22 février 2007
Playing with Google Analytics
Let's make things clear : I'm not really comfortable with Google being the major (80% !) search engine, I'd really prefer to deal with more "open source" and completely ad-free stuff. Well, there are directories, but they are usually boring, ugly, and not efficient. I'm waiting for the the wikia project to come out, but I haven't find a better tool than Google for some applications.
Their email application, their search engine, their text applications are simple, light, and efficient. And free. I wonder how they make money. What, Google ads ? Seriously, do you know anybody who ever clicked on a Google ad ? I never did!
Anyway, it's been three month that I included some scripts in my pages, to see if I'm popular. Google Analytics gives a set of tools to see if your website could basically make some money (they use the aphorism "objective" two times a line in their presentation). What I'm interested in is what pages are popular, and how many people come to my website.
(...)
Well, actually, I've seen that only two pages are really popular (sounds and home, the second one because it leads to sounds), and I didn't change anything. So I guess that my only interest is actually to know how many people come here.
And, most of all, the map.
They have this little map, which shows from where people looked at my website, and it's a really cool thing. Imagine, I'm here, in Lyon, France, with my little sounds I didn't know what to do with them one year ago, and it happens to be now that my sound of toilet flush might be played at this very moment in Cairo !
Isn't it crazy ?
(...)
Is it ?...
Well, I imagine that lots of people might think that 100 person a day on a website is not a lot of people. But I do. To me, it's like if a hundred persons came to my door each day ! I feel important. And a little scared too, yes...
Ok, you have to substract the people who typed "big boobies" in Google search. It's not written anywhere in my website ? Now it is ! That page itself will have a +20% in the week to come, I know it !
Then, you have to substract all the people who where looking for information for actual objects. Like the guy who wants to find a cheap electric screwdriver, and finds sound of one on my website. I don't think it's what he was looking for. Although I paid the one that I recorded only 15 €, and it's a good one...
Then, substract the people who didn't find what they were looking for. They should send me a message and ask me for it, but... Well, I had this guy who asked me for a motorbike sound, a very specific one, a Mitsubishi with letters and numbers in its name... I guess that most of these people know that, if I don't have sounds like this one, I wont have "their" sounds...
So, let's say that 40% of those people coming here are just "lost on the web". That's still 60 people who did find something intersesting here. For this type of "market" (sounds, only sounds, more sounds, not even famous sounds but sounds of objects, things...), that's enough for me. And when you think that I'm not even in the first pages of Google, that's quite a crowd.
(...)
What was I talking about ?
Yes, the map.
I don't know if it's really useful. I highly doubt. But it's really someting.
Ok, mine looks like this :
The website being mostly in French, the dots on France covers almost the whole Europe. I know that there are also some people from Belgium, Switzerland, and some parts of the Nederlands and Germany who check this site often.
Of course, Quebec helps a lot too. Merci, Belle Province. We sent you this year one of my friends, an environmentalist : take care of her, she's really valuable...
I also have people from Reunion, Nouvelle Calédonie, French Guyana, French Polynesia, all these places that you'd be surprised to know that they are actually French (ok, Nouvelle Calédonie is a special case, 2012 will be a big year for them).
But I should mention also Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and some "black Africa" countries like Senegal, Ivory Coast, who, despite the independance, still speak a better French than I do.
To all the people from these places, in plus a thank you, I owe them (just like all French should) a salutation. Because I realized that somehow, I had a link to all of them.
Morocco : my best friend from primary school was called Abdelaziz, and I went every afternoon in his home to eat what I called "Morocoan crepes"
Algeria : I have a brother in law from there, and he gave my family the most beautiful nieces in the world.
Reunion : a mother's friend teaches there. It's sad to think of the lack of investment of the French government their. They must consider it as "only good for vacations"...
Ivory Coast : I lived above the appartment of a representative of Allassane Ouattara in Lyon. A taxi driver, in 2004. I hope he's doing better now.
Senegal : my first three discs where discs of Neil Young, Aha (ok, stop it now) and... Toure Kunda. This last one was also my first concert (I was 10).
French Polynesia : ok, it's only because of Brel and Gauguin. And also because my brother went their. For his military service, in the french Marine. On the Dumont Durville (New Caledonians, rings a bell ?). Well, after that, he became a pacifist, worked for Greenpeace and was at Mururoa during the final nuclear test in 1995, arrested by the french military, and taken into custody on the... Dumont Durville. Sometimes life can be such an irony...
