers want that information NOW, if possible, and now there is one stats package which stands out above the rest: WOOPRA.
Woopra gives Real Time Stats. As you watch the Java based console, so you see the visitors come and go. Woopra tells you how many you have viewing your site right now, who they are, where they came from and what country they are in. You can see what pages they open, how long they keep it open, and if you like, you can even initiate a real time chat with them.
If they comment on your blog, then their Woopra session will be tagged with the name they used. You can even choose to tag visitors yourself, to more easily keep track of who they are.
Woopra installs on your blog via a WordPress plugin (or javascript for other types of blogs). To view the stats you need to download the Woopra console which is written in Java, and thus requires you to install Java on your machine.
Once that is accomplished, you need to sign up for an account on Woopra’s site and add the sites you wish to track. Sites are manually approved within a few hours.
So far it seems to be an interesting new toy. If you’re a stats fanatic, I’d recommend you give it a try.
Tags: Blog stats, google analytics, Real Time Stats, Stats, Woopra
Filed under Blog stats | 1 Comment »
South Africa’s new Energy Policy abandons coal
Posted on July 29th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,763 views
Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South Africa’s Minister of the Environment, announced a new energy policy yesterday that moves away from using predominantly dirty coal for the generation of electricity.
The new policy, recently agreed by Cabinet, is driven by environmental concerns. According to United Nations climate predictions, global warming presents the greatest threat to Africa (of all the continents).
Van Schalkwyk believes that if South Africa takes action now, our greenhouse gas emissions would stabilise by 2025, whereafter it would start declining. South Africa is also pushing the United States and other developed nations to play their part in combating global warming. South Africa wants developed nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 25 – 40% by 2025 and by 85 – 90% by 2050. So far this has met with resistance.
The South African government plans to introduce concrete measures by 2009 which would include compulsory energy savings measures and possibly a carbon tax.
Currently 90% of South Africa’s energy is generated by coal fired power stations. Eskom still has plans to build one new coal fired power station by 2013 and bring two retired ones back into production to boost electricity production in the short term. Recent shortfalls in electricity supplies have dampened the rate of growth of the South African economy.
In the longer term, however, the government will only allow the construction of carbon neutral power stations. These would include a new nuclear power station planned to be built alongside the existing Koeberg nuclear power station in Cape Town, and other alternative forms of energy such as wind farms and solar energy.
South Africa has the world’s cheapest coal-fired electricity at 22 cents per Kilowatt per hour.
FURTHER READING:
South African says it will shift energy policy from coal to combat climate change
Tags: electricity, Eskom, global warming, Koeberg, Marthinus van Schalkwyk
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Brilliant Koeberg / Parklands spoof article on Hayibo
Posted on July 28th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,327 views
Spoof web site, Hayibo, published an amusing satirical article about a conjectured Koeberg meltdown earlier today.
“Our men and woman are trained to go into nuclear meltdowns, not apocalyptic middle-class suburban shitholes”, city manager Angeldust Mangena (sic) said, referring to Parklands.
“We have excellent anti-radiation equipment, but there’s nothing you can wear that will protect you from Parklands.”
“Sometimes you think, If humans are capable of building Parklands, what else are we capable of?” opined Disaster team leader Heinrich Vilakazi (sic).
“Ja, for sure, I’ve thought about ending it all, about just walking into Parklands and going into an estate agency and putting down a deposit on a duplex. But my family and my faith have kept me strong.”
Hayibo’s tag line is “Breaking News. Into lots of little pieces.”
I signed up to receive their newsletter, because I wouldn’t want to miss out on news this good! 
Tags: Hayibo, Koeberg, Parklands
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The Drunken Sailor – Koeberg Unit One
Posted on July 27th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,392 views
What shall we do with a drunken Koeberg? x 3
Early in the morning?
Hooray and up she rises! x 3
Early in the morning!
- The Drunken Sailor song
Less than 12 hours after tripping out, Koeberg Unit One is back online, apparently averting a major power crisis for Capetonians, so reports Andrew Etzinger, general manager at Eskom.
Meanwhile, French engineers from French power company, Alstom are assisting Eskom to repair Koeberg’s Unit Two which was shut down earlier in the week. Estimated Time to be back in service is still set at over two weeks. I sure hope those Frenchies know what they’re doin’!
Etzinger has cautioned us not to become complacent.
Okie Dokie. Wake me when you’ve sobered up, Koeberg.
FURTHER READING:
Koeberg’s Unit 1 back to full power tomorrow
French company assists with Koeberg repairs
Tags: electricity crisis, Koeberg, Unit One
Filed under electricity | 1 Comment »
And now Koeberg Unit One is offline too!
Posted on July 26th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,666 views
Oops! Now we are really in for it. On Friday, July 25 2008 at 17h20, Koeberg’s Unit One tripped. Both of Koeberg’s power generating units are now offline which means the national grid just lost 1800MW of power.
Starting Monday, Capetonians are being told to brace for a resumption of rolling black outs. Koeberg’s staff have been recalled and they are spending the weekend working on the problem in staggered shifts.
Right now, Eskom is still investigating the cause of Unit One’s trip. They don’t know what caused it nor how long it will take to fix.
The public is being advised to stock up on candles and gas lamps, because power could be shut off at any point now.
FURTHER READING:
Power crisis time – again.
Tags: electricity crisis, Koeberg, Unit One
Filed under electricity, Eskom | 9 Comments »
