Alexander

Category: All

  • 2017

    The new year is among us. 
    ​
    I launched my site, www.topscitech.com. 
    P.s. View source. 🙂

    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.


    ​Author

    Me: Absolutely awkward, proudest of nerd & geek. Decreaser of world sucking. I will go into survival mode if tickled. In search of sleep, sanity, & The Shire. My hobbies are breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

  • UEFI, Dual Booting a Linux Distro, Windows 10 & you

    What is it?
     It stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. It has replaced many new age windows “Bios” booting (Basic Input-Output Systems).

    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?

  • New Sites

    I have a couple sites in development. Writing up a business plan. Starting a new business out here in CA. I’ll be setting some goals soon as well.

    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.

  • Opiate song meaning by Tool.

    This song touches home with me in soo many ways how how I feel about religion, which is why I’ve given it, its own blog post. Maynard speaks for many and uses his best known medium to do it. Thank you James.

    Source, Wikipedia:
    “Opiate” is a song by Tool and the title track from their debut EP.

    The song’s title and lyrics apparently elaborate on the Marxist concept that “religion is the opium of the masses”. Keenan’s lyrics liken religion to rape and abuse by a person or group of people to another person or group of people. The lyric “deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow, what you need is someone strong to guide you” supports this notion. Sometimes when played live, Keenan sings “…what you need is someone strong to use you”. The song’s chorus of “Jesus Christ why don’t you come save my life, open my eyes and blind me with your lies” may refer to the antagonist, or his victim, either seeking forgiveness or salvation

    Tool, Opiate:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0Zqo-vOFM

  • My journey thus far into 2016…

    Picture

    Food for thought:

    “Remember that it is we who torment, we who make difficulties for ourselves – that is, our opinions do. What, for instance, does it mean to be insulted? Stand by a rock and insult it, and what have you accomplished? If someone responds to insult like a rock, what has the abuser gained with his invective?” – Epictetus Phrygia

    Couple life updates:

    1. I got engaged in Venice, Italy!  Island of Burano. September of 2015. I’ll share photos soon. 
    2. Getting into surfing again. Attended Vans US Open in Huntington Beach, California (ton of fun to watch).
    3. Online achievements (2k+ in every bracket, WoW).
    4. Saw Niagara Falls, Canada. 
    5. Truly visited Canada for the first time, Toronto.
    6. Experienced upstate New York, Rochester and Buffalo specially. Didn’t eat a garbage plate, too much garbage in it I guess you could say. 

  • April 03rd, 2016

    I accepted a job from Kelley Blue Book back in February of this year. It’s been awesome so far.  It was KBB or moving out east to take a job with Vanguard (which would of been awesome too).

    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

  • Analytics Business Practitioner

    July 31st, I’ve taken the dip, forked out $180 bucks and I am going to get re-certified on my birthday. Kind of like a birthday present to myself.

    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.

  • Non Omnis Moriar

    Picture

    Boy oh boy. Been a heck of start to the new year. To answer your question, yes I love Game of Thrones, April can’t come soon enough. I’ve been soo busy, soo mentally drained that it’s physically exhausting me. I’ve started a new job. After almost three years with Seagate, I moved back to Analytics full time. I’ll tell you what, I have missed doing Analytics. The challenge is awesome. Finding out what’s happening through data, even more awesome. I’m still running my own LLC on the side and being presented with even more opportunities. Like whoa. Any of my like minded Analytics friends/previous colleagues, ever done an Audit? I hadn’t either, but I created a template for one from the ground up and it is amazing the things you can learn when you invest the time to care and dig a bit. Learning to do selenium scripts has been a kick too. 

    I love learning new stuff. I must say, I feel way more challenged mentally. I also like that a lot of what I work with is code based and allows me to grow in that way too. 

    I’ve considered going back for my Masters degree. I am torn however. I don’t believe that I can honestly increase my pay potential (here in Utah at least) with more papers on my wall, but…I want the learning. I also want to go back to school just to learn things that I am interested in. I’d love that ability.

    Onwards. I got into a car accident (yes my fault and yes it tickled) and had to purchase a new car.

    Trip soon. Carisa and I have a lot in store. Going to Italy and Greece for a 12 day trip in September. Tosh.0 next month in Vegas. Maybe a trip to NY this summer to see the Niagara Falls? I want a nice road trip in there some where too. Take a week off and just travel East somewhere. 

    Stay positive. 

  • Adobe Campaigns & Association to Google AdWords

    Google Adwords & Adobe Tracking Code Associtiation

    Question: “How do we get Adobe conversion data (Campaigns) associated to Google AdWords”?

    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…

  • Religion, Information Age, Globalization, Racism

    I feel the information age will continue to kill religion. Globalization will help in ending war. Ending reverse racism, will eventually help end racism, coupled with embracing and loving difference.

    Why is it I almost feel guilty for sharing my thoughts? We live in such a belittling atmosphere, we live in fear of backlash. Fear, that’s the enemy. 

    Stop the glorification of shootings in media. Don’t give a name or face to the people doing these things. Don’t put them on Time magazine, or on the top headlining news story. I am not saying don’t grieve. I am not saying don’t pour out support. I am in no way de-valuing those that have been lost. I am simply stating, deny those seeking the “bad guy” attention.