French Guyana : ok, I was a kid, I had all the stickers of the Ariane rocket, and I was stucked on TV each time they launched it... Now, I think that it's one of these french territories we still consider as colonies. Well... The cop who arrested me for not having a car insurance was from french Guyana, so, I'm sorry, but you deserve it... (Kidding... Ok, not funny, sorry).
Papeetee : seriously, don't you have more funny stuff to do than going on the Internet ???
When you think about it, that's a lot of places you feel you have a link with. And I not even mentionned RFO...
Now, those who came by the english version of my website...
(...)
Ok, when I say "english", I should mention that it's not my mother language, and that my (american) wife is quite lazy at correcting it...
But, we have people from Beijing (censors let me pass), Japan (deeply sorry about that), Dubai (double the paycheck of your Pakistanese and Indian construction workers so that they can go back to their families before asking me for anything), Saudi Arabia (may I step in the Mecca with my mics, pleeeeease ?), Israel and Palestine (feeling like UNO), Brasil (disapointed by Lula ? Be careful, the right is not the solution, we're experiencing it here since 1995...), India (do you like my tablas ?)...
And of course, the United States of America (I should say : the United States of Those Between the Mexican Boarder and The Niagara Falls, Who Speak English, Are Mostly White, And Have a Funny Electoral System).
As my daughter is Franco-American, I feel a deep, sentimental link with this country...
Ok, it's also a country with dozens of millions people with credit cards, hey, why do you think I put a Paypal "Donate" button on my website ?!
So, we have people from New York (hi John, thanks for coming...), California (Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego... What, nobody from San Francisco ? Hey, I went there, I've got friends there, what are they doing ?), Texas (Houston, hey, Anne, you live in Austin, no?), New Orleans (... they still have Internet there ?), Kansas (must be my in laws...), Chicago (I went there too, people were scary... Stopping and asking you if you need any help, waiters nice and smiling, definitively not what we're used to in France...), Milwhakee (whatever way it's spelled... Sorry, my wife, I know you were born there and... yes, it's a nice town. The architect who made this museum in the shape of a boat there made an airport in the shape of a bird, in Lyon, France... Must have some strange issues...), Detroit (as most Europeans, I should say: "nice airport, really, and the dutty free shops, wow..."), Georges Town (near DC ? I lost my way there, I went through Washington by foot during the night, found no public toilets and, well... I've been a little "french" on the Pentagon, sorry...), and a whole bunch of towns I never heard of in New Jersey (although I read Philip Roth books), New Mexico (they have towns, there?), and other places some people told me about "you don't know these places ? You don't wanna know..."
To all these people, even those who were initialy looking for electric screwdrivers and big boobies, I want to say, for my website's anniversary : thank you for coming !
02 février 2007
A way to calm down with imagination
Sometimes, when you think about politics, justice, or about your neighbourg who always parks his SUV on the sidewalk in front of your house, there's a great feeling of pain and loneliness that falls on you. A really sad moment, when the only energy you have doesn't allow you even too swith off the TV (or pull the curtains). You can't stop thinking about it, but you can't do anything about it...
I've got a sound for you...
It has been experimentated on the people of a whole country (mine) 200 years ago, and it worked so well that it became a little "too much" at the end, so use it with discrimination.
Here : just think of all the people you really hate standing in line in front of...
Well, I mean, any people : Bin Laden, Georges Bush, Sarkozy (you don't know him ? I wish I did'nt...), SUV manufacturers, the guy who invented tele-marketing, whoever you want.
Think about them, standing in line. Now, count them, and click on the link bellow as many times as there are people waiting in line.
It feels good, isn't it ?
28 juin 2006
Hurray !
Ok, it doesn't mean anything, at the end. It's almost worthless.
It's the kind of thing you pay attention to when you have nothing better to do with a computer.
Actually, these days, the computer scares me because I can't find any idea for a music a friend asked me to do for him...
We call it "white page syndroma". Transposed in the computer world, it would be "the crappy Windows cards game syndroma". Can't do anything better.
Still, it's warm to my ego.
When you type "sound directory" + free in Google, my website is on the top of the first page !
I don't know actually if a lot of computer geeks type these words in their search engine, but I assume they are some of the hundreds people who visi my little website.
Not too bad for a beginner !
