Author: Alex_Halstead

This site for me has several different meanings. First, I launched it because I am absolutely fascinated and love all things Technology and Science related. I already found myself posting on Facebook all the time anyways, linking articles from places like IFLScience, Science Alert, Nasa, etc. So what the hell, why not eh? My goal is to have my co-authors I’ve hand picked and myself eventually create video’s and speak to what it is we’re posting. Creating a community of inclusion and understanding. In the process, becoming progressive in nature and people on the front lines of these technological advancements.

Another reason I launched the site was simply to learn. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with WordPress and the community behind it. It’s everything that I’ve needed. Up to this point in life, I’ve taught myself much of the Front End Developer information that I currently know, Javascript, HTML, CSS, Ajax, etc. With a combination of WYSIWYG’s and sites like Weebly that automate much of the actual configuration, I am getting to a point where I NEED to be much more of an online mechanic and crank into the CSS, iframes to manipulate them and get them to do what I need to do.

Lastly, if do ever turn this site profitable, one of my first goals is to help my mother whom is currently homeless and living in Key West, Florida. I would love to give her some peace of mind and bring her back so she can finish her remaining years amongst people that both love and miss her. If I can help her in any way with her dementia, I will.

What’s coming up:
1. Youtube Videos speaking to the new science/technology and our thoughts.
2. Intro videos about the authors.
3. Page dedicated to Extraterrestrial theorems. 

Give my Facebook page a like, I’d appreciate it (who knows, you might see something that makes you go “wow, cool”).

https://www.facebook.com/topscitech/

In other news:
I’ve decided that I will be taking the Front End Developer Nanodegree from Udacity (they’ve partnered with Google to create a pretty solid course that helps people like myself build a portfolio and gethub repository). I can’t begin to tell you how excited this gets me.

​I am also going to start softball again. Both co-ed and a mens team with people at work.

Why this post?
Dual booting Windows/Linux distros can be a pain in the ass. Trying to spam Delete, Esc, F2 and other various stuff most likely won’t work – because your computer is too fast. Good problems? Well if you’re trying to boot from that Flash drive/USB, yea.

Here’s what you do (Windows 10):

1. Boot into Windows normally. 
2. Go to Start
​3. Click Settings
4.  Select “Update & Security”
5.  Select “Recovery”
6.  Select “Restart Now” under Advanced startup
7. Upon booting, you’ll receive a  “Choose an Option” screen, select “Troubleshoot”
​8. From the Advanced Options screen, select “UEFI Firmware Settings”
9. Select “Restart”. On reboot you may/may not be prompted for a password. Enter it in. 
10. Yay! You made it into  UEFI/Bios. Whew. Arrow over to “Boot”
11. Arrow down once to “Boot Mode”, press F6 (fn & F6 if on a laptop), select “Legacy”
12. Hit F10, save and exit. Now you can at least reference get back into bios on restart and now change the Boot priority to Flash drive.

What a pain in the ass, right?

Also, I am getting to work with big data FINALLY at work! Woo hoo. Super stoked by it. Now I just need to get the actual time to spend in delving into it. Also, SQL training is coming along well.

​I’ll be adding my up and coming sites soon.

I also relocated down to Irvine, CA.

I greatly prefer challenging jobs that serve to teach me new and upcoming technologies. It gives my life additional meaning. My first two weeks they helped me obtain my First Aid, CPR and AED certification too. Which is super, super refreshing to have.

Soo awesome.

After getting more comfortable in my role, I may have some Netezza and Big Data on the horizon, we shall see.

Upcoming certification: Adobe Analytics Developer:
http://training.adobe.com/certification/exams/analytics_developer.html

When I had this back in 2012, it was a BEAST of a test. Not fun to say the least. One of the hardest test I’ve taken. They’ve also started publishing whom is certified on their website. Not a ton of people, which makes it even more exciting to obtain in my opinion:

http://training.adobe.com/certification/ace-finder.html#p=1&country=united%20states

Next order or certifications I’ll be shooting for in the ACE Analytics suite:

1. Analytics Architect
2. Analytics Developer
3. Adobe Reports and Analytics Implementation ACE Exam

I think then I’ll start branching out and look into Google Analytics certification as well.

Stay positive. 

Answer: This answer has multiple elements and not one answered with a one liner. Google Gclid’s is the start.

To save you the time of having to parse both the Adobe Blogs & Google AdWord blog, I’ll put the steps you’ll need to get this working.

1. Starting with Google Adwords, you’ll need to ensure a function called Auto-Tagging is enabled within Google AdWords
2. Next, we need to start capturing the Gclid into Adobe Analytics. This will need to be done alongside your Campaign variable within the getQueryParam. I’ve included a excerpt below for you and or your developers:
 
s.campaign=s.getQueryParam(‘cid’); 
     if (!s.campaign) {   
     s.campaign=s.getQueryParam(‘gclid’);  
     if (!s.campaign) {           
     s.campaign=s.getQueryParam(‘utm_source,utm_medium,utm_term,utm_content,utm_name’,’|’);   
     } } 

3. This will require SAINT classifications once the data does start to show within Adobe Analytics (Tracking Code report). With Saint, we will be able to associate the data into it’s proper groupings.

More to come…