For the last time for 2010, I've had a look over the server logs. The only new addition to the list is the Book Review of the Voyage of the Beagle. It's actually a pretty old entry, and I'm not exactly sure what could have catapulted it up into the top 10 list.

The trend of my blog becoming more popular than the old static portion of this site continued - up to 8 out of the 10 entries this time. My overall traffic appears to have plateaued, being 99.9% of what it was the month before.

One of the top ten entries this month is actually a little bit depressing, the review of the Casio EX-F1. The reason it's depressing is because Casio quit making the camera, and the newer models that replace it don't shoot nearly as good of high speed video. And no other manufacturers have released cameras with comparable high speed video. So, we're now in a period where you either have to shell out big bucks for good high speed video, or buy a used camera for decent high speed video (and now that Casio doesn't make the cameras anymore, they cost more used than they used to new). I guess it means we have to be extra careful with the cameras we have now.

Anyway, here were the most popular pages on this site during December:

1. Autogyro History & Theory
2. Blog - A Skeptical Look at MBT Shoes
3. Blog - My Favorite Airplanes
4. Blog - Origin of Arabic Numerals - Was It Really for Counting Angles?
5. Blog - Running AutoCAD R14 in XP Pro 64
6. Blog - The Texas Republican Platform, or Why I'm Not a Republican
7. Blog - Casio EX-F1 - First Impression of the High Speed Video
8. Blog - Ray Comfort - Still Ignorant on Evolution
9. Programming
10. Blog - Book Review - Voyage of the Beagle

Posted by Jeff on Monday, Jan 3 | Permalink | Comments (30) | TrackBacks (0)

I've revisited my Religious Essays section, and made a few changes. There's nothing major if you've already read that section and followed this blog. The biggest change was adding a few recent blog entries to the essays. I also made a few formatting changes. In particular, I've made the pdf version nicer, with a cover and even an index. (Actually, I'm working on getting it published on Lulu.com. I was hoping to have a link to it by now, but it's been three weeks since Lulu said they shipped the first copy to me, and I still haven't received it yet, and I'm not about to let other people order until I've had a chance to see what it looks like.) I also cleaned up the index page a bit, hopefully making it easier for people to get to the essays they want to read.

Oh, and all that stuff about celebrating reason this season, I only wrote that because of the timing of updating my religious essays. Celebrate the season however you like.

Added 2010-01-12 - My book is now available, if anyone's interested.

Posted by Jeff on Monday, Dec 20 | Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBacks (0)

It's that time of the month again, when I look over the server logs to see what pages have been the most popular on this site. There was one new addition to the top ten list this month - my blog entry, The Texas Republican Platform, or Why I'm Not a Republican, which I wrote back in August.

There's been a continuation of a trend in that my blog is becoming more popular than the old static portion of this site. The first month I compiled one of these top 10 lists, back in November of 2007 (at the bottom of this archive), 9 of the pages on the list were from the static portion of the site, and only 1 was a blog entry. The following two months after that, all of the pages on this list were from the static portion. In the following months, the blog entries began making the list more often. This month, they were up to 7 out of the 10.

My overall traffic (which I don't report here, but which the logs obviously keep track of), has also been increasing significantly. November was my site's most popular month ever. Ignoring the preceding three months where the traffic was ramping up, my site got more than 20% more traffic than the previous most popular month. Although I suspect that a good portion of that traffic is spam, considering that my spam filter junked 679 comments in the past 24 hours (I wonder just how much spam really popular sites get).

Anyway, here's the list, for anybody that's interested.

1. Autogyro History & Theory
2. Blog - A Skeptical Look at MBT Shoes
3. Blog - Origin of Arabic Numerals - Was It Really for Counting Angles?
4. Programming
5. Blog - My Favorite Airplanes
6. Blog - Running AutoCAD R14 in XP Pro 64
7. Blog - The Texas Republican Platform, or Why I'm Not a Republican
8. Blog - Ray Comfort - Still Ignorant on Evolution
9. Blog - Casio EX-F1 - First Impression of the High Speed Video
10. Factoids Debunked & Verified

Posted by Jeff on Monday, Dec 6 | Permalink | Comments (31) | TrackBacks (0)

I periodically have to clean up spam comments. Usually it's only a handful per week, but every once in a while, it's a few dozen per day. So, I figured I would come up an official commenting policy. As usual for any blog, I reserve the right to do anything I want. However, I try to remain fairly open. I don't usually delete comments, even if they're not particularly constructive (for example, the first comment on the entry where I acknowledged my atheism, or the numerous comments disagreeing with my stance on MBT shoes or politics). However, there are a few things that will make me delete comments. Threats or extremely vile comments will obviously be deleted, but I've yet to have any problems with that. The biggest problem I have had is with spam & advertisements. I've had such a problem with this that I tend to err on the side of caution. Links to commercial sites are allowed, but if it seems like nothing more than an advertisement, the comment will be deleted. If the comment linking to a commercial site doesn't add anything constructive, it will be deleted. If the comment is nothing but a short compliment about how great my writing is, with a link to a commercial site, it will be deleted. I've noticed a trend of spammers parroting part of my original entry, and then giving links to commercial sites with no relevance at all to the entry. Deleted.

In short, comments are welcome, even (especially) comments disagreeing with me. Just please, leave comments that further the discussion at hand. Spam will be deleted, as will any comments in the grey area between spam and legitimate comments.

On a side note, let me just add that I love the canned meat product, Spam. So, don't confuse the image in this entry as being in any way against that delicacy.

Posted by Jeff on Monday, Nov 15 | Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBacks (0)

I've added a new recipe to my How To page - Shoo-Fly Pie. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch dessert made with molasses. I grew up eating store bought shoo-fly pie all the time, but you just can't find it even a couple hours outside of the Pennsylvania Dutch region. This recipe is my great-grandmother's. My mom brought it with her when she came to visit this past weekend. (She also baked a few.)

Posted by Jeff on Friday, Nov 5 | Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBacks (0)