10 mai 2006
New devices, first tests
I have to apoligize.
When I began this website, in february 2006, I thought that I could use again my old MD MZR37 (7 years under the rain, the heat, it looked unbreakable!) and a ECM to record simple ambiances for Internet users (this example shows that it was not so bad) would be enough to feed a sound repertory.
But, well... The MD is dead, and I wanted new mics.
After one month of accounting, I decided to buy a Tascam HD-P2 and two Sontronics STC1S. I read good reviews, and both products had the specification I was waiting for (low cut on the mics, firewire on the recorder).
Two month after, I finally received the Tascam.
During this time, the website full of promesses was sadly empty of new sounds. Only my old bank.
Anyway, the last two weekend, my wife and I went to the country side. We fought mosquitos to record the calm sound of a river, we fought mosquito eaters (a surprising agreement had obviously just been dealt against us) to record the cute little birds. The weekend after, we faced rain to record other little birds in a forest. The result of all of that is here.
I did some additional tests, such as store the opened mics in a place with absolutely no sound, and record the silence... Well, bellow 60, there's definitively something. I can't say if it comes from the Tascam or the mics (probably the mics), but it can be delt. Edit with a noise gate and some high cut all the sound before any mix.
A good point for the Tascam : it's really practicle, light, it's not a battery-eater, and to work in 90 Khz, for me, is a revolution ! One regret : the limiter simply cuts the "over" sounds. It's already a shame to step over the 0 dB, but there's no use to be called names for that... I wonder how I will be able to record fireworks again...
About the Sontronics... Well, I'll test them next week to record single sounds.
04 mai 2006
Warning
Bellow this message are all the "chronicles" that were initialy on the blog page of the website "glaneur de sons" (sound picker), written between february and may 2006.
New devices !
For sale : nice grey cat, lovely wife and about-to-born adorable child.
Hey, I'm bankrupt, after this purchase :
After several month of wait, I received the Tascam recorder. Here is the first test (ok, that was 90 kHz, but with compression and with little computer speakers, it must sound like soup of car engines. The original is precise, clear, full of details, in one word : great !).
Merveille de merveille. So simple to use !... Practicle, and unbreakable (well, it looks lie) !...
Ah ! Now, the serious stuff is coming.
Meaning, the research for an insonorated room, hum... As you did heard in the test, my home is not an option...
But check this site next week : some serious sounds on their way !
Patience
Hey, I didn't pay attention to it, but I've just realize that there are now more than a hundred sounds in here !
Ok, since I decided to put copies of some sounds in OGG file format, it's easier to give this impression...
But still, there are 12 creations, 6 ambiances, 10 sound effects and 7 musical Zip and soundfont files...
Not so bad, for a two months old website, and for a guy who is still waiting for his new recorder (sounds ironic, no ? A sound picker without anything to pick sounds...).
I've got a DVD full of old sounds, but I do not think anybody would be interested in all of them. The engine of my old Citroën? Its horn ? Maybe the sound of a river. But come on, I don't think that the sound of a wood spoon on a milk carton brick which I used for a moment as a cool drumkit is that interesting...
But when I'll have my new recorder, ha, when I'll have it...
Here's a list of some of my projects :
- sounds of carton and plasic tubes. Sounds dumb ? Wait for it, and you'll see it is not. Not at all.
- a keyboard set of glasses that goes "tiiiiin"
- several type of hinges
- an air matress that does exactly a sound of cool wind
- my wife is expecting a child : baby's noises
- some tubular bells
- an electric screw driver
And then, later:
- a car engine (I changed car)
- a welding rod (perfect for electric sounds)
- my cat
- sounds of water (bloub, fiiiish, gulp, etc.)
- wind (a true one)
- High Speed Train (espectilly the sounds that make the rails a long time before the train arrives)
And everything that would pass by when I'm out with my microphones and my (f***) Tascam recorder.
So, try to be as patient as I am.
No, actually, try to be more patient than myself...
Horror
It has been awfull.
I had no Internet connection for two weeks.
I wonder how I did survive.
I moved. I went with my beloved wife to see what our baby looks like (according to the doctor : "normal". Ho. How enthusiastic, isn't it?). I painted the all new appartment. I fought with the owner to fix an infiltration of water in the ceillings. I called Senheiser twice (no Tascam before the end of april). I made a ethernet cable. I remade it. I made it again. And again. Now it works. I watched the entire first season of "Desperate housewives". Then "How's afraid of Virginia Wolfe". Then "The hours". I don't want to live in an american suburb ever.
