Update

It's been 12 days since my last post and there is a good reason for it. I got a job interview and I have been preparing. 

The interview went well but they haven't contacted me yet for another interview. I really hope I get this job. 

Technical post

Exciting times!

I started this blog to document 1. What I am working on to improve my skills and 2. Talk about what I have learned. 

The last couple days I have been studying how to track users to my site. Usually when I need to learn something, I type in what I want to google and it returns a website, usually stack overflow and I have my answer. 

This time I didn't find what I was looking for on the first search. Past experience says that either it's a topic no one cares about or its so simple not too many feel the need to write it down. In this case it appears to be the latter. 

When tracking a user, it turns out there really is only three key data points to get from the browser. They are the user's up address, user agent and the last website visited. 

These three data points are very valuable.  The IP address we can get the visitor's location. This is useful to customize the page or even restrict access to the site. 

The user agent provides information on the user's computer hardware, browser, operating system and screen resolution. This allows for better website customization. With this information the visitor isn't forced to view a site made for mobile on their computer or vice versa. 

The last website is useful for two reasons. One it is important to know how someone arrived at the site. They can arrived from a site linked to your site, from search engine or enter the address manually. If they enter in the address manually it's a good sign. Either word of mouth is for this site or its a favorite site of the user so they return often. If they arrived from another source then maybe these sites needs to focused on for advertising. 

As for where to get these datapoints, it's available JavaScript or server side scripting. 

Exciting Times

It's exciting times. The first iteration of my winery website is almost complete. Still a few more items to go like I need to create an about page, figure out the best way to track users, add pictures of the wineries and I really don't like the view. Also I still haven't created a mobile view yet. 

It sounds like a lot now that I write it out. I also don't have a name for the site. I know that's usually one of the first thing done, and I did have a name but I really don't like it. I do have a few ideas for a new name but the domains aren't completely available. 

Overall it's been a pretty good weekend. I should be able to complete my goal of finishing by the end of the month. Then it's onto mobile. 

Snow Day

When I was a kid I used to love waking up, looking outside and seeing the neighborhood covered in snow. Then I would turn on the TV and see all the school districts closed except mine. My school district was always the one district that was opened and on time. Way to ruin a kid's day. 

As an adult I still love snow, I just don't like driving in it. Luckily I got a job that lets me work from home sometimes and I gladly took advantage of this today. I usually don't like working from home but I do love saving an hour from not having to commute. 

I was able to use this extra hour to work on my web app. I got a lot done. It doesn't look like it because I fixed mostly minor stuff. This list of minor stuff I hope to get done by Monday so I can move onto the next task. 

As for the job search I haven't found a job ad that I qualify for all week. I remember last year the ads were this dry so I'm not worried. I'm looking forward to getting more work done tomorrow.