And today, France Telecom called us to say it was OK.
I switched on the computer.
Night is falling. I haven't move. I don't want to, although it has been two hours that my urinary bladder is calling for rest.
I won't move.
My tailor is rich (and my English isn't)
Here comes the English version. Too bad Internet doesn't come with the accents. My wife corrects some of it, but she has got a lot of work (she's pregnant, and finding clothes that suit you when you're big in France is a full time job), and she's from Wisconsin (I want everybody to be able to understand me, and not sentences like "Hey, where did theey put thaaaat f**cking bubbler, I caaan't drink this beer aaaanymore...").
In this blog, she won't correct me. First, she would delete the bad things I'd say about Wisconsin (cheeseheads, hu? Their Brie cheese looks like plaster to me...), and I need to improve my English. Sorry for the mistakes...
If I recorded what I'm writing, you'd hear somebody trying clumsily to talk in a foreign language, and wondering on how to translate technical words such as "mixette", "couple ORTF" or "fournisseur d'accès".
Here in Freedomland (nicely renamed by a guy named Donald in 2003), there's a council of 40 people named "immortals" (as they are quite old, this is nice to them) whose job is to think on what new words we should use in Freedom (I mean, in French, stay with me, please). To protect and renew the language.
I don't think any other country has the same.
Ok, I know, it sounds stupid and vain to have such a council. But man should recognize that it has been cleverly done:
- They make good dictionaries
- They are kind of funny
- They work for free
Sometimes, they have good ideas. Their point is that French is a rationalist language. For example, "software" and "hardware" doesn't mean anything. What is soft in a program, what is hard in a chip ? It couldn't work in French.
An example for this rationalistic view on our language : France is a latin country (well, a mix of latin and germanic, actually, but mostly latin: less work to do on ourselves...), so it's sometimes kind of macho in its culture.
In French, the objects have a gender. And for each feminine object or concept, if you think of something like it but bigger, it will be masculine. A table is feminine. A desk is masculine. A car is feminine. A truck (sorry, Brits : a lorry) is masculine. The moon is feminine. The sun is masculine. War is feminine. A genocide is masculine.
See? Well, there are some strange exeptions, enlightning some dark issues of our psyche. A dick is feminine. A vagina is masculine... Gives an idea of who is the real chief...
Let's come back to our immortals from the "Académie Française":
They thought of using "programme" for "software", and "matériel" (faux ami : it means "devices", and not "furniture") for "hardware".
But "programme" was already used, so they invented a new word.
I love it. Forty people gathering in a room, with beer and pizzas, and the older saying "ok, guys, let's find a new word"...
After days and nights of talks, asking computer engineers for their thoughts, they came, in the middle of the 70's, with this word : "logiciel".
And it works perfectly. Comes from "Logic", which means, well, logic, and was this old program everybody between 30 and 40 know, that we used in the 80's to understand how a computer works. You know, these old TO7 or MO5 with a tape to save data... A program working with logic (open / close, and no hesitation between), this is the most rationalist word they could ever find.
And sexism is preserved : it's masculine... Remember that there's only two woman in this council. There's also one with Chinese origin, but they found a way to have a Chinese guy named François Cheng...
The logic of the French language was preserved. I even know people, probably lonely french teachers and computer gicks, who elaborated a computer language working with french grammar. See here to know more about it (the funny thing is that there website is German...).
So, you see, we have great and useful organizations here in Freedomland (ok, this is irony...). The sad thing is that 200 millions people speak French in the world. Most of them from Third world countries. And none of them have a sit in this academy. Oh, there are prices and recognition, like the Prix de la Francophonie, but it doesn't go further. Too bad.
Anyway, what did I want to say ?
Oh, yes : translation into English of technical words.
Does anybody wants to help ? How do you call a portable mixing device ? Or the button on some microphones, that lows down some specific frequences ? Or the thing to hold a microphone ?
I promess : despite the fact that my English is poor, I'll try to write as clearly as possible ... and to be as nice as possible with my wife when I ask her to correct it...
I've got a website
I've got a website about sound.
Any kind. Sounds effects, ambiances, musical instruments...
Visit it : http://glaneur.de.sons.perso.wanadoo.fr/